nothin He’s Running To Make Hamden Great Again | New Haven Independent

He’s Running To Make Hamden Great Again

Nora Grace-Flood Photo

Council candidate Justin Piper: Republicans see beyond race.

Instagram

Justin Piper is hoping that a year that began with the excitement of attending the Stop the Steal” rally in Washington ends with making his own history back home in Hamden — as the town’s only Black Republican Council member.

Piper, a 25-year-old self-employed Lyft driver and cable installer, won the Republican Party’s nod Thursday night to seek the District Four seat on Hamden’s Legislative Council.

If he wins, Piper would be the first Black Republican to serve on the Council since at least the 1970s, according to party members.

Piper echoes positions taken by fellow Hamden Republicans this election season, calling for lowering taxes, fully funding the police, and limiting government’s reach. He has also been active on social media advocating for skepticism about the Covid-19 vaccine, and opposes teaching about race in the public schools.

I wasn’t raised around secular music, drug use or alcohol use,” Piper told the Independent in an interview Friday at Common Grounds Coffee Shop on Dixwell Avenue. I didn’t curse, and I took my Christian beliefs everywhere I went with me. I always quoted the Bible.”

Childhood’s Life Lessons

Contributed photo

Over a strawberry smoothie and blueberry muffin, Piper spoke at length about his political evolution. He reflected on his upbringing, how he came to support Donald Trump, and his hopes for a long future in politics.

Piper was raised in a single family home in Brooklyn, N.Y., by an ultra-conservative” single mother, Verdia Piper, and his aunt and uncle, Jannis and Ralph Rivera. His mother worked as an administrator for the New York City police; his aunt was employed by the NYC Department of Education. He described his neighborhood of Brownsville as having one of the highest poverty rates in the United States and the highest concentration of public housing in the world.”

A Seventh-Day Adventist, he attends church each Saturday, he said.

Piper said that his faith, as well as the fact that he was adopted at 4 and grew up in a relatively financially privileged family compared to his peers, made him stick out. He said he spent years as a target of incessant bullying.

Other students would verbally assault him and follow him home at night. He also said that neighborhood violence and crime” were out of control; he still laments having had his bike stolen when he was in school.

He said that those early adversities” catalyzed his initial political activation.”

At 13, Piper gave a speech at his school in which he imagined a world where people united and stopped violence against each other.” School administrators were so moved that they invited then Democratic State Assemblyman William Frank Boyland Jr. to hear Piper present the speech a second time around, he said. After that, Piper started volunteering in Boyland’s office, joining the assemblyman at public meetings to attest to the need for peace across Brooklyn.

Boyland is currently in the middle of a 14-year sentence in federal prison on charges related to extortion, bribery and official corruption. He just got caught up in a little doozy,” Piper said. But he did make great changes to the neighborhood.”

Piper recalled Boyland as one of his first important role models. He noted how influential it was for him early on to see a Black professional serving his city.

Piper’s religion also serves as the foundation of his politics, he said. He said he himself lives by the Ten Commandments — Don’t lie, steal, or covet, honor thy parents, and have no other gods.”

Coveting,” he stated when asked to provide an example, is a political view that comes from the church.”

You shall not take things that belong to others and give it to people that don’t work,” he said, asserting that, if you don’t work, you don’t eat,” and that taxes should be lowered by reallocating financial resources from the welfare state.

Piper said he imagines a world where there are more worship centers — places to find hope no matter what your religion is” — that would also organize food distribution services and arrange other essential support systems in place of governmental structures and interventions.

After graduation from high school, Piper spent a year at Tompkins Cortland Community College in upstate New York, where he studied outdoor recreation. He said he left the two-year program early because he values employment” over all else. He worked at Rite Aid for four months before finding work as a delivery driver for Papa John’s and through DoorDash. He taught physical education for four months at a junior high school before moving to Maryland in 2017 with his then girlfriend. There he found work as a cable installer with a national company called TriWire Engineering Solutions.

Later that same year, he moved back to New York City to live with his mom, he said.

One of his friends who lived in the Seramonte Estates Apartments in Hamden told him about how affordable his apartment complex was. Piper said that informed his decision to move to Connecticut for a better life.”

Finding A Home In Hamden

Nora Grace-Flood Photo

Piper: Political views rooted in religious faith.

He has found a better life in Connecticut, he said. His move coincided in 2019 with the launch of his own cable installation company. He said he started the business so that he could acquire 100 percent control of my hours and product.”

It’s one of the best things that’s ever happened to me,” he said.

He said that during his work travels across the East Coast, he experienced his second political awakening” of sorts.

Though Piper has been an active Donald Trump supporter on social media, he said that he did not vote in the 2016 election. He said that after high school he was largely apolitical, and at the time was surrounded by people of color who didn’t like Trump.” He said that when he was younger and was exposed to only one viewpoint,” he adapted his opinions to fit the beliefs put forward by others near to him.

