Zoom
Thursday’s Zoom “rally.”
One year ago, well over 150 people stormed the Hamden Police Department and spilled out onto Dixwell Avenue after Hamden Police Officer Devin Eaton shot at an unarmed couple in New Haven in the early hours of the morning of April 16, 2019.
Protesters at the Hamden Police Department headquarters last year.
On Thursday, April 16, 2020, 46 people gathered again to commemorate the one-year anniversary of a shooting that sparked a year of protests and calls for structural change in both the Hamden and Yale police departments.
This time, no one held signs, and no TV cameras peered over protesters’ shoulders. The only cameras were those on the computer and phone screens that allowed a group of area residents and Yale students now at home in other parts of the country to come together for a rally on the Zoom teleconferencing app.
At around 4 a.m. on April 16, 2019, Hamden’s Devin Eaton responded to a call of a robbery at a Hamden gas station. He found the car he was looking for on Argyle Street in New Haven, and Yale Police Officer Terrance Pollock showed up as reinforcement. When Paul Witherspoon, who was driving, opened the door to leave the car, Eaton immediately started shooting, and Pollock began to shoot as well. Eaton ran around to the passengers side of the car, continuing to shoot, and hit Stephanie Washington, who was sitting in the passenger’s seat. She ended up in the hospital.
The shooting sparked a year of protests and calls for structural change to police departments, both in the streets and in the chambers of Hamden’s government. On Thursday, many of the people who kept pressure on politicians to act led the charge again to make sure they, and their quest for justice, is not forgotten.
“If we do not continue to make the noise, it goes away until the next incident happens, and god forbid the next incident involves somebody getting killed,” said Rhonda Caldwell (pictured above), who has led many of the actions since the shooting, and who helped organize Thursday’s virtual rally. “Don’t think we can take an 18-month break while we wait for a vaccine.”
The Zoom rally did not include any chanting or new calls for specific changes. Rather, it was a meeting of the various groups that have organized actions in the past to reflect on the last year and come together once more to begin to think about how to continue actions in the months to come.
“When I reflect on this moment, it’s incredibly moving,” said People Against Police Brutality Organizer Kerry Ellington. “If we hadn’t come together in the way that we all did, in the way that black women took the front lines,… I don’t think we would have gotten to where we are today.”
Through the many protests in front of the Hamden Police Commission and Legislative Council, a group of citizens and students coalesced that became a familiar presence at government meetings. Kerry Ellington and Rhonda Caldwell were its leaders, and members of Black Students for Disarmament at Yale began to show up in force to actions. When protests erupted after a teacher at Hamden’s West Woods Elementary School planned to have her fifth graders act out a play that would have involved students playing slaves, many familiar faces came before the Legislative Council to demand action.
Caldwell said that Jaelen King of Black Students for Disarmament at Yale reached out to her to hold the Zoom rally. King said his group would be posting on its Facebook page over the next few days to commemorate last year’s events.
Still, there is a lot more organizing to do, said Ellington. “Police murder is the norm in Connecticut. So, I think we have so much organizing that we have to sharpen up about.”
Ellington said she would like to begin organizing communities beyond the New Haven area to start staging larger protests in the capital to demand action from Gov. Ned Lamont.
Last year’s shooting sparked weeks of mass protests. On April 18, the Thursday after the protest, hundreds of students shut down streets downtown. The next day, they shut down Dixwell in Hamden in a massive march.
At the end of the month, protesters packed the Legislative Council chambers to call on the council to start an independent investigation into the shooting. A week later, they made signs and marched them to the office of Mayor Curt Leng, calling for an independent probe. In May, they shut down the first meeting of the police commission after the shooting.
Protests continued through the fall, with one rally shutting down Dixwell again. A week later, protesters held an action outside of Leng’s house.
The shooting and events after also prompted Caldwell and co-organizer Laurie Sweet to run for the council on the Working Families Party platform. They did not win.
For the last year, protesters have called for Devin Eaton and Terrance Pollock to be fired, and for structural changes to the Hamden Police Department and Commission. The Legislative Council did pass a resolution stating its intent to enact structural changes like creating police districts and exploring the creation of a criminal review board. Eaton was later placed on unpaid administrative leave and arrested after the state’s attorney’s office filed criminal charges against him. In December, Yale suspended Pollock for 30 days and placed him on administrative duty, stripping him of his gun.
Yet the department has not made any determinations regarding Eaton’s employment because in December, a court ordered its police commission to put off a hearing until after his criminal proceedings are complete.
The town has not enacted any structural changes to the police department or police commission, though it did begin a series of community conversations.
Councilman Justin Farmer, who represents southern Hamden’s Fifth District on the council, said the next steps for change will come with the town’s charter revision process, which is set to begin in the next few months. A revised charter will be adopted in 2021.
The Zoom rally lasted one hour. At the end, Caldwell and others agreed to host more to continue conversations while everyone is stuck at home due to the novel coronavirus.
“We have to acknowledge our town has an issue with race, and we can’t wait for it to fix itself,” said Caldwell.
Previous articles about political organizing during the pandemic. Series logo by Amanda Valaitis.
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• Mutual Aid Teams Tackle Covid-19 Challenge