Port authority critic removed from meeting
Hartford — Kevin Blacker, a critic of the State Port Authority, was removed from an authority meeting Tuesday morning.
He was removed as the authority was set to vote on a $157 million plan to redevelop State Pier in New London into a staging area for the offshore wind industry.
Blacker said the authority had negotiated the deal in secret, excluding the public, and had broken the law repeatedly.
“I’m not leaving the floor until I’m arrested and in handcuffs,” he said. “So, I’ll just continue to stand here and disrupt this meeting until that time, as you have repeatedly broken the law over and over and over.”
Capital Community College Police Department Master Sgt. James Griffin led Blacker out of the meeting in handcuffs following a brief exchange between the two.
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“How are you doing sir?” Griffin asked Blacker.
“Good,” Blacker said.
“Would you please come with me?”
“I’ll come with you when I’m in handcuffs. If that means lying down on the ground, then that’s what it will be,” Blacker said.
“I prefer you didn’t lie down on the ground,” Griffin replied.
Griffin said after the exchange that Blacker would be charged with the misdemeanor offense of breach of peace and released with a promise to appear in court.
Afterward, by phone, Blacker said he did what he did because he felt it was the “only possible power I had to draw attention to something I believe is not right.”
He said the deal is “very good for a small few at the expense of many.”
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