The Justice System After Randy Cox

The following op-ed was written by Liam Brennan, a New Haven resident who is a former federal corruption prosecutor and legal aid attorney. He currently serves as the Inspector General in Hartford.

Promises made are all too rarely promises kept and few unfulfilled promises are as painful as that of equal justice under the law. 

The gap between vision and reality was on full display last Monday when five New Haven police officers were arrested on misdemeanor charges for leaving Randy Cox paralyzed from the neck down. City Hall lauded the arrests as part of an ​“accountability and transparency process” that frees up the Police Internal Affairs division to resume its investigation of the incident. But this passes for ​“accountability” only because it exists in a profoundly unjust system. 

If anything, the arrests only highlight the inequities that plague law enforcement. Rather than extolling these measures, the city should re-imagine what a justice system looks like and re-prioritize where resources are spent; it will pay dividends in terms of lives saved.

All law enforcement is about both the specific case at hand and the broader message it sends to the public. The message that these arrests send may appear powerful, until it is put into the context of how the law treats everyone else. To do that, it is helpful to compare the consequences that the five police officers face to those faced in the area where we waste most of our public safety dollars – drug enforcement.

Drug use spans race, class and geography, but New Haven disproportionately criminalizes its residents for drug use. In 2020, the state of Connecticut as a whole reported that less than 7 percent of its arrests were for drug crimes. But that same year, New Haven reported that 40 percent of its arrests were for drug charges. A resident arrested by the New Haven police for distribution of controlled substances faces a minimum prison sentence of five years – whether or not that controlled substance injured or hurt another person. Moreover, someone arrested with mere possession of drug paraphernalia – not even drugs themselves – within 1,500 feet of a school faces a minimum one-year prison sentence. 

And these are the more humane drug laws that exist under Connecticut state statutes! 

New Haven Police officers also participate in federal drug task forces where the penalties are far worse. In addition to prison time, drug convictions come with a lifetime of collateral consequences such as ineligibility for certain jobs, public housing, and food assistance programs.

Now, for a moment, contemplate what the police in this instance face. The officers who left Cox paralyzed for life are charged with second-degree reckless endangerment and cruelty to persons. The first charge carries a maximum penalty of one year in prison, the second six months. 

The reality is that our city is jailing its residents – who are disproportionately Black and brown and disproportionately lower income – with felony charges for a public health problem, while the legal system treats officers who paralyze a resident to misdemeanor charges. This disparity is on display for all to see.

Moreover, the public, having suffered through years when the ​“beat-down posse” policed the streets with impunity, lost faith in internal affairs system that the city claims will now deliver justice. Officers typically rotate through regular assignments into – and out of – internal affairs. Internal affairs officers are tasked with investigating and passing judgment on their colleagues– colleagues that they could be working alongside of a few weeks later. They are members in the same union and have the same legal representation. It is not a system built for objectivity.

New Haven was supposed to address this issue through the creation of its Civilian Review Board. After a long fight by activists, New Haven established the CRB in 2019 amid the promise of a new era in civilian transparency. However, the institution has been ignored and uncared for by the city since then. The city expects its volunteer CRB members to go to the police department to personally investigate complaints against the police. It gave the board subpoena power, but it did not give it anyone to draft, execute, and serve the subpoenas. If New Haven wants the CRB to succeed, it needs to devote resources and attention to it. Otherwise, it is dooming the board to failure, no matter how valiant and dedicated its members.

While addiction is treated with felony charges and real accountability is ephemeral, actual public safety goes unaddressed. In 2021, there were 25 homicides in New Haven. A whopping 22 of them were unresolved at the start of the new year. On our streets, there were also 22 fatal car crashes. This year, there have already been 13 deadly car crashes and 10 murders.

The housing conditions in New Haven’s mega-landlords – which have serious health effects – are completely absent from the city’s ​“public safety” plans. We can reimagine this system for everyone’s benefit. Investigating and holding landlords accountable for unsanitary housing conditions can do more for public safety than arresting residents suffering from addiction ever will. 

A 21st century approach to public safety would also consider environmental factors in its efforts to promote the public wellbeing. Over recent years, safe streets advocates had made great strides in showing how street design and infrastructure can save lives. Resources put toward reducing traffic deaths through design is money well spent. And this approach can be taken toward guns. Effective and sensible municipal gun regulations – backed by a government willing and ready to put resources towards them – can save lives without subjecting residents to mandatory minimum prison sentences.

Randy Cox is suing the city for what happened to him and New Haven will have to pay some restitution. But justice, in the broader context, will not be served with a few arrests and some compensation. The city cannot dictate what the state or federal government classify as felonies. But it can decide where it puts its resources and whether it continues to spend scant dollars to prop up a failed war on drugs. New Haven can choose to chart a new course in its approach to public safety and, in doing so, it can be a beacon for others. If we choose that path, we can make the promise of equal protection under the law a promise fulfilled.