Justice and accountability
After 10 days of protests over the death of George Floyd, black leaders call for action
Jay Williams, president,
Hartford Foundation for Public Giving
Kamora Herrington, Hartford-based community activist and director, Kamora’s Cultural Corner
Pain. Frustration. Sadness. Anger. Even optimism.
The killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer has touched off protests, stirred deep emotions and inspired calls for change.
But what comes next? What does that change look like?
For black leaders in Connecticut, police accountability, criminal justice and prison reform are critical issues, requiring community-based review boards, increased training and oversight, and the assurance of equal treatment for white and non-white offenders.
But the problems run far deeper, they say, cutting to the very heart of inequities that have long been part of the fabric of Connecticut — from systemic racism in housing and health care to education and voting rights.
Racial discrimination is a structural problem, leaders said, not a patchwork of surface-level cracks and blemishes. White communities need to do a better job of speaking out against all forms of explicit and implicit bias. The very nature of how we see each other has to be transformed, because our foundations are cracked.
For the momentum of the last two weeks to translate into action, black leaders say those with power — including business leaders who control jobs and political leaders who control budgets — must commit to change not just in words but in actions.
The Courant conducted interviews with 11 black lawmakers, leaders and community activists in Connecticut. This is a moment, they said, that cannot be wasted.
Elizabeth Horton Sheff, education activist and mother of the named plaintiff in the landmark 1989 civil rights lawsuit Sheff vs. O’Neill, said George Floyd’s death marks a turning point, one that could lead to lasting change.
“If you keep pressing down, pressing down, pressing down, sooner or later something is going to erupt,” Horton Sheff said. “You just can’t contain that kind of pressure without combustion. This is an opportunity for America to take a good look at itself, and for us to really have some serious conversations about where we are with racial equality, or where we haven’t been, ever.”
There’s power in the dollar.
“You can’t put your shoulder to the wheel and do it for a while until you get tired and then say, OK, I’ve done my part, because the inertia of the structural racism and injustice has existed for hundreds of years, for generations.” “We need to really start questioning systems of oppression and the people who uphold them. We need to start really dangerously breaking the rules, breaking down systems of oppression.”
Shawn T. Wooden, the only African-American elected state treasurer in the United States and the only African-American elected official serving statewide in New England, said he sent 400 copies of a recent op-ed he wrote, calling on Wall Street to declare that racial injustice is bad for business, to corporate leaders around the country.
“I invited them to engage in being part of the solution,” Wooden said. “The response to that has been very positive. I’ve heard from many CEOs who want to be engaged in this and in developing next steps. Corporate America just might be ready to take that next step, and I hope to act as a convener, a facilitator for that.”
The comments below, edited excerpts from interviews held over the last several days, reflect anger and concern over the persistence of racism and exclusion. They also offer a potential blueprint for change.
Elizabeth Horton Sheff, education activist, former Hartford City Council member
As a nation, we’ve always struggled with explicit bias. What we have not dealt with is implicit bias, coming to terms with the fact that we all have bias, that white privilege has got to be understood in a different light. People look at it on an individual level, but when I’m talking about white privilege, I’m talking about it at the systemic level, at a structural level, which in turn colors every other aspect and experience of people’s lives.
Law enforcement is a tough job. These folks see difficult things almost every day, and they deal in difficult situations almost every day. My ask when I was on council was to make it mandatory that, just like they have to re-certify for the rifle range, that they should also have to re-certify to see if they are still psychologically fit to serve.
They are in power. They have guns. They can kill. They are given free reign over treating people as they will. So if we are not sure that the police officer is psychologically fit, which I think is part of the problem when we see police brutality, we should make sure that they are.
I really think that white folks need to understand that this is just not a black person problem. This is not just a person of color problem. This is a systemic, societal concern that really no one is immune to. The fact that racism compounds it and makes us the majority of the targets, it could happen to anyone.
Scot X. Esdaile, president, Connecticut State Conference of the NAACP and member of the National Board of Directors
One thing that we can’t do is put our heads in the sand. I think Hartford probably has one of the worst situations in America right now, when you talk about law enforcement and community relations.
