Malik Jones: AN UNWANTED LEGACY

1997 shooting still divides and hurts

Much of history has been defined by what happened in a single moment — and that history is replete with men who, in that defining moment, left behind a legacy far larger than the lives they led.

It is probably not what some of these men wanted to be their legacy, but some names and faces have become synonymous with police shootings and cities where they took place — and always will be.

In New York, it’s Sean Bell, Amadou Diallo, and too many others to list; in Ferguson, it’s Michael Brown; in Cleveland, it’s Tamir Rice; in Minnesota, it’s Philando Castile; in Oregon, it’s Kendra James; and in Chicago, it’s Laquan McDonald.

And in Kenosha, Wis., there is Michael Bell Jr., whose shooting has not produced the national outcry of many other victims.

Here in Greater New Haven, the face synonymous with a police shooting is Malik Edward Jones, who was unarmed when he was shot and killed by East Haven police Officer Robert Flodquist following a chase from East Haven to New Haven’s Fair Haven section on April 14, 1997.

More than 21 years after Jones’ death, his killing remains an open wound that continues to fester and swings people both ways emotionally.

“It was a big, big deal,” said Frank Harris, a professor of journalism at Southern Connecticut State University, who wrote about the shooting and its aftermath. “It just did not

seem like it was necessary for the officer to shoot him.”

Jones’ killing ignited months of tension-filled protests and counterprotests in East Haven, years of court cases, spiked further tension and unease between police and the black community and raised the public debate about civil rights and racial profiling.

The killing made national news, stripped across front pages, led evening broadcasts, and provided an endless stream of commentary on both sides of the aisle.

The New York Times reported the unprecedented killing “galvanized the religious, political, academic and law enforcement communities unlike any other event in the region in recent years.”

The Rev. Eric B. Smith, then of Community Baptist Church in New Haven, preached a passionate sermon at St. Bernadette’s Roman Catholic Church before approximately 500 people. Among them were thenNew Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr., then-East Haven Mayor Henry Luzzi, then-New Haven Police Chief Melvin H. Wearing and then-East Haven Chief James Criscuolo.

Smith told the congregation the area found itself in the “eye of a hurricane.”

“We can no longer hide in our homes and avoid race,” Smith said. “We are in the midst of peril, and we are reacting in that place where our anger runs high.”

For many, the divisive racial overtones over the shootings echoed another time and another place.

“East Haven was like the 1950s South — you could feel the tension, animosity and acrimony,” Harris said.

The Rev. Howard Nash, thenpastor at St. Bernadette’s, said at the time he opened the doors of his church to help promote racial harmony among residents.

“We wanted to bring people together to reflect, celebrate and rejoice all the things we share as human beings,” Nash said. “If we do not end racial tension, racial tension will end us.”

After the ceremony, DeStefano said, “This event was very positive, but unless ordinary people, all of us, make the kind of everyday changes in our attitudes, this issue is going to remain very much a part of our lives,” he said.

Years later, crowds still gather at the corner of John Murphy Drive and Grand Avenue with Emma Jones to mark the anniversary of her son Malik’s death and demand justice for him.

While Emma Jones became the family spokesperson and the face most seen in relation to her son’s killing, his father, Jimmie Jones, who admits after the killing he was muted by rage, continues to appear at events where he leads discussions such as the 2017 “Black Lives Matter Because All Lives Matter” event at Yale University.

“The struggle for Malik has not ended,” said Emma Jones.

The history

It has been 21 years since Malik Jones, then 21, was shot and killed by the East Haven police officer who was later cleared of all charges.

According to police reports, Jones was speeding and driving erratically. Following a pursuit, Jones pulled into an empty lot near his home, and was boxed in by police cars.

During his testimony, Flodquist went and stood by the hinge of the driver’s door, then the car started to move, he said. The car struck him on the leg, he said. Jones then drove in a backward arc, prompting Flodquist to move with the car to avoid being run over, according to previous testimony. Flodquist broke the window and fired his gun, striking Jones.

The East Haven Police Department maintained the position the shooting was justified. Emma Jones, center

Samuel Cruz, who was in the car at the time, said Jones was simply trying to avoid hitting another police car.

To many people, this same type of scenario continues to play out between unarmed black men and police and nothing changes. Ferguson put the spotlight back on police shootings and reignited the conversation that in too many cases, police get away with what would be considered murder under any other circumstances.

