COURTESY DAN CARMODY
Jerome Richardson’s arrest on the Green, a Goselin talking point.
Paul Bass Photo
Green Party candidate Goselin.
Peter Goselin wants to become Connecticut’s next attorney general so the state can start suing the cops.
Goselin, a 58-year-old Hartford labor and employment lawyer, has won the Green Party’s nomination to seek the position in the Nov. 6 general election. Incumbent George Jepsen is retiring.
Goselin said in an interview on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program that if elected, he would use the office’s power to initiate civil litigation to force police departments to stop racial profiling and abusing the rights of people of color.
“The number one issue that politicians aren’t addressing, that is not being taken up by the major parties, is the problem of the epidemic of police violence and the militarization of police departments,” Goselin said. “This is something that the attorney general in Connecticut can take action on.
“In situations where a local police department is involved in racial profiling or is determined to have a culture of racial bias or to be engaged in training activities that promote the use of violence against people of color, that would be in violation of Connecticut’s constitution, which provides for the equal protection of all citizens, all residents of the state.”
Under Republican President Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the federal Justice Department has stopped investigating local cops for misconduct. It has come out against consent decrees of the sort that transformed the East Haven police department and sent crooked, violent cops to jail after the Obama Justice Department undertook an extensive investigation.
Even if Democrats return to power, Goselin argued, their leaders have “indicated” that “the extent of change is even narrower than we might have believed when Bernie Sanders” ran for the presidential nomination in 2016. He also said the Democratic Obama administration promoted the “militarization” of the police through the use of military equipment like sonic booms.
Goselin said incidents in New Haven, Bridgeport and Waterbury may warrant investigations and potential litigation. So might the practices of suburban police departments that target drivers of color who drive through their towns. The investigations could lead to civil suits seeking state court-ordered consent decrees or provide the basis for the state’s attorney’s office (which works daily with police officers on criminal cases) to pursue arrests, Goselin said.
In any case, he argued, the investigations would provoke needed public discussion.
Indiscriminate use of tasers has also been widespread and merits a state AG investigation, Goselin argued. (Click here for a story about a controversial tasing incident; click on the above video to watch it.)
Too often,” Goselin argued, police use tasers as “a way of punishing people not because they’re being uncompliant, but because a police officer doesn’t like what they have to say or because they’re not acting quickly enough…. Not because you’re committing a crime, but because you’re not doing what the police want you to do. We’re heading into dangerous territory.”
Elm City Pushback
In Connecticut, the difference between Goselin’s position and those of the two major parties was accentuated last month when Goselin issued a statement calling for a state attorney general’s office investigation of two police incidents in New Haven.
One involved the arrest of an African-American man named Jerome Richardson, who had been criticizing the police’s conduct on the Green. The other involved a mistaken-identity arrest and confinement of a 70-year-old black woman who had the same name as a 50-year-old woman with an outstanding misdemeanor warrant.
In the statement, Goselin challenged his major-party opponents to join his call for an investigation. Democratic and Republican candidates subsequently contacted for comment declined to join the call. Jepsen’s office stated it lacks the statutory authority to conduct such an investigation.
Some readers of a New Haven Independent story about Goselin’s statement took him to task in the comments section, focusing in part on the fact that Jerome Richardson’s arresting officer was also black.
Reader “narcan” wrote the following: “I’m concerned about Mr. Goselin’s ability to execute the office of Attorney General if he sees racial bias where a (white) police officer is having a perfectly civil interaction with a (black) public drinking offender while a (black) police officer arrests a different (black) offender for committing a crime.”
To which reader “Concord” added: “Looks like Goselin does know the facts in this case. A black Police Officer arresting a black person for violating the law. Do your homework Goselin and report the facts as they are!!”
Goselin responded in the radio interview that it’s a “mistake” to suggest that only white cops will be “perpetrators” in a “culture of racial bias and violence against people of color in police departments, or in any institution for that matter … When that culture permates an organization, if you want to get along, if you want to function in that organization, you will participate in that culture.