Through his new business, Piper Holdings, Piper began traveling to New Hampshire, Maryland, and Virginia. He began meeting different people who were politically on the right.” Those clients were mostly white and Hispanic, he said.

He recalled one of his first conversations with a pro-Trump client in 2019 during one of those trips.

I think Trump is doing a horrible job,” he said, making conversation.

I think he’s doing an absolute good job,” the client responded.

I said, What?!’” Piper remembered. That, how should I put it, disrupted me.’”

In early January 2020, Piper said, he began engaging with the Hamden RTC and was put in touch with Chairman Frank LaDore. He said LaDore told him that he thought he should get involved in local politics, saying that he would be a great voice for the town.”

But, Piper added, if it wasn’t for [GOP Council member] Marjorie Bonadies, I don’t think I would’ve wanted to run for politics.”

When Piper first sat down with this reporter for an interview, he said You should know I don’t see color.” From his perspective, the greatest way to end racism is to stop talking about it.”

He elaborated that the only hate I’ve received is from my own community,” remembering how his peers and neighbors of color called him Uncle Tom,” whitewashed,” and a variety of racial slurs.

Marjorie made it clear that she understood exactly the negativity and disrespect that I as a conservative of color received,” he said. She related with me. She made me feel I have a place in the Hamden Republican Party.”

She made it feel like a big family.”

Similarly, on a national level, he Republican Party has brought nothing but a sense of community throughout the past four years,” he asserted.

January Sixth was a prime example.”

Piper At the Protest

In one video posted to his Instagram account on Jan. 7, 2021, Piper films himself as he walks through an Amtrak station, stating that he is currently on his way back to Connecticut” after a very long trip.” He says that his trip was very entertaining, stressful in a way.”

What I mean by stressful, guys,” he continues, is I’ve never seen anything like it.”

In an interview with the Independent, Piper said that he was present at Jan. 6’s pro-Trump Stop the Steal” protest at the Capitol. He asserted that he was there as a peaceful protester” of the 2020 election results.

He said that he arrived in D.C. on Jan. 5, then attended the Stop the Steal” rally for about two hours” and heard Trump speak on Jan. 6. He said that he did not join members of the rally crowd who then breached barricades and stormed into the Capitol building to try to stop Congress from certifying the presidential election results. He returned to Connecticut on Jan. 7.

There were millions of people there,” he told this reporter. The media might say there were about a hundred thousand — no it was more than millions coming out to express their opinions on the November 2020 election.”

We occupied the outside of the building, basically,” he said, describing how he and others crowded together holding blue lives matter” and Trump 2020” flags.

There was a sense of community,” he continued. Nobody cared about my skin color, and there were a lot of people of color also there. … The Republican Party has brought nothing but a sense of community throughout the past four years.”

At the end of the day, we all believe in the same thing,” he said of himself and those who were at the rally.

In the video, Piper also echoed a claim advanced in some conservative media outlets that — contrary to the videos posted by protesters themselves and the arrests made by law enforcement of members of the Proud Boys, Oath Keeprs, and other right-wing groups who stormed the Capitol that day —- masked Antifa members” were truly responsible for the deadly violence that took place that day.

(Click here, here, here, and here to read background articles about those claims.)

Not everybody is out to be what they say they are,” he asserts in the video, describing how there is bad on both sides” —“Trump supporters” as well as Black Lives Matter protesters.”

While speaking with the Independent, Piper said that he was primarily at the front of it all … and getting on the top of the Capitol there, people were just standing there … We didn’t see anybody trying to get into the Capitol or riot in the way the media said they were doing.”

When he watched news coverage of the event after the fact, he said, he was taken aback by what he saw. There’s no way that this happened,” he reportedly responded to the television. Nobody was storming the Capitol from what we’ve seen.”

What he did see, he said, were individuals from Antifa” attacking Trump supporters by throwing food and water bottles at them.

Piper said that he went alone to the rally. He said he encountered some of his Twitter and social followers at the event — and saw a few folks who he said he follows himself, such as the owner of the twitter handle MAGA Hulk.

He said his own followers at the protest were other Republicans who are primarily white. He said they sought him out at the rally to say, I agree with a lot of the things that you post.”

Piper also recalled giving an impromptu speech” during the rally.

I didn’t talk about the election that day at all,” he said. I talked about growth, and change, and unity. People wanted to hear positivity.”

Among other comments that Piper has posted on Twitter, one Jan. 20 statement reads clearly: This wasn’t an honest nor fair election.”

To the Independent, Piper said that he does not have an opinion as to whether or not the election was fraudulent. He said he went to the rally because of a general lack of transparency” surrounding the 2020 election.

Counting ballots is not enough,” he asserted. We want to know if the addresses match the ballots, that voting aged people were legally able to vote, and basically match those through signature verification when it comes to absentee ballots.”

Even though the media claims those claims have been debunked,” he said, I don’t depend on the media to give me all my information.”

He said that he reads private journalism” produced by conservative figures like Brandon Tatum and Steven Crowder. He listed The Daily Wire and The Epoch Times as two of his go-to news outlets. They usually report the stories how it happened instead of using opinionated words,” he said.

