Ned Lamont’s August Chilling of Dissent.
The Day published a disturbing account of an extraordinary intervention by Governor Ned Lamont’s office to use the State Police to intimidate a critic. You can read it here.
The story involves New London activist Kevin Blacker, a persistent and vocal student of the problems at the Connecticut Port Authority. He sent an email last Saturday commenting on the growing scandal and a legislative hearing on the port authority scheduled for Tuesday. Blacker referred to Lamont as a “wimp,” which for many would be considered almost polite in this caustic age. The email caused Lamont aide Paul Mounds to comment the State Police.
Here’s The’s Day’s David Collins’ account of what followed:
Flash forward to Tuesday morning when Blacker, waiting patiently on a bench in the marble lobby of the Legislative Office Building before the start of the hearing, was approached by two Connecticut State Police officers in plainclothes. They flashed their badges and led him to a nearby closed room.
They were joined by a uniformed officer, who stood at the door while the two detectives sat across a table from Blacker and questioned him about his email. They said they were investigating a complaint of a threatening email.
At this point in the story, you are probably thinking, this is America? Actually, it turns out, this is indeed Gov. Lamont’s Connecticut.
By the time I caught up with Blacker during a recess in Tuesday’s hearing, he told me about, well, I guess you’d call it an interrogation. He still looked a little unsettled and worried out loud about whether he should call a lawyer.
The officers said they wanted him to wait for a cruiser to come and escort them to their troop headquarters and sign a statement, he said, missing the hearing.
The police officers wanted to know why he sent the email to so many recipients, Blacker told me. They asked if he does that a lot. They wanted to know if he knew that the public would not be allowed to speak at the hearing, and they warned him about not disrupting the proceedings, he added.
Blacker has attended dozens of hearings related to the port authority, usually contributing a few minutes of comment when allowed, and is always polite and restrained.
Lamont is concluding a vacation at his family compound in Maine, 12 miles offshore from the American mainland. The Greenwich millionaire ought to take charge of this abuse of power at the second tier of his office organization. There was a time when Ned Lamont would have been angry and vocal about the use of state authority to intimidate a critic of the government. We’ll soon know if that instinct is just a memory.