“This was a reaction by a police officer to someone who was vocally criticizing how the police do their job. Not only is that not a crime, it is conduct that is expressly protected by the First Amendment. For an agent of the state to target an individual because they are claiming, even if they are mistaken, that there is racial bias going in the actions of a police officer — for the state to act against that person, that’s outrageous. The fact that we even have to think about how outrageous that is shows how far down the road we’ve gotten, to the point where we’re not even to question the police anymore.”
A Goselin Sampler
Antifa crashes a counterdemosntration on New Haven Green.
Other highlights of Goselin’s platform, taken from his website and from the WNHH interview:
• He seconded Democratic attorney general candidate William Tong’s call to create a civili rights division in the office containing an immigration section. He’d add one on labor rights. He vowed to press more wage theft cases against employers ripping off immigrants, something he has done as a private attorney. Currently the state labor department handles those investigations; he said not enough cases get brought.
• He vowed to obtain “court orders for safety zones around [abortion] clinics so women can access services without fear” and “bring civil rights charges against those domestic terrorists who target women and LGBTQ people in the name of fake family values.”
• He’d “make Connecticut a part of the global Boycott, Sanctions, and Divestment (BDS) campaign in defense of the people of Palestine.” While the attorney general can’t order government to do that, he said he’d use his “bully pulpit” as an elected state official to support the campaign.
• He’d use his position to support Nonhuman Rights Project lawsuit against Connecticut “on behalf of elephants kept imprisoned in a private zoo, providing convincing legal arguments that certain mammals that are similar in their cognitive abilities to humans should be treated as persons under the law. The Attorney General’s office should weigh in as amicus curiae in support of those animals who are most similar to us, and encourage the courts to recognize their personhood and order them freed from captivity.”
• He vowed open his campaign website to “act against groups that use speech to incite violence or terrorize others.” He singled out “neo-nazi and white supremacist groups calling themselves the alt-right” who “are aided by spineless politicians and by sympathizers in law enforcement who pretend that cross-burnings and brown shirted parades are just another form of free speech.” Meanwhile, he pledged his support for “antifa activists who use direct action to challenge hate speech.”
Goselin was asked in the interview if his position simply supports the free-speech rights of people who agree with him and opposes those with whom he disagrees.
“There is no such thing as a bias-free approach to freedom of speech,” he responded. “There are positions we have to take in order to preserve free and open discussion. And yeah, that means there are things that are beyond the pale.”
Fascist speech is beyond the pale, he said. Meanwhile, he argued, law enforcement protects right-wing protesters’ speech rights more than those of people on the left.
“There is an aspect of this that also touches on race and gender and religion,” Goselin said. “It’s one thing for us to say, ‘Gee, you know what? It doesn’t bother me if the Ku Klux Klan marches through my town. I don’t feel personally threatened by that.’ Are we doing enough to listen to the people who are most directly impacted by fascists? Are we listening to Jews, Muslims? Are we listening to people of color? Are we listening to LGBTQ people? Are we listening to women who say, ‘This isn’t freedom of speech? This is designed to keep me out of the public forum.’
“It’s easy to say we know what inciting violence looks like from the safety of — for you and me — our skin color, our race, our gender, how we present in the community. But it’s an entirely different matter for the folks who experience that…. We haven’t been listening to those voices.”
Click on the video for the full interview with Green Party attorney general candidate Peter Goselin on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.” Topics include why he’s not a vegan.
Previous interviews in this race:
Click on the Facebook Live video to hear the full interview with Republican attorney general candidate Sue Hatfield on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program. Click here to read a story about that interview.
Click on or the Facebook Live video for a previous interview with WNHH FM “Dateline New Haven” interview with Democratic attorney general candidate Chris Mattei. Click here to read a story about that interview.
Click on the above the Facebook Live video for a previous interview with Democratic attorney general candidate William Tong on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.” Click here to read a story about that interview.
Vote for Goslin. He's the lawyer you want when you're in deep doo-doo through no fault of your own.
He understands class and which side he's on. An honorable trait in a white man.
And, he fights for working people who are being lambasted by capitalism.
Thank you Attorney Goselin