Cops & Muslims March Together

Members of a Hamden mosque marched alongside police officers, shutting down a lane of Dixwell Avenue, to speak out against police brutality.

A large detail of police participated, not in riot gear as at other marches, but walking next to protesters, on bicycles, and in cars directing traffic.

Members of Hamden’s Abdul-Majid Karim Hasan Islamic Center organized Tuesday’s ​“walk for unity.” Remiey Shareef, one of the organizers, said the center had contacted the Hamden Police Department about the march and to extend an invitation to join. The department accepted the invitation.

The walk began at the Islamic center on Dixwell just north of the border with New Haven at 2 p.m. Marchers walked all the way up Dixwell’s far-right lane to Hamden Town Hall, where they gathered on the steps and gave an hour and a half of speeches.

As the march’s name would suggest, speakers stressed unity.

“One of the biggest things missing in our communities is us knowing each other,” said Imam Saladin Hasan, who succeeded the center’s namesake, Abdul-Majid Karim Hasan, who died in November.

“We are one human family,” he said. ​“Allah tells us in the Quran that we come from the seed of Adam and Hawa, but some of us call her Eve. We all come from the same parental situation.” Everyone needs to be held accountable, he said, both members of the community and police.

Hasan and other speakers stressed that the event was meant to be entirely peaceful. ​“I know a lot of people expected us yelling and getting in faces and being nasty and evil. We’ve done that for 20, 30 years. What has it changed? What has come of it?” he asked.

Shareef said the march was intended to stress the importance of unity, both with other members of the Hamden community as well as with the police.

But he did not hold back from highlighting the centuries of brutality that have defined American history, and the pain they still cause.

“We do not want to cause harm or loss of life to anyone,” he said. ​“But when you back a people in a corner for over 400 years with brutality, with terrorism, this is what it can come to. We have institutions that symbolize and that house criminals that they are burning to the ground.”

He paused.

“That they are burning to the ground,” he continued, letting each heavy word drop hard onto the pavement of Hamden’s Centerville neighborhood.

“We understand that fire is not only a punishment, but is also a cleansing. Do we not see and understand that America needs a cleansing?”

“There is no more ​‘we have good cops,’” Shareef (pictured) continued. ​“Don’t tell us. Show us you are a good cop.”

Hamden has been roiled by protest over the last year after Hamden Officer Devin Eaton opened fire on an unarmed black couple in New Haven.

Police Chief John Cappiello (pictured) has not usually spoken out publicly much about police brutality in the past. On Tuesday, after marching about three and a half miles, he too made a speech.

“There is not a police officer in the state of Connecticut, or anywhere in the world, that should support what happened last week, and if they do … take the badge off. We don’t need you. We don’t want you,” he said to applause.

“We really need the support,” he said of the people with whom he had just marched. ​“We need the community. We’re here for the community. We need to listen to the community. It’s not like we can do this alone. We understand that it’s the community that’s going to lead us.”

When a police officer holdes his knee on a man’s neck for eight minutes until he dies, it makes it hard for police officers all over the country to do their jobs. ​“When something like that happens, it erodes everything every other police officer has been building their entire career,” he said.

“Mindful Of Language Is Not How I Feel”

When the march began, it involved a small group of about 20 civilians, including Mayor Curt Leng (pictured above, right) and Legislative Councilman Justin Farmer. Aside from Leng, Farmer was the only other official there. The event was not publicized before it took place.

There were about as many police officers as civilians at first. About half, including Cappiello and Deputy Chief John Sullivan, marched. The other half directed traffic on bikes and in cars.

As the marchers walked up Dixwell, people came out of their houses and cheered and held signs. Cars honked. A few people began to join in.

April Gimattei (above right) said she had seen a post about the walk on Facebook after it had started, and brought her whole family over to join. She arrived when the marchers had reached Hamden Plaza. She walked with her mother Patricia, her mother’s cousin Tammy, her daughters Nahgee and Jada, and her granddaughter Kaylee.

She said she felt she had to find a time to get out and march. ​“How could I not? You see my family,” she said, noting that it is racially mixed. ​“This is something my mother dealt with for marrying my father.”

Gimattei works in janitorial services for the East Haven Police Department. ​“I think the protests around the world speak volumes,” she said, stressing that she was talking about peaceful protests. ​“This is how your voices get heard. This is how you get positive attention.”

By the time marchers approached Town Hall, their numbers had grown to about 30. During a rally there, the crowd grew to 60.

Porsche Edmundson (pictured), a former New Haven schoolteacher in New Haven, was among them. She said a friend had seen the march go by on Dixwell and told her about it.

After speeches had gone on for about an hour, the organizers opened up the floor. Edmundson walked up the steps and gripped the microphone the way Shareef told her to hold it so it would pick up her voice over the rush of traffic and honking cars.

She began slowly, and paused for a few seconds to hold back tears.

“How can we feel safe when nothing happens?” she said. ​“Name after name after name of people have been killed in the street by police officers … What are we supposed to do? So that’s how people feel right now. If you’re not going to fucking listen to us, why should we just be peaceful?”

Shareef cut in: ​“You got to be mindful about language please,” he said.

“I apologize for that, but being mindful of my language is not how I feel right now,” Edmundson replied.

After the last speech, the crowd thinned. Edmundson was the only one left on the corner of Whitney and Dixwell, where she said a cop once pulled her over and made her feel extremely uncomfortable. She said she had filed a complaint with the department.

Perhaps, she said, police marching with protesters will help them hold themselves accountable. ​“Now you said that,” she said of officers marching and speaking out against the George Floyd murder, ​“so we expect not only you to hold yourself accountable but also everyone who looks like you.” That is, everyone in uniform.

“If nothing comes of this, we will all know nothing came of it,” she said.