Markeshia Ricks Photo
Like a rock thrown in a lake, violence has a ripple effect that touches an entire community.
That’s the message that hundreds of people who packed out the Long Wharf Theatre got Thursday night at a community discussion on violence put on by The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven.
That’s the message that more than a hundred people who packed out the Long Wharf Theatre got Thursday night at a community discussion on violence put on by The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven. The event was held in partnership with Long Wharf Theatre, coinciding with the production of brownsville song (b‑side for tray), which runs through April 19.
“The violent loss of young lives is the heartbreak of our community,” said foundation President and CEO Will Ginsberg (pictured), who set the tone for the night by pointing out that the community could take “pride, but not solace” in its efforts to drive down homicides through a combination of policy, community policing and the work of the city’s numerous non-profits.
“Today we gather as one to understand why violence happens in our midst, to learn what violence means to our fellow citizens and hopefully feel a greater empathy for those affected by it,” he said.
Those affected by violence, particularly gun violence, are names you’d likely recognize from news stories. One of those young New Haveners is Henry Green, who was shot in 2009, and lived to tell the tale. He told his community via video Thursday that fixing violence in New Haven is as simple as “believing that we can. We are only a lost cause if we believe we are a lost cause.”
People got to further experience the ripple effect through a series of video-recorded stories of people such as the immediate family members of Jacob Craggett, a Hillhouse High School student gunned down while leaving his grandmother’s house in 2014. They also heard from Joan Malerba-Foran, teacher of Common Ground High School student Javier Martinez. Martinez was killed in late 2013.
Diana Li Photo
From Erik Clemons (pictured in this file photo), attendees also learned how those ripples can wash over and impact a life throughout time. Clemons is the president and CEO of ConnCAT (Connecticut Center for Arts and Technology) and he lost his younger brother to gun violence back in 1988. In a video testimonial he recalled watching helplessly as his brother started to change and exhibit negative behavior after their parents broke up, and their father was no longer around. He also recalled the night that he, his younger brother, and a cousin were in the parking lot of a Norwalk housing project when shots rang out.
“I dropped to the ground and got under the car,” he said. Instead of dropping to the ground, his brother had chosen to run and was shot. Clemons, along with his then seven months-pregnant sister, transported their bleeding brother to the hospital in Clemons’ car. After the trauma of that experience, Clemons said his relationship with his mother, his sister and even his estranged father was never the same.
“We never really talked about it,” he said. “We still don’t talk about it.” Clemons said for a long time he blamed his parents and even himself for the path his brother went down. For a time, he even blamed his brother for choosing the wrong path. But he grew to understand that there are larger issues at play for young people trying to navigate poverty and broken homes, including the absence of a basic human need — the need for love.
Youth Violence: Preventable Public Health Problem
Dr. Deborah Prothrow-Stith, a leading health expert on violence and keynote speaker for the evening (pictured), challenged the audience to not only tackle the obvious root causes of violence such as poverty and income inequality, and access to guns, but to also address the prevalent culture of violence. She said the culture of violence in the United States plays a role in why the country has more homicides than any other industrialized nation.
“It matters what we say to our children, what we do to them and what we expect them to do,” she said. “The culture right now is one that encourages violence, one that expects violence, promotes and markets violence to children. In some ways I’m surprised that there isn’t more violence.”
Prothrow-Stith said that violence is preventable, but it takes sustained effort to address the root causes of violence. She said spending on these issues is more effective on the front end for prevention rather on the back end for punishment. By acknowledging violence as a public health issue, a community can approach it with preventative and treatment strategies, she said.
“When it comes to crime prevention, we are almost always spending money after the fact,” she said, pointing to the massive amounts of money spent on prosecuting and incarcerating people compared to what is spent on education and preventative services.
Everybody Has A Part To Play
Mayor Toni Harp said peace in New Haven looks like a place where all the city’s children first and foremost get a chance to grow up and do so in a safe and supportive environment.
“We are a city that educates people from around the world,” she said. “And violence can be like water. It can seep into anything, including college campuses. When people are afraid to come downtown it impacts our economy. Whether you live in East Rock or Newhallville, if we are to be a peaceful city … we all have to be involved ensuring that this kind of violence ends.”
Harp urged people to get involved as mentors or donate resources in other ways to support agencies such as the New Haven Family Alliance Inc.
“Everybody can do something,” she said. Harp urged the community to keep the momentum of the discussion going by documenting and staying committed to successful efforts, so that five years from now the city isn’t having the same conversation.
“Far to often, when the administration changes, or when the funding source ends, we stop doing what’s working,” she said. “We have to stay committed to what’s working and continue.”
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