nothin Officer Cleared; Protesters Crash Cops’… | New Haven Independent

Officer Cleared; Protesters Crash Cops’ Protest

A week of building tensions over race and policing came to a peak as chanting cops crashed a press conference announcing the exoneration of an officer — and then anti-police demonstrators crashed the cops’ interruption.

The fast-paced events began shortly before 3 p.m. Friday afternoon.

Mayor Toni Harp and Police Chief Dean Esserman called a press conference to announce the exoneration” of Officer Joshua Smereczynsky (pictured), following an internal investigation into his March 15 arrest of a 15-year-old girl outside Buffalo Wild Wings on Church Street.

A citizen video captured the officer slamming the handcuffed girl to the ground, sparking public criticism. The video went viral. It became a Rorschach test revealing America’s divide on policing. Some saw a handcuffed girl manhandled by an officers. Others saw an endangered officer carefully protecting himself and the public against a lawbreaker. The lack of crucial facts about the case, compounded by a week of missteps by the police department in communicating with the public, exacerbated tensions in town.

The officer followed his training” by doing a leg sweep” of the girl while she was allegedly resisting arrest and had a knife within reach of her cuffed hand, Esserman said at Friday’s conference.

He noted that the officer was trained at the Connecticut POST Academy, not at New Haven’s police academy.

There was a fight in that restaurant that summoned the police there, and weapons were involved,” Esserman said. When the officer observed the weapon in the girl’s bag, he took her down in a sweep move once she was handcuffed, because he was concerned for his safety. He was trained to do that. We don’t train that move in the New Haven police academy…. But he was trained to do exactly that move, and he did that move.”

If there’s a need for different training, that’s on me. That’s my job,” Esserman continued. He said the department will also work with the family of the teenager to help them with concerns about the girl’s safety, he said. We may well need to abandon that tactic.”

The teen’s mother, Valerie Boyd, reacted to the decision by saying there’s no justice.”

The department of training failed [the officer] as well as they failed me and my daughter. The department is at fault. He should have been retrained coming into New Haven as a police officer. He should have been given the proper procedures of how to apprehend a suspect,” Boyd said.

He’s back on the street. I don’t feel safe.”

Mayor Harp (pictured) said she accepts the chief’s recommendation of exoneration. The officer has been returned from desk duty to patrol duty. He is taking the weekend off to spend time with his family, according to the chief.

Harp addressed criticism from police over her decision to have Officer Smereczynsky on desk duty pending the completion of the probe. (Read about that here.)

It seems to me an officer would understand the need to defuse tensions” until all the facts come out, given the way this incident rekindled fear and outrage over tragic incidents in other cities,” Harp said.

Dozens of chanting police officers and their supporters marched up City Hall’s main steps and interrupted the conference. The crowd included retired officers and spouses. The officers had organized a protest over a decision earlier this week to place Officer Smereczynsky on desk duty pending the completion of the probe.

New mayor, new chief!” chanted the cops and retired cops, most of whom were white. You let us down!”

Paul Bass Photo

Union chief Cavaliere crashes the exoneration announcement.

Union President Louis Cavaliere Jr. (pictured) said he appreciated the finding of the investigation and the exoneration of the officer.

But we felt we were alone on this,” Cavaliere said.

The officers’ crashing of the press conference was in turn crashed by protesters critical of the police protest. These demonstrators, most of whom were black, called the police protesters racists who are deaf to the concerns of the black community.

Contractor Rodney Williams and other counter-demonstrators told the cops that the city needs to support the mayor and chief in trying to bring the city together.

We’re protecting you, you dumbbell!” shot back one of the pro-police protesters.

Harp, Esserman, and the department’s four assistant chiefs stood silently while union President Louis Cavaliere Jr. criticized them, then while protesters criticized the other cop protesters.

Then Harp left the scene, and Esserman returned to the microphone. He issued a call for healing and moving forward.”

The police department needs the support of the public. And the public needs the support of the police department. That was tested here in New Haven. …

We are not going to allow our city to be divided. The department will take a hard look at itself and what we could do different, and what it could do better.”

Markeshia Ricks Photo

The debate continued raging outside City Hall as demonstrators marched outside.

One shouting match took place between activist Barbara Fair and Debbie Fonda, who showed up to the rally in support of her son Josh.

This has to stop and not just here in New Haven. We are moving backward instead of forward,” Fonda, who has been a teacher in the city for 28 years said after the argument. She said until today at the protest she never realized there was so much hatred in this city.”

Friday’s events were the culmination of days of protest as well as efforts to bring closure to an episode that has threatened the city’s vaunted gains in community policing.

Internal affairs investigators interviewed Smereczynsky at 5 a.m. (during an overnight shift) last Saturday, according to Cavaliere — five days after the investigation began. The investigation took on more urgency after Chief Esserman returned to headquarters from a Paris trip Tuesday morning, and discovered a department and city embroiled in controversy. Investigators worked overtime through Thursday night into Friday morning to complete the report, enable the department to tell a fuller story about the incident, and seek to put some closure to the incident.

City cops last marched en masse to City Hall in 2011 to protest layoffs. It was an impromptu, raucous affair (shown in video), complete with shut-down streets. (Click here to read about that.) The union president leading that march was Louis Cavaliere Sr. The union president leading Friday’s march was his son, Louis Jr.

Markeshia Ricks contributed reporting to this story.

Read previous coverage:

Video Captures Cop Slamming Girl To Ground
This Time, Cop Kept On Streets During IA Probe
Anybody Home?
I’m Sorry For What Happened”
Harp Explains Decision; Cops Plan Protest Rally
Cop In Video Has Clean Record

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