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Hartford Police Made 7 Arrests in Friday Night’s Relocated DUI Checkpoint from Democratic Dinner to Violent Gun Zone.

by Kevin Rennie

Hartford police insist they relocated a sobriety checkpoint Friday afternoon from its planned location near the site of the annual state Democratic fundraising dinner to the impoverished Park Street neighborhood based on intelligence about possible gun violence on Park Street. The checkpoint near the Convention Center was announced Wednesday, March 23rd. The move away from State Street was revealed on Friday afternoon.

Sobriety checkpoints are an intrusion on our right to be free of unreasonable search and seizure, so they are permitted under narrow guidelines. One of them is that they are not to be used as a pretext for other police operations. Common sense and prudence tell us that the police ought not create a situation that adds to the number of people who will be in a danger zone, but that’s what the Hartford police did on Friday night.

Here are the names and addresses of the seven people arrested for DUI at the checkpoint on Friday night, according to HPD. Each will have a very good defense against the charges they face.

#1.  RAFAEL MACHADO, 7/9/1972, 898 PARK STREET, HTFD, CT.

DUI- 14-227a, OPERATING W/O A LICENSE-14-36a

#2.  CARLOS GUADALUPE, 1/20/1986, 268 PARK TERRACE, HTFD, CT.

DISOBEYING OFFICER’S SIGNAL-14-223a, EVADING RESPONSIBILITY-14-224, F/T OBEY CONTROL SIGNAL-14-299, DUI-14-227a, OPERATING UNDER SUSPENSION-14-215

#3.  JOAQUIN ROSADO, 7/8/1976, 266 MAPLE AVENUE, HTFD, CT.

DUI-14-227a, OPERATING UNDER SUSPENSION-14-215

#4.  KIMDUYEN TRAN, 8/9/1993, 36 MOHAWK DRIVE, EAST HARTFORD, CT.

DUI-14-227a

#5.  HECTOR ALAMO, 5/22/1962, 121 ZION STREET, HTFD, CT.

DUI-14-227a

#6.  ROBERTO DIAZ, 80 BANNISTER STREET, HTFD, CT.

DUI-14-227a

#7.  THOMAS COOK, 4/12/1983, 34 ENFIELD STREET, HTFD, CT.

DUI-14-227a

I will take  chance and offer some speculation. I bet none of those seven drivers was on his way home from the Jefferson Jackson Bailey dinner at the Connecticut Convention Center.