New Haven Independent

Dyson endorsed Democrat Jim Newton’s uphill primary challenge to incumbent Mayor John DeStefano. (In the file photo he’s shown alongside former Mayor John Daniels at a 2005 anti-DeStefano event.)

Dyson has represented the 94th Assembly District since 1976. That’s right, for 31 years. At the legislature he is a leading voice for criminal-justice reform. Back home in New Haven he has occasionally been mentioned as a potential mayoral candidate himself, but has expressed no interest in running. For several years now he has been at odds with the allies of the mayor who control the local Democratic Party and the Board of Aldermen.

In a terse campaign press release Monday (click here to read it), Dyson identifies the public school achievement gap and crime as the issues that led to his endorsement of Newton.

A subsequent conversation with the Independent revealed a deeper well of frustration and anger on Dyson’s part against both the DeStefano administration and its allies in charge of the local Democratic Party. “They jolly well do what they want!” Dyson said. “They play games with people’s lives.”

In classic Dyson manner, he began the interview by speaking slowly, calmly, a bit vague and allegorical — then built to a preacher’s pitch of fury and condemnation. (For a taste of Dyson’s passionate preaching, click on the play arrow to watch remarks he gave in January during a press event about youth killings in New Haven, a press event that in part pre-launched Newton’s mayoral candidacy.)

Following are excerpts from that conversation.

Independent:: The release identifies schools and public safety as the two issues you were concerned about.

Those are some of the issues.

Are there other?

Mismanagement is one that I’d have a little concern about .

What would be examples of City Hall mismanagement?

Oh I think the way things in the police department are going on, the corp counsel’s office, the myriad of lawsuits there that have been lost for one reason or another. The absence of overseeing the budget process, in which you end up laying people off, which would suggest to me if someone was paying attention, that wouldn’t have happened.

Tell me about Newton and his record. What has Newton done that makes you think he could do better than DeStefano?

Record I don’t speak to. That is something others would have to talk about. I’m just talking about the character of the person and his ability to do something different.

How does that figure into the schools?

We have been on this path for a number of years here in brick and mortar. I think we need to put equally as much investment into the achievement gap issues.

What will that take?

I think it would take a plan, a focus. It would take being as interested in academics as you are in the brick and mortar. Brick and mortar appeals to those who are selling brick and mortar and other things. Got me? It appeals to a crowd of people. Well, when it comes to closing the achievement gap, who is it that it appeals to that want to be concerned about closing that gap?

That’s what you have to focus attention on doing. I don’t gather that the mayor has taken as much time to do that as he has on other things. Take the Shartenberg site. He’s interested in getting that done, even if that means offering the land for a dollar. He’s focused on that. He wants to do that. Do you have as much focus on closing the achievement gap? One could say we have made some improvements. But there’s more that needs to be done.

Should our schools be more like Amistad Academy?

Amistad has succeeded in doing that. Anything that demonstrates [we can] close the gap, make successes of those we deemed to have been failures at an early age… If Amistad has done that, look at everything they’re doing and say, “Can we replicate that?’ If so, let’s do it.

Is your opposition to DeStefano payback for when he failed to support you when you ran for speaker of the state House of Representatives?

[People] can read anything they want into that. God bless them. I see the city headed in a direction that is different from the one that it should be taking. Because of that we need to make an adjustment in our course. We need to change. In that light, he’s obviously not going to be the one to change.

If he had backed you for speaker, would you have backed Newton?

I don’t know what would have been the outcome. I don’t know what would have taken place. That’s speculation. Gee, I could speculate all over the place.

Do you agree with people who say community policing has gone backwards? Does the mayor bear any responsibility?

If there was community policing before and it doesn’t exist now, on whose watch did it suddenly vanish?

Did it vanish?

I don’t know. I tend to think that some remnants are still there.

But you think it’s just remnants?

You’re talking about issues related to personnel and the ability to make community policing.

