Hartford's Mayor Talks Crime On National TV Forum

Press release from the City of Hartford:

HARTFORD, CT — Hartford's mayor last week was part of a national panel hosted by national journalist Chris Cuomo to discuss crime in the country.

Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin recently joined the mayors of Toledo, Ohio, Durham, N.C., and Little Rock, Ark., along with law enforcement officials for a national town hall about crime in America, hosted by Newsnation’s Chris Cuomo.

The town hall focused on several far-ranging topics, as mayors answered questions from audience members about root causes and potential solutions for violent and nonviolent crime in America.

Bronin highlights of the event included:

THE INTERSECTION OF MENTAL HEALTH AND CRIME: “Mental health is an incredibly broad category and an incredibly broad term, and it includes a lot of things. I think it ought to include just the fact that we’re seeing more and more people having trouble managing their emotions. You see that on airplanes, you see that in road rage, you see that show up in so many different ways. That’s a mental health issue, and we have to talk about that, and we have to address it.

RESTORATIVE JUSTICE: “The idea of the ‘three strikes laws.’ That was crazy. It was crazy from a public policy standpoint. It was crazy from a taxpayer standpoint. It was crazy just from a human standpoint…

“I think there are so many ways in which that policy failed, but I think you said at the start, ‘fear the simple solutions to complex problems’, I agree with that. There are not simple answers here. I do think that there need to be consequences, but we also have to make sure that when we impose consequences, we’re not then just cutting people off from opportunity down the road."

FALSE DICHOTOMIES IN COMMUNITY SAFETY: “I want to come back to this point about framing this in false choices. I think most Americans believe, and I think most of us believe, and I think most Democrats believe, saying that as a Democrat, but I think probably Democrats and Republicans, that you can support the police and have accountability for police, that you can work to prevent crime and invest in prevention and getting to the root causes, and you can make sure that you are holding accountable people who are committing acts of violence against other people in your community. Those things aren’t in tension with each other. You can do both of those things."

This press release was produced by the City of Hartford. The views expressed here are the author’s own.