By: Sue Caldon, 08/17/2011
I left the town hall on Tuesday August 16, 2011 saddened to hear the words spoken out loud that I had read in the Rudewicz Report just hours before. Clearly it was a lack of leadership that led to a number of mishaps in the investigation on that fateful night when the young and innocent life of Henry Dang was taken so tragically from his loved ones and his community. Our police chief failed to follow procedures and responding officers failed in the lack of effective leadership.
How far back does the failure go? We can lay some blame on the police commission; after all they did approve of hiring the personnel and appointing the chief of police. Why weren’t preventative measures taken? Why didn’t the commission ensure that policies and procedures were being followed by our police department? Is there also a lack of leadership within the police commission?
Let’s go back a little further with the blame game. Who does the commission report to? I’m thinking that the commission reports to us, the community that votes these individuals into their positions. Can it be that we, as a community failed? Kevin Brace, who is currently running for a seat on the police commission, stated that, “In the 2009 Municipal elections, Windsor Locks had a 30.1% voter turnout (2,375 voters).” (Brace) If you are even a little good at math, you’ll know that out of nearly 7900 voters in our town, very few showed up to vote. Why is it that our community is outraged and wants to play the blame game, but didn’t take the opportunity to get involved upfront?
As a community, we need to stop playing the blame game and start to remedy what has clearly not been working for some time. We need to get involved, by getting to know our elected officials and voicing our opinions and concerns. We need to pay attention to the upcoming election and most importantly, WE NEED TO VOTE. When we vote, it’s to convince elected officials to adopt and adapt to the will and ways of the people who elect them. When we don’t utilize our right to vote and speak our minds, then we truly have no one to blame but ourselves.
Works Cited
Brace, Kevin. Save Windsor Locks. 3 August 2011. 17 August 2011
