Following an official racial-profiling complaint by a New Haven church, the U.S. Department of Justice has decided that police practices in East Haven deserve a closer look.
That development was triumphantly announced on Wednesday night by Angel Fernandez, a parish leader from Fair Haven’s St. Rose of Lima Church. He said that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has decided to launch an investigation into allegations of race-based police harassment in East Haven.
The federal investigation is the latest development in an ongoing story involving alleged police discrimination against the town’s Latinos.
The announcement came at a candlelight vigil in front of My Country Store in East Haven. The convenience store is one of several Latino-owned businesses in the town whose owners have complained of harassment at the hands of local police.
In response to those and other allegations from its parishioners, the largely Latino St. Rose of Lima Church filed an official complaint in March with the Department of Justice. The complaint included over 20 personal accounts of alleged police misconduct. It called for a federal investigation of the East Haven police department in order to force it to end its alleged discriminatory practices.
Click here to read the full complaint. Click here to read a summary.
“The Department of Justice carefully reviewed our complaint and conducted an initial investigation in order to decide whether to open a formal case,” said Fernandez, speaking into a microphone on Wednesday night. “Today, we announce that they have reached a decision. The United States Department of Justice has opened an independent federal investigation into a pattern and practice of racial profiling by the East Haven Police Department!”
The assembled crowd of over a hundred people burst into applause.
Fernandez made his remarks to a group that included New Haven’s Ecuadorian Consulate, parishioners from St. Rose, and Father James Manship. The St. Rose priest was arrested last February at My Country Store, while videotaping alleged police harassment. The DOJ complaint was announced on the day in March that the charges against Father Manship were dropped.
Contacted later, DOJ spokesman Alejandro Miyar confirmed that a civil investigation is underway. He said that the U.S. Attorney’s office is also involved in the case. The investigation will determine if there is a “pattern or practice” of racial discrimination in East Haven, Miyar said. He said the investigation will be similar to others that the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division has conducted.
The DOJ’s decision to investigate represents a validation of the repeated claims that racial harassment is an ongoing problem in East Haven, Fernandez (at center in photo) said. “It is a victory for the brave men and women who risked retaliation to tell their stories of abuse to the public for the first time.”
The crowd heard two such stories on Wednesday. Fernandez’s announcement was preceded by remarks from St. Rose parishioner Elio Cruz (at right) and East Haven business owner Marcia Chacon (second from right).
Meanwhile, three police cruisers and several police officers watched from across Main Street.
Cruz recounted in Spanish the story of the East Haven arrest of four of his friends 11 months ago. They were arrested for no reason, and two of them were beaten by the police, Cruz said. He later said that he went to the police department to make a complaint after the incident.
Many Latinos are afraid “just to drive through East Haven, knowing that they may be stopped just for being Hispanic,” Cruz told the crowd. “I don’t understand why we have to live in terror and fear of the police in a country of immigrants.”
Cruz said he has not suffered personally from racial harassment by East Haven police.
Chacon, who owns My Country Store and other properties in East Haven, said that Latinos have been suffering from police harassment for more than a year. “I have seen how my clients and members of this community have been frightened and still feel the terror of going to East Haven,” she said. “Tenants have moved from my properties because they have been threatened by the police.”
One month ago, a 20-year-old Latina woman was stopped in her car by East Haven police for no reason, Chacon said. Police forced her out of the car and when she asked questions, the two police officers shouted at her and refused to explain their actions, Chacon said. “They even threatened her with arrest if she moved,” she said.
Chacon said that police harassment has continued even after a recent visit to her store by East Haven Police Chief Len Gallo.
The chief did not return calls for comment. He has in the past denied that his police force has a racial profiling problem.
Following his announcement of the DOJ investigation, Fernandez issued a call for help. “Help us by telling your story if you have been victimized,” he said. “Help us find others to tell their stories … Help us to continue to pressure the police department.”
Fernandez concluded the event with a nod to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s famous “I Have A Dream” speech. He called all the children present to come forward and said that he dreamed of a day when they will all be judged by the content of their character, not by the color of their skin.
“Do we have a dream?” he asked the audience. “Tenemos un sueÑo?”
Speaking after the vigil, Fernandez reiterated that the DOJ investigation shows that the stories of racial profiling are credible. “All the stories come out the same,” he said. “Something has to be happening, we’re not all making it up.”
Fernandez said that dialogue with the East Haven Police Department has been impossible because the police refuse to acknowledge that a problem exists. “We see racial profiling. They say there isn’t any. So there’s nothing to talk about.”
Tafari Lumumba, a Yale student attorney who helped to prepare the DOJ complaint, gave an example of a possible outcome of the probe.
He said the investigation could result in a consent decree covering the East Haven police department. He referred to a 2000 DOJ investigation of the Los Angeles police department following allegations of racial discrimination and violence. A consent decree in that case required the LAPD to implement a system to track the races of people arrested or involved in traffic stops. The department was also required to have more training and to implement a new citizen complaint system. The DOJ investigation of East Haven could have similar results, Lumumba said.
Not Just Latinos
When Father Manship addressed the crowd, at the beginning of the vigil, he was joined by Rev. Jason Turner of Newhallville’s Community Baptist Church. Manship is the head of a mostly Latino congregation; Turner’s is largely African-American. They said that discrimination by East Haven police affects blacks as well as Latinos.
The pair took turns reading from a statement, Manship in Spanish, Turner in English. The story of racial discrimination and excessive police force in East Haven is the same in Fair Haven as it is in Newhallville, they said.
“It’s not just Latinos,” Manship said after the vigil. “This struggle is on the shoulders of many other folks.”
“There’s a shared story whether black or Hispanic,” Turner said.
As the DOJ investigation proceeds, Turner predicted that stories of discrimination against African-Americans as well as Latinos will emerge. “You will see that the stories go beyond the Hispanic.”
Turner said that he has not heard of specific instances of East Haven police harassing his parishioners. But, ever since he started at the church over three years ago, members of his congregation have warned to avoid traveling through East Haven for fear of police, he said. “They have been clear about staying out of East Haven,” he said.
Turner said that his relationship with Manship was based on a shared duty of “ministering in communities with people of color.”
“I came tonight out of solidarity,” he said.
Previous Independent stories about alleged racial profiling in East Haven:
• Immigrant Advocates, Supremacists Clash
• March Aims At Immigration Clampdown
• Routine Police Work? Or Retaliation?
• Case Dismissed, Priest Goes On Offense
• Priest’s Video Contradicts Police Report
• White Supremacists Pay A Visit
• City Priest Pleads Not Guilty
• Cross-Border Cops Arrest Father Jim
Congratulations to all the leaders at St. Rosa de Lima!