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Entirely Tone Deaf

It’s laughable that Dave Hausler (June 18 letter “Contradiction Between Words and Vote”) would question State Representative Joe Zullo (R-99)’s stance on police brutality and accountability. Rep. Zullo, along with our police personnel, worked for years along with the Department of Justice to reform our police department and develop departmental policies and procedures that are now models for others across the country. State Rep. Zullo’s work over the four years of that consent decree, back then as our town attorney, leaves no doubt that he understands the importance of police accountability.

On the other hand, a central plank of the Black Lives Matter movement is the defunding and divestment of police departments, with the goal of eliminating or shifting funding from policing to social services. In the 2020-’21 budget, the Democratic-controlled Town Council funded six vacant police positions and created six new ones. Meanwhile, the council cut the “social services” line item by 57.61 percent. Counseling and Community Services also received a cut of 14.97 percent. Education was flat-funded. If you want to talk about tone deaf, let’s talk about the hypocrisy of the Democratic Town Council members who attended that same Black Lives Matter rally only weeks after passing a budget entirely tone deaf to the very movement they claimed to be supporting at that rally.

Nicole Penta

East Haven