nothin In Eastview Projects, Kids & Cops Work It Out | New Haven Independent

In Eastview Projects,
Kids & Cops Work It Out

Allan Appel Photo

Johnte’e Peterson was impressed when Sgt. Vincent Anastasio told him he used to wear shiny Italian shoes when he went out dancing as a young man in the 1970s.

Like a lot of city kids growing up on dangerous streets, Johnte’e and other boys from the east side of town’s Eastview Terrace public-housing project thought talking to a cop carried the stigma of a snitch. No longer.

They hung out with the cops, and then celebrated their new relationship, Thursday afternoon in the Eastview Terrace community room as Peterson and 11 other kids graduated” from the Youth & Police Initiative.

That’s a three-week course of role playing, sharing personal stories, embarrassing moments, and just hanging out together organized by the North American Family Institute (NAFI) to break stereotypes often at-risk kids kids have of cops and cops of kids.

The housing authority worked with the police on the program. Each kid had to sign a contract that he would show up on time and participate in two-hour sessions up to four times a week for three weeks.

This is the second time the police have brought in the Youth & Police Initiative (YPI,) to town; the first time was under former Police Chief Frank Limon. Click here for a story of the graduation of a group of Newhallville teens last June, and for detail on how the program works. And here for a story of how then-Lt. Thaddeus Reddish took those kids to a New Britain Rock Cats game to show them cops are regular guys who will go to bat for them; and that it’s OK to steal, but only bases.

The program includes testing kids’ attitudes towards cops before and after the three-week program. In the case of Johnte’e, a 13-year old Betsy Ross Arts Magnet School student, there was a sea change. I used to think cops were looking at me and thought I was a criminal cause they looked at me weird,” he said.

During an exercise about making good decisions and bad decisions, he told the cops that he picked up trash in the community, Johnte’e said. Afterwards he sensed the officers in the program began to look at him differently.

In remarks after receiving his certificate and stipend, said another participant, Johnny Peterson, I didn’t like cops when I came, but after two weeks I changed my mind.” He attributed that in part to an admiration for Officer John Kaczor. Kaczor told him some of his life story, like when as a kid he had to cut off contact with friends who were running in the streets.

I cut friends too,” the young man said. Other cops used to talk junk to people when they didn’t do nothing. These are different. They are nice and cool,” he said. When he finishes Co-Op High, he wants to join the Marines, Johnny Peterson said. Kaczor encouraged him.

East Shore District Manager Sgt. Vincent Anastasio embraced the program and even spent some of his vacation time hanging out in the gym at the Eastview community room with the participants. In addition to Officer Kaczor, the other beat officers who interacted with the kids were Brian McDermott and Alex Morgillo. (Click here to read a Cop of the Week” story about Kaczor and Morgillo.)

Officers change their perception of the kids in the program as the kids do of the cops. Anastasio said he learned that a lot of the stigmatization of cops and interacting with them derives from peer pressure. I was enlightened,” said the 25-year police veteran. Once they are away from their peers, they [each] have a light about them.”

Police Chief Dean Esserman and the four assistant chiefs were all on hand to shake each kid’s hand and applaud them. NAFI’s president Jim Isenberg said Chief Esserman brought his group to New Haven because of the effective work they had done together in Providence, where Esserman was the top cop prior to coming to New Haven.

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