Recently, right before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, we had the situation with Anthony “Chulo” Vega Cruz, where in Wethersfield an officer jumped in front of a car, shot a young man two times in the head over a basic traffic violation, and the Greater Hartford community erupted. The state’s attorney cleared the officers of all charges. I think that we would have had a similar situation [with protests] in Hartford if the COVID virus didn’t hit around the same time that the state’s attorney made that decision.
We have a huge concern and compassion for what’s going on in Minneapolis. We have a huge concern and compassion for what’s going on in Georgia and other places, in Kentucky and all other places across the country. But Connecticut has a very serious problem.
Don’t look at Minneapolis and say it’s bad there without seeing what’s going on here in Hartford, Connecticut, and all across the state of Connecticut. Connecticut has a very serious problem, and it’s a powder keg that’s about to explode.
State Rep. Brandon McGee Jr. (D -Hartford/ Windsor), House chairman of the legislature’s Housing Committee and the chairman of the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus
I would definitely start off with addressing the criminal justice
State Rep. Brandon McGee Jr., D-Hartford/Windsor
s y st e m, because that’s just where we are. And then at some point, we really need to step away and think about the larger and more systemic challenges communities of color have been faced with, whether it’s health, education, housing, you name it.
This isn’t new to black folks. It’s unfortunate, and it’s very disheartening that I even have to say that. But these killings, police brutality, we’re referring to this stuff as the First Pandemic. When you begin talking about the many black men whose lives have been taken at the hands of police officers … I can’t even put words on it, as a black man, how heavy my heart is now and how it’s been for a while.
Many of our white allies and folks who are saying, “What can I do?” Call out racism when you see it. Call out injustice when you see it, and take it a step further. When we begin talking about how we respond to police brutality, stand with us when it’s time for us to advocate for pieces of legislation. That is very uncomfortable and controversial for many of my white counterparts. That’s what we can do. Let’s address the redlining and the lack of housing and the quality housing that does not exist in many of our black and brown communities.
I support peaceful protests with a mission, with a clear vision as to what they’re doing out there. They are fighting for justice, and I support every single one of them. But I do not support burning down buildings, fighting people, saying that we should kill police officers. I have policemen and women in my family, and I respect them. Do I agree with some of their practices and perhaps even the culture that they support? I do not. But there is a lot of work ahead.
Hyacinth Yennie, Hartfordbased community activist
I’m not a racist person. I married an Irish man. My family is biracial. When you look at it in general, I think all people are asking for is respect. Respect me, respect anyone, it doesn’t matter what color or creed.
Minorities are feeling like there are two justice systems … and that needs to change. We should get the same consequences, not one gets a lighter sentence than one gets a heavier sentence.
White supremacists: All of a sudden they become brave and they can walk around with their guns swinging like nothing, like they have the right. We don’t have the right. … If you have the right to do something, I have the right to do it, too.
The education system shouldn’t be that all the poor ones get the worst and the rich ones get the most. We need white people to come out and say, “Hey, we’ve got to stop this. We’ve got to treat everyone as equals.” As people would say: You cut me, we bleed all the same. Yeah, I have a different mentality; you have a different mentality. The point is that we are all the same people. We are human, and we want to be treated with respect.
Jay Williams, president, Hartford Foundation for Public Giving
Any concrete steps require us as a society, as a country, to start acknowledging and limiting and treating racism as the structural problem it is.
Think of society as a house that we all live in. When you have a cosmetic problem at your home, you can scrape and paint. You can power wash. You can plant some shrubs. You can rearrange some things. You can do things that make you not have to look at that cosmetic issue anymore.
But when the structural things in your home are deteriorating over the course of years and years, there’s nothing you can do cosmetically. There is no shortcut, there is no quick fix, there is no inexpensive solution. You have to take that house down to its studs. Ask the folks in parts of this state: they have to jack the house up and re-establish the foundation.
Unless and until an increasing number of citizens recognize this and act against it in a persistent, ongoing way… You can’t put your shoulder to the wheel and do it for a while until you get tired and then say, OK, I’ve done my part, because the inertia of the structural racism and injustice has existed for hundreds of years, for generations.
