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Cops taking protester Nate Blair to the ground.
The attorney for two men arrested at a recent protest that went awry in downtown New Haven has filed a complaint with the state police.
The attorney, Patricia Kane, charges in the complaint that state troopers mishandled a Feb. 4 protest against President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. State police showed up when demonstrators marched onto the state Route 34 Connector mini-highway, blocking traffic. They later arrested a 66-year-old protest leader, Norman Clements, for, among other charges, allegedly inciting a riot.
In the complaint (read it here), Kane charges that troopers “were antagonistic from the very beginning, especially the Trooper handling a vicious dog,” which “lung[ed] at protesters repeatedly” and attacked three cops.
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State police dog; 3 cops attacked.
Kane writes that she thrice told troopers that “protesters would move aside from any emergency. When I was in the midst of repeating the offer to move in the event of any emergency the 2nd time, the Trooper handling the vicious dog moved over to me and the dog actually jumped on me. Fortunately I was not hurt. He then ordered me to move and I refused and pointed out that he had moved towards me and he should move back. He did. At no time did the Troopers give any warnings to the protesters to move or be arrested. Had they done their job, the demonstration would have been over in 5 minutes.”
The complaint charges that state police “lie[d]” in publicly stating that protesters barred an American Medical Response ambulance from getting through to the hospital. AMR has denied the incident took place; Christine Plourde of the state police legal affairs unit told the Independent that the agency stands by its story that a Yale-New Haven Hospital charge nurse reported to police that an ambulance crew had to perform an emergency procedure on a critically ill patient in a stuck ambulance.
Kane’s complaint also called “illegal, improper and without any factual basis” the subsequent arrests of her two clients, Clement and Nathan Blair. Click here to read more about those arrests.
State police said they set a dog on Clement and pepper-sprayed him because he was fleeing from their attempts to arrest him. Clement said he was running from the dog and the spray. In her complaint, Kane writes, “I was not permitted to speak with [Clement] at the scene or at the police headquarters. Despite the fact that a bondsman who could write a surety bond was on his way to the Union St. headquarters, Mr. Clement was taken to Bridgeport, rather than Whalley [Avenue] in New Haven as was previously the plan. Police told me Mr. Clement had medical treatment, but they did NOT take him to the hospital as he requested. He did receive medical treatment after his release and the following day.”
State police told the Independent they are reviewing “multiple” aspects of the day’s events, including why the state police canine bit two cops and tore the clothing of a third.
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