Seniors Add Voices To Black Lives Matter

Chuck and Carolyn Paul attended their second Black Lives Matter rally Tuesday morning and left feeling frustrated but determined to demand change.

They joined 80 fellow elders who gathered with posters, lawn chairs, and masks on the Green for a second senior-focused socially-distant gathering demanding a shift in the racist culture of policing and corrections in Connecticut and nationwide. 

Both Chuck and Carolyn (pictured above) came to New Haven in the ​‘70s to attend Yale University. Originally from New York, Carolyn moved to Virginia at 5 years old and recalled asking her mom as a young girl why there were bathroom and water fountains labeled ​“whites” and ​“colored.” ​“I knew something was wrong but didn’t understand much more than that,” Carolyn said.

At Tuesday’s rally, designed for elderly Black Lives Matters supporters seeking to remain safe from catching Covid-19 while adding their voices to the movement sparked by the killing of George Floyd„ the two wore handmade knitted masks lined with a T‑shirt material on the inside. It was the second such gathering in five weeks.

After the 2016 presidential election, Chuck said, he became fearful for the future of his three grandchildren ages 3, 6, and 13. ​“I’ve been complacent, and now I see the dangers of that for everyone, my grandkids and even us,” said Chuck.

In front of a sign stating ​“Participate, Advocate, Demand” stood organizers and speakers like The Greater New Haven NAACP President Doris Dumas, community activist Barbara Fair, Shalom United Church of Christ Rev. Allie Perry, State Sen. Gary Winfield, and Colleen Lord, mother of Carl ​“Robby” Talbot, who suffered from mental illness and died at the New Haven Correctional Center from being pepper-sprayed and placed in five-point restraints.

“If we want to change, we have to be a part of the process,” Dumas told the crowd.

Fair (pictured), who helped organize the gathering, said the first thing she saw on TV when she woke up this morning was a recently surfaced video of a police officer in Philadelphia with his knee on the neck of a Black man. Fair said she was left frustrated after watching the video clip. ​“They have a policy against it but still do it,” she said. ​“It makes me feel like — what are we doing this for?”

Fair followed up her frustration with demands for accountability of police and correctional facilities. Fair demanded that all police departments get accredited and that police academy training stop resembling military training. Fair also demanded that state police departments be defunded, with the money reallocated to hire and train social workers to help ex-cons heal from their experiences in prison.

Fair yesterday read the entire 63-page police accountability bill set to be considered by a special session of the state legislature. She said it is strategically worded to avoid police and correctional oversight and accountability. Fair said the bill’s use of words like ​“may,” ​“reasonable,” and ​“reasonably believed” gives police departments the ability to dismiss responsibility of police brutality.

Fair called out Gov. Ned Lamont for not properly addressing Connecticut’s correctional accountability issues. ​“Those lives inside matter just as much as those outside,” she said. ​“Maybe from Greenwich you don’t see that.”

Fair demanded that police officers’ wellness checks be annual and that they get random drug screenings.

New Haveners Paula and Frank Panzarella (pictured above with signs), who are 68 and 69 respectively, said they felt most comfortable coming to this gathering because of its advertisement of being ​“Covid-safe.” Paula said despite being passionate she could not risk being in a large gathering while taking care of her 97-year-old mother at home. The two also attended the previous senior gathering on June 8.

“I’ve been hopeful since my 20s. There’s no other option than to try,” Paula said.

“You have to be committed even if it takes civil disobedience,” Frank said. ​“How can people wave the American flag around and not respect their own people?”

Lord (pictured) spoke to the crowd about her 30-year-old son who was killed 15 months ago while behind bars after pulling an emergency room fire alarm out of frustration because he was refused help from medical staff more than 40 times.

Lord stood in front of the crowd with her grief therapy dog. Earlier in the day, Lord was granted permission since her son’s death to view the correctional facility’s video footage of the incident. Lord said her son’s last words were ​“I can’t breathe” after being pepper-sprayed four times in the facility’s shower, kicked, and stomped on by multiple correctional officers. ​“Justice for me would be for this to never happen again,” Lord said.

Crowd members stood eight feet apart with guiding tape markers in the grass.

Perry reminded the seniors of their power in their communities. She encouraged the crowd to track legislation, hold police accountable to justice, recruit friends and family members to not stand racism, hold local legislators responsible to their promises, learn about police commissions, and show up to gathering such as today.

East Havener Ronnie Neuhauser (pictured), 56, recalled fighting for justice since Occupy New Haven. Ronnie and Paula called the recent calls for action nationwide ​“Occupy on steroids.”

“More has happened now than ever before. I’m here to help it continue,” Neuhauser said.