nothin U.S. Attorney Pledges Civil-Rights Action | New Haven Independent

U.S. Attorney Pledges Civil-Rights Action

Daly at Wednesday’s summit.

Can the Muslim community really count on the FBI to protect it in mosques, schools, and neighborhoods as racial profiling and counterterrorism efforts escalate across the country?

What about an estimated 55 percent of kids who are reporting bullying, often because of their religion?

Will discriminatory acts against black citizens, religious and not, rise in the wake of last year’s shooting at a Charleston church, and this year’s coming presidential election?

What are schools doing to prevent guns coming through their front doors?

How are communities supposed to thrive when they are under-resourced and over-policed?

Do lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) people have a meaningful way of feeling safe and protected in their schools and social spaces? 

These questions arose — and received answers —at a Civil Rights Summit 2016 held Wednesday afternoon at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Haven on Church Street

Welcoming a group of around 40 religious leaders, civil rights advocates, lawyers and concerned members of the public, Connecticut U.S. Attorney Deirdre Daly and other attorneys in the office offered updates on their civil-rights initiatives.

And they answered those above questions.

We are very proud of and I am personally committed to the work we are doing,” said Daly. It’s not just me — it’s the office. But we can only do better with your help. This [summit] is for you to get a better sense of us.”

From outreach to educational working groups in New Haven and elsewhere, several assistant U.S. attorneys explained the measures that Connecticut, with much of the country, is taking to combat discrimination based on race, religion, ability, criminal background and previous incarceration. Many still had questions and concerns after the presentations had ended, heartened by what they had seen and heard, but grappling with a different reality in their own communities.

Religious Protection

How are you going to address anti-Muslim bullying?” asked Meriden mosque president Mohammed Qureshi, who also advocated for bringing civil rights summits like Wednesday’s outside of the U.S. Attorney’s office and into public spaces for a broader audience. He was echoed by representatives of Connecticut’s Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CT). Swaranjit Singh Khalsa said he has seen a rise in racial profiling in Connecticut’s Sikh community, where uncut hair, open beards and turbans have been attracting the unwanted attention of law enforcement officials.

Our concern is with the FBI,” said a representative or CAIR-CT. I love blue. I believe in blue. But we’ve got to work hand in hand. We feel like we’re being watched just because we’re Muslim.” 

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarala Nagala, who addressed Arab, Muslim, and Sikh Communities at the summit, nodded as he and Qureshi expressed their concerns.

There is a real counterterrorism effort” happening in the state and the country, which means that there are going to be these investigations” sometimes, Nagala said.

We’re making sure that everyone feels safe in our communities,” she said, noting that the department is pairing up with the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities to institute cultural competency trainings with law enforcement officials and public institutions.

Speaking on religion-based hate crimes, Assistant U.S. Attorney Ray Miller said the office has instituted a new hate crime initiative, urging regional police chiefs to look out for, help report, and log hate crimes as he and his colleagues become increasingly aware that this is an atmosphere where there’s more tolerance for these types of crimes” based on race and religion.

Those types of efforts dovetail with those of organizations like the The Anti-Defamation League. ADL Connecticut Regional Office Director Steve Ginsburg is rolling out a pilot program in state schools intended to help Muslim children feel safe and welcome, instead of afraid of backlash, in their classrooms.

It’s a big learning curve for law enforcement,” Miller said. But we are open for business at the U.S. Attorney’s office,” working closely with FBI agents like Mike Butsch and offering to teach law enforcement across the state about hate crimes, successful communication with members of a given community, and how best to conduct interviews with those reporting hate crimes. So far, Miller said, Hartford’s police department has been the most responsive. 

A Growing Concern”

Lucy Gellman Photo

Avery and Osei.

Community members like Tamara Lanier, criminal justice chair of the Connecticut NAACP, Laura Lillian West of Black Social Justice, and Rev. Steven Cousin, a fourth-generation preacher at New Haven’s Bethel AME Church, asked young people of color whose rights are being violated by law enforcement officials.

There is a growing concern among minority communities that their rights don’t matter,” said Lanier. The public needs to know that you’re here for them.”

You’re going to see more of a rise in various discrimination acts,” added Cousin. I think this department [at the U.S. Attorney’s Office] is doing a great job, but — just knowing our rights, these efforts need to be doubled. A lot of my parishioners feel powerless.” 

Black lives matter to me. Black lives matter to this office,” responded Assistant U.S. Attorney Liam Brennan. He directed attendees’ attention to the NAACP Criminal Justice Award that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut received earlier this year.

We are here for you and we are here to do this work,” added Assistant U.S. Attorney Anastasia King. She cited the office’s police misconduct investigation in East Haven, which led to the convictions of four officers and an overhaul of the department.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Ndidi Moses pointed to a new Know Your Rights” program that the U.S. Attorney is instituting in various schools and communities across the state.”

Kingsley Osei, founder and executive director of Connecticut Against Violence, asked how the office is seeking to cut the number of students bringing weapons to and fighting within the walls of public schools.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Markle pointed in response to initiatives like Project Longevity and the first annual Future Law Enforcement Youth Academy (FLEYA), a collaboration between Yale and the FBI intended to introduce selected youth” across Connecticut to careers in law enforcement on the local, state and federal levels.

One thing that it [Project Longevity] has provided is a chance for us to discuss our lives,” said Warren Hardy. We need to keep bridging our relationships. A lot of the young people are listening.”

Safety in Schools

Also worried about safety — and discrimination — in schools were LGBTQ advocate David Heath and Assistant U.S. Attorney General Vanessa Avery, who works on the U.S. Attorney’s working group on education.

On the heels of North Carolina’s anti-transgender bathroom law and U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s announcement that undermining transgender students’ safety at public schools violates federal law, Heath talked to attendees about letting students in Connecticut know that they have dedicated support networks. Daly distributed copies of the Department of Justice’s Dear Colleague Letter on Transgender Students” before the meeting. 

Meanwhile, Avery spoke about what she and an Education Working Group are doing to prevent discrimination based on the isms: Racism, classism, and discrimination based on gender, physical and developmental ability, and sexual orientation. She pointed to training in the Amercians with Disabilities Act, a statewide school superintendents forum, security training teaching officers to look for sex trafficking in high schools, and schoolwide distribution of the FBI-DEA created film Chasing The Dragon: The Life Of An Opiate Addict, about heroin use across the Northeast. 

Towards A Bigger Forum

In closing, Daly noted that is Civil Rights Summit was intended to be the beginning of an ongoing conversation, noting that representatives from the office were often eager to come out to similar summits, town halls, sensitivity trainings and events in the community.

It’s not means to be an exclusive group by any means,” she said when some in the room voiced concerns that the summit had not been sufficiently publicized, or pulled from a wide enough swath of the state’s concerned public. And again and again, she added another thought that rang true: I hear you.”

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