A 2010 crime breakdown shows 23 of the city’s 24 homicide victims were black. One was Latino. None were white.
Why was that?
Police Chief Frank Limon and Mayor John DeStefano were asked that question Wednesday at an annual crime data press conference at 1 Union Ave.
They announced that murders rose from 12 to 24 from 2009 to 2010. Twenty-two victims were black males, one a black female, and one Hispanic male.
Of 124 non-fatal shooting victims, 99 were black men; seven were black females; seven Hispanic males; one Hispanic female; eight white males; one white female; and 1 “other male.”
In 2009, almost all the city’s 12 homicide victims were black (11 black males, 1 black female). Yale University graduate student Annie Le is not included in the total because her death occurred on the Yale campus.
The number of non-fatal shooting victims dropped from 149 to 124 from 2009 to 2010. Once the entire year’s other statistics are fully audited, they will probably reveal a slight decrease in overall violent crime, DeStefano said.
Click here to view the entire set of statistics released Wednesday. Some of the statistics cover only the first nine months of the year because final audits are pending; the homicide stats are complete.
Paul Bass Photo
DeStefano & Limon prepare for stats briefing.
When asked about the reason for the glaring racial disparity in homicide victims, DeStefano responded that “the greater correlation is the reentry population,” meaning that a high percentage of people caught up in gun violence have returned to the streets from prison.
Chief Limon said “geography” explains the disparity.
“Most of our violence is in an area of the the city. Obviously there are neighborhoods that make up the city in terms of race,” he said.
He noted that one of those prime areas is Newhallville. A seven-month investigation by local cops and the feds led to the arrests of 37 people in Newhallville on gun and drug charges — and, Limon said Wednesday, the dismantling of the notorious “R2” gang.
He also noted that 46 percent of the year’s homicides occurred in the first four months. The department launched an intensive “Operation Corridor” in the most violence-plagued areas in the second quarter — and saw shootings drop 55 percent, according to the chief.
The past year has seen demonstrations and memorial gatherings in response to shootings take place primarily in the black community. (See a video clip at the top of this story.)
DeStefano was also asked if he thinks officials would receive more pressure to stop killings if white people were dying, too.
“The city as a whole is actively conscious in terms of homicides,” he responded. He said he sees a bigger difference in the pressure New Haven receives from the outside based on who gets killed, citing the intense international round-the-clock coverage of the 2009 murder of Yale student Annie Le.
In remarks after the press conference, DeStefano cited a difference in the way people react to urban and suburban murders, too.
“The [2007] Cheshire homicides were awful and terrible,” he said. “We’ve had something like 65 homicides since. The public consciousness of the three versus the 65 is much greater. People can draw their own conclusions” as to why.
(Click here for the perspective of one homicide victim’s mom.)
Jefferson: Self-Hatred Plays Role
Thomas MacMillan File Photo
Asked the same questions in a conversation following the press conference, civil-rights attorney Michael Jefferson (pictured) identified attitudes in the black community as a source of the disparity.
“There’s a great deal of self-hatred within the black community,” Jefferson said. “It’s not something we like to talk about. But it exists. There’s this false sense of inferiority that permeates our community and our people.
“Black life is not valued to the same degree that white life is valued in this society. I think that plays a major role in black-on-black violence. That certainly impacts how we view each other.
“Thirdly, I think there’s a great deal of dysfunction. That primarily rests with the fact that the black male does not receive the type of positive guidance that he should receive from other black males. I’m talking about the young black male in particular.” (Jefferson has founded an organization called The Kiyama Movement to address that.)
Jefferson said he has “no question in my mind” that if the city had “the same type of fratricide going in the white community, the response would be different. White life is viewed differently in our culture.”:
Service Cuts Coming
Looking ahead to 2011, Chief Limon said he has plans to work with local ministers, federal agencies and the city’s school system on a host of crime-prevention efforts, including one targeting teens joining or at risk of joining gangs.
DeStefano warned that the police department, like all city agencies, faces cutbacks this year because of a budget crisis. The current fiscal year’s budget gap suddenly jumped from $8 million to $11 million because of a change in the schedule by which the state plans to reimburse New Haven for school construction projects. The upcoming fiscal year’s project budget gap stands at $52 million, DeStefano said.
People may experience longer response to non-emergency calls as a result of the cutbacks, DeStefano warned.
This is very disturbing.