19 October—Last week, Gianni Capozziello, a young Bridgeport policeman on the job five years, was suspended for 20 days without pay for pistol-whipping a teenager in August 2019. It took two years for a short video of the incident to surface. Had the pistol-whipping not been recorded, one wonders whether Capozziello would have been suspended or otherwise penalized at all, especially since the pistol-whipped kid was really guilty of driving a stolen car and possessing drugs.

Evidently Officer Capozziello wasn’t aware that Connecticut Democrats have made adolescent car thieves untouchable by the law. And—wouldn’t you know?—the guilty juvie was later released to his mommy.

On the other hand, did Officer Capozziello really believe the youthful druggie-car thief, who was walking away from him with arms raised, was reaching for a gun? That’s why Gianni used his own pistol as what he called “an emergency impact weapon,” according to his incident report, which doesn’t quite agree with the video.

Should we believe a cop’s statement or a video recording of the actual incident? That’s certainly a tough one.

It happens that Officer Capozziello had been suspended for a whole day last month for using a stun gun on and striking another adolescent back in 2017, this kid having been accused of stealing a volleyball. Not that it appears to matter, but this miscreant’s mother sat on the Bridgeport City Council at the time of the ball bust.

Capozziello, a former Marine, had himself been arrested in 2013 in Norwalk for disorderly conduct and third-degree criminal mischief, but must have had the case dismissed or been granted accelerated rehabilitation, since there are no juicy court records to peruse. Of course, Gianni’s union is rationalizing his excessive use of force and the union president promises to file a grievance on his behalf. Excessive use of union, surely, but that’s what the union is there for.

In these two instances, was Gianni Capozziello too enthusiastic or did he merely panic? If he could learn to temper the excessive use of force he may well have learned in the Marine Corps, he’d possibly be a decent cop.

Will there be any civil litigation for excessive use of force and violation of civil rights with Gianni Capozziello, the City of Bridgeport, and others as defendants? If so, you can bet Gianni will claim qualified immunity. But it’s not unlikely the city has already settled both matters out of court, which may also account for the dilatory suspensions and resultant publicity. Sadly, we may never know how much this excessive use of force was worth.

Tomorrow, qualified immunity gets its well-deserved comeuppance . . .