“Burying a child is one of hardest things a parent has to do, particularly since it could have been avoided,” said Jimmie Jones, Malik’s father. “Given the reality of race relations and implicit bias then and now, I never taught my son to run from police in such situations. Further, it is unconscionable that the city of East Haven chose to aggressively defend the tactics employed by the officer that day.”

The case went to trial twice before U.S. District Judge Alvin Thompson and had been before the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals a number of times over different issues.

In 2003, a federal jury in Hartford awarded Emma Jones $2.5 million in punitive damages.

Jones and her supporters felt vindicated and rode a caravan flouting the victory through the main street in East Haven, enraging supporters of police.

But the celebration was short-lived.

Thompson rejected the award in 2007 — although Thompson upheld the finding that Jones’ civil rights had been violated.

Dan McCann, then a member of the East Haven Town Council, penned an op-ed that stated in part that “for as long as I sit on this Council I will never vote to give one red cent to the Jones Family.”

McCann said it had nothing to do with race and everything to do with Malik Jones, who he said was no stranger to breaking the law and his parents had turned a blind eye to his “destructive behavior.”

During the last years of his life, Jones had numerous encounters with police. When he died, he was on probation for selling narcotics, had two misdemeanor convictions for resisting arrest by Hamden police in July 1995, and for sixth-degree larceny in connection with an arrest by state police in January 1996. And two warrants had been issued for his arrest alleging Jones violated terms of his probation.

When he was killed by Flodquist, he had the drug PCP in his system.

The appeal process over his death seesawed through the courts.

In a second trial, Emma Jones and her son’s estate were awarded $900,000 in compensatory damages in October 2010 by a federal jury in Hartford. The jury ordered East Haven to pay that sum in a wrongfuldeath lawsuit.

But in August 2012, a threejudge panel of the 2nd Circuit federal appeals court reversed the jury’s decision, saying there was insufficient evidence to prove municipal liability.

Emma Jones’ lawyer, David Rosen, filed a petition for a Writ of Certiorari — an official request to have the U.S. Supreme Court hear the case.

But the nation’s highest court brought the case to a halt after it declined to review the case.

Grieving parents

The bullets just don’t stop coming — or hitting their target — for Emma Jones and Jimmie Jones, who are divorced, but united in the cause to see justice done for their son.

Over the years, Emma Jones has had to cloud her eyes and dim her brain as the shootings of unarmed black men took over front pages and evening news.

The images of people protesting the shooting of unarmed, 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson with police in riot gear, she cannot bring herself to watch.

To Emma Jones, Brown is Malik, just with a different face, a different family and a different story — but an ending that remains the same. Watching the aftermath of the shooting makes her feel as if it is happening all over again.

Jimmie Jones said his son’s death and the national coverage that followed has been “heartrending — leaving a hole that cannot be repaired.”

“I never believed the extreme positive and negative characterizations that appeared in the press,” he said. “I understand that many people have their political axes to grind. I am sad that my son’s death was used in this way.”

Emma Jones firmly believes if there had been justice for Malik, the Brown family would not feel the pain they are experiencing.

“It really hasn’t got that much better,” she said. “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

Police shootings

There are 18,000 police departments in the United States and approximately 700,000 cops on the streets, according to John DeCarlo, chairman of the department of criminal justice at the University of New Haven.

DeCarlo said police shootings are getting more attention than ever before because of public access to technology, which puts an instant spotlight on any shooting and a wave of opinions.

Police shoot and kill an average of 900 American citizens — black, white and otherwise — every year, according to the Washington Post.

In 2015, they shot and killed 1,146 people and in 2016, they shot and killed 1,092.

According to a report in The Atlantic magazine, 52 percent were white, 26 percent were black, and 17 percent were Hispanic.

So far this year (as of Sept. 6), police have shot and killed 691 people nationwide, The Washington Post is reporting.

The Washington Post’s report, which has analyzed shootings during the past several years, shows black males are shot by police at disproportionately high rates — in lockstep with other studies that show black men between the ages of 15 and 34 are nine to 16 times more likely to be killed by police than other people.

And black men are shot while young, as opposed to white men who tend to be older.

A study by Anthony Bui, Matthew Coates, and Ellicott Matthay that appeared in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health looked at the toll of police violence by focusing on years of life lost.

