Matt Ritter
Role at the time: Speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives
Condemned
Statement summary
House Speaker Matt Ritter said the Meriden incident was exactly the kind of situation the TRUST Act was meant to avoid and that entering sensitive sites like courthouses does not make people safer.
“If you look at the law that we passed, adherence to that law is going to avoid the type of situations that we’ve seen that put not only officers in harm’s way but also people they’re trying to apprehend. Storming courthouses or hospitals or schools is not going to make people safer, and I don’t think it’s a good outcome for law enforcement, either. ... It puts our law enforcement in a tough spot. I think it puts the federal officers in a tough spot. We should not have people going into those types of places. They are very sensitive and have long been considered sensitive sites.”
Open source (opens in a new tab)CT law limits federal ICE agents. Debate is over whether it can it be enforced or needs to changeQuotes from Ritter, Tong, Vaulman (for Governor Lamont), the Hands Off Connecticut coalition, Looney and the Judicial Branch spokeswoman
Why we used this label
Ritter describes the incident as exactly what the law was meant to prevent and says storming sensitive sites is not safer, criticizing how the operation was carried out.