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By Erik Ortiz
HAMDEN, Connecticut – Police video footage of two police officers firing at an unarmed black couple in their car was heard in New Haven, Connecticut, where the shooting took place last week, and in suburban towns surrounding the Yale campus.
For black residents in particular, the shooting sparked a deeper dissatisfaction that mingles with long-standing complaints about police interactions, racial tensions and the resentment of some community members who are contesting the issue. "Elite insularity" of the Ivy League school that separates it from neighbors and low-income neighborhoods.
"We are sending spaceships to other planets, but we can not build a bridge between the community and the police," said Rodney Williams, a New Haven resident and Paul Witherspoon III's uncle. , the driver of the car during the shooting of April 16.
The police who shot 21-year-old Witherspoon and 22-year-old Stephanie Washington were identified as Terrance Pollock, a 16-year-old Yale police veteran, and Hamden police officer Devin Eaton. which borders New Haven. North. Pollock and Eaton are black.
For Williams and others, the officer race is less important for the greater concern for police services in New Haven and surrounding communities, where residents say that racial profiling remains a problem.
An analysis conducted in 2017 by the Institute of Municipal and Regional Policy of Central Connecticut State University examined data from approximately 560,000 traffic stops throughout the state and revealed an unusually high rate. high number of black and Hispanic drivers intercepted.
In a previous analysis, Hamden was identified as an outlying city in which more minority drivers saw their cars searched at a much higher rate and where researchers found significant racial disparities.
"I do not think many whites are even aware of what it's like to go through a white community to blacks," Williams told members of the Hamden Legislative Council at a community listening forum. Monday evening. Behind him, a group of older black men nodded.
Associated Press reported in 2017 that former city police chief, Thomas Wydra, had asked his officers during informal talks to reduce the number of equipment blocked because the data showed that black drivers were more likely than whites to be arrested for these violations.
The Hamden police did not respond to a request for comment.
Rhonda Caldwell, an organizer of the Hamden Anti-Bias Anti-Racism Parenting Group, said there remained "two different realities" for the inhabitants of her city of 60,900 inhabitants, who, according to census data, are about 70% white and 20% black. the median household income is $ 66,695.
"What happened to Paul and Stephanie could have happened to me, my child or any other black person in this room today," she said at the forum, adding that the redistribution of neighborhoods – in which federal agencies allowed discriminatory lending Practices that deprive black home buyers of their rights – create the segregation and racial division that prevail in New Haven and its largely white suburbs.
A social housing project in New Haven, a city of about 130,000 residents, drew national attention in 2014 when the New York Times announced the demolition of a chain link fence. more than 12 feet used to delimit the neighborhood. Hamden border.
Residents viewed the fence surrounding the predominantly black housing project as a symbol of greater inequality between Hamden and New Haven. The New Haven area was rife with crime, drugs and poverty. According to the Times, Hamden's median income was more than four times the average income of New Haven's housing projects.
New Haven, where about one in four people live in poverty, and the part of Hamden that borders the city represents a microcosm of housing policies and income inequality that persist throughout the United States, said David Canton , associate professor of history at Connecticut College.
Canton, who left Hamden to settle in another part of the state more than 10 years ago, explained that there was a noticeable shift between Yale and the popular New neighborhoods. Haven, where the unemployment rate is slightly lower than that of the state.
"I call it Yale Haven," Canton said. "Yale and these other schools in the Ivy League are engaged in a race to conquer land and compete for endowment funds.They want to buy properties to build expensive apartments, live in luxury with gyms, cafes and the yoga studios, they argue that they enlarge the neighborhoods and gentrify, but the reality is that it's only for those who can afford it. "
A 2016 report in The Nation revealed that activists wanted Yale to commit to creating quality jobs for residents.
"Placing the workers in the door is a modest step forward to level the historically asymmetrical economic landscape of the city," the report says.
At a community forum in February, Janet Lindner, vice president of human resources and administration at Yale, said that the university had hired over 2,500 residents over the past three years. years and that 43% of them were black or Latino. Activists, however, have criticized the fact that some jobs are temporary or in construction.
The shootout near Yale Campus also raised questions about the operation of the university police and about why an officer shot with a gun during an outside meeting campus.
A petition circulating in the school calls for the closure of Pollock and asks Yale to make a financial donation to Witherspoon and Washington, including for his medical expenses. Although Witherspoon was not injured in the crossfire of officers, Washington was hospitalized for life-threatening injuries, officials said.
The New Haven police arrived at the scene after the shooting.
The state police in Connecticut said last week that the police had engaged their weapons when the driver "got out of the vehicle abruptly" and turned to them. After making public images of Eaton 's body camera on Tuesday, after several days of demonstrations to hold the police to account, State Police Commissioner James Rovella said the police were not going to be able to report to the police. did not explain in detail why the police opened fire after ordering the driver to open the vehicle door. Witherspoon could be seen on Eaton's bodycam getting out of his car at that time.
Eaton did not turn on the camera after shooting, and Pollock was not able to turn it on.
Witherspoon, who was not found to be armed, was not charged. The state police and the Connecticut state prosecutor's office are still investigating the case, Rovella said, and both officers remain on paid administrative leave.
Black students for disarmament at Yale said it favored that school officers be disarmed and limited in areas where they can patrol off campus. On Friday, the group plans to forward student complaint letters to the Yale Police Department.
Yale did not answer questions regarding student complaints, but Lindner said in an email to the Yale community that the school "hires an outside expert" to help her carry out her own investigation of the shooting.
"The shooting was a tragedy and Yale offers her sincere concern to Mrs. Washington, Mr. Witherspoon and their families, and we all want a fair result," Lindner wrote.
Religious leaders in New Haven said that Yale's police chief, Ronnell Higgins, a black man, had tried to forge better relations with his forces and the public.
But there was a setback last year when a white student called the campus police to appoint a Yale graduate black student who had napped in a common room. The meeting led Yale to apologize and commit to creating a more inclusive campus environment.
John Lewis, a pastor at Life Center Ministries in New Haven and a non-violent trainer with the Connecticut Center for Nonviolence, said local police officers needed additional training on de-escalation tactics and "revive l & # 39; humanity. "
"In our community, is there violence?" Yes, "Is there poverty?" Yes, are there disparities? Yes, but when you face an ongoing situation you are going to have a little more empathy, "Lewis said. "You can not be detached from the community – you need to be more involved from the beginning instead of assuming that every person is a threat."
In January, New Haven officials approved the creation of a civilian review board to oversee and conduct independent investigations into allegations of police misconduct, an effort of more than 20 years .
The New Haven Police did not return a request for comment.
According to Canton, the issue of the underlying race can not be ignored during the shooting last week, even though the two officers involved, the driver of the car and the passenger are black.
Officers in general are rarely prosecuted during shootings involving police, and communities of color fear that white officers, in particular, are not held accountable for the deaths of unarmed black people, added Canton.
But for black officers at the center of the shooting in New Haven, it remains to be seen whether they will face charges or repercussions – and what they say about the justice system's worthlessness. They do it.
"Anyway," says Canton, "they are in a difficult situation."
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