Fair Haven’s top cop testified Monday that releasing the names of recipients of New Haven’s immigrant-friendly ID card would produce a crime “upsurge” in his neighborhood.
Lt. Luiz Casanova made the remark during testimony at the state Freedom of Information Commission (FOIC) in Hartford. It was the final public session about a request to reveal the names and addresses of the 5,000-plus people who have signed up for New Haven’s immigrant-friendly municipal ID card since its launch last July.
Journalist Chris Powell and the Community Watchdog Project, a group opposed to illegal immigration, originally requested the city to release the names and addresses.
The city turned them down; Powell and CWP appealed to the state FOIC. Monday’s hearing capped some 28 hours of testimony.
Monday’s key witness, Lt. Casanova, has served as district manager in the Fair Haven neighborhood since 2005. The neighborhood has a high percentage of New Haven’s Latino immigrants.
Casanova (pictured) testified that the ID cards, along with a new general order prohibiting local cops from inquiring into citizens’ immigration status, have helped reduce crime in Fair Haven. Those two measures have made undocumented immigrants feel more comfortable to come forward to report crimes or offer eyewitness testimony, Casanova said.
The ID cards have also helped immigrants open bank accounts, which makes them less likely to be targeted by muggers because they’re no longer “walking ATMs,” Casanova said.
“Exposing these folks” by giving their names and addresses to groups opposed to illegal immigration would “destroy the trust between the community and the city government and the police department,” Casanova testified. He predicted “an upsurge in crime” as a result.
“All the positive work, the hard work, that was done would be destroyed,” he said. “All the trust we’ve developed with these folks… They would believe that we have put them in harm’s way… It would sever the trust we have established with folks.”
Louis vs. Luiz
Louis Gold (at left in photo) sought to portray Casanova’s account as “anecdotal” rather than “empirical.” Gold was handling cross-examination on behalf of his son, complainant Dustin Gold.
Louis Gold asked Casanova whether Latinos comprise most of the perpetrators and victims of crimes in Fair Haven. Most robbery victims are Latino, Casanova said; “the majority” of their muggers are black.
Gold pressed him for “raw data.” Casanova said he didn’t have any. He came to the conclusion based on monitoring and responding to crimes every day.
“I fail to see the relevance of all this ethnicity” questioning, city government lawyer Kathleen Foster objected.
“I’m trying to show there’s no [numerical] baseline” for Casanova’s statements about the impact of the ID card on crime, Gold responded. “A lot of what the good lieutenant is referring to is opinion, not fact.”
A further argument between Foster and Gold ensued about relevance when Gold asked questions about the city’s uniform crime reporting form. He noted that it lists victims’ race, university affiliation (if one exists) — but not immigration status.
“They’re claiming a public safety exemption based on crime. I’m trying to prove crime is not tracked based on immigrants,” Gold said. Therefore, he said, “claims about crime and threats” to immigrants lack credibility, he argued. “There is no empirical data.”
When it came time for Camelle Scott (pictured) to testify, Gold sought to poke holes in another security argument — that ID cards make immigrants less likely to be targeted for a mugging.
Scott works as a clerk in the City Hall office that issues the ID cards. She spoke of how the IDs can be used as debit cards, to pay for purchases at local stores and coffee shops. They also feed parking meters.
Gold asked how much money can be loaded onto the card. One-hundred fifty dollars, Scott replied.
So mugging someone holding an ID card “would be almost like knocking off a ‘walking ATM,’” Gold said, using the term invoked earlier by Casanova to describe how muggers view undocumented workers without bank accounts.
“If the cards are worth cash, then stealing the card or robbing the card could get the person cash,” Gold continued. “So potentially, instead of making someone safer,” the card could endanger its holder.
Scott responded that an undocumented citizen who uses the card to help open a bank account (it can be used as a secondary proof of identity) will be carrying around less cash than before. So the holder might have carried a lot more than $150 in his or her pocket before obtaining a card and opening an account.
Sherman D. London, the FOIC commissioner conducting the hearings, added another rebuttal: The ID cards have photos. So the mugger would be handing a card to a store clerk that has the victim’s photo on it.
Not so with parking meters, Louis Gold responded. “A stolen card could be used for $100 to $150 worth of parking.”
Scott’s testimony continued with a discussion of how one obtains an ID card. She said the city insists that people pay cash.
“Are you afraid to take checks from these people?” Gold shot back.
“No,” Scott replied.
A Journalism Critique
The discussion turned to news coverage of the ID controversy — or rather of the Community Watchdog Project. This reporter (that’s me) was called to testify about threatening or hateful statements pulled from the reader comments section of ID card-related news articles published in the New Haven Independent. Dustin Gold took over the questioning from his father at this point, criticizing a “Compost Heap” opinion article about his group’s role in this FOIC case.
Click on the play arrow to watch Gold’s cross-examination.
Then click here to watch the Independent “Compost Heap” commentary to which he referred. (The relevant portion begins about two minutes into the video.)