Thomas Breen photos
Protesters shut down city streets in outrage over Tuesday’s shooting.
At College and M.L.J. Jr. Blvd.
Hundreds of students and community activists joined hands to close downtown streets for nearly seven hours in protest of the Yale and Hamden police officers who shot at two unarmed people in Newhallville.
The passionate, extended, and peaceful demonstration saw town and gown momentarily united in outrage over Tuesday’s shooting of 22-year-old Stephanie Washington by Hamden Police Officer Devin Eaton and Yale Police Officer Terrence Pollack.
The two officers are both on administrative leave as the state’s attorney’s office investigates the shooting of Washington and arrest, and subsequent release, of her companion Paul Witherspoon. Witherspoon is preparing a lawsuit against the town and the university, according to his attorney.
Walking up York Street.
With bullhorns, hand drums, protest placards, and yellow flowers in hand, the nearly 500 protesters marched down and around Broadway, College Street, M.L.K. Jr. Boulevard, and York Street from 5 p.m. to midnight, rousing passerby out of their apartments and dorms and into the streets with calls of “No justice! No peace!” and “When black lives are under attack / What do we do? Stand up! Fight back!” and “Which side are you on, my people? Which side are you on?”
At College and George.
As with similar protests that flooded Dixwell Avenue on Tuesday and Hillhouse Avenue on Wednesday, Thursday’s demonstration was organized by a coalition of local police accountability groups, including People Against Police Brutality, Black Lives Matter New Haven, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Justice for Jayson, and the Connecticut Bail Fund. Thursday’s protest was also organized by the Sex Workers and Allies Network (SWAN) and the Yale Undergraduate Prison Project.
Kerry Ellington (center).
The marchers were escorted through the streets by swarms of New Haven police officers, who blocked traffic at every intersection the group approached and largely stood back as the protesters issued their demands for justice for the Washington and Witherspoon.
“Police violence is a crisis across Connecticut for black and brown communities, for very low income communities, for queer communities, for trans commnities,” one of the protest’s chief organizers, Kerry Ellington, said as the crowd paused and kneeled at the intersection of Crowd and George.
Although she held a bullhorn in her hand, the hundreds of people before her amplified her message via a “people’s mic,” whereby protesters at the front of the crowd repeated Ellington’s words, and then the group behind them did the same, creating a wave of collective speech with every sentence.
At College and M.L.J. Jr. Blvd.
“It is a crisis, and we need help now. This is a cry for help. This is a demand for justice. We want justice for Stephanie Washington and justice for Paul Witherspoon. We want the officers responsible for their shooting to be arrested. We want Devin Eaton of the Hamden Police Department and Terrance Pollock of the Yale Police Department fired immediately.”
Ellington called on both police departments to release body camera footage from the shooting immediately, and not to wait until the end of the state’s investigation. (Hamden’s police spokesman reported Thursday night that the state’s attorney’s office will not authorize release of body camera footage yet, for fear of jeopardizing its investigation into the shooting.) And Ellington asked why two people who have not been charged with anything by the police so far were met with a volley of at least 16 bullets by people sworn to protect the public.
At College and Crown.
“It’s unacceptable,” she said. “It’s unconscionable. It’s police terror. It’s police violence. We won’t stand for it. We’re not fucking around. We don’t care about your laws for traffic when you’re gunning us down.”
Norm Clement.
As the group breached a blockade of police cars at College and M.L.K. Jr. Blvd., veteran activist Norm Clement picked up his bullhorn and gave the students in attendance a brief history lesson on his own recent experience blocking off Downtown streets.
He recalled how, two and a half years ago, he helped lead a protest against President Donald Trump’s first immigrant and refugee ban that resulted in him getting pepper sprayed by the state police and having a police dog named Nero sicced on him.
“When the community does this,” he said about the protest, “we get attacked. We get taken down. We get beaten up. I just want you to fucking realize what a privilege you have in this city.”
At College and M.L.J. Jr. Blvd.
Kahlil Greene, Yale’s new student body president, echoed Clement’s sentiment that Yalies must recognize the privilege they have in being able to block off city streets for hours on end with little fear of any kind of repercussions.
“I know finals are coming,” he said. “I know you’ve got exams and essays. But I want you to stay out here. Because we live in gated communities and people in New Haven do not live in gated communities. When we go back to our dorms, they’re still out here fighting. And when we graduate, they’re still out here.”
At Broadway and York.
As the marchers descended on Broadway and College at midnight for a final moment of silence and round of chanting to gear up for another protest planned for Hamden Plaza on Friday afternoon, Acting City Police Chief Otoniel Reyes hung just outside the circle, watching quietly.
He praised his officers for acting professionally throughout, for both protecting the protesters and treating them with respect. And he praised the protesters, too, for keeping the march peaceful.
“That’s all we could ask for,” he said.
Click on the Facebook Live videos below to watch excerpts from Thursday night’s protest.