New Haven Independent

Posted by: Walt | March 19, 2007 10:06 AM

Don't doubt that DeStefano backed Lt. Billy, but give him credit for citing the blackmail attempt by the NAACP.

Blackmail ot this type has been accepted practice since the 60's when city business leaders were locked in a Hill school (forgot name) until $100,000 was promised to area Black groups for their own uses.

I was there until released on the say/so of one of the Black leaders from Operation ?????,whom I had dealt with, who later died from drug use.

The irony of the deal was that the leaders from
Yale Winchester, FNHN Bank, the C of C and others had already agreed to the $100,000+ donation as a civic gesture through a peaceful group headed by a kid, whom I believe was last-named Murray.

The problem was that the groups threatening blood spilling were not to receive credit for the donation, only the kid Murray(?) who got the commitment peacefully.

The school lockup was designed only to get credit for the rabble-rousers, but scared the hell out of the business leaders.

At that time NAACP was among the principled peacemakers, but apparently has switched sides.

Threats and blackmail are now an established method of operating even on the national level by the formerly fat reverend from New York, and the other Black reverend once important on the national scene (Sorry, forgot names)

Posted by: Evan | March 19, 2007 10:22 AM

The "ball" to keep an eye on is enforcing the law. Vann seems to forget that the vast majority of us are good honest tax payers whose quality of life in New Haven is being sent down the toilet by all the drug-peddling punks who think they own our neighborhoods. We WANT a war on drugs, because it's the drugs that cause the daily disruptions in our communities.

Posted by: cedarhillresident | March 19, 2007 11:22 AM

Evan
Thank you! that is the way we feel!! Give us a war on drugs!! they run the city and we want them out!

Can I ask what the comment "war on poor people, on powerless people" means??

I am sure that the people that were put in jail for drugs should of been, but my conncern is that there are people on the street that are not in there that should be! I think that several communities have organized drug rings with the right conections. And if that comment is twords the fact that poor communities are being held capative by the organized drug groups than yes I agree. But if it is meant to say that people were put in jail because they were poor please get a grip! I hope to god you are not going to fight for the criminals that should be in jail by getting them out because of this thing!! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!! Please do not use this as a grand stand ! Please do not change this into something it is not for press and polictics! If you want to fight, fight for the communitys that are being runned by the drugs! Not for the few angry familys who want to use this as an excuse to get someone out of jail who should be in there!!

And the NAACP blackmailing the major OMG! Shame on you! And at this point in time I am not a fan of Johnny but I do give him a thumbs up for not allowing them to strongarem him! that tactic is no different than stunts pulled by organized crime.

Posted by: pinkbicycle | March 19, 2007 11:44 AM

The Black community in New Haven is duplicitious in its relationship to drugs, drug dealing. The Black community is always crying about more cops and getting rid of the drug dealers---except when it's their child or relative's kid doing the drug dealing--then it's police brutality--or better still the cops are singling out my child. When will the Black community clean up their own mess. The Black Community spends way too much time trying to hustle money from City Hall. Who among them can run a decent program--What has the NAACP done for youth..ever? Let me tell you what is going to happen. The so-called Black Community will rant and rave and sell wolf tickets, maybe they will meet once or twice. Then that's it. The Black Community will not go any further. So, if the Mayor just waits them out as he does all the time. This issue will be a non-issue next week. The NAACP's current leadersship lacks the skill and sophistication to do anything except of course throw a really great party--and with all the money they make on those events sure would go a long way to funding youth programs. Hmm maybe Mr. Vann is looking to make a run for City Hall, he certainly has some credibility. HHmm is this really about the Black Community or....can somebody say mayorial challenge?

Posted by: observor | March 19, 2007 12:31 PM

Esdaile Tried to shake down Mayor Johnny??? What's he doing, auditioning for Frank Altieri's old job?

