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At Hartford’s August 20th Committee of the Whole meeting, Working Families Party (WFP) Councilman Josh Michtom hijacked what should have been a routine confirmation for Police Chief James Rovella. Instead of a serious vetting of Hartford’s top cop, the hearing devolved into Michtom’s one-man show — capped off by him reading his home address into the record and daring the public to dox him.
The clown show started before he even opened his mouth. Michtom began the meeting in a white collared shirt, looking almost professional. Then he shut his camera off, only to return in a black Working Families Party shirt — costume change complete, he launched into his attack. It wasn’t courage, it was a sad little cry for attention — the kind you expect from a college freshman trying to go viral, not a grown man on a city council.
The cheap stunt seemed inspired by the viral attention his fellow progressive, State Rep. Corey Paris, got after being exposed on Libs of TikTok. But Michtom’s antics fell flat, failing to spark the outrage he seemed to crave.
But that sideshow was just the opening act in a hearing where Michtom tried, over and over, to pressure the incoming police chief into promising to break the law to protect criminals. “Can you commit to not offering any assistance to ICE, even logistical?” Michtom demanded.
Rovella calmly explained that Connecticut state law, under the TRUST Act, requires local police to cooperate with ICE in cases involving violent felonies, terrorism, or active warrants. This wasn’t good enough for Michtom, who pushed for “no cooperation at all”— effectively asking Hartford police to ignore even terrorists or dangerous felons.
Not satisfied, Michtom declared that ICE “making seizures without warrants” is “kidnapping under state law,” then suggested Hartford police should “arrest ICE” agents. Yes, a sitting city councilman was asking the new police chief to arrest federal officers for doing their jobs.
This is what passes for serious governance in Hartford: conspiracy-laced tirades dressed up as legitimate government business. Michtom claimed people are being shipped into “indefinite detention in a third country where they’re subject to torture” and insisted the federal government “calls anyone it doesn’t like terrorists.”
When Council President Shirley Surgeon stepped in to remind him that the chief has to follow city and state law, Michtom couldn’t resist sneering. “Madam President, no one is choosing you for a job right now, but we are choosing him for a job. I want to know what he thinks…” he snapped.
And here’s where it gets embarrassing: literally no one cared. Google “Josh Michtom Chief Rovella confirmation” and you’ll get zero results. His grandstanding got less attention than a lost cat flyer stapled to a telephone pole.
So desperate for someone — anyone — to notice, he took to TikTok, posting his monologue with the caption: “I asked the nominee for Hartford Police Chief if he would arrest ICE agents who assault and kidnap our residents without legal authority. He wouldn't answer.”
Michtom even urged viewers to “demand that every local official at every level stand with residents and against ICE. Don’t be afraid of what the administration or their cronies will do if you speak up, because they’re gonna do it anyway.”
In the end, the vote wasn’t close. Ten council members approved Rovella’s confirmation. Only two opposed: Michtom and his Working Families Party comrade, Alex Thomas. That’s how irrelevant his grandstanding was — even his fellow progressives brushed him off.
Hartford deserved a serious vetting of its new police chief. Instead, it got Josh Michtom’s one-man sideshow — costume changes, tantrums, and a dox-me stunt nobody cared about. This wasn’t resistance, it was humiliation: a city councilman reduced to posting his own clips online, praying for likes, after his big moment bombed so badly not even Google noticed.
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