CRB Activists: ​“We Need To Do Better”

(Opinion) A group of white Civilian Review Board advocates submitted the following reflections on the history of race and policing that informed their protests against board candidates Steve Hamm and Bob Proto. The piece as submitted is entitled: ​“We Need To Do Better.”

This is the third opinion piece the Independent has published in the wake of last week’s CRB nomination hearings. The full Board of Alders will vote on the nominees on Aug. 5.

As a group of White people committed to the struggle for racial justice, we feel it necessary to respond to Steve Hamm’s op-ed ​“Truth Matters.” We believe Hamm’s article reflects a deep lack of understanding of structural racism in our policing systems, and models a harmful response to criticism that we must be open to hearing.

Here, we wish to outline why any Civilian Review Board (CRB) member must be open to receiving criticism from the Black and Brown people who are the primary targets of police brutality and violence, and why failure to reflect on that criticism demonstrates a lack of preparedness to serve on the CRB.

Since its inception, policing in the United States has disproportionately targeted Black people (as well as Brown people, poor people, and others not considered White at the time), and New Haven is no exception to this violent history. At its core, policing was a system designed to protect White citizens and their property. This is still very much true. At the time this system was created (initially as ​‘slave patrols’), ​‘property’ of White people included enslaved humans.

Still today, Black people are incarcerated, beaten, and killed by the police at disproportionate rates. Although people in Black and Brown communities have been living with this terror of state sanctioned murders for decades, White people are just now hearing about it on the national news. Therefore, we should take ownership for our history of White supremacy that we continue to uphold, and follow the lead of people of color who are working to dismantle it.

Considering this history, the purpose of the CRB is to provide a transparent process to investigate police misconduct that is independent from the New Haven Police Department. The CRB was created in response to an intergenerational history of unchecked racism and police violence against Black and Brown people in our city. These New Haven communities have been systematically and intentionally ignored when they speak out against police misconduct.

That injustice is legitimized when we continuously allow police to police themselves. Traditionally, incidents of police brutality have been investigated in private, internal meetings with no transparency or accountability, resulting in a system incredibly well-designed to exonerate police officers who ​“feared for their lives” while in the presence of an unarmed Black person. The policing system, as it has been empowered, entrusted and incentivized to uphold White supremacy, has no motivation or ability to amend or reform itself. The CRB must counter this practice of perpetually co-signing violence by establishing trust through transparency and independence from the police department.

That is why we are disappointed in Hamm’s response to the criticism he received from People Against Police Brutality (PAPB) — criticism rooted in authentic concern for his attitudes, past actions, and lack of knowledge on the topic of structural racism.

Even as he is being considered for a seat at the table, Steve Hamm’s response reveals an unwillingness to pause and listen, and to better understand the experiences and challenges that people of color face. Instead, his defensive stance toward PAPB seeks to delegitimize the voices of the very people the CRB is meant to support, and the very people whose hard work has gotten the CRB this far. Accusing these committed activists of devaluing truth and justice is more than just ignorant — it is deeply problematic and ultimately harmful.

Equally problematic is Hamm’s criticism of PAPB without understanding the context in which it formed or the collaborative and difficult work the group is doing. PAPB was created in 2010 in response to the work of Emma Jones and the M.A.L.I.K Organization after Emma’s son, Malik Jones, was brutally shot and killed by an East Haven police officer, Robert Fludquist, in 1997.

There is a movement of organizers in Connecticut working to bring justice to victims of police violence. Not only are groups like Black Lives Matter New Haven, Justice for Jayson, Hamden Action Now and PAPB organizing, but there are countless of our neighbors who show up to the scene when their friends and family members are attacked, create healing spaces for their loved ones, finding attorneys or medical treatment and more. Unfortunately, there is no funded entity tracking police killings in Connecticut.

According to organizers working to combat police brutality, over 25 people have been murdered as a result of state-sanctioned police violence, including bystanders as young as three from 2016 to 2019. In addition, 18 people (that we know of) have physically survived police violence due to chases or other violent acts. These cases, such as the lethal chase of Jarelle Gibbs in 2018 who was a passenger killed by Hamden police, are rarely investigated, and even more rarely lead to disciplinary action. The sheer number of incidents and lack of independent investigation is why a CRB is so important.

Steve Hamm says groups like PAPB only want to be ​“prejudiced against the police and [are] determined to punish them — no matter the facts of a particular case.” This comment does not acknowledge the existing culture of policing which instills loyalty to ​‘blue’ first and foremost; a culture that creates and sustains a blue wall of silence, where police will not hold their fellow officers accountable.

People who have experienced police violence for so many years do not want to ​‘punish’ police — it is the CRB’s purpose to hold the entire system accountable, so that someday Black people and other people of color no longer need to fear for their lives or the lives of their children.

To that end, we stand in solidarity against a system that has violently targeted Black and Brown communities for centuries. People who promote the narrative that any challenge toward police officer misconduct is a ​‘lack of respect,’ or an ​‘attack on all police officers’ is uninformed and undemocratic. Anyone who aims to undo systemic and structural racism must question and call out these violent systems.

We agree with you, Mr. Hamm. Truth does matter, and core truths about our violent policing system are essential for anyone seeking to create a more just system. However, White people often think that our lack of (violent) experiences at the hands of police somehow equips us with an objective wand of truth.

That we can use this perceived power of objectivity to mediate conflicts born of hundreds of years of oppression and subjugation we ourselves have created. Your implication that you are the most trustworthy arbiter of truth in this situation — more trustworthy than the people who have directly seen and experienced police brutality — is exactly why we oppose your appointment to this board.

All of this is not to say that we want you to stop engaging and learning about this issue. As White people dedicated to racial justice, each of us writing this makes mistakes in our work for justice and equity. Each of us has experienced being called in for our ignorance and harmful behavior. In these moments of error, we have an opportunity to more fully embody anti-racist principles.

When we pause, listen, and sit with the vulnerability that comes from our mistakes, we learn how to move forward in closer solidarity with our Black and Brown neighbors. While we ask you to reflect on our criticism, Mr. Hamm, we are also committed to dismantling racism within ourselves and our communities. We must rely on each other to approach this work of unlearning with open hearts and minds, and we hope that you will continue to learn and unlearn with us.

Some additional readings, for those who want to learn more about structural racism in policing and how we as White people can oppose it:

- The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
 — White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
 — Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi
 — ​“Letter from Birmingham Jail, 1963” by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Signed:
Jett Jonelis
Katie Jones
Emily Lorin
Ann Hartman Massaro
Caitlin Maloney
Cassi Meyerhoffer
Jessica Powell
Johnny Shively
Laurie Sweet