Description
This is a thread to discuss issues related to the ongoing problem of violence in some areas of New Haven and surrounding towns. Please vote here if you want to see this problem addressed and if you agree:
1. Every citizen has the right to freedom from fear: a safe neighborhood and a safe house.
2. No child living in New Haven or anywhere else nearby should have to hear gunshots every week in their neighborhood (I currently do!).
3. A friend recently said "it is easier to get a gun than a quart of milk in my neighborhood." This is obviously not an acceptable situation.
4. A comprehensive community strategy is needed to stop the violence. Elected representatives should be able to explain exactly what they are doing to support the community's strategy.
5. The constant outdoor gunfire at the police training range is not acceptable. People living in Newhallville and Beaver Hills hear constant gunfire from this range and it sends the wrong message.
Please post ideas for community organizing to stop the message, links to relevant pages, etc -- and send the message to everyone that enough is enough!
Related articles:
http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/bike_enthusiast_shot_dead/
http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/murder_in_the_hill/
http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/coffe_crueller_and_a_chair/
http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/murder_on_button_st/
http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/double_homicide_on_front_st/
http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/while_friend_clings_to_life_shooting_/
http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/another_year_no_white_/
39 Comments
Anon (Guest)
Idea 1: Have people who witness or know of violent acts speak to the NHPD. Too often those who live in the communities or neighborhoods that have a lot of crime refuse to help with police investigations, saying "I don't know nothing [sic]" when, in actual fact, they know a lot.
In other words, stop the "No Snitching" mentality. It's ruining your community and neighborhoods, and it could be your family member or friend who pays the price when the person that you didn't report guns them down.
CT Livable Streets Campaign (Registered User)
Preventing Violence (Prevention Institute)
http://www.preventioninstitute.org/focus-areas/preventing-violence-and-reducing-injury/preventing-violence.html
CT Livable Streets Campaign (Registered User)
Creating a Healthy and Safe City: The Impact of Violence in New Haven (2011)
New Haven Health Department
Executive Summary (Short Version)
http://healthmattersnh.net/community/creating-a-healthy-and-safe-city
Full Report (with Maps, Charts etc.)
http://ctdatahaven.org/know/index.php/File:Creating_a_Healthy_and_Safe_City_2011_sml.pdf
CT Livable Streets Campaign (Registered User)
Vital Partners: Mayors and Police Chiefs Working Together for America's Children and Youth (2006)
National League of Cities and Institute for Youth, Education and Families
This report features a discussion of New Haven's and other cities' past or present efforts to prevent crime.
"The partnership among the city, police, Yale Child Study Center, probation, child protection, and other community agencies rests firmly on a commitment to community oriented policing and extensive communication. Police are deployed throughout the city, and neighborhood-based substations support both police and community activity. Verrelli asserts that “Community oriented policing means we keep our guys in the neighborhood. Some of the guys are in neighborhoods on bikes. Their job is to know the players. We do prevention and intervention. For example, we show up unannounced at the door of a person convicted of domestic violence. The accused knows he’s being watched, the victim knows we are available, the kids know we care, and everybody feels safer.” The CDCP program is one of the prime reasons that crime in New Haven has dropped by 61 percent since 1991."
http://www.nlc.org/ASSETS/BCA95FE5918447BB90BFDCF69954B623/IYEF_COPS_report.pdf
Greg (Guest)
Rachel Heerema (Guest)
Police have long called 3pm-6pm the "Danger Zone" as its the time that unsupervised kids learn all about trouble: experiment with juvenile crime, sex, drugs and alcohol, etc. http://www.afterschoolallstars.org/site/pp.aspx?c=enJJKMNpFmG&b=854685&printmode=1
We need schools open after school hours, safe neighborhood places for youth to gather, afterschool programming, and jobs youth unemployment is up to 80% (as compared to 2003 data).
If we do not pitch in to hep raise these kids, the streets will.
Lydia Bornick (Guest)
Sarah Heath (Guest)
July 25 (Guest)
Or do we need a different approach eg community policing?
CT Livable Streets Campaign (Registered User)
New research brief, out today from Equality Trust:
http://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/resources/publications/research-digest-1-violent-crime-web
"There is near consensus within academia concerning the link between inequality and violent crime. Indeed, as seemingly small reductions in income inequality can lead to sizeable falls in violent crime, these findings have powerful policy implications.... 'Crime reduction policies that ignore income inequality relinquish much of their potential impact on reducing homicide.' "
CT Livable Streets Campaign (Registered User)
In addition to the documents posted earlier, here are a couple slightly older ones that are relevant to the local discussion.
