Carly Wanna Photo
Ala Ochumare stood at the center of a candle-lit circle and read a two-page list of New Haveners who have been killed in the city since 2010.
That was part of the opening of a Wednesday evening vigil near the corner of Henry Street and Dixwell Avenue, close to where Trayvon Foster was murdered last Saturday.
Ochumare organized the event through Black Lives Matter New Haven to mourn and provide a “healing space” for those who have been affected by the loss of New Haven’s own.
“Black and brown lives matter. It’s unfortunate we have to say that,” Ochumare noted.
She led the vigil with opening remarks in which she thanked the crowd for attending and affirmed their right to be angry. Turning to police officers across the street, she asked, “Why aren’t you solving the crimes?”
“I’m tired of my oppressor winning,” said Ochumare.
Then she offered the megaphone to attendees to volunteer their opinions. By then, the rain had doused most candles, but not the sense of urgency held by the approximately 25 participants.
Niamke Daniels, a community activist, stepped forward and said that no outside source can save the community. Instead, he said the community would have to protect itself. He called on churches to do more to help neighborhoods as well as libraries to provide community support for children.
Daniels said “nothing” had changed throughout his 37 years in New Haven.
“The only thing that needs to be new is us,” said Daniels.
Justin Farmer, who represents the northern end of Newhallville on the Hamden City Council, heard of the vigil through his grandmother who lives in the neighborhood. Farmer is 23 years-old, the same age as Foster had been when he was killed.
He lamented the tendency to blame murders in New Haven on gang violence, an assessment he said distracts from underlying issues such as the lack of jobs and the closing of the Dixwell Community “Q” House (which is now being rebuilt).
“I think we as a community need to be more together to talk about those issues,” said Farmer.
Another elected official, Hill Alder Ron Hurt of Ward 3, came to the event with his son and called on attendees to hold Yale University accountable. He also encouraged the crowd to go to at an event hosted by the activist group New Haven Rising on Thursday at Conte West Hills Magnet School to discuss the job market and redlining.
“Black lives do matter. If you don’t think so, you’re in the wrong place. Wrong city,” said Hurt.
“You don’t want to walk up to a mother and ask, ‘How do you feel?’’” said Veronica Douglas-Givan, a family advocate at New Haven Adult Education Center and a mother. Having worked at WTNH, Channel 8, for 28 years, she frequently had to report the tales of murdered children and heartbroken parents, she recalled
Activist Camelle Scott-Mujahid called the violence “predictable,” saying that solutions need to derive from the community itself as opposed to delegating the problems to police. She said a shortage of jobs created part of a substantial barrier to violence intervention.
“Our leaders consistently don’t prioritize our youths,” said Scott-Mujahid, specifically citing summer jobs cutbacks in Bridgeport.
The names of the fallen on organizers’ lists.