Every Friday on the Ethan and Lou Show, we invite Danbury's two mayoral candidates on the show to discuss the issues facing the Hat City.

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This past Friday (10/8/21) we spoke of a gun incident that happened earlier in the week, in the area of Ives Street. Republican Dean Esposito was first up on the show. When we asked him about the incident, Esposito brought up police funding and said his opponent Roberto Alves wants to "defund the police."

When it was Alves' turn, we gave him an immediate opportunity to respond to the comment made by Dean Esposito. I asked Roberto Alves directly whether he intends to defund the police and he said "no" and asked for a chance to elaborate. We gave him the floor and he said the following:

"I think if you are endorsed by a party, it doesn't mean you fall under the beliefs that the whole party has. You can say a lot of things about the Republican party as well, and some can say it about the Democrats.

I've made it clear to anybody who has asked, I'm not about defunding the police. In fact, as a member of the City Council, there's also a record on that too, right? And, the comical part is that the only person talking about defunding the police is Dean Esposito.

When it comes to budget time, the police ask for X, and the city, you know the Mayor's budget, the one that Dean Esposito gets to work on as part of that cabinet gives the police less than what they ask for every year.

This year, they gave them less for training and the only folks who are asking for more money for the police are Democrats. There's myself, councilman Farley Santos, councilman Frank Salvatore, a couple others, all Democrats. Everybody else just fell in line and rubber stamped what their bosses told them to do."

You can hear our entire interview with Roberto Alves in the video player at the top of the page. You can also read/hear all of Dean Esposito's comments from Friday by clicking here.

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