A night before the Academy Awards, the stars of law enforcement came out to be honored — with a heavy cast of New Haven leading women and men.
The occasion was the national Association of Black Law Enforcement Officers (NABLEO) Banquet 2014, held Saturday night at the Sheraton Hartford South Hotel in Rocky Hill.
New Haven police Officer Shafiq Abdussabur presided over the evening as his last official act as NABLEO president. He handed out over 30 awards for public service, many of them to police officers as well as community leaders in the Elm City. Abdussabur is pictured above at the dais with Mayor Toni Harp, who was recognized for her work crusading for criminal-justice reform as a state senator. Harp has continued focusing on the issue as mayor: Last week she dropped in to the Whalley Avenue correctional facility to speak with inmates about their eventual reentry into city life. Monday afternoon she plans to unveil a new version of the city’s prison reentry program.
New Haven’s newest state senator, Gary Holder-Winfield, was recognized at the banquet for the same reason. Sworn in this week after winning a special election, Holder-Winfield was named co-chair of the legislature’s Labor and Public Employees Committee.
Tracey Suggs was one of two honorees — along with street outreach worker Doug Bethea — who lost sons to New Haven’s gun violence, then channeled their grief into community work to save other lives.
Yale Police Chief Ronnell Higgins and New Haven Detective Lucille Roach, head of the Silver Shields organization, took their turns picking up awards.
City Detective Lynn Meekins Bailey got to give the award to her father Ted Meekins, a retired cop who had presented her with her own detective badge upon her promotion. She called her father “my role model, my hero.”
New Haven Lt. Holly Wasilewski (pictured with her mom Anita) won special praise from Abdussabur upon picking up her award. He spoke of patrolling the Hill with her years ago. One Christmas eve she led him into rundown homes where she handed out presents she had bought with her own money, the beginning of a career of collecting donations (like bedsheets) and purchasing gifts for the needy. “You don’t have to be a black officer,” Abdussabur observed, “to work in the black community.” Other awardees included, among others, community activist Barbara Fair, attorney and Alder Michael Stratton, firefighter Gary Tinney, Family Alliance chief Barbara Tinney, Pastors John Lewis and Troy McNulty, Democratic Town Chairwoman Jacqueline James, Professor Khalilah L. Brown-Dean, and journalists John Dankosky (WNPR), Shahid Abdul Karim (New Haven Register), and Paul Bass (New Haven Independent).