Second of four parts on where mayoral candidates stand on major issues.
One candidate caught up with the teen who stole his bike; one had his car window smashed after shooing away a drug-user from in front of his home. Another candidate was caught breaking the law himself. All drew lessons about crime in New Haven.
The four candidates running for mayor in next Tuesday’s Democratic mayoral primary — Kermit Carolina, Justin Elicker, Henry Fernandez, and Toni Harp — spoke about those lessons and about police and fire policy in general in four separate interviews with the Independent.
They all continued to express confidence in Police Chief Dean Esserman’s quest to return community policing to New Haven and a desire to take it to the next level. They all expressed skepticism of the so-called War on Drugs.
They offered some different takes on reducing the speed limit and reestablishing a narcotics unit, among other questions, and told different personal stories about their own encounters with crime.
Here’s what they said:
Do we have too many fire stations? Too many firefighters? Do you plan to close any fire stations? Cut the number of firefighters?
Fernandez: Wants to evaluate the data before committing to a firm answer. Our current numbers of firehouses and firefighters are “based on a time before we had smoke detectors” and better building codes, and thus a time when we had more fires. “We should always be willing to evaluate whether there are ways to cut costs in the fire department” while never compromising public safety.
Harp: No.
Carolina: Yes, “if we can do it without sacrificing” public safety. “I’d like to spearhead the effort to work with our regional partners” to share some fire services with suburban departments. He recently spoke with the mayor of Grand Rapids, Michigan, during a visit there, about a pending effort to save $17 million a year through sharing services with suburban towns.
Elicker: Would “explore” changing minimum manning requirements if safety isn’t compromised; seek more “efficiencies” in the department. That doesn’t have to mean closing a fire station. It could mean eliminating a fire engine, for instance. He would also explore some form of consolidation with East Haven for the work handled by the Morris Cove station, which has the lowest volume of calls but is too far away from other stations to close down altogether; he would not shut down the station.
Do you support reducing the speed limit to 20 miles per hour on residential streets?
Fernandez: Yes.
Harp: No. “If you do that, people will be speeding.” At the current 25 mile-per-hour speed limit, “everybody is basically doing 35 to 40. I think having rules for rules’ sake is a mistake; we would solve a lot of problems by enforcing the current speed limit. When is the last time anyone you know got a moving violation? We don’t enforce half the laws on our books. You go to Woodbridge. You’re going out [Route] 69. It’s easy to go over the speed limit. There’s a policeman sitting in a certain place; he will get you.”
Carolina: Yes. “Twenty is plenty.” Would also like to see more speed bumps “in neighborhoods like Newhallville.”
Elicker: Yes.
One candidate [Harp] has proposed bringing back a dedicated narcotics unit. Do you support that idea? Why or why not? How does that fit into community policing?
Police Chief Esserman dismantled the department’s tactical narcotics unit in 2012 after he took over the department with a mission to reenergize community policing. He combined it with the intelligence unit. Police still conduct many drug investigations, in conjunction with shooting and other investigations.
Fernandez: Prefers the current combination of narcotics with intelligence. “Far too many people are incarcerated under the War on Drugs.” Violence “should be our first priority. We absolutely need to tackle narcotics. We need to do in a series of smarter ways” like boosting youth employment and after-school programs.
Harp: We need a dedicated narcotics unit. “It does comport with community policing. You have to have a specific unit that does that. Part of what drives the violence in our town is still unfortunately the dealing of drugs. That unit has to integrate with what’s happening on the street with walking beats.”
Carolina: “My focus is on guns. Drugs are on the list; it’s not at the top. I’m concerned about the gangs. I would be very concerned about continuing this practice of locking up young people, in particular African-American males, to execute the drug war.” He also supports instituting gang injunctions; read about that here.
Elicker: That’s up to the chief. “I want to be a mayor who” gives department heads the room to make those decisions.
Do you agree with the New York federal judge’s recent ruling that stop-and-frisk practices are racist? Should we do stop-and-frisk in New Haven?
(Read about that ruling here.)
Fernandez: Agrees with ruling. Opposes stop-and-frisk. “When I first came to New Haven I was stopped and frisked multiple times. I found it to be humiliating. I didn’t do anything wrong. It impacted my impression of police in a significant way. We want young people to have positive relationships with police” so they feel more comfortable reporting crimes and serving as witnesses in criminal cases. That’s part of a broader emphasis Fernandez has put on “legitimacy” policing, to ensure citizens have positive impressions of the most routine interactions with cops.
Harp: Agrees with decision. Opposes instituting stop-and-frisk.
Carolina: Agrees with ruling. Opposes stop-and-frisk. It’s racist.
Elicker: Agrees with ruling. Opposes stop-and-frisk. But “the reality is that a lot of stuff we already do is a form of stop-and-frisk. The police department has a lot of tools” to pull people over or search them. Cops should receive sensitivity training to ensure no one’s civil rights are violated in the process.
Do you agree with the U.S. Department of Justice’s decision to stop seeking minimum mandatory sentences for drug offenses?
Read about the decision here.
