New Haven Independent

The setting was a community room in the Monterey Homes development Friday morning. Organizers invited the public to a coming-out event for the ambitious new group they’ve formed for African-American members of the NHPD.

They formed the Guardians earlier this year out of the ashes of another black police organization called the Silver Shields. The Guardians have younger blood and a determination both to promote youth programs in the community they patrol and to speak out on political issues facing the department. They’ve already shown up at police commission hearings to protest a training process they say hampers black recruits.

Friday morning’s event wasn’t your typical press or community announcement event. It was warmer, up close and personal. Call it a getting-to-know-you session.

Twenty-one of the organization’s 22 founding members (out of 113 black cops on the force) showed up. (One was on duty.) All but one wore civilian clothes.

Sgt. Petisia Adger (in photo) distributed a pamphlet she prepared with photos and biographies of all the founding members. The write-ups include information on the highlights of their careers, their current responsibilities on the beat, where they went to school, where they go to church.

“In light of the perception of police these days, which is pretty bad,” Adger said before the event began, “we want people to know us, to see us as the people we really are, outside the uniform. We wanted to put our face in the community, to show we’re not hiding behind a mask or a uniform.”

The Guardians are affiliated with the National Association of Black Law Enforcement Officers, which has given the local group eight desktop computers to distribute to needy families. The Guardians plan to hand out Thanksgiving baskets families too. “We know who these needy families are. We’re on the street 24 hours a day,” Adger said.

An “Inherently Racist” Institution

The event took on more of a political tone during a formal question-and-answer session. Guardians President Shafiq Abdussabur (who besides being a cop is a working artist who exhibits in town) decried the department’s racial make-up. New Haven is only 43 percent white, but the force is 57 percent white, he noted. African-Americans make up 37 percent of the city, 28 percent of the force. Latinos make up an estimated 21 percent of the city, 16 percent of the force.

“The numbers are obviously off,” Abdussabur said. He said making the training process more sensitive to minority recruits would help improve them.

East Orange, N.J., police Sgt. DeLacy Davis, of a national group called Black Cops Against Police Brutality, spoke at the event, too. He said the Guardians represent “a new culture in law enforcement in the 21st century: Young officers who have the courage the challenge an institution that is inherently racist to its core.”

After the formal presentation, the Guardians formed a circle, as they did at the beginning of the event. Before they event, they included just themselves in the circle, and prayed. At the closing, they invited reporters, members of the public, everyone into the circle.