Published March 03. 2021 4:52PM | Updated March 03. 2021 8:04PM By
The decision by the New London City Council to repeal a seven-year-old ordinance mandating a minimum of 80 police officers is a symbolic gesture unlikely to satisfy anyone. But, then again, the ordinance was largely symbolic to begin with.
Back in 2014, City Councilor Michael Passero, who is now Mayor Passero, was alarmed by the shrinking ranks of city police, down to 65 officers at the time. He pushed for, and the council ultimately passed, the 80-minimum ordinance, based on a prior study which recommended the department maintain at least that many officers.
Yet council members at the time, including Passero, agreed it was really only a goal because there was no way the city, which was going through a particularly difficult fiscal stretch, was going to be able to suddenly hire enough officers to meet the standard.
New London Noah Harris, the first Black man to be elected president of Harvard University s student body and the author of a children s book called Successville, will be the guest speaker at a virtual discussion Thursday, Dec. 17, on race, diversity and inclusion hosted by the NAACP s New London Branch.
A Zoom link for the 5 p.m. event will be published on the branch s Facebook page at facebook.com/nlnaacp2010.
Harris, 20, a junior from Hattiesburg, Miss., will be interviewed by branch President Jean Jordan and take part in a panel discussion moderated by Aram deKoven, chief diversity officer for the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. Panelists include John McKnight Jr., dean of institutional equity and inclusion at Connecticut College, and New London City Councilor Curtis K. Goodwin.