Paul Bass Photo
Fellow 99 percenters: Organizer Josh Heltke (center) with Officer David Hartman.
In New York, demonstrators carried signs blasting cops as thugs. The slogan chanted on New Haven’s streets? “NHPD: You Are Family.”
That chant — issued Sunday as some 40 marchers carried signs on the sidewalks of New Haven’s Wall Street, per arrangement with the cops — was part of a continuous stream of praise and cooperation between demonstrators who set up an indefinite “occupation” of the upper Green and the police dispatched to watch them.
Or help them.
They didn’t say so in any official press releases, but some of the cops were clearly enjoying themselves on a sunny day amid the energetic, sometimes offbeat, passionate protesters.
The protesters took up residence on the Green Saturday, establishing a new colony called Occupy New Haven. The protest-in-residence is part of a nationwide phenomenon of “occupations” inspired by the mothership of Occupy Wall Street in New York City. It springs from a bubbling-over of frustration with income inequality and corporate greed in cities across the country.
Late Tuesday night into early Wednesday morning, protesters checked with cops before picketing at a streetcorner to make sure they wouldn’t be disturbing anyone. Then, at 12:10 a.m., an officer roused the camping occupiers to tell them to stop smoking the dope he was smelling. They thanked him again — and evicted people who had been using drugs.
In response to that incident, the group Wednesday night unanimously approved a new “good neighbor policy” vowing “zero tolerance” for illegal drug use or alcohol—read it here.
“I haven’t met anyone I didn’t like,” said one officer who ended up hanging out with camped-out protesters late one evening.
“Everyone’s thanking us for being there,” reported Lt. Rebecca Sweeney, the top downtown cop. “Everyone’s been cooperative and giving us information. I’m pretty happy with the way things are going. They’re calling us and letting us know when they’re marching and meeting.”
The story has been different elsewhere. Police have clashed with “occupiers” in cities from Boston to Atlanta since the national movement began weeks ago.
The differences reflect a central question facing the movement nationally: Does it make sense to gain attention by confronting power — or the guardians of power, in the form of the police? Or is that repeating a mistake that began with protests in the 1960s and 1970s? In that era, demonstrators demonized police (sometimes when provoked, often when not), and a string of Republican presidents from Richard Nixon through Ronald Reagan succeeded in promoting an economic policy geared toward the interests of the wealthy in part by exploiting cultural differences between white unionized working-class Americans and often more economically privileged protesters.
“They’re on our side,” said Martina Crouch (pictured), a Yale sophomore from Danbury who heads the New Haven Occupation’s Direct Action Committee. “A cop even offered me paper to write my sign.”
Crouch blamed both the police and the protesters in other cities for the tensions there, which are so far absent from New Haven. Some of the New York City protesters provoked police, she said; and some police provoked or overreacted on their own. “Once someone provokes once, that hostility doesn’t leave,” she said. “People don’t forget. [Here] we have a much more friendly approach. They have a much more friendly approach. We know what’s allowed. We respect the boundaries. There are reasons [for rules police put in place]: No open flames; no one wants to burn down a tent. It’s all been reasonable. They are with us.”
Advance Planning
The good vibes were no accident. They were in part a result of days of planning — as well as a 30-year modern tradition in New Haven of protesters working alongside cops, even if arrests are planned, to minimize disruption or tension. Which can be tricky when a hierarchical organization with clear lines of command (the police) has to interact with a movement committed to consensus decision-making and an absence of recognized leaders.
“We got ahead of it. We met with the folks that are the quasi-leaders out there, a clear line of communication with them,” said Lt. Luiz Casanova, head of patrol for the department. “They’ve been communicating with us. Things are going well.”
Thomas MacMillan Photo
Aubin: Cops have our back.
Occupy New Haven organizer Ben Aubin’s Saturday announcement to a crowd of hundreds of protesters who showed up for the city’s first day of protest set the tone. “Everyone in charge of maintaining the safety of people in this city has opted to stand in solidarity with us,” Aubin declared.
Saturday’s occupation-creation followed days of groundwork laid by Aubin and others, including a Friday meeting between city officials and protest organizers. In contrast with other cities, where interactions between protesters and cops have been spiced with pepper spray and featured contentious stand-offs and mass arrests, occupiers in New Haven are working hand in hand with local government and law enforcement.
Both parties have agreed to ground rules for the encampment regarding tent placement and open flames. The New Haven parks department has even supplied portable toilets for the protesters.
Does this level of cooperation undermine the power of the occupation? If protesters aren’t causing inconvenience with political action, will it have any result?
Aubin said the cooperation with the city is purely pragmatic. His aim is to see that the occupation is “sustainable,” which means keeping people safe and comfortable for the long term.
“For me personally, it just makes sense,” he said Saturday. “Especially because we’re going into the cold season. We really need to keep an eye on people’s safety.”
The power of a lot of protests is in “making a lot of noise,” said Todd Sanders, another organizer. New Haven’s is different, he said.
“The idea of this is it’s about discussion,” Sanders said. Members of the Occupy Wall Street movement feel that the wealthiest 1 percent of the U.S. population controls an inordinate amount of resources, including the ability to voice ideas, he said. Occupy New Haven will be partly about having discussion forums on a variety of topics, to reclaim some of that ability, Sanders said.
“I feel like it is like a Greek agora,” Sanders said. It’s like a marketplace of ideas, where a libertarian, for example, can “try on” ideas through discussion with someone in favor of a larger government, Sanders said.
“We support people organizing around problems and seeking collaborative solutions,” said city spokesman Adam Joseph, when asked if the city is “in solidarity” with Occupy New Haven.
“Our role is to promote the public safety and welfare of the occupiers. We’re here to work with them,” Joseph said.
“We’re looking to avoid the problems other cities have had,” Joseph said on Friday.
Asked if the police department “stands in solidarity” with the protesters, police spokesman Officer Dave Hartman said, “We certainly agree that they have a right to do what they are doing.”
The question of “solidarity” is one of personal opinion, not a matter of policing, Hartman said. “Our function is safety.”
Neither the department nor the city have set a time limit on the occupation, said Hartman and Joseph. “We aren’t imposing a deadline,” Hartman said.
Neena Satija and Melissa Bailey contributed to this story.
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