Report by Paula Antolini, July 29, 2020, 3:41PM EDT
on screen as Allie-Brennan was recording the video.)
This is not about gay rights or even political parties, it is about questioning the time a Connecticut State Representative decides to spend on which particular issues, his judgement, priorities, and his methods for getting particular messages to certain age groups. Is he working for all the people he represents or working on his own personal agenda? Now he is presenting a controversial topic to young children and calling it “story hour,” NOT under the guidance of school officials or child psychology experts, and presenting police as scary individuals. Is this appropriate?
Raghib Allie Brennan holds a children’s “Virtual Story Time” every week via video on his “State Representative Raghib Allie-Brennan” Facebook page, where he chooses books and reads those books supposedly to a young audience. The last book he chose to read to children portrays police as the enemy.
In his most recent reading, posted last Wednesday, he read the book, “Stonewall – A Building. An Uprising. A Revolution, written by Rob Sanders” about a riot that happened in a gay bar and recreational tavern in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of lower Manhattan, and the site of the Stonewall riots in 1969.
The book portrays police in a frightening manner to children. View video HERE and below (start at mark 12:49 for Sanders book). (Before this book he read “I Love You Night and Day.”).
The book mentions, “transgender, drag queens” … “wearing the wrong clothes could land you in jail” … “being gay could get you fired or kicked out of your home” … and also talks about “the sound of stomping boots’ … “there they were, riot police with clubs, body shields, and all the rest” … “police raids and arrests” … particularly on June 28, 1969, where police did a “line up and demanded info.” and ID’s etc. and took some individuals into “police cars and patrol wagons.“
Raghib read, “we couldn’t stop them” and “one woman was forced into a police car” …. “the spark of anger grew into a smoldering resistance…the Stonewall uprising had begun”….”this was the beginning of the LGBTQ movement“….”say it clear, say it loud, gay is good, gay is proud.”
THIS IS A CHILDREN’S BOOK? … Teaching children that police are mean and scary??? Wow. What age group is watching this?
Then he votes YES on H.B. 6004, the Police Accountability Bill, which he also sponsored.
on screen as Allie-Brennan was recording the video.)
Is Raghib Allie-Brennan a good role model for children? What are his qualifications for choosing children’s books and reading to young people, and influencing them to view police as the enemy?
Is anyone on watch?
For that matter, is he representing ALL the citizens properly, of Bethel and other towns in his district?
In a time when SO much is happening, especially during the COVID-19 quarantine, where residents are struggling, losing jobs, businesses are closing, people are losing their homes, but he seems to have a lot of time on his hands to read children’s books. Where was he when the citizens’ budget vote was being denied in Bethel? I guess he was using the Harry Potter Invisibility Cloak.
Very odd, at the end of the CHILDREN’S story hour video he begins talking about bills he is supporting the next day when he goes to Hartford. Allie-Brennan talked about “The Police Accountability Bill,” “TeleHealth,” “Capping the Price of Insulin” and “Big Pharma” and “Absentee Voting.” Why is this added to a children’s story hour?
There are many questions to ask Raghib Allie-Brennan before election day this year.
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