A lot of the things I might say on Twitter might be because it’s trending,” Piper added. I have a base that I’m trying to relate to on social media.”

Vaccine Skepticism

Piper recently posted a video on Instagram in which he performs the magnet challenge” on one of his apolitical” vaccinated friends.

The magnet challenge was a viral internet trend in which people filmed themselves sticking magnets to the spot where they or others were injected with the Covid-19 vaccine. The idea was to convince audiences that the vaccine included metal microchips that could be detected by placing a magnet on the area of one’s arm where they received their shot. (Read here about why the Covid-19 vaccine will not make you magnetic.)

I do support the vaccine,” Piper said to this reporter. I just tried [the trick] out because this is what everybody else was doing.”

I can’t give my conspiracies as to why” the magnet sticks, Piper said. But I believe a magnet shouldn’t be sticking to my arm.”

In the video, Piper shows the magnet falling off parts of his friend’s body, like his leg, but sticking to his arm.

I haven’t taken the vaccine yet,” Piper announces. I’m not going to take the vaccine.”

To the Independent, Piper said, I’m not saying that I’m not gonna get it. I’m not saying I don’t want it. I’m saying I want to assess its safety and assure that it’s 100 percent safe.”

He said he plans to give the vaccine a year in order to observe how it impacts the health of those who are already vaccinated over time.

He also said he will not interfere with anybody else’s choice to receive the vaccine. If the vaccine is something you’d like to take, do your research and then get it,” he said.

I advocate for research,” he asserted.

Be Whatever You Wanna Be”

Nora Grace-Flood Photo

Justin Piper with Marjorie Bonadies and Kathy Hoyt at Thursday evening’s GOP convention.

Piper said that as of right now, he is working to grow his base in Hamden for the upcoming election. That will mean not only expanding his social media presence, but knocking on District Four doors.

He said that lately he has been focusing on working with children, attending youth events like carnivals” and visiting The Village,” a youth center on Pershing Avenue founded last year by Melissa Atterberry-Jones.

I want them to have somebody to look up to as a positive role model,” he said, as opposed to someone who’s only there for political reasons.”

On Thursday morning, he said, he went to The Village to play Connect Four and Uno with the kids. He said he did not discuss politics with them, but said he wanted to be someone who children can look up to for guidance, for information, for love.”

If elected, he said, his top priorities will include policies that lower taxes, making sure our police department is well funded … making sure they’re trained accordingly and equipped with body cameras … and making sure our children are taught the importance of respect for the country and respect for authority.”

Piper said that the premise” of his campaign began with the intention to one day run for governor of the state.” But, he said, he has to turn 30 first.

After that?

Piper remembered when the assistant principal of his middle school wrote in his yearbook, to my future leader.”

I want to spread positivity, to spread love, to spread unity, if I had more power,” Piper said.

I want to one day run for president of the United States.”

Tags:

Sign up for our morning newsletter

Don't want to miss a single Independent article? Sign up for our daily email newsletter! Click here for more info.


Post a Comment

Commenting has closed for this entry

Comments

Avatar for manofthepeople1

Avatar for The Sleeping Giant

Avatar for donaldo404

Avatar for ethanjrt

Avatar for PizzaLover

Avatar for terrapin

Avatar for ChrisGal

Avatar for JCP4

Avatar for CityYankee2

Avatar for Thomas Alfred Paine

Avatar for 06511

Avatar for Shannon

Avatar for Reflections

Avatar for ethanjrt

Avatar for CityYankee2

Avatar for The Good Old Days

Avatar for terrapin

Avatar for Gretchen Pritchard

Avatar for 06511

Avatar for William Kurtz

Avatar for unionYES

Avatar for robn

Avatar for Reflections

Avatar for Reflections

Avatar for William Kurtz

Avatar for 06511

Avatar for terrapin

Avatar for William Kurtz

Avatar for unionYES

Avatar for HavenKnew

Avatar for Reflections

Avatar for Gretchen Pritchard

Avatar for Reflections

Avatar for Heather C.

Avatar for CityYankee2

Avatar for unionYES

Avatar for terrapin

Avatar for 06511

Avatar for The Good Old Days

Avatar for Reflections

Avatar for THREEFIFTHS

Avatar for Reflections

Avatar for CityYankee2

Avatar for Reflections

Avatar for Razzie

Avatar for The Sleeping Giant

Avatar for 06511

Avatar for THREEFIFTHS

Avatar for Reflections

Avatar for Reflections

Avatar for 06511

Avatar for 1644

Avatar for CityYankee2

Avatar for unionYES

Avatar for CityYankee2

Avatar for HBCU5

Avatar for The Good Old Days

Avatar for unionYES

Avatar for Big George W

Avatar for ElmCityLover

Avatar for EastCoast725

Avatar for Reflections

Avatar for Reflections

Avatar for Sabrina-in-NewHaven

Avatar for unionYES

Avatar for FrancesReadsTheNews