Thomas Breen photos
Chief Reyes (center) talking with protesters outside 1 Union Ave. Below: Top brass taking a knee.
Over 60 protesters converged on police headquarters Wednesday for the second time in four days.
This time, they were greeted not by officers in riot gear, but rather by top brass who kneeled in support of their anti-brutality message — and then spoke with them about how to work together to build a more community-accountable force.
That hourlong protest march and subsequent 40-minute conversation with the police took place Wednesday afternoon.
The rally started at the flagpole on the Green just after 1 p.m. It wound its way along Elm Street, Broadway, and State Street before culminating on the front steps of police headquarters at 1 Union Ave.
Police Chief Otoniel Reyes, Assistant Chiefs Renee Dominguez and Karl Jacobson, and a handful of other uniformed top cops were waiting on the sidewalk atop a chalk-art mural of red and blue hearts.
The officers kneeled as soon as the protesters arrived. They listened to the protesters’ questions.
Then Reyes moved into their group and sat down as he tried to answer each one.
“I want to listen,” Reyes said. “And I want you at the table with me when the cameras are gone.”
Cop-community dialogue outside police headquarters.
This nationwide crisis around the role that police can and should play in America presents an opportunity, he said: an opportunity for his department to become more accountable to the public, an opportunity for top brass and rank-and-file officers to win the faith of the communities they serve.
“We believe in everything you stand for,” Reyes continued. “Trust me, we know the history of this uniform. And it hasn’t been good.”
The chief said he was discriminated against by the police as a kid growing up in the Hill. He faced similar anti-Hispanic bias as a young officer two decades ago.
“You know the opportunity that I have?” Reyes asked. “I want to take advantage of it. I want that to be my legacy.”
Taylar Hill leads Wednesday’s protest from the Green.
Unlike Sunday’s anti-police brutality protests, which saw 1,000 people occupy I‑95 and then hundreds amass at the police department, Wednesday’s protest brought out no more than 75 people at its peak.
It was organized by two women and first-time protest leaders, Taylar Hill from New Haven, and Maya Donald from Shelton.
They met last week over social media, in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by a white police officer in Minneapolis.
They said they felt compelled to speak out against police brutality, and to rally publicly and peacefully to raise awareness about the pain and fear and anger they experience every day being black women in America.
They didn’t know how many people would show up Wednesday, or where exactly they would march.
Dozens showed by to the flagpole for the 1 p.m. kickoff. The group only grew in size as it marched through the streets of Downtown, chanting and singing and proclaiming “No justice, no peace!” as officers on motorcycles cleared traffic.
By the time they arrived at the police station, the group was fired up, unburdening their sorrow and anger to the officers in the hot and humid afternoon.
“I am tired of seeing a hashtag every day,” Hill said. “I’m so tired of seeing our black men and women being killed for nothing. It hurts so bad. I have had anxiety for days because I’m thinking about what the cops did to our people.”
Lissette Williams (pictured), a Brooklyn native and friend of Hill and Donald who traveled up to New Haven for the rally Wednesday, told the chief and assistant chiefs that she could not leave her apartment in the Greenwood Houses of Bedford Stuyvesant without being pressed by officers at every turn.
“Stop being so quick to grab a taser, to grab a gun,” she said. “You’re here to protect. Protect that life, don’t kill it. This is not a game.”
Another young black woman took the mic and asked the chiefs, who had been kneeling silently beside them, what specific steps they’re going to take to rebuild police-community relations and reform New Haven policing.
“I understand y’all are listening,” she said. “But I feel like y’all don’t really understand.”
Reyes (pictured) asked for an opportunity to talk. The organizers gave him the floor, and he moved across from the line of officers to sit on the steps amidst the protesters to dialogue.
“Every time something horrific happens around the country, we’ve got to own it,” he said. He said he, his assistant chiefs, and rank-and-file officers in New Haven all condemn Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis. He said a video that the department put together demonstrating that fact was not contrived by top brass, but rather was a true statement about how officers feel.
“I was born and raised in this city,” he said. “I was a victim of police brutality. I was a victim of police injustice. I became a cop because I believed in something.”
He relayed a story about how when he was a young officer, he and a colleague responded to a call by a Hispanic man. That man wanted to file a complaint. Reyes served as translator. He asked his white colleague what he should tell the complainant. The colleague said to translate that he would accept the man’s complaint only when the latter learned to speak English. Then his colleague walked away as Reyes recorded the man’s complaint.
Reyes said that he became an officer in part because he wanted the department to reflect New Haven’s diversity .
“We want solutions,” another woman replied. What do New Haven police plan to do to actively fight against police brutality?
“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Reyes confessed. “There’s so much work to do. We’re not anywhere close to where we need to be. That’s why we’re here.”
He pointed to Wednesday’s peaceful dialogue as a first step in that direction of achieving better police-community relations.
“The fact that we can be sitting here, the fact that you can have officers around the country willing to kneel and to speak out against this, it’s a start.”
But what next? pressed Hill. How do we as a community move beyond words and symbolism? She noted that Wednesday’s protesters were not looting, were not violent. They simply wanted to talk, and appreciated the chief being willing to do the same.
“We move incrementally, slowly,” Reyes said. Because building trust and change does not happen overnight.
He proposed meeting with some of the leaders of the protest on a regular basis to hash out their demands and work towards a solution together. He said that there should be a new coalition of civilians able to advise the department so that everyday people can “have a greater voice in what we do day to day.”
Bilal Ansari (pictured), a faculty associate at Hartford Seminary, asked Reyes if he would be willing to sign on to Black Live Matter’s eight steps for reducing police violence against civilians, including recommendations on not using chokeholds or pressing knees onto suspects’ throats. This “can reduce black lives being lost,” he said.
“I am willing to commit to anything that’s going to keep people safe,” Reyes said. Ansari gave Reyes his card and told him to call so that they could talk further about those eight steps.
Assistant Chief Jacobson (pictured), who was also sitting in the crowd and holding a Black Lives Matter sign, announced that the three Minneapolis other officers who stood by and did not speak out as Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for over eight minutes have been arrested and charged.
“If one of those cops said something and pulled him off his neck, he’d be alive today,” Jacobson said. The group cheered at the announcement of the arrests. Jacobson said he and the rest of the department support that decision to arrest the accompanying officers.
Jason Dorsey marching down Elm Street.
“We don’t hate you guys,” said New Orleans native Jason Dorsey. “We understand that we do need you. But in order for me to trust you, I need to know that I can hold you accountable and that you will hold your officers accountable.”
Reyes promised to do just that — and to work side by side with community members on the path towards rebuilding that trust.
“Don’t question our hearts,” he said. “We can have this meeting anytime.”
Police Kneeling, Marching, and Conversing with the public does not change police culture. They are nice photo-ops, though.
The Rev. Mr. Samuel T. Ross-Lee