March in East Haven, Conn., protests police harassment of Latino community
Thursday, August 20, 2009
By: Deb Malatesta
Police shake hands and chat with small group of white-supremacist counter-demonstrators
One hundred fifty people marched in East Haven, Conn., Aug. 15 to demand an end to racial profiling and harassment by the police department directed at the Black and Latino communities. Marchers chanted, “Racists cops have got to stop” and “No justice, no peace, no racist police.”
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Front banner: 'End Racial Profiling in East Haven'
Photo: Chris Garaffa
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Unidad Latinas en Acción, ANSWER CT (Act Now To Stop War and End Racism), People Against Injustice and other community groups organized the march.
Over the past several months, Latinos have been stopped by the police and arrested and detained if they did not have proper identification. East Haven police have called ICE and threatened to have people deported who have committed no crime. One of the marchers, Dimas Maldonado, who was born in Brooklyn, reports the East Haven police asked him for his “alien card.”
Showing their true colors, the East Haven police shook hands and chatted with members of a white supremacist group that staged a small counter-demonstration and waved “white power” flags. As the energized march passed by, demonstrators chanted, “The people united will never be defeated.”
Many members of the community came to show support. The spirited march concluded with a rally. Speakers included Emma Jones, community activist and mother of Malik Jones, a Black youth who was gunned down by the East Haven police in 1997; Jennifer Zaldana of the ANSWER Coalition; Antoinio Arizaga of Frente Unido De Inmigrantes Ecuatoriano; and Shelton Tucker of People Against Injustice.
Far from being over after the march, the struggle against police harassment in East Haven is just beginning. Resistance will continue thorough informational campaigns, gathering statements from victims, cop watch activity, demonstrations and more to let the community know they are not alone and the police that their racist harassment cannot continue!
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