New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Fighting violence through occupation
Fair Haven residents take back parking lot
NEW HAVEN — There was a new energy on Grand Avenue Tuesday night, a vibe that even got Assistant Police Chief Karl Jacobson up and dancing.
Jacobson and Fair Haven District Manager Lt. Michael Fumiatti were among about 50 adults and children from the Fair Haven area listening to drumming and singing in a parking lot near East Pearl Street.
Borrowing from a program in Minneapolis, Fair Haven residents used the
“Through this community gathering, our aim is to bring peace to our neighborhood and interrupt violence. It will also be an opportunity for us all to be in community and get to know each other better.”
Kica Matos, a resident of the area
space to fight violence.
The area was the scene of a shooting of a West Haven man on Sept. 7, one of five shootings in Fair Haven in recent weeks.
Jacobson said he appreciated the community coming together.
“We are shorthanded at the Police Department. For them to come here and (reclaim it as a) safe space. We totally support that,” he said of the crowd.
The Rev. Steven Cousin from Bethel AME Church, also stopped by.
He said he was impressed that the community “took ownership” of the problem, not waiting for others to address it.
Tuesday’s event was influenced by a church in Minneapolis that declared 21 Days of Peace, sending volunteers to sit at spots to interrupt the violence. It found there was a drop in crime.
Just like that example, residents here brought their own chairs, fighting violence by taking a seat.
Fair Haven District Manager
Lt. Michael Fumiatti said there were five incidents of shots fired within one-block radius of the plaza through August and three more since then.
Statistics kept by police show 42 confirmed gunshots fired in all of Fair Haven through the end of August, compared to 19 for the same period last year, a 121.1 percent increase.
As of Aug. 29, there had been 78 nonfatal shootings in New Haven this year, according to
New Haven police. At the same point in 2020, there had been 71.
The city has had 21 homicides across all neighborhoods this year, compared to 20 in all of 2020.
Three homicides were reported in Fair Haven: Luis GonzalezSandos on Sept. 6 on Popular Street; Tyshaun Hargrove, 14, Aug. 25 on Chatham Street; and Kevan Bonilla, July 10, on Lombard Street.
Kica Matos, a resident of the area, said they are looking to put a schedule together of residents playing dominoes, chess and other games this month and through October from 6 to 9 p.m. in the parking lot.
“Through this community gathering, our aim is to bring peace to our neighborhood and interrupt violence. It will also be an opportunity for us all to be in community and get to know each other better,” Matos wrote in an email to residents.
Carol Lueng, a resident of New York City and the owner of the parking lot property where the chairs were be set up, said she “got a gist of what is going on there” in Fair Haven in conversations with Fumiatti, but has no firsthand “validation.”
Lueng said she gave the organizers of the “chairs” event, Matos, Sarah Miller and Karen DuBois-Walton, permission to carry out their plans to call attention to the increase in crime in 2020 and this year.
DuBois-Walton ran for the Democratic nomination for mayor, but dropped out before the primary; Miller is running for the Board of Alders. All three are residents of Fair Haven.
Fumiatti said historically there has been “significant drug and gun violence” around the block radius of the parking lot.
The organizers of the New Haven anti-violence civic action, who brought their neighbors together on the issue last week, outlined a number of things they want to see happen.
They are seeking concrete plans to shut down alleged open air drug sales and prostitution. .
The city is using a social services approach to the issue of prostitution. It is using Project Longevity and Project Safe Neighborhoods to help lure youths away from crime. This is in addition to stepping up the confiscation of illegal guns and undercover work to solve homicides.
The organizers last week said community-level engagement means: “knocking on doors and talking with people on the street, especially in the context of solving crimes.”
They suggested a “citywide brain trust activated to assist city leaders with field-tested knowledge and expertise, including retired New Haven Police Department personnel who have successfully addressed prior spikes.”
The city is working to fill a depleted police force as it looks to attract a new class of recruits.
Mayor Justin Elicker and police officials Tuesday updated the public on successes it has had and will do this on a regular basis.