What did you think of ID-Net [a program last year featuring police sweeps of one selected neighborhood at a time] ?

I don’t go with sweeping up a group of people. There’s a repercussion to that down the road. What you have, you do a sweep, somebody ends up with a record. It becomes a cat and mouse game. It is not necessarily anything to fear.

By the same token, people in the community want that security, that notion of safety. They don’t want people hanging out on the block. That’s why I mention this notion of having a place for kids to hang out after school. We would be able to have that as a part of what we’re doing - [tackling the] achievement gap, what youngsters are doing in the afternoon, the safety issue, the police on the block, the community policing taking place, job creation. All of it around a focused undertaking. But if you are some other place, if you are interested in doing something else, you jolly well are not going to be in a position to be able to get people to focus on anything.

Is that a reference to the mayor’s campaign the past two years for governor?

Yeah! You can’t do that and run the city! Things will go lacking!

Is this more on an endorsement of Jim, or a criticism of John, that John needs to go?

It’s talking about what needs to be. It’s talking about being focused - what do we do about the achievement gap, public safety? How do we corral the energy of the community itself?

Has Jim Newton shown you he’s the kind of person who can do that?

I’m going to take on chance on that, yes. Because what we have now is the absence of.

You have recently been critical of the local Democratic Party. Is that a factor in your endorsement ?

Yes it is. It is not a Democratic Town Committee as I see it anymore. It is a DeStefano Town Committee. The interest of people who deem themselves to be Democrat and think they have a party to operate through - they don’t. I would imagine most people are not necessarily enamored with the idea of him continuing to tamper with the building of the cancer cancer. I don’t think they buy that. He’s constantly nibbling at the cancer center to put roadblocks in the way. Has the guy been bought and sold by somebody? If so, what is the ultimate end there? What is he trying to do? Make sure that what comes out of this?

In my estimation, the town committee has been co-opted. It used to be that that would be a group of people, especially the chair, would be the person that would be the intermediary between the mayor’s office and those that did not agree with what is going on. Now it does not exist.

If you had something [in place], you might not have had a Jim Newton or Willie Greene running for mayor. You could have resolved issues by talking about them. There is no venue or no forum by which they can express their opinion and be heard, other than by voting.

Maybe it would be a good thing if more people voted?

Yeah. Yeah. But when they’re demoralized and pissed off, they do just the opposite. “I don’t get involved in that shit.” That’s what people do. All of us know that. Any of ujs who studied Politics 101. You demoralize the population and they won’t do a thing. That’s what’s going on. “Later. Don’t bother me.”

Were [former Democratic party bosses] Vinnie Mauro and Arthur Barbieri more democratic?

Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. You’ve got to be missing a few if you call what we’ve got today “democratic”! When you can have the nominee for a ward chosen outside of a cotton-picking ward — and the ward chairmen can’t participate… Give me a cotton-pickin’ break! You didn’t do that [before]. Absolutely not.

I do remember Arthur moving the polling place out of the first ward…

The polling place? That didn’t negate anyone’s ability to go vote, now. I’m talking about designating who’s going to be on the ballot. On the ballot! Gee whiz! Give me a cotton-pickin’ break! There’s no such animal that anyone can talk to me about now that is “democratic.” Give me a cotton-pickin’ break!

You had the problem years ago that you assumed Arthur Barbieri controlled somebody and that was so bad. You tell me who controls who today! Because it’s goody-two-shoes, it’s supposed to be OK. It’s worse - because they operate under a set of illusions…

There are no questions raised! No one can raise question — you don’t even get that! I don’t’ have to tell you that stuff. Half the cotton-pickin’ board is obligated to the DeStefano Party, not the Democratic Party! The DeStefano party! The issues don’t get raised that should be raised. You lose focus on things that should be. It’s crazy!

You sound passionate about this.

I call it being pissed! There’s no one holding anybody accountable for anything. They jolly well do what they want. They play games with people’s lives.