Violence flared in East Haven, as New Haven activists marching to protest alleged police racism tangled with out-of-state “white nationalists.”
The clash happened during an event organized Saturday by New Haven immigrant advocacy organization Unidad Latina En Acción. More than 100 people marched through the streets of East Haven on Saturday, protesting alleged racial profiling on the part of East Haven police. They met groups of counter-protesters along the way, including a visiting band of white supremacists.
The protest was organized in response to allegations of ongoing race-based police harassment directed at Latinos in East Haven. Recent allegations include reports that police in East Haven have begun calling federal immigration enforcement when arresting immigrant motorists.
Two arrests were made following a brief fistfight between a female marcher, Jessica Maldonado of East Haven, and Chelsea Fiorentino, an 18 year-old New Haven woman who was standing with a counter protest made up of members of two white pride organizations. Maldonado’s father, Dimas Maldonado, said that his family has suffered from police harassment. (Click on the play arrow to watch the fight and arrests.)
The argument allegedly started after Chelsea Fiorentino yelled an insult at Maldonado, who then crossed the street and confronted her. East Haven police quickly separated the women, placed them under arrest, and kept the march moving. The women were charged with breach of peace and assault; Maldonado was also charged with interfering with an officer.
The parade passed by several Ecuadorian-owned businesses on Saturday afternoon. Inside, the Latino business owners had mixed feelings about the protest.
Saturday’s protest march was the latest development in an ongoing controversy in which East Haven police stand accused of discrimination and harassment directed against Latinos. East Haven Police Chief Len Gallo (pictured), who personally escorted the protesters down East Haven’s Main Street, denied allegations that his department is targeting Latinos for arrest and harassment. East Haven Mayor April Capone Almon made a similar denial in a press conference before the rally.
“That perception is exactly that, it’s a perception, as opposed to a reality,” Gallo said before the march. “The numbers don’t indicate any over-arrest of any one group.”
Just past noon on Saturday, protesters gathered across from the Main Street McDonald’s restaurant on the border between New Haven and East Haven. Carrying signs and banners that said “End Racial Profiling” and “Stop the Attacks,” the group assembled to march. Under close police escort, the crowd moved slowly down one lane of Main Street, chanting slogans in Spanish and English, like “Racist Cops Have Got To Go!” (Click the play arrow to watch scenes from the protest.)
The marchers made their way along the one-mile route to East Haven Town Hall. As the protest neared the East Haven green, sidewalk opposition grew.
Lou Maruno (pictured) of New Haven’s Morris Cove neighborhood waved an American flag as he stood on the sidewalk with this dog. He said that he was there to stand up for the East Haven police against charges of racism in traffic stops.
“You can’t tell someone’s race from the back of the car,” he said. “East Haven police aren’t doing anything wrong.”
Lou Maruno said that he works in New Haven’s Fair Haven neighborhood, where he sees a lot of “them” violating traffic laws, like running red lights. Maruno defined “them” as, “people of other ethnic backgrounds.”
Asked about his prosthetic leg, Maruno said that he lost it when he was hit by an East Haven police car in 1997 while he was riding an ATV. He harbors no grudges against East Haven police because of the incident, Maruno said
On the left side of Main Street near to the green, a small group of counter-protesters waved flags that read “White Pride Worldwide,” advertising the group that delivered threatening flyers to Latino-owned East Haven businesses in March. Also represented was a group called East Coast White Unity.
Several men wore black bandanas covering their faces. One had a cap that read “Border Patrol” and a swastika tattoo on his forearm. A member of the group later claimed that the members are not white supremacists, but “white nationalists.”
Shouts and insults were exchanged between the protesters and the white nationalists as the march passed by.
The outbreak of violence between Maldonado and Fiorentino briefly threatened to derail the march, as protesters stopped marching to chant “Let her go!“and “Shame!” at the police. But order was restored, and the march continued to the town green.
Jessica Maldonado’s father, Dimas Maldonado, later said that his family has suffered discrimination at the hands of East Haven police officers. “Every time I call the police, we get arrested,” he said. He explained that his son has been twice attacked and then arrested or threatened with arrest when he called the police to report the crime.
Maldonado, who was born in Brooklyn, said that East Haven police have in the past asked him for his “alien card.”
“How the hell I got an alien card? I’m Puerto Rican,” Maldonado said. “They assume I’m Hispanic. They assume I’m illegal.”
“I’m just done. I’m done with East Haven,” said Maldonado, who moved to the town a year ago from Massachusetts.
A collection of donations from among the protesters raised $450 for bail money for Jessica Maldonado.
The protesters rallied on the East Haven green, listening to several speakers who gave bullhorn-amplified speeches condemning alleged racial discrimination and violence by East Haven police officers. Among the speakers were New Haven activist Shelton Tucker of People Against Injustice, New Haven peace activist Stephen Kobasa, and Antonio Arizaga from Frente Unido De Immigrantes Ecuatoriano, a national association of Ecuadorian immigrants.
Multiple speakers led the crowd in chants of “No Justice, No Peace.”
