Ex-cop: Response to protest ‘absolutely ludicrous’
When protesters hit the streets in New Haven, police there deploy a team of specially trained officers.
Such teams are each made up of 10 officers overseen by a supervisor. All team members have been trained in handling anything from a peaceful protest to a riot. The teams are a recent addition to the department, within the last year or two, New Haven Police Capt. Anthony Duff said.
After two protests in 2017 — one on the New Haven
Green and another that spilled onto the Route 34 connector — prompted complaints about officers’ actions, police drafted a general ordinance for crowd control, which was finalized on May 18, 2018.
“We created the general ordinance to better define what we’re doing during protests,” Duff said Friday. “It really stresses the need to not make arrests.”
Over the years, Duff said, the city has seen hundreds of demonstrations in reaction to local, national and international news.
“We’ve made minimal arrests during these protests,” he said.
Most recently, protesters gathered after a Hamden and Yale officer-involved shooting on a New Haven street. No New Haven police
officers were involved in the shooting, in a woman was shot but survived. Duff said he has not been made aware of any arrests made in New Haven during protests over those shootings.
Protests in Bridgeport in response to a 2017 officerinvolved shooting — this one fatal — have mostly been peaceful.
But on May 9, the twoyear anniversary of the shooting death of 15-yearold Jayson Negron, what was initially a protest and memorial turned hectic. Eleven protesters were arrested and a Hearst Connecticut Media reporter was detained and taken to booking before being released without charges.
Negron died two years earlier after being shot by Bridgeport Police Officer James Boulay on Fairfield Avenue. A report by Waterbury State’s Attorney Maureen Platt said Boulay’s actions were justified.
The arrests came after a glass object was thrown toward officers and police warned protesters to clear the street.
Duff said if someone throws a bottle, a rock or something else during a New Haven protest, officers will try to single out that person without shutting down the entire demonstration.
Ron Bailey, a retired, longtime member of the Bridgeport Police Department, said the May 9 protest should have been handled better by police.
After a brief confrontation between police and protesters, at least 26 police officers and one deputy chief lined up across the two lanes of travel on Fairfield Avenue, facing demonstrators gathered in the middle of the street.
After the deputy chief gave protesters five minutes to clear off the street, officers started walking in line formation toward the protesters, ordering them off the street.
“That was absolutely ludicrous to do something like that,” Bailey said of the way Bridgeport officers went about clearing the street that night. “You don’t want to confront people when it’s about the of a 15-year-old and emotions are high.”
Instead, Bailey said, Bridgeport police should have set up barricades around the protesters to give them space while also allowing officers to keep their distance.
A request for an interview or statement from Bridgeport police on handling demonstrations was not returned.
The protesters in Bridgeport engaged in anti-police chants, occasionally leading to profanity-infused yelling as they called the officers “murderers,” among other things.
“I feel so bad for those officers,” Bailey said. “It must have been so hurtful to hear what those protesters were saying.”
Duff said the officers in New Haven know some protesters will shout antipolice sentiments.
“(Police are) trained not to be drawn in to verbal taunts,” Duff said.
Bailey said he was in tense situations involving protests throughout his law enforcement career. He said the way police respond can inflame an already emotional situation.
When he served as a police chief at a college in Massachusetts, Bailey said, he oversaw a Black Lives Matter protest and took precautions to ensure things went smoothly, including notifying state police and making himself available to the organizers.
“I took the lead, made sure my officers keep their distance,” Bailey said. “We let them protest as long as it’s peaceful.”
Bailey said he approached the woman who organized the protest and gave her his business card.
“I told her to call me if there were any problems at all,” he said.
Duff said that’s a practice they follow in New Haven as well.
“We make sure we’re working with whoever is in charge to keep people safe,” Duff said.
Bailey said a key factor in keeping things peaceful during the Black Lives Matter protest was that the police covering the protest kept their distance — “We didn’t confront them.”