Thomas Breen photo
Thursday night’s protest on Wolcott Street.
With cries of “No Más Violencia!” and “¿Qué Queremos? Justicia!” two dozen immigrant rights protesters took to Wolcott Street to demand an end to violence in Fair Haven — and to call on police to take their concerns seriously, regardless of their nation of origin or which language they speak.
That protest took place Thursday evening on Wolcott Street near Blatchley Avenue in Fair Haven.
Organized by Unidad Latina en Accion and Black and Brown United in Action, the rally was held on a residential block shrouded in evening darkness and quiet except for the occasional car speeding east from Lloyd Street. The rally and the incident that sparked it follow on the heels of revelations about two separate cases involving police sexual misconduct in dealings with Fair Haveners, including one involving a 19-year-old undocumented worker from Honduras.
With protest banners and a microphone and amp, the group Thursday night set up outside of one particular home that protesters said played a role in an unsolved alleged assault against two immigrant teenagers on Sunday.
John Lugo (right) on Thursday.
Here’s what happened, according to ULA organizer John Lugo and one of the 17-year-old victims, who declined to be named or photographed for this story:
Early on Sunday afternoon near the corner of Saltonstall Avenue and Blatchley Avenue, two teenagers on their way to a corner store were attacked by three young women who demanded that they empty their pockets and hand over their phones.
One of the teens ran away, while another got punched in the head.
The victims’ mothers, both of whom are ULA members, found out what was going on and rushed to their children’s aid, chasing the attackers away.
The assailants wound up taking cover in a Wolcott Street home — the very one that the immigrant rights’ protesters rallied outside of on Thursday.
While the three attackers remained inside that house on Sunday, the victims called the police. They said they called multiple times, but that police officers didn’t arrive on scene until an hour and a half after the first 9 – 1‑1 call.
And when the officers did arrive, they talked primarily to the alleged attackers — and then accused the victims of provoking the incident.
“They said we lied,” the 17-year-old victim told the Independent on Thursday. “The police didn’t do anything ” to help.
That teen’s mom, a Guatemalan immigrant who is a member of ULA, said the incident has left her and her family “feeling insecure.” She said she feels like police don’t always take her and her neighbors’ calls for help seriously because they are Hispanic immigrants and because their primary language is Spanish.
Acting Police Chief Renee Dominguez told the Independent that her department is investigating the incident, and said that her department takes all calls for help seriously, regardless of who those calls are coming from. (See more below.)
Lugo with pictures of two men he said were attacked on Wolcott Street in 2020.
Lugo echoed the Guatemalan mom’s point as he led Thursday’s protest outside of the home where the alleged attackers hid last weekend.
“We live in Fair Haven, and Fair Haven belongs to all of us,” he said. “The many criminals in Fair Haven, they feel like they can treat the immigrant community as people they can take advantage of and rob them. [They feel like] because they speak Spanish and not good English, they can take advantage of us.
“And we say: No way. Not any more. Enough is enough.”
Lugo called for a city investigation into the police officers who responded on Sunday and for a change in leadership at the top of the police department.
He said that Thursday’s direct action outside of the alleged attackers’ home on Wolcott Street marked a new type of grassroots response to neighborhood violence that ULA claims is not being handled by police.
“We’re going to start creating committees of defense in this neighborhood,” Lugo said. “If something happens, we’re going to start responding to the people who are assaulting our people, who are taking advantage of our people, who are robbing our people, and who are causing injuries to our people.”
What might that type of community “response” look like?
Exactly the type of protest that took place on Wolcott Street on Thursday, Lugo said. “This is an action we’re going to start using more when somebody is getting injured by criminals in our neighborhood.”
Other attendees who spoke up on Thursday emphasized how unsafe they feel in Fair Haven — particularly as Spanish-speaking immigrants.
“I don’t feel safe anymore in this neighborhood,” said Paulina (pictured). “We have rights in this country. And we’re going to start asking for those rights. We demand justice, and we demand justice now.”
Another ULA member named Juana said her brother was assaulted and robbed last year in front of his house on Maltby Place. Police responded to her family’s 9 – 1‑1 call, but as far as she knows, no one was ever arrested.
“He got hit really bad, and went to the hospital, and [is now] always scared,” she said. “There is no hope” that cases like these will be solved, let alone prevented.
“We walk the streets and we don’t feel safe,” added another man (pictured above at right) who spoke up at Thursday’s protest.
He described getting attacked and robbed while leaving a party in Fair Haven six years ago. He spent two weeks in the hospital, and said one of his friends was knocked into a coma.
“It’s not fair,” he said. We’re “asking for the police to do their job to protect this community.”
Click here to watch a Facebook Live video recording of Thursday’s protest in full.
Chief: “We Are A Police Department That Can Be Trusted”
Acting Chief Dominguez (right).
Reached for comment Friday morning, Acting Police Chief Renee Dominguez said that the New Haven Police Department and the Public Safety Communications department — which handles 9 – 1‑1 calls — are both looking into Sunday’s incident to find out what exactly happened and to determine if officers and dispatchers should have done anything differently.
She said that the officers did arrive “within five minutes of being dispatched,” and that the delayed response appears to have come from a a lapse in time between when the 9 – 1‑1 complaint came in and when the dispatch orders were given.
It’s “important for us to make sure officers are doing their job appropriately,” she said.
She added that the reason the officers went to the Wolcott Street address first and spoke to the alleged attackers first was because that was the street address given by the person who called 9 – 1‑1. “They responded to the address that the caller put in,” which wound up being the address of the “potential perpetrators.”
As for protesters’ concerns about police not taking Spanish-speaking immigrants’ calls for help seriously, Dominguez said that “many” of her officers “are Spanish speaking” and that the police department is able to bring a Spanish-fluent officer to the scene if one is not on duty in the district at any particular moment.
“It doesn’t matter to the New Haven Police Department what their immigration status is,” she said. “We’ve had undocumented individuals come forward and make complaints about police officers.” They’ve trusted the police enough to make those calls before, and they should going forward if they have concerns, Dominguez said.
She pointed to a long-standing general order in the department that prohibits officers from asking about immigration status when going out on a call.
“We are a police department that can be trusted, and we are one that responds regardless of immigration status,” she said.
This is what NH thinks it wanted and the City has complied. No law enforcement, sloppy police work by inexperienced/sloppy but PC officers. Why isn't everyone happy??