Across Main Street, a crowd gathered to watch and shout counter-slogans. Among them was Lance Coughlin (pictured), a former East Haven cop who had advertised a rally entitled “Stand up against illegal immigrants” on Facebook. Coughlin said that he had been joined by a small number of supporters and had no affiliation with the white nationalists.
“All we’re asking is for people to obey the law,” Coughlin said. “We welcome legal immigrants, it’s the illegal people we don’t like.”
Coughlin said that undocumented immigrants create a financial burden on the rest of the American population. “The hardworking citizens of America end up picking up their bills,” he said.
“We’re just supporting our local police department,” said East Haven resident Lori Acerra, who stood on the sidewalk with a sign, watching the protesters on the green. “If you’re legal, you’ve got no reason to hide.” She said that in 20 years in East Haven, she had never had or heard a complaint about the police.
Robert O’Donovan, a member of Northeast White Pride, said that the United States was “founded and created by Europeans for Europeans, not for third world people to come here.” He said that immigrants from Latin America bring crime and drugs with them.
Meanwhile, protest speakers on the green finished up their remarks and the crowd dispersed. Many walked back to the march’s starting point where they listened to a speech by Emma Jones, whose son was killed by East Haven police in 1997 after a high-speed chase that ended in New Haven.
John Lugo (at left in photo, with Chief Gallo), the protest’s lead organizer, expressed his satisfaction with the march. “I think it went fine,” he said. He announced a follow-up meeting for Tuesday at New Haven People’s Center to plan the activists’ next steps.
East Haven Ecuadorians Respond
Saturday’s march passed by several of the Ecuadorian-owned businesses who have made complaints of ongoing racial harassment at the hands of the police. Inside, as the business owners and customers watched the protest pass by, they had mixed feelings about the event.
Sitting at the counter at the front of his bakery (pictured), Pedro Guteirrez looked out as the protest marched past. Asked for his opinion about the protest, Gutierrez was noncommittal. Shrugging, he said everyone has a right to express his opinion. Gutierrez said that police harassment had “calmed down” recently and that things are improving in East Haven.
Down the street, the marchers passed between Los Amigos Grocery, on the left side of the street, and La Bamba Restaurant, on the right. Both businesses are run by Ecuadorians. Several men came outside La Bamba to watch the march pass by. They declined to give their names, but said that they recognized the problems caused by the alleged East Haven police actions against Latinos and that they supported the marchers.
After the protest had dissipated, business owner Wilfred Matute was in the back of My Country Store, wiping up a spill in one of his coolers. Matute had watched as the march passed by, but he said that he did not support the event. It will only create more problems, he said.
Not attending the march was New Haven priest Father James Manship, who was arrested in February while documenting alleged police harassment in East Haven. Manship has been an outspoken advocate for immigrant rights and members of his Fair Haven church have called for a Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation of the East Haven police department.
“Several months ago… we decided that a public manifestation wasn’t in the best interests of what we’re trying to achieve,” Manship said when contacted by phone.
Manship said that although East Haven’s mayor is engaging in federal Department of Justice-mediated conversations with some Latino business owners, there have been no changes in East Haven’s policies and procedures regarding interactions between police and Latinos.
East Haven Chief Gallo denied that the police are harassing Latinos.
Asked if his department keeps records on the ethnicity of arrestees, Gallo said that it does. He said that arrests of Latinos account for less than 30 percent of all arrests, but that he couldn’t be sure without checking the records. “I’d have to look it up,” he said.
Gallo said that his officers check for outstanding warrants whenever they pull someone over. Sometimes outstanding criminal issues can include deportation orders, he said. But the chief denied charges that police officers have been calling federal immigration enforcement when arresting any and all Latinos. “That is not my understanding,” he said.
Gallo said that East Haven is “the wrong town to be demonstrating in.” The “correct” town to voice complaints about immigration laws, he said, is Washington D.C.
This story made me incredibly sad and angry. I'll admit that immigration is a tricky issue; I don't think it's terribly clear cut. That said, I think what many Americans forget is that many of us are also the product of immigration. Four of my great-grandparents immigrated from other countries. One chose to assimilate to the point of never teaching his children his native language and becoming an American through and through, which I think is a tragedy. I think people should remember and honor their cultural identity while also embracing that of their adopted country. Two of my great-grandparents never learned English particularly well, which prevented them from being embraced by others from outside of their community, which is equally difficult. Why do so many people choose to forget that they are also the product of immigration, of family members who struggled to find a better life for them in the U.S.? Many of the individuals who have immigrated to the U.S. in recent history are simply trying to do the same thing: Provide a better life for their families, free of oppression, poverty, and fear. Sure, there are some immigrants who are not good people and are engaging in criminal behavior, but the same can be said for some dyed in the wool Americans. Please stop the hatred and ignorance. What are you teaching your children???? As for some of the white supremacists pictured, if you are so proud of your cause, why do you choose to hide your faces like cowards? I think you fear differences and, thus, choose to hate them as opposed to trying to understand them. Ignorance is easy, knowledge is power.