Just in time for Christmas, New Haven police headquarters hosted a group of carolers with a musical message: Fire a cop who’s been accused of beating multiple people.
The group, comprising local anti-police-brutality activists, also delivered an oversized holiday card for the chief, complete with pictures of the battered faces of victims of alleged police abuse. Their delivery took place at midday on Wednesday at the police station on Union Avenue. Click the play arrow above to see the action.
Thomas MacMIllan Photos
The activists are calling for the termination of Officer Dennis O’Connell. They say he has a history of violently abusing arrestees, including punching, kicking, and pepper-spraying them without cause. The abuse is part of a larger issue: the lack of accountability, training, and oversight by the police department, protesters said.
Thomas MacMillan File Photo
Limon.
Chief Limon issued only a brief general statement later in the day. (See below.) He avoided the protest. And he didn’t return repeated requests for comment from the Independent about the protest and the issues raised. Nor has he released any follow-up information about incidents from several months ago cited by the protesters — when an assistant chief ordered a man jailed for videotaping officers at work (the man had his video erased too), and when a video caught officers beating a suspect on Crown Street on Sept. 10 and snatching the citizen photographer’s camera. The chief has not indicated whether he has decided whether his assistant chief violated department policy or whether to discipline him. He has not said whether he has looked into which officer or officers were responsible for the Sept. 10 incident or whether he plans to discipline them, or even what stage internal investigations are at. The mayor’s spokeswoman said the chief decided not to make himself available for questions.
Wednesday’s protest was organized by local organizations My Brother’s Keeper, Unidad Latina En Accion, and Copwatch New Haven. About a dozen protesters gathered on the steps of the police station at noon to sing a modified version of “The 12 Days Of Christmas.” The lyrics of the popular carol were replaced with demands for the right to document police and the end of the use of tasers, among other things.
Jewu Richardson, a man who claims police falsely arrested him in 2006, read a list of cases of abuse allegedly perpetrated by Officer O’Connell, starting with the fact that he shot a man three times in the back in 2000. O’Connell was found to not have violated any laws in that incident.
Protesters said that O’Connell’s other alleged abuses include: an illegal strip and body cavity search in 2007, the assault to the point of unconsciousness of a handcuffed man in 2007, and several cases of excessive force — including breaking a man’s nose — in 2008. Abel Sanchez (at center in photo), one of the victims of an alleged beating in 2008, spoke at the protest.
No one has taken any action to hold O’Connell accountable for these abuses, said Megan Fountain, one of the leaders to the protest.
The problem is greater than one officer, said Barbara Fair, head of activist organization My Brother’s Keeper. “This officer is a product of the culture of the police department.” The department has a systemic problem of violence and arrogance.
Civil rights attorney Norm Pattis said the problem is further complicated by the fact that courts are using “qualified immunity” to protect police officers. He was referring laws are written in such a way that police are given a lot of leeway by judges.
“The blue wall of silence is enforced by the black robe,” Pattis said. As a result, people are forced to “obey like sheep” or “be beaten like cattle.”
The protesters then carried their demonstration inside the police station, where they gave an encore performance of their 12 Days of Christmas takeoff and tried to deliver their card to the chief.
Limon wasn’t in, they were told. The protesters had to settle for handing the card over to a subordinate.
While waiting to see if the chief would show, Miguel Avila (at right in photo) of Eastern Street shared the details of his family’s brush with Officer O’Connell. Here’s what he said happened:
On Feb. 17 2008, at 11 p.m., Avila was home with his wife and two sons, when two cops showed up outside. When a friend of his older son, Johnathan, left to go home to his house next door, the police grabbed him and punched him in the face and threw him against the wall.
“We opened the door,” Avila said. Johnathan told the police they shouldn’t beat his friend up.
Suddenly the police told Avila his son was going to be arrested. They forced their way in his house, sprayed Avila and his wife with pepper spray and assaulted Johnathan. They went into the kitchen and started choking him. One officer broke his nose with a head butt. They smashed his head against a marble table. “The kitchen was bloody,” Avila said.
The police arrested Johnathan for interfering with police, Avila said. But when the case came to court, it was dismissed, he said.
Avila said he and his wife are disabled and take medication for anxiety. “My wife, she’s in trauma,” he said. Avila said he’s scared whenever he sees police. He said he sent his younger son away to live with relatives after police came by the house and stuck their guns in his face for no reason.
Avila said he submitted an internal affairs complaint two years ago and has received no response.
At the police station on Wednesday, when the chief never showed, Fair said it was another sign of poor treatment and lack of accountability. “This is just total disrespect from the chief,” she said.
The protesters left, chanting “We’ll be back!”
Outside, organizer John Jairo Lugo (at center in photo) again called for the O’Connell’s termination. “We want the guy to be fired,” he said. The officer has earned multiple complaints about abuse, Lugo said. “I don’t know how can they keep a guy like this in the department,” Lugo said. “This guy is crazy.”
In a statement emailed out by city spokeswoman Jessica Mayorga after the protest, Chief Limon was quoted saying the following (he wasn’t available to answer questions):
“I have had public discussions with many of the individuals who participated in this afternoon’s event. As I’ve told them, we take every allegation of police misconduct seriously and discipline anyone found responsible of excessive use of force or abuse of their position. I strongly encourage anyone with a concern about an officer’s behavior to contact my office or our Internal Affairs office and I guarantee that every formal complaint will be handled responsibly and professionally. It is my goal to build strong and meaningful relationships between New Haven Police and our residents citywide. I’ve taken steps to begin strengthening our ties to the community through my series of neighborhood meetings where I sat in libraries and community centers to hear the concerns, needs and frustrations of our residents. This is about communication and about working together to make New Haven a safer city for everyone. There is work to be done but we have to do it together.”