New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
‘Those are our brothers and sisters being killed’
Protesters at rally discuss experience of being black
WEST HAVEN — Organized by a group of high school students, a Saturday protest against police brutality provided a forum for people to speak about being black in America.
“Our intention was to have an outlet for youth, and we wanted to hold officers and the police accountable for our humanity,” said Brandon Patterson, a black West Haven Democratic Town Committee member who helped youth organize the demonstration.
“People comment that we just sit around because we’re young, but it’s not the case,” said Nana Dondorful-Amos, a 15-year-old West Haven resident and organizer. “We had to express ourselves, and you see adults out here because of us.”
Her sister, Cecilia Dondorful-Amos, 17, said about a dozen high school stu-
dents — friends and friends of friends — organized the rally on the green because they wanted their city to stand up in the movement.
From the bandstand on the West Haven green, young black activists shared speeches, poems and songs about their experiences with racism.
And while the killing of George Floyd may have helped spark the protest, speakers repeatedly brought up the local case of Mubarak Soulemane, a black New Haven teen who suffered a schizophrenic episode during which he was shot and killed in West Haven by a state trooper.
Soulemane’s family has accused West Haven police, who were at the scene of the shooting, for failing to de-escalate the situation.
Soulemane’s mother, Omo Mohammed, and his sister, Mariyann Soulemane, attended the protest, speaking from the bandstand alongside their attorney, Mark Arons.
Holding back tears, Mariyann Soulemane spoke of how moved she was to see everyone there. She led demonstrators in the chant, “No justice, no peace.”
Arons said the family has yet to receive an apology from the city of West Haven, and when Mayor Nancy Rossi later addressed the crowd, protesters at times drowned her out, demanding one.
While Soulemane’s case has local resonance, the activists were not only there for him. Two young women who helped kick off the forum listed names of black lives lost to police violence — Breonna Taylor, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown.
The forum lasted for about an hour and a half, until shortly after 2:30 p.m., when the crowd, estimated to number at least a thousand people, marched to the West Haven police station on Sawmill Road, where some officers took a knee.
A little while later, a group of protesters splintered off and briefly blocked Interstate 95.
A forum for young voices
Speakers also included a large number of young black women, like Christina, who identified herself as a 15-year-old Connecticut resident but declined to give additional details.
She told the crowd that when she was little, she thought police were there to protect her. But now, as a black woman, she’s come to be afraid of them.
“How do you expect us to trust the system that was never meant to protect people like me in the first place?” she asked.
Another young woman, Rua Osman, of West Haven, said posting photos of protests on social media was the “bare minimum” and urged people to work to educate themselves.
She also ripped the slogan “blue lives matter,” noting that police get to take their uniforms off at the end of the day.
“I don’t get to take my skin off,” she said. “You cannot believe blue lives matter and black lives matter at the same time.”
Young activists were not the only ones who took to the bandstand.
Officials, such as Sen. Gary Winfield, D-New Haven, also took their turns.
Winfield, a black legislator, has been fighting for change for the past 28 years and worries that the momentum of the current protests will die down a month or two down the road, he said.
As tears began to run down his face, he spoke about being the target of racist remarks, and being told that he could not make the changes he sought.
“I want to believe that those who are taking a knee believe what they’re saying right now,” he said. “But some of those faces are the exact same faces that said those things to me.”
A local case
The shooting of Soulemane, who was 19 when he died in January, added to the passion of the protest, where his friends and family spoke.
Soulemane’s family held their own demonstration on the New Haven Green later Saturday afternoon.
His sister, Mariyann Soulemane, spoke to a reporter before the protests. She discussed the national movement in the context of her brother’s case, calling events over the past 11 days “bittersweet.”
On the one hand, it’s sad it took so long for people to recognize the need to fight against the oppression of black people, which has been going on for “so long,” Mariyann Soulemane said.
“The sweet side of it is we think this kind of woke people up,” she said.
And her brother’s case has gained a lot of followers, Soulemane said.
“Our voices are amplified,” she said. “It just feels amazing and refreshing to have that solidarity . ... We have a solid group of people who are willing to help.”
Over 45,000 people have already signed a petition demanding justice for Mubarak Soulemane created this week, Mariyann Soulemane pointed out.
She wants police accountability in her brother’s death, and in the death of other black Americans.
“Those are our brothers and sisters being killed,” she said. “It feels like it’s you.”
Soulemane’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the West Haven Police Department, the state of Connecticut, state police and the Norwalk Police Department, alleging the latter knew of Soulemane’s condition and should have communicated it to state police.
State police later said Soulemane displayed a knife before North fired his weapon multiple times at the end of a car chase. The state launched an investigation into North’s conduct but has yet to publish results.
Taking the highway
After protesters reached West Haven police department headquarters, many cried out for the officers to take a knee with them as a sign of solidarity.
After several minutes, one or two officers knelt, followed by several others while roughly a dozen officers remained standing.
Several officers shook hands with protesters at the front of the crowd
But other demonstrators opposed taking a knee with police, telling them instead to quit their job. Many said they were skeptical about whether officers are genuinely in support of the movement when they kneel, or whether it’s a public relations stunt.
While the protest continued at the police department, a number of people marched past police vehicles that had blocked off the street and into traffic.
Around 50 rushed the entrance ramp of Interstate 95 northbound and held up both sides of the highway, chanting “black lives matter” and kneeling with their hands up.
After about 10 minutes, protesters quickly moved off the southbound side, across the northbound side and toward the on-ramp. Traffic flow then resumed.
“We didn’t want to be a huge inconvenience to drivers, especially because some of them had been at the protest earlier in the day,” said Daniel Godlewski, a protester Saturday who was on the highway. “I think the big thing that made us move was we felt like we made our point and it wouldn’t drive it home any better to force people to sit in their cars. From what I saw and heard it wasn’t a fear or police or of the drivers being angry. It was more of a courtesy thing.”