Dawson: Commission takes up issue in Jan.
Mayor Toni Harp stood by Chief Dean Esserman in the wake of embarrassing allegations about a confrontation he had with an usher at the Yale Bowl, while the president of the police union called for an investigation.
They made their remarks upon the public release this week, in a submission to the Board of Alders, of an email written by a Yale professor who witnessed the confrontation at the Sept. 27 Yale-Army football game.
The professor, Dan Weinberger, said he saw Chief Esserman verbally harass an elderly usher who refused him entry to the game without a ticket, then demanded that the supervisor fire the usher and threatened to shut down the game. Esserman this week offered a public apology and said he had privately apologized for the incident. The full text of Weinberger’s message is reproduced at the bottom of this story.
Weinberger’s account prompted heated criticism of the chief for violating professional ethics and abusing his position of power. (Scroll down to view reader comments.)
The Board of Police Commissioners will take up the matter at its January meeting, according to Chairman Anthony Dawson. He said Friday that he doesn’t know what action the board will take.
“It’s one of those unfortunate things. No one wins in these situations,” Dawson said in an interview. “The chief was wrong. He realizes he was wrong.”
Esserman (pictured) repeated his apologies in media interviews Thursday and Friday.
He said he had informed Mayor Toni Harp and mayoral Chief of Staff Tomas Reyes, as well as Yale officials, about the incident back when it happened, and apologized then too.
Since then, “I have reflected” a lot about the import of the incident, he said. “A bad day is not an excuse for bad behavior. I was wrong.”
Mayor Toni Harp Friday told the Independent that she stands by the chief. She noted that he had admitted wrongdoing and apologized.
“It’s something I think the chief is working on it. It’s a personnel matter,” she said. “I still have confidence in the chief.”
New Haven Police Union President Louis Cavaliere Jr. said an apology wouldn’t be enough for a rank-and-file officer accused of unprofessional conduct. So he argued that it shouldn’t be enough for the chief. He called for a formal internal investigation of the incident.
“Every you time you ask him a question about an officer’s allegations, an investigation is immediately instituted,” Cavaliere told the Independent. “We all want to be treated the same. He had a bad day, he had a bad day. Maybe an investigation will reveal that.”
Cavaliere stressed that he’s not arguing that the chief is “guilty” of wrongdoing. “All we’re asking is that he practice what he preaches. Why should he get away with just saying he’s sorry? Do I give the advice of officers going up for discipline: ‘Did you say you’re sorry, and turn the page?’ That’s basically what’s happening here. I’m not saying he’s guilty or not guilty.
An Edgewood activist who has criticized police chiefs in the past, Eli Greer, contacted the Independent and other media to criticize the decision to publish the article about Weinberger’s email because it happened months ago, because it’s a “personnel matter,” and because the police department has had so much success cutting crime since Esserman’s arrival three years ago. He called the story “piling on anti-police sentiment” in the wake of shootings by cops in Ferguson, Missouri, and New York City.
The numbers of shootings, homicides, and gunshots fired in New Haven have dropped consistently in the three years since Esserman took over the department. That drop continued this year: As of Nov. 30, shootings have dropped 13.1 percent, murders 29.4 percent, and armed robbery 23.6 percent in 2014 compared to the first 11 months of 2013. The year-to-date figures have dropped steadily since a peak in 2011 — homicides 61.3 percent overall, non-fatal shootings 57.3 percent, and shots fired 58.8 percent.
“The timing is inappropriate, in the climate right now,” Greer argued. “Everybody should be jumping up and down [applauding the crime drop]. The story should be we’re ending a year where we are down two-thirds [in violent crime] from where we were when this person walked into a city where there were chaos [in 2011]. He knows how to manage. He’s in charge. That’s what we need.”
“It’s a personal matter that took place two months ago. It’s highly inappropriate for this to be public. It’s an internal affairs matter.”
Police Board Chairman Dawson said Esserman has been a good chief. “I haven’t heard anything bad from anyone” about his overall performance, Dawson said. “He’s human like everybody else.”
