Forty Beaver Hills residents came out Sunday to seek solutions to spiking crime — and at times confronted divisions in their own neighborhood, which has both a sizable African-American and a sizable Orthodox Jewish population.
The gathering, organized by Alder Jill Marks, took place outdoors at Norton Parkway and Goffe Street, after a series of crimes that included religiously-motivated attacks.
Joelle Wilshinsky spoke at the gathering of how on Friday she was home with her four children when someone shot a gun outside the window where her children were playing Scrabble.
It was the second shooting that has happened outside her house in the last year, she said. After the first, she found a bullet hole in her bedroom where her baby had been sleeping.
Wilshinsky, like her neighbors, was there to call for an end to the violence, and for the city to step up and find ways to make the neighborhood safer. That, she said, would start with more police patrols, but it would not end there.
The group of about 40 Beaver Hills residents present stood on the sidewalk near the intersection as one by one neighbors stepped onto the edge of the southbound lane of Norton Parkway to speak.
Most, but not all, were white. Many were members of the neighborhood’s Jewish community.
Alder Marks said she hopes to work with leaders in the neighborhood to find solutions to the spike in shootings and other crimes they have experienced, including a few recent attacks on Jewish residents.
In recent weeks, three separate Jews have been beaten by people who made reference to their religion, according to Moti Sandman, president of Congregation Chabad Lubavitch. In two cases the assailant wasn’t seeking to steal money. In the third case, the assailant first asked a group of students whether they were Jewish or Mulsim — and then demanded a backpack when the answer came back “Jewish.”
Two attacks took place at Whalley and Norton, apparently by the same perpetrator on two separate individuals; and the third at Winthrop and Goffe. That’s on top of regular general gunfire in the neighborhood, he said.
Word of similar attacks have spread through the neighborhood for months, and neighbors have been pressing the mayor for action. Children and parents have reported being accosted and confronted for being Jewish while walking down the street. This was the first time the incidents been discussed in the open. Hundreds of families affiliated with the Lubavitch Hasidic movement have moved into the neighborhood in recent years and reinvigorated its Jewish cultural life.
Ending violence in the streets is not simple. Nor was the conversation that ensued Sunday.
Marks said she thinks the city needs to increase police patrols in Beaver Hills. She said that police officials who patrol the neighborhood are overwhelmed.
At one point, Marks told the crowd that just down the hill a short way, people are struggling to make ends meet. They don’t have jobs, and many don’t have secure housing.
As she spoke, a man cut her off.
“It’s not about that. We’re talking about shootings,” he said from the sidewalk.
“Right, so what I’m trying to say is,” Marks said, trying to finish her thought.
“These people are not going out there because they don’t have a job, they’re going out there because they’re ready to kill someone,” the man continued.
Labor-community organizer Rev. Scott Marks cut in.
“But when their mother didn’t have a job, when their grandmother didn’t have a job, when the racism that exists in this country…”
The man cut Marks off for a moment, but Marks continued.
“The point is that we want to push people to come to be the best they can be,” he said.
“I can’t wait 30, 70, 100 years until things are balanced,” the man in the crowd said.
Resident Chaya Sarah (pictured above), who was standing on the sidewalk holding her baby wrapped up in a sling resting against her stomach, cut in. As she spoke, she stepped down into the street.
“We all want the same thing,” she said. “We want to feel like all of us are safe in our neighborhood. And that starts with multiple approaches. I’m going to turn to you senator…”
She turned to where State Sen. Gary Winfield was standing. Winfield has been a leader of the police accountability movement in the city and state.
“And I’m not going to say I want money just for police. I’m going to say I want the youth to have the funding they need. I want the jobs for the folks that need it. I want the child support for the folks that need it. I want the drug treatment support for the folks that need it. I’m not asking for one thing because you know what, New Haven deserves better. Anyone who turns it into one issue is not being fair to us.”
While overall crime has decreased across the city, New Haven has seen a spike in shootings and murders. The latest crime report from the city shows that in the 10th police district, which includes Beaver Hills, robberies with a firearm have increased by 160 percent since last year, though there have been fewer shootings than last year.
Many of the residents who gathered Sunday said they want a greater police presence in the neighborhood.
“I think we need to start with police. It doesn’t stop there. But that’s where it needs to start,” said Wilshinsky. She said that a few years ago when police started patrolling her neighborhood more, crime decreased because the patrols acted as a deterrent.
Many of the residents who spoke tried to avoid the incendiary nature that conversations about policing can take on in 2020. Some did not.
At the beginning, a man implored his neighbors not to vote for a party “that wants to defund the police.” Neighbors called out, asking him to keep politics out of it.
As the gathering progressed, it showcased the complexity of discussions between various groups in the city and their differing experiences with the police. Especially in a diverse neighborhood like Beaver Hills, those discussions can be thorny.
After a number of residents had repeated the call for more police patrols, Rev. Steven Cousin (pictured below) of Bethel A.M.E Church stepped in front of the crowd to speak.
“I understand how we want to feel safe in our city,” he said. “I understand how we want to protect our families during this time. And I’m here to tell you, there is not an easy answer to what we have going on. Everything we’re addressing right now is just surface. We’re not addressing the root cause of the problem.”
New Haven has been deprived of resources, he said, and has always had to make do with less than other towns nearby have.
“People are losing their jobs, their homes at alarming rates. I hate to tell you this, I’m sorry: Having more police on the streets is not going to keep us safe. Police cannot prevent crime. They can solve crime. But they cannot prevent it.”
People in the crowd began to cut him off. “We need police!” one shouted.
“I understand what I’m saying may not be popular,” he said. “Having more police on the street, especially for African American communities, does not make us feel more safe.”
Once he had finished, Sarah asked him if she could pose a question.
“Can we do both?” she asked — that is, both address the root causes of poverty that create crime, and also increase the police presence in the neighborhood.
“Yes,” Cousin replied.
Neighbors did not solve the spate of crime in their neighborhood Sunday. Perhaps they made a step closer by gathering.
“Violence, chaos, distress; it thrives when we don’t serve each other,” resident Salwa Abdussabur (pictured above) told her neighbors. “It thrives when we don’t see each other. It thrives when we’re not in our neighborhoods, when we don’t join together. Violence is a result of distrust that we have between each other when we can’t hold each other accountable.”
Abdussabur organizes “Freshin’ Up Fridays” in Beaver Hills, a weekly cleanup day that leaves the neighborhood looking cleaner, and helps neighbors connect with one another.
She said she thinks that what’s missing from the neighborhood is that people don’t know each other. When neighbors know each other, and look out for each other, she said, the neighborhood is safer. Neighbors can gather and make change when something bad happens, and people know they will be held accountable if they break the law in a neighborhood that has eyes on the street.
She said she does think that in the short term, more police patrols will have to be a part of the solution. But it is only a temporary solution, she said.
“I think there should be police on the streets if the community is willing to do the work for the long-term solution,” she said. If you don’t address the root causes, she said, more police won’t help. “Because you will put the police on the street and when they’re gone it will come right back.”
Watch the conversations at Sunday’s gathering below.
Although it sounded like there were tense moments, I am heartened to see the different leaders, different races and religions coming together.
There are no quick fixes here. And, unless folks are seriously calling for making BH a gated community, what happens in one neighborhood impacts others. Issues stemming from decades of disinvestment and denial of opportunity won't go away overnight, and they can't simply be "policed away", even if one wrongly advocates furthering the plague of mass incarceration. We must start tackling these things head on with our eyes wide open as a whole community.