Posted by: James | March 19, 2007 1:21 PM

Opportunistic garbage. That's all I can say about Vann and Esdaile. Here they are representing two of the most venerable civil-liberties organizations this country has ever know and they are using their positions as little more than a point from which to spout off their meaningless, self-serving crap. Who in their right mind could possibly believe for a second that DeStefano knew about this and let it slide? Come on. DeStefano is a career politician. He's not going to put his neck on the line unless it benefits him directly. Do you honestly beleive that he would do anything for anybody else that would endanger his cozy job with his cozy overstuffed chair where he can sit his cozy overstuffed ego? He may not be the smartest or best there is, but he's good enough to get where he got. And he didn't get there by covering up cases of corrupt cops.

Let's just suppose for one minute that DeStefano is as corrupt as Vann and Esdaile claim him to be. What would he possibly have to gain by covering up for White? White didn't support his campaign. In fact he actively supported the opposition. You think White was handing him a few dollars under the table? Come on. At best White was pocketing $10-15k a year. You think DeStefano is going to risk his job over chump change? Why are our black leaders always looking for preposterous conspiracy theories to exploit, and why do so many of us eat them up? This is moronic.

Everybody needs to look at where we are. Everybody is so damned busy looking for their opportunity to attack, to get a foothold in the political game that they don't even bother to address the real problems. Yes, White was a problem, he got busted and now he's gone. A few more will go with him. What does the community gain by dragging this out, other than allowing opportunistic leaches like Vann and Esdaile a few more moments in the stoplight?

Is this the best the NAACP and ACLU can do for our community? Everybody. Stop. Look around. See this crime? Murder? Drugs? Cycle of poverty? Do something to fix that. You do that, fix your own community and then people might begin to look at you as a leader. Stop chasing the boogey men and go after the real, hard problems that face us every day. Leave the conspiracy theories to the mental patients.

Posted by: manolo edo | March 19, 2007 9:27 PM

We've known for many years that Roger Vann supports racial double standards. This has been publicly clear at least since his radio talk show days. It is unfortunate that the ACLU would have such an obvious racist in a position of authority.

Posted by: concerned in the hood | March 20, 2007 12:14 PM

There is no question that those of us who live in the hood have a responsibility to improve our quality of life.
We need to value what we have..pick up our trash, not blast our music all hours of the day and night. We need to ensure that we send our kids to school ready to learn and stop cuddling bad behavior.

No one comes into our communities and dumps trash and leaves it there for months. We do that to ourselves. No one comes into our community and blasts music out of control. No one stops us from taking a moment to review home work and make sure our children read or listen to a book on tape.

No one stops us from voting and insisting our elected officials take care of business. We need to work on changing our own attitudes about how we live and behave before we blame anyone else.
Pick up trash, respect our neighbors, read to our children or buy them books on tape if, you can't read. Don't get me started about all the other nonsense we buy for our children.

I don't blame the larger community for being frustrated with us when we are simply NOT doing enough for ourselves.

We should be giving out books on tape with tape recorders ($5 in Walmart) to all children third grade and below. We should be reminding adults EVERYDAY we have to help clean-up where we live.Don't leave it entirely up to landlords. We live here. Report the landlords to LCI or whomever but we need to step up. Those of us in the hood who live by these values are getting tired our our own internal community nonsense and if things don't change we will be outta-here as well.

Posted by: pinkbicycle | March 21, 2007 4:50 PM

Well said "Concerned in the Hood" I think you are right on the money. It is unfortunate that you will not get a whole lot of support on your stance. You may be called a race traitor or an "Uncle Tom"--which really should be Sambo--because "Uncle Tom was not a race traitor--everyone always mixes the two...but I digress. Kudos on your honest opinion.

Posted by: greg | March 22, 2007 8:48 AM

To Concerned in the hood- you are correct in your analysis of this situation. Its not relevent what race you are, its how you behave! The cops,clean or dirty, wouldn't be on the scene if behavior didn't occur in the first place .Esdaile,Jefferson, and Vann are pandering fools looking for votes. They are part of the problem, not part of the solution, like yourself.

