Video Report– Bridgeport Police hold fundraiser for fallen officers memorial

Article by Denis J. O’Malley Connecticut Post

BRIDGEPORT — Panhandling in the city’s Black Rock section took a prominent spot on the police department’s agenda Monday, only it was the officers reaching out their palms.

Of course, they were not collecting for themselves. Rather, the money raised from the officers’ coin drop on Fairfield Avenue and a fundraiser held simultaneously at the Fire Engine Pizza Company will go toward a memorial to the city’s fallen officers to be built outside police headquarters.

“We want to make sure that no one ever forgets,” Mayor Bill Finch said of the city’s 12 fallen officers as he filled out a form to have a commemorative brick with a custom inscription laid in the memorial.

The bricks, which come in 4-by-8-inch and 8-by-8-inch sizes, are available to the public for $50 for the smaller stone and $100 for the larger stone. Order forms are available at the police union website, www.bridgeportpoliceunion.com.

Finch said the department and union hoped to raise $20,000 of the $50,000 needed for the project on Monday.

The production company behind the upcoming film “And So It Goe,s” starring Michael Douglas and Diane Keaton, who have been filming just a few blocks from the restaurant, gave the fundraising effort a boost with a $5,000 check, Finch said. A Westport man put up another $1,000.

Fire Engine Pizza Company earmarked 10 percent of its sales for the day for the memorial fund, said former city Councilman Marty McCarthy, who is a partner in the business with Phil Segneri.

domalley@ctpost.com, @domalleyctpost, 203-330-6230