Not only has existed, it has been allowed to fester and to grow, to get so deep down into the fabric of our society that, to a certain extent, it’s become normal. So unless and until we start treating it that way, this will be nothing more than a repeat of a cycle that we’ve seen for generation after generation.
Reverend Henry Brown, Hartford-based community activist
While we have the nation’s attention, it is time now to go to the table. Everybody needs to sit down and come to the table and start talking about racism, because it will take all of us to get to that place. We can talk about it, we can march about it, but if we’re not sitting down and having a serious conversation about racism, then we’re not getting anywhere.
I’ve seen some police reform when Chief Rovella was the police chief in Hartford. He opened up conversations with groups of people that lived in Hartford, and we’re doing that now with Chief Thody. I think he’s trying to implement the same thing, and that’s how you bring about change.
For years, people have been talking about police brutality, and then nobody wanted to discuss it because it always seemed like the police were justified. The court, the prosecutors, the judge and everybody else would say, OK, it’s justified. In some instances, we know that it wasn’t justified, but it always came out that way.
The youth have been really great in all the protests. Every other state has had arrests, but we’ve been going about it the right way. I just hope we can sustain that.
Kamora Herrington, Hartford-based community activist and director, Kamora’s Cultural Corner
White folks’ education into the true history of the United States of America is incredibly important. That needs to be happening now. That needs to be an ongoing education that’s taken seriously, that isn’t given kid gloves or a place where sarcasm can jump into the conversation at all.
Along with that, we need to really start questioning systems of oppression and the people who uphold them. We need to start really dangerously breaking the rules, breaking down systems of oppression. We’ve got all the slogans and it’s time to start really enacting them. You can’t dismantle the oppressor’s house using the oppressor’s tools. That needs to be taken seriously. We need to stop showing up and practicing all of the right things that we’re supposed to do, and realize that we’re not going to create real and lasting change.
I think I’ve missed three elections since I’ve been 18, and I’m talking about local elections and national elections. If there’s an election, I am there. I believe wholeheartedly in voting, and I believe that we need to start looking at other types of civic engagement. Getting everyone to vote is really trying to get everyone to jump into exactly what’s been happening that hasn’t worked.
We need to have way longer conversations. People who take sound bites can see what I say and can misinterpret what I say as being divisive.
A big mistake that I know America made was trying get to celebrate diversity, which really was us trying to find our commonalities, thinking that if we ignored the differences and came together on one or two commonalities, we could move forward, not realizing that we were really we were setting up the powder keg. We were asking people to leave themselves out in order to get to a milquetoast, safe place.
I focus on the differences so that we can see how wonderful they are, love them, dwell with the fear of what those differences are, and then figure out how to use them together rather than figure out how to dissipate them and create just an ugly grayness that doesn’t take into account all of our gifts.
Archbishop LeRoy Bailey Jr., The First Cathedral, Bloomfield
We need law enf orcement officers who will use common sense and wisdom.
You know, this has been going on for over 400 years. Some of it is part of the Willie Lynch philosophy, where African-Americans were taught over the years to hate each other. But at the same time, racism has been a part of the journey of the American culture, and we’ve seen it play out. I’m from the South. I was born on Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee in 1946. So I have seen it close up.
We have two separate societies that are being experienced on Sunday morning. Even on our telecasts, I’ve heard Preacher said, “Well, your church ought to be integrated.” The issue is they say, “Come to my church.” That’s what the white pastors say. But he won’t tell them to go to the African-American church. “Well, your culture is different.” Yes, our cultures are different, but we have to learn from each other and we have to trust each other. Trust only comes by means of cooperation. None is better than the other.
We must pray and we must believe that men will change. Where there’s nihilism, God must give us hope, and neighborhoods will become brotherhoods, and we will change from lawlessness and we will have peace someday. I pray that that happens.
State Sen. Doug McCrory (D-Hartford/Windsor), deputy senate president pro tempore Clearly there’s a whole lot of things going on right now. You got the coronavirus situation t h a t ’s devastating the black and brown community, and just the community at large. You’ve also got the idea of police brutality.
I think there are some things that we have to put in place to hold law enforcement as a little more accountable for when they really do things appropriately. I just looked at former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who came out with a list of eight steps. There are some things in his proposals that I think are germane and can be done on a state level.