Fernandez: Agrees with decision. A “huge amount” of money devoted to many of these cases could be better spent on mass transit and public education and tax relief.
Harp: Agrees with the decision. “We’re just dealing with penny-ante low-level dealers. It just costs us money and doesn’t fix anything.” She questions whether Operation Bloodline, the 2012 federal-state-local sweep of dealers, truly snared as many higher-level dealers as advertised; “I don’t think the flow of drugs has changed enough on our streets.”
Carolina: Agrees with the decision.
Elicker: Agrees with decision. We should “focus on the roots” of the drug problem and make sure Attorney General Eric Holder follows through on the decision. “We need to continue to prosecute people who are involved in illegal drug trafficking” but also focus on “the roots” of the drug problem in part by increasing people’s access to jobs early childhood education, and youth programs.
Who should become the next fire chief?
Fernandez: “I literally don’t know.” Knows of “no obvious” leader in the wings. “The department is at a point where it needs a strong leader to address issues of morale and budget. ... I’m committed to making sure changes occur.”
Harp: “We should do a reasonable search.”
Carolina: “The best qualified individual.”
Elicker: Don’t know.
Who should become the next police chief?
Fernandez: “I’ve been impressed with the leadership team that’s been put in place. I’ve worked most extensively with [Assistant Chief Luiz] Casanova I have a lot of respect for him.” He hopes to “keep [current Chief] Esserman around.” He has a “strong preference” for hiring internally whenever Esserman leaves. “We got a bit lost with the succession of out-of-state chiefs” over the past decade.
Harp: “We should do a reasonable search.”
Carolina: “The best qualified individual.”
Elicker: Don’t know. “I’m going to do everything I can to keep Esserman.”
Have you ever been a victim of a crime in New Haven? If so, what happened? What lesson(s) did you draw?
Harp: “This [campaign] office has been a victim of crime most recently. When I lived on Lynwood Place someone broke into my apartment and stole some things. I’ve had stuff stolen out of my car. I learned to keep my windows closed and to lock my doors to my car.”
Carolina: Several weeks ago, someone stole his mountain bike; his son had locked it at a playground, and the thief broke the lock.
“I’m here at the campaign headquarters the next day. I’m leaving campaign headquarters, and I see three young men come riding by. One of them I knew. Flagged him down, began talking to him. After closely examining the bike, I realized it was my bike. So I put my hands on the bike and I said to the young man [on it], ‘You know have my bike.’ And he looked at me, froze up. I told him, ‘Look, this is what I’m going to do. I’m going to assume somebody gave you my bike. … You realize that my tag is here, my initials are under that seat? So how do you want to handle this.’?’‘
“He got off the bike. He said, ‘I don’t want to cause any problems, Mr. Carolina.’ He got off the bike. .. I went in my pocket and gave him five dollars. I said, ‘That’s just for you returning my bike. That’s the reward …’ I put the bike in the back of my truck and drove back home.
“It really spoke to the fact that we have young people out here searching for ways to either put money in their pocket or ways to have things they wouldn’t otherwise have. A bike is included in that.
“The young man walked away with his friends. The other two friends were on bike, and he was walking. Quite honestly I was tempted to take his address and let him keep the bike until later that night.”
Elicker: He committed a crime — and got caught. One afternoon, he was making a right turn against the light from College Street onto Chapel. “Lt. [Ray] Hassett, with lights and siren, pulled me over and said I should step away from my vehicle. I said, ‘I don’t have a kickstand.’ So I rested my bike, and he gave me a ticket.
“I learned that everyone should abide by the law. If we are enforcing the laws on cyclists, we need to enforce the laws on car drivers as well. For years and years the New Haven police department has not been nearly as good as we should be in enforcing vehicle violations.”
Fernandez: “I live in Fair Haven. Outside my home from time to time we have issues with prostitutes and drug-dealing. I’ve had to confront drug-dealers and prostitutes and people who bought drugs. You usually say, ‘Hey, you can’t do that here.’ Most of the time people leave. Most of the time people don’t want to be bothered. They realize they’re doing something wrong … I’m raising with my wife Kica a son here in Fair Haven. I’m not going to tolerate any activity like that outside my home. Nor should anyone. …
“At one point after a confrontation with a man who was trying to find, I guess, drugs that had been placed for him, I said , ‘You’ve got to go. You can’t be here.’ We got into a shouting match. I eventually had to call the police to ensure the problem was resolved.
“The next day I found a window of my car broken out. But he’s gone and no longer in our neighborhood. And I’m still there.”
Previous installment in this series:
• Where the candidates stand on housing and neighborhood development
On the speed limit question, Elicker, Fernandez, and Carolina prove that they have a basic grasp of National and International Trends 101.
They understand what tens of thousands of other cities, including many in Connecticut, now consider to be a best practice.
Harp shows that she would fail Traffic Engineering 101, unless the course material was all outdated by 10 or more years. Her views are very badly misinformed and would send New Haven back to the failed policies of the 1970s and 1980s. Her "vision" presumably included the State widening of Whalley Avenue, over the objections of hundreds of residents, a few years ago.
http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/gabrielle_remembered_whalley_widening/