Mayor, Asst. Chief Grapple With ​“Freddie Gray” Comparison To Cox Case

“Two incidents that were terrible. … Both incidents are not an example of what we want police to be.”

The assistant police chief offered that assessment of how New Haven officers’ treatment of Richard Cox earlier this month compares to Baltimore officers’ treatment of Freddie Gray in 2015.

Assistant Chief Karl Jacobson gave that response Tuesday afternoon during a press conference on the second floor of City Hall.

Jacobson, Mayor Justin Elicker, and Acting Police Chief Regina Rush-Kittle hosted the presser several hours after Cox’s family, friends and local attorneys and civil rights leaders gathered on the Elm Street courthouse’s front steps for a separate press conference with nationally prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump. 

At that earlier event, Crump explicitly compared what happened with Gray in Baltimore seven years ago to what happened with Cox in New Haven on June 19.

In both cases, young Black men arrested by the police suffered severe injuries to their spines while left handcuffed but otherwise unsecured in the back of a moving police prisoner transport van.

Gray’s injuries while in police custody ultimately proved fatal. His case attracted national attention and outrage on police mistreatment of arrestees, particularly in the form of ​“rough rides” given by police van drivers to detained suspects they intend to harm while in transport. A Baltimore police trial board ultimately cleared the police van driver of any wrongdoing. None of the six officers involved in Gray’s death were convicted of criminal charges.

Cox, meanwhile, remains hospitalized and paralyzed from the injury he suffered while in New Haven police custody after being arrested for weapons charges on June 19. That injury occurred when a police van driver stopped abruptly to avoid a car crash after speeding across Division Street, leading to Cox — who was handcuffed and unsecured in the back of the seatbelt-less van — to fly headfirst against the van’s wall. After checking on Cox and calling for medical attention, the officer then drove the van to the 1 Union Ave. detention center instead of following department protocol and waiting for an ambulance to come to him. At the detention center, fellow officers pulled Cox’s crumpled body out of the van, processed him in a wheelchair, dragged him into a holding cell, and cuffed his ankles — all while he protested that he couldn’t move. A medical crew ultimately treated Cox at the detention center and took him by ambulance to the hospital for surgery. 

Five officers have been placed on paid administrative leave so far. The state police is investigating the case.

“This is Freddie Gray on video,” Crump said at the Tuesday morning press conference, comparing Cox’s and Gray’s cases. 

Crump, who also represented the family of George Floyd, predicted that Cox will become the latest nationwide ​“hashtag” for ​“people brutalized by the police.”

At Tuesday’s City Hall press conference, the Independent asked the mayor and the assistant chief for their thoughts on that comparison of Gray’s and Cox’s cases.

“What happened to Freddie Gray was terrible,” Elicker responded. ​“What happened to Mr. Cox was also just awful. We focus on what we can control here in New Haven.”

“I’ve watched the videos many times,” he continued. ​“I, in my own view, did not see malice on the part of the officers” in the case of Cox. ​“I saw some bad decisions, extreme lack of compassion. I think we focus on what we can control here in New Haven. That is ensuring that we have accountability in our city.”

Jacobson agreed. Asked about the Cox-Gray comparison, he said, ​“Two incidents that were terrible, that we don’t condone or want police officers to act in those ways.”

“Mr. Cox was mistreated,” he said. ​“He should have received medical attention immediately. We can’t defend anything that was released [by the police so far about this incident.” We’re gonna wait for the investigation and let the state police do the investigation, then we’re going to do the IA investigation.”

Jacobson stressed that, first and foremost, he and his fellow police officers ​“want Mr. Cox to recover. … We hope he’s OK.”

Returning to the Gray comparison, he said, ​“both incidents are not an example of what we want police to be. Changes were done in Baltimore, and changes are gonna be done here.”

Elicker began the press conference by describing what happened to Cox while he was in police custody as ​“just terrible and completely unacceptable. … It falls short of the high standards that we hold ourselves to and it will not be tolerated in the New Haven Police Department. We are praying for his recovery.”

He noted that, in the wake of this incident, the city has put all five officers on leave; alerted the public within 24 hours of the incident occurring; released all police videos related to the incident within 48 hours; opened an internal affairs investigation; reached out to the state police and inspector general and state’s attorney’s offices; taken all seatbelt-less transport vehicles offline; and required that all detainees have their seatbelts fastened while being transported by police.

Cox’s cousin, Octavia Jackson, asked if the police department will update its protocols and standard operating procedures to ensure that, if a detainee is injured, ​“that they don’t get touched” without first receiving medical care. ​“If a person tells you they can’t feel nothing, they should not be moved until a paramedic” or other medical provider gets there, Jackson said.

That is already part of the city police department’s protocols, Jacobson said. ​“And we’re going to reinforce it. We’re going to look at every single thing related to transport, detention, everything.”

Watch the full press conference below.