One of them could be police review boards with some teeth in them. I think that’s very important. We have to review the training procedures that we have for police officers in the state of Connecticut, and make sure that they do not incorporate some of the things that we saw that took place in Minnesota.
I think the last time we had a strong police accountability bill was in 2015, but by the time it passed it got watered down. Some of the things we were looking for were basically taken out. So we did have a bill, but the nuts and bolts of it were removed. We have to go back and have that conversation again and get those things in place this time around.
Again, it’s not all police officers. Ninety-eight, ninety-nine percent of them are pretty good. If we have to help them weed out their bad apples, then then that’s something we need to do. There’s a running joke that Chris Rock does: in certain industries, you can’t have any bad apples. You just can’t. You have to weed them out and get them out.
Shawn T. Wooden, state treasurer
Instinctively, from the beginning of the increasingly loud voices following the tragic, public murdering of George Floyd, I felt like this could be an Emmett Till moment for Connecticut and for the nation. Emmett Till’s murder in Mississippi galvanized the nation, in part because they could see how horrific and vile it was, what racism meant. As tragic as that moment was, it helped act as a catalyst for more Americans to engage, to get off the sidelines and change public opinion. I am hopeful that this is that moment right now with respect to George Floyd’s murder.
The first thing is that we, as America, have to see this. We have to believe that it’s real. Many African-Americans know it. Many other Americans have not believed what we’ve been saying for decades. We’re at a moment of reckoning, and more people being able to see that is the first step. The second step is to commit to do something about it, not just to express grief, not just to express outrage, not just to use words to reject racism, but to actively, affirmatively fight and dismantle racism, whether it is in police brutality, whether it is in economic disparity, the educational achievement gap, disparities, housing.
From where I sit and what I know, Wall Street and corporate America have a unique position of power and influence in society in terms of resources they control, in terms of the ability from a policy perspective to lean in on government and to help shape policy. We’ve seen precedents in South Africa with corporate America engaging in helping to bring an end to the brutal, racist apartheid regime and with the economic boycott. We’ve seen it in North Carolina when the bathroom bill passed and the response of corporate America in changing its course as a result of that.
And so, given what I’ve seen and what I know about this community, many of whom are business partners that work on behalf of the treasurer’s office… We pay them millions a year to manage money for Connecticut retirees through our pension funds, we are investors in corporations and own shares. I’m saying to them: get off the sidelines and be engaged in a constructive way to solve this longstanding problem, and do so not just because it is the right thing morally to do, but because it’s good for business and it’s good for our country.
State Sen. Gary Winfield (DNew Haven/West Haven), chief deputy majority leader and chair of Judiciary Committee
On policing, oftentimes what we’re seeing are things that we watch with our eyes, and our hearts tell us that that person who took that action should get some punishment. And then we watch, no longer in astonishment, as the punishment doesn’t happen.
We’re looking at some form of an independent investigation and potentially prosecution through an independent prosecutor, an inspector general, which we don’t currently have. Also, activating and empowering civilian review boards. All of those actors, whichever thing we look at, need to have the power to subpoena.
We need to make sure that we look at issues of crisis response. We also need to do things like making sure that our police departments are set aside and have to certify periodically. We’ve done some work on hiring, but we probably need to do reviews periodically to make sure that we’re doing the right things at hiring.
We folks in Connecticut talk a lot about community policing, and that’s fine. But I think we need to be talking about relationship-based policing, which is a little different. You can have community policing by simply putting police into the community, but it’s not the same thing.
Police should have engagement training for some very particular groups. There should be a training on engagement and resolution with youth, people from the LGBT community, people who are not native English language speakers, people with different religious beliefs. We should probably ban no-knock warrants, look at the technology that exists and how police are able to use it, including the expansive use of drone technology.
We should be looking at issues of using federal grants to purchase military equipment. This started to happen under Reagan and after 9/11 it expanded. We should be looking at that and putting in place prohibitions on how that happens. I mean, if we really want to go down the path for real, we should be prohibiting the obtaining of extra money from a budget for the payment of lawsuits for misconduct. Money always curbs behavior.
“What can I do? Call out racism when you see it. Call out injustice when you see it, and take it a step further.”