Posted by: THREEFIFTHS | March 22, 2007 3:31 PM

If How You Behavior Keeps Cops Clean Or Dirty From
Being On The Scene, Please Tell Me How Come Amadou Diallo A African Immigrant Who Was A Street Vendor Who Had No Police Record And Was Shot 41 Times By The Police. Sean Bell Shot 50 Times By The Police!!! NYPD Had A Street Crime Unit Call We Own The Night And Would Pick Up Young
Black And Hispanic Men,One Of The Men They Pick Up
Was The Son Of Sport Talk Show Host Bryant Gumbel
His Son Was On His Way To His Prep School,Earl Graves Own Of Black Enterprise Magzine Son Who Has
A MBA Degree Was Stop By The Police In Grancentral
Station.And As I Have Always Said Look How Crooked
Cops Try To Kill Frank Serpico In A Hallway Because He Did Not Take Money.By The Way Concerned
In The Hood Frank Serpico Stated At The Knapp Hearings On Police Misconduct Said That Crooked Cops Make There Money In The Hood. Most Of These
Young Drug Dealers work For These Crooked Cops.
My Question Is If This Is About Good Behavior Than Where Was The Frank Serpico Good Cops To Come
Forward And Turn In The Dirt Cops!!

Posted by: bjfair | March 24, 2007 8:54 AM

Yes, good people. I can see the Willie Lynch syndrome at work. Divide and Conquer.Blame the "victim". Loud music, dirty steets and poor parenting are not responsible for Billy White's greed and the systemic culture that allowed it to flourish. "In the Hood" is right about what we need to do as residents but let's not turn the focus on our shortcomings and let crooks like White off the hook. It's been done too many times by too many of US for way too many years.Let's have the conversation about education and blight at the right time. Right now the conversation is about something that didn't start with us and won't end with us. We, as a people , have never had a problem with blaming ourselves. That's something we do very well which is why we are the most divided group of people in this country. We continue to suffer from the residue of the slave mentality. The physical chains are removed from our hands and feet but the mind is still intact 400 yeras later. Let's see how we can blame our selves for the slaughter in Iraq and the corruption going on in the state and national capitol too? What about "911"?

Posted by: Edward_h | March 24, 2007 8:56 PM

Concerned in the Hood
Nice to see some good old fashioned common sense posted here. Keep up the good work!

BJFair
If you are going to claim to see a syndrome at work perhaps you should rely on a syndrome based on actual factual data and scientific research, not an internet hoax filled with anachronisms created to confound simple minded people like the Willie Lynch speech. No one claimed Billy White's actions were caused by loud music, dirty streets or poor parenting. The question is do communities rife with the aforementioned problems create fertile breeding grounds for such corruption? Most solution based people consider this a valid question.

Threefifths
"Most Of These Young Drug Dealers work For These Crooked Cops."

Are you basing this statement on facts or the last season of "The Shield"? I would like to see some research showing 51% plus of young drug dealers are working for the NHPD. If there is no such research please reference at least ONE drug dealer who is working for the NHPD.

Posted by: cedarhillresident | March 26, 2007 8:22 PM

Edward_h
I would like to think that Threefifths was speaking in a rhetorical way. In general dirty cops and drug dealers run in the same circle.
For instants the dirty buissness in my area (one we have commplained about to every cop we see)For the first time was not opened after 11:00 this weekend? Infact for the past week or so I have noticed a large slow down of there evening activity. I wonder why?? Maybe they lost the cops that protected them or maybe they are still there but are not going to risk there ass's anymore because they may be being watched. Maybe the police are making them stop now. or maybe they know that all the cops in NH are back on the job and they are playing it save till things cool down.

Who knows maybe they decided hey let's stop making this poor area have to deal with our crap they are just trying to live here.

And I think that we are looking at this from where we live and what we have seen in our community's and THREEFIFTHS way of looking at this may not be the way I look at it or the way you look at it but I think a very large part of New Haven does see it the way he does. The proof he has is what he has seen and what he has heard it is something that will never be reported or even if it is may never be on record and we may never know the truth.