Of the people shot and killed in 2015, the victims lost 57,375 years to police violence and 54,754 to police violence in 2016. Young people and people of color were disproportionately affected: 52 percent of all the years of life lost were lost by nonwhite, non-Hispanic ethnic groups.

“Unfortunately, the decision to use deadly force is a splitsecond decision that no officer wants to have to make in their career,” said Lt. David Emerman of the East Haven Police Department.

But the perception of the general public that the shooting deaths of people like Malik Jones and Brown are dismissed by police and it is back to business as usual is a misconception, said DeCarlo, who is also the former Branford police chief.

DeCarlo said though the shootings are deadly acts, in the end, they are a “precursor to the current look at excessive force, and training to come up with best practices.”

“It doesn’t mean we didn’t learn,” he said, noting the recent shift to “community policing rather than beatdown policing.”

DeCarlo said things are “nebulous at the scene” — and “they (police) are doing it in the moment.”

“The majority are a response to dangerous situations,” he said.

So far this year, 98 police officers died in the line of duty and 557 have died since 2015, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page.

DeCarlo said police need more resources, more bodies in uniforms, and better training but are caught between unions and local politics.

But DeCarlo noted that even with limited resources, police are improving the way they handle things.

“All in all, it is better in 2018 than in the 1980s,” he said.

East Haven Police Department

The East Haven Police Department is no stranger to controversy or headlines for the actions of its officers against minorities.

In December 2011, U.S. Department of Justice officials cited the East Haven Police Department for engaging “in a pattern or practice of systematically discriminating against Latinos in violation of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.”

Four police officers were charged with civil rights abuse in the case and three were sent to jail.

The DOJ, the town and the department entered a consent decree in 2012 to revamp its policies. It was released from the consent decree in 2017 in what was called a “remarkable” turnaround and the department is now seen as a model for police departments nationwide.

Latinos in the community — including those who sued the town and won $450,000 — say “the police are good people now” and applaud the changes and adjustments made for the betterment of the community.

Police Chief Ed Lennon said at the time there had been “a positive and monumental transformation within the department.”

Emerman said the changes started with equipment, such as “Tasers for another less-lethal force option.”

Police are now trained using “de-escalation principles,” said Emerman, who noted, in part, that other improvements include training that goes beyond state minimums for firearm training, specifically, “we train utilizing shoot/don’t shoot scenarios, Simunitions, and have also used video simulators.”

“We have body cameras and dash cameras to accurately capture interactions with officers, insuring accountability as well as capturing evidence for court proceedings. Training is completely different.”

“Everything has changed,” Emerman said.

The case against Internal Affairs

Michael Bell Jr’s. name may not synonymous with police shootings nationwide, but his father is making sure his name is not forgotten in Kenosha, Wis.

While police shootings of black men grab headlines nationwide, there are many white families who also grapple emotionally at having a child killed by police.

Michael Bell, Sr., a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, has been fighting since Nov. 9, 2004, when a police officer fatally shot 21-year-old Michael Bell Jr., who was handcuffed, in the head in front of his mother and sister.

“My son was executed,” Bell Sr. said. “They pointed a gun at his temple and killed him.”

As a former military man who served in Afghanistan, Desert Storm, and assisted in 9/11, he said he was very familiar with investigations — and was stunned when police wrapped up its investigation in two days

“No way can it be done in two days,” Bell said. “I was really bothered by that.”

But Bell said it was seeing the officers get a meritorious award for their actions that night that drove him to “tell the world about it.”

“That was the last straw,” he said.

He hired a private investigator, who found the forensics didn’t match the story the officers told. The case went to court.

“Four officers lied on witness stand and they got caught,” he said.

Unlike the Jones’ family, Bell Sr. settled a lawsuit against the city — for a reported $1.75 million — that stood. But he refused to sign a non-disclosure agreement. He continued to question how police could investigate themselves and remain fair-minded.

It is something that Emma Jones has been irate about since her son was killed.

“Do away with IA (Internal Affairs),” she said.

Jones believes it is not possible for police to investigate police and remain objective about people they work sideby-side with for a common cause, “which must make it difficult for them to be fair,” she said.

Emerman said policies have been revamped and updated and the department has been completely restructured.

“Use of Force incidents, citizen complaints, and internal affairs investigations are investigated extremely thoroughly,” he said. “All supervisors

Hearst Connecticut Media file