If so, then his enthusiasm for defunding the police is understandable
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Fitzgerald Francois on the Ave
A reader sends along two reports from Greenwich Time and asks whether the “Fitzgerald Francois” quoted in the article on the Bureau of Land Management parade yesterday is the same individual who encountered his own form of police brutality back in ‘16.
Saturday Mr. Fitgerald recounted a sad tale of racial oppression to Greenwich Time’s reporter:
“We set this up with the intentions to disrupt the privileged people, because they need to hear this message the most,” said Fitzgerald Francois, a Black man, who lives in Stamford but grew up in Greenwich.
“I feel like they don’t believe the stuff that they’re hearing from us and that they’re really just blind and oblivious to the fact of all the trials and tribulations that we go through, the racial profiling that we go through,” he said.
Francois, who lived in Greenwich for 15 years, said he’s experienced “multiple” instances of racism while living in town. On many occasions, while walking down the street, he said, he has watched as white people have crossed to the other side of the road to avoid encountering him, only to cross back once they had distance between them.
The other article, from August 29 2016, also features one Fitzgerald Francois; if it’s the same gentleman, then it may explain why some people cross the street to avoid him (and others, drug buyers and the police, cross the street to join him): “Greenwich police arrest “active drug dealer” in town park
GREENWICH — An alleged drug dealer who police said was selling marijuana at Pemberwick Park and other locations in the region is facing a rash of criminal charges.
Fitzgerald Francois, 23, of Summer Street, Stamford, is due in court Sept. 12 to answer charges of sale of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia, reckless endangerment, tampering with evidence and resisting arrest.
The arrest of a suspect who authorities called “an active drug dealer within the town of Greenwich,” according to a court affidavit, resulted from police activity on Aug. 1. The Police Department had received an anonymous tip that drugs were being sold at Pemberwick Park, police said, and two plainclothes police detectives were keeping vigil at the park in the early evening.
Police said they observed Francois in a silver Subaru sports sedan. A detective recognized Francois from a previous arrest in Greenwich, police said. Approaching the vehicle, the detective smelled marijuana smoke, according to court papers, and then Francois drove off at a high rate of speed. Police later found the Subaru on Halock Drive, where it had struck a parked Acura, and witnesses told officers that Francois took off on foot from the Subaru, carrying something, while running toward the Byram River, according to records. …. Francois was listed as unemployed in the court records. He has had previous arrests on larceny and drug charges.
UPDATE: A reader sends along this comment:
This is just irresponsible journalism right here. If this girl's story is true or if it was alleged to be true, it would've been front-page news across the country. For this journalist to print such a horrific accusation is flat out wrong and an attempt to editorialize a story that is supposed to be about facts.
"Kiera Williams, 17, a Norwalk resident, said she’s experienced racism in Greenwich.
"'One day, while walking in town with her father, a white woman spat on her dad and called him a (n-word) after they bumped into each other," Williams said."
