New Haven Independent

Emma Jones, Malik’s mother (pictured, preparing the programs for the Friday event), has dedicated her life to pursuing justice for her son. Two investigations — by the state attorney’s office and the feds — failed to find criminal wrongdoing on the part of the cop, Robert Flodquist, who followed Jones’ car from East Haven into New Haven on April 14, 1997, and shot the unarmed Jones as he sat in the driver’s seat. Flodquist testified that he feared for his life, as he thought Jones was trying to run him over.

But three years ago, Jones won a $2.5 million civil suit in a ruling in U.S. District Court in Hartford that Flodquist had violated her son’s civil rights. She has yet to see a penny of it. (Hugh Keefe, the attorney representing the City of East Haven, filed a motion right afterward to set aside the judgment. And nothing has happened since. Keefe says, “I have no clue” when federal judge Alvin Thompson will rule on his motion.)

While some who work on criminal justice issues in the city criticize Jones for making a martyr of her son, others are drawn to her passion for defending all young black men from police brutality and confronting the “culture of violence” in the city, the state and the country. Her strongest supporters are other families she has helped as they’ve faced similar tragedies or near-tragedies.

But the event on Friday didn’t dwell on negatives. Rather, it was a celebration of the culture of life and defiance of oppression, with joyful singing and African drumming. One participant, James Hyatt (pictured), recited Martin Luther King’s entire “I Have a Dream” speech — not just the well-known parts, but every eloquent word, eloquently delivered.

He was followed by Clifton Graves, an old friend of the Jones family who has supported Emma Jones’s efforts for the past nine years. He recited the famous lines from abolitionist Frederick Douglass that “power concedes nothing without a demand — it never has and it never will.” Then he introduced a former student of his, Hiram Rivera, who works with Youth Rights Media to expose current injustices toward young people, especially youth of color and especially in the criminal justice system. (Rivera is pictured on the left, Graves on the right).

Others gave examples of how black and Latino youth are still being targeted for harassment and violence by police in the New Haven area. Jones said she hoped the young people in Umoja and Youth Rights Media will work together to increase their impact.

Toward the end of the program, ninth grader Latrice Hampton read an essay about young people’s need for guidance. “Then the youth of today will head in the right direction. We need a plan. We need both Jesus and powerful earthly leaders to show us the way.”

Junior Rollesscia Hurd-Rosa gave a more impromptu talk, hitting some of the same themes. She said youth of today need more motivation and drive, and should “participate in the programs they call ‘geek’ programs, like the model U.N.” She talked about African American leaders in the past, like Harriet Tubman and Martin Luther King, Jr., and how there were always lulls in the struggle with the passing of great leaders. She said the struggle among African Americans is in another lull now, “and I don’t know who is going to pick it up.” Audience members responded with applause and shouts of, “You are!”