New Haven Independent

The forum was held at the Dixwell-Yale Community Learning Center, the third the Community Talk Back Dialogue Series.

One of the speakers was Barbara Fair (pictured) of People Against Injustice. She noted that behavior that used to be considered a normal part of growing up, like fighting and skipping school, has been criminalized, with lifelong repercussions for the young people involved.

Another speaker, Capt. Barbara Morton of the Yale Police Department, said she’s angry that the black community seems so willing to go along with criminalizing behavior.

“I’m very mad that the community is so willing to accept that we marry everything to the police,” Morton (pictured) said. “If you have a problem with school, let’s make it a law enforcement problem. If you have a problem in the community, let’s make it a law enforcement problem. And when they don’t do a good job, we attack ‘em. But you want us to solve every problem. When did you decide to accept the fact that you get better law enforcement in school than an education?”

Shafiq Abdussasbur is a New Haven police officer who’s in charge of working with the city’s most at-risk youth. “There’s a concept in the black community,” he said, “that ‘I’m going to go to work and take care of my family and do what I got to do, and I’m gonna go home, ‘cause I did my part.’ Well, there has to be a new awakening that our job ain’t done. If you go to work and make a check, all you did was get the money to pay your bills. Your job doesn’t start until you punch out. That’s when the work begins.”

Khalilah Brown-Dean, assistant professor of political science and African American studies at Yale (pictured above with Abdussabur) added, “I think the message here tonight is not to expect others to do it for us or sit back and wait for someone to ask us to do. I wish more people were excited to say, ‘What can I do?’ as opposed to saying, ‘Nobody ever asked me, so I just didn’t do [anything].”