Posted by: THREEFIFTHS | March 27, 2007 9:51 AM

Edward- H
You Should Do The Research And You Will Find That
The Reason That Police Corruption Is Allowed To Flourish Is That The So Call Good Police Officers
Are Silent. There Was A Crooked Cop Bust And He Stated That Money Is In The Hood That Is Not In The Suburbs. We That Live Here In The Hood See This Corruption All The Time. Case In Point When I Grew Up In Harlem And This Was The Time Of Nickey Barnes I Saw Police Shake Downs And Police
Supply These Young Drug Dealers. I Have Seen The Phoney Police Drug Raids And The Money Is Half Turn In. The Late Ed Bradley Did A Show On The New Orleans Police Department In Which The Whole
Force Was Crooked And Dealer Drugs, Do Research On The Knapp Commission.Edward- H Sounds To Me That It Seems That You Are In Support Of These Two Officers?

Posted by: madblackman | March 30, 2007 9:55 AM

vann, jefferson and esdaile don't likeeach other anyway. that meeting was a "anti-destafano" meeting tuesday. i don't blame him for not attending.

Posted by: Edward_h | April 4, 2007 1:19 AM

"You Should Do The Research And You Will Find That
The Reason That Police Corruption Is Allowed To Flourish Is That The So Call Good Police Officers
Are Silent."

For the sake of argument let's assume that what you claim is true and corrupt police officers allow their criminal activites to become common knowledge within the police department, rather than keeping knowledge of their exploits confined to co-consipiriors and sympathizers. I never said the silence of good cops, typically referred to as "The Blue Wall of Silence" was not a problem. Any time Law Enforcement officers keep silent on criminal activity is a problem. A valid question was raised as to whether or not neighborhoods with the socio-economic problems typical in areas you refer to as "The Hood" create more opportunities for police corruption. Could it be a coincidence the areas you mentioned, Harlem and New Orleans, are rife with the previously mentioned problems?

"There Was A Crooked Cop Bust And He Stated That Money Is In The Hood That Is Not In The Suburbs. We That Live Here In The Hood See This Corruption All The Time.Case In Point When I Grew Up In Harlem And This Was The Time Of Nickey Barnes I Saw Police Shake Downs And Police
Supply These Young Drug Dealers."

If the police are supplying these drug dealers why would the police have to "shake them down"? Generally you don't have to shake down people on your payroll.

"I Have Seen The Phoney Police Drug Raids And The Money Is Half Turn In."

How would you know only half of the money found on a drug raid was turned in ?

The Late Ed Bradley Did A Show On The New Orleans Police Department In Which The Whole
Force Was Crooked And Dealer Drugs, Do Research On The Knapp Commission.

The corruption in the NOPD is well known. I was a Criminal Justice major in college. I have done quite enough research on the Knapp Commission. Was there a point to this?

"Edward- H Sounds To Me That It Seems That You Are In Support Of These Two Officers?"

By what absurd stretch of imagination did you come by this conclusion? Please explain how in reading my previous comment your thought process or logical reasoning brought you to such a bizarre claim?

Posted by: THREEFIFTHS | April 6, 2007 3:57 PM

Edward -H
Look Up The Case Of Larry Davis In New York Who Worked for Dirt Cops Who Came To His House To Kill Him, Look Up Micheal Dow A Police Officer Who Ran A Drug Ring.Two Police Officer Just Got Bust for Betting Ring On The NCAA Final Four. Research A Reporter By The Name Of Gary Webb
Who Found How Drugs Are Put Into The Hood!!! And
The Reason I Say That You Seem To Support These Police Is That Your Posting That I Read Always
PointsTo The Workers, Never To The Bosses P.S.
We Must Not Forget Frank Serpico And Being A Criminal Justice Major You Should Know The Story.

Posted by: Edward_H | April 8, 2007 12:36 PM

Threefifths
I am more than familiar with all the subjects you reffered to, however I fail to see the relevance. I I wanted to waste everyones time I could easily list twice as many cases of police officers who gave their lives to save innocent civillians and many more cases of police officers who were murdered by drug dealers, under cover or otherwise. None of this qualifies the statement you made previously:

"Most Of These Young Drug Dealers work For These Crooked Cops."

Your statement claims that "most" ,which means more than half, drug dealers are working for the police. You have yet to show a basis for this inflammatory statement. At best all you have done is bring up well publicized cases of police corruption. This anecdotal evidence does nothing to establish the validity of your statement. I would still like to see evidence showing51% or 6 out of 10 drug dealer are workign for the police.