Paul Bass Photo
A campaign-season press conference Tuesday about wanted crooks turned into a sidewalk seminar with skeptical young “Tre” neighbors who had questions about ski masks and a vanished hoops court.
The official and unofficial back-and-forth took place Tuesday morning at a press conference in a park on Kensington Street, the heart of the Dwight-Kensington or “Tre” neighborhood that continues to see much of the drug-related shooting that has put New Haven on edge.
The event reflected how crime is emerging as the number-one — and ‑two and ‑three — issue in the mayoral campaign season, which traditionally begins in earnest after Memorial Day.
Although violent crime went down last year, New Haven ranked as number four in a business website’s list last week of the country’s 10 most violent cities. That ranking arrived as the city saw a rash of eight shootings in 48 hours, and as this murder rate so far this year has soared (to 15 so far).
Mayor John DeStefano and a battery of top cops unveiled a board at the press conference showing the mug shots of six people wanted for violent felonies. They’re six of the 10 New Haveners on a new monthly most-wanted fugitives list the city plans to distribute in hopes of getting help from citizens. By the end of the week, officials plan to have the list up on the department’s website.
The idea, said Police Chief Frank Limon and Assistant Chief John Velleca, is to track down violent criminals whom the cops can lock up right away — unlike targets of more extended investigations. The people on the list all have outstanding warrants. (Four pictures didn’t appear because the suspects are juveniles, Limon said.)
Officials summoned police district managers from throughout the city to attend the event.
Limon also reported that the city cops served 52 warrants in the past week, initiated 67 drug investigations, stopped 30 “suspicious persons,” issued a slew of traffic citations, and launched saturation patrols in neighborhood hot spots.
Clifton Graves, one of three Democrats planning to challenge DeStefano in a Sept. 13 party primary, watched from the side of the press conference and took notes. Afterwards, he dismissed the top-10 list as “just reactionary electioneering.” He said he plans to release a crime-fighting plan soon.
Neighbors crowded to watch the event and regularly interjected notes of skepticism. Some watched from across the street by the gate to the courtyard of the Ethan Gardens complex, a former cooperative now run by the growing Pike International company (and the site of an infamous 1969 murder of a suspected Black Panther informer named Alex Rackley).
Others walked up amid the reporters and called out their own questions. One man called the reporters’ questions “silly” and said crime had to do with a lack of jobs; DeStefano spoke of the city’s recent job growth (the highest in Connecticut in 2010). He also spoke with the man after the press conference.
“I just want to know why the cops ride around in ski masks!” called out another young man, who identified himself as “Wiley Don,” a local rapper.
“Ski masks?” DeStefano asked, looking to the cops behind him for clues.
When the conference ended, DeStefano approached Wiley Don along with Lt. Luiz Casanova, who heads patrol.
The three talked about ski masks.
“Officers that are working extensive investigations” sometimes wear them, Casanova explained to Wiley Don. “We’ve got to protect their identities,” for their safety.
“You’re provoking violence when people see a ski mask,” WIley Don persisted.
Casanova (pictured) said that usually cops with ski masks are traveling with a larger group of officers, clearly identified as cops, without masks.
Afterwards, Wiley Don was asked what he thought of Casanova’s explanation.
“I wasn’t listening,” he said. He said he’s a “street artist” who plans to speak out for grassroots people’s concerns.
DeStefano spent a while talking with a man across the street (pictured at the top of the story) who complained that police recently stopped him after work and arrested him on a warrant for a home invasion in Woodbridge. “I don’t even known where Woodbridge is!” he insisted.
Several neighbors complained that instead of putting up most-wanted mug boards, the city should give young people in the Tre stuff to do. One complaint was about a nearby basketball court that disappeared.
“Hassett knocked it down!” complained one young man, referring to the neighborhood’s top cop, Lt. Ray Hassett.
Asked later, Hassett confirmed that he helped get rid of the court, which was a block away behind the old Timothy Dwight School.
Neighbors complained about the court, he said. Drug dealers regularly operated there, as did other mischief-makers, he said.
“The kids who really wanted to play basketball,” he said, “were afraid to play.”
Achievement First has since bought the old Dwight School and is rebuilding it. The area is fenced off.
This month’s top 10 list features:
• Darris Snow, 20, wanted on charges connected with stolen autos and fights.
• Floyd Harris Jr., 49, wanted on charges related to a stabbing.
• Kevin J. Jones, 35, wanted on charges connected with a shooting.
• Donnie Andrews, 17, wanted on charges related to a shooting.
• Tyrone Stevenson, 21, wanted for allegedly setting a fire after a dispute.
• Howard Tahmon, 35, also wanted for allegedly setting a fire after a dispute.
• William D. Hill, 19, wanted for charges in connection with a street robbery.
• Kevin Rivers, 18, wanted on charges related to an armed street robbery.
• Adrian Clark, 24, wanted on weapons charges.
• Oscar Rosales, 30, wanted for a stabbing.
(The Independent does publish the names of people wanted for crimes and missing, when the police seek the public’s help and feel there is a public danger.)