1. 2009 "photovoice" report on youth violence New Haven (this was also displayed last year at the New Haven Public Library)
http://ctdatahaven.org/know/index.php/File:RWJF_Photovoice_Report_YouthViolence_2009.pdf
2. 2009 New Haven Family Alliance Street Outreach Worker Program: Evaluation Report
http://ctdatahaven.org/know/index.php/File:NewHaven_SOW_Evaluation_Report_6-2009.pdf
RevKev (Registered User)
The only people who are going to be able to stop the violence and crime happening in our communities are the people who are committing the acts of violence and crime in our communities. The rest of us have to convince them to stop. It's not going to happen unless we directly engage them... build relationships with them... understand what they want and push them to go after it.
I don't think we need more programs. I think we need to fund the ones that make real impact. More importantly I think we need to fund the PEOPLE who are on the ground making direct differences.
Barbara Tinney (Guest)
CT Livable Streets Campaign (Registered User)
I agree with what Kevin and Barbara had to say about this. A couple more new links of interest:
Community Dialogues with Chief Limon and Patrol Officers on Creating Community-Police Partnerships
http://cmi.community-mediation.org/2011/03/a-community-dialogue-with-chief-limon-and-patrol-officers-on-creating-community-police-partnerships/
News article about this discussion
http://www.newhavensafestreets.org/2011/03/petition-to-stop-violence-in-new-haven.html
Please post anything else that you feel is relevant to the discussion.
Anonymous (Guest)
M (Guest)
KRS1 (Guest)
"pop pop pop
when he's shot who's to blame:
Headlines front page and Raps the name"
-Time for another movement-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bzU6YycLv0
Barbara Fair (Guest)
CT Livable Streets Campaign (Registered User)
Those are good ideas, Barbara.
Other ideas were offered today by a community group in Newhallville:
"'Desperate' steps needed to curb violence, New Haven's Newhallville civic leaders say; curfews, offender registry discussed" (NH Register 3/29/11)
http://nhregister.com/articles/2011/03/29/news/new_haven/aa3neccc032811.txt
Excerpt
Jefferson unveiled the group’s proposals by saying, “These are desperate times. They require desperate measures.” The group offered several ideas:
--Creation of a violent offender registry. Jefferson said community leaders would set up the list, “to give law-abiding citizens the right to say whether they want to be around such a person.”
--Raising the mandatory minimum sentence for anyone convicted of criminal possession of a firearm from two years to five years.
--Instituting an anti-gang injunction to name high-risk offenders. This would be modeled after one in Oakland, Calif. Jefferson said those named would be prohibited from specific activities, such as hanging out in a certain area and associating with some individuals in a neighborhood. They would be subject to an evening curfew.
--Jefferson also called on suburban police departments to help stop guns flowing from those towns into New Haven.
Please post more ideas and discussion here. Thanks!
CT Livable Streets Campaign (Registered User)
Update - it sounds like the city is trying to address Petition Item #5, which is good news. See http://www.seeclickfix.com/issues/99069. It would help if folks who have signed this petition could call their reps and ask them to help address the range relocation issue.
What about #1-#4?
CT Livable Streets Campaign (Registered User)
More ideas:
Limon: Let’s Explore Curfew (4/28/11)
http://newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/chief_limon_on_a_curfew_for_kid/
Please keep posting more here.
CT Livable Streets Campaign (Registered User)
The NHI has more coverage and context regarding New Haven crime issues at http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/three_more_shot_overnight.
Under "Show Older Comments", you can scroll down on the SeeClickFix page to see additional articles and reports.
CT Livable Streets Campaign (Registered User)
Cameras are being added to street corners in New Haven. This might be one step in helping to address some of the concerns in this petition: We'll have to monitor the results and see.
http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/cameras_trained_on_hot_corners/
anonymous (Registered User)
An interesting story on violence reduction planning in New Haven.
http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/gang_kennedy/
Please keep posting ideas here and circulate this petition.
CT Livable Streets Campaign (Registered User)
http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/amid_violence_a_call_for_cooperation/
anonymous (Registered User)
http://ceasefirechicago.org/education/effect-of-violence-on-local-economies
Anonymous (Guest)
Aldermen want a gun buy back
http://nhregister.com/articles/2012/02/14/news/new_haven/doc4f398a4ba324a232860282.txt
CT Livable Streets Campaign (Registered User)
Doug Hausladen (Registered User)
guest (Guest)
There was a SCF pop up with this link, so there must be an effort to get this going again.
The source of most of the gun violence in the city is a very small number of people and the cops apparently know who many of them are. Direct intervention is being tried with the very people carrying guns illegally and using them illegally. A new effort was in the news today of federal and local law and human services teams that are about to try this in New Haven.
Apparently they plan to contact known gang/group members with history of gun activity and do a sit down with PD and social workers who will tell them they are part of a community and what impact they are having on it. Ways out of the life will be offered, including employment and educational support. Apparently, they will be told that if they do not take advantage of this way out, they will be hyper-policed. In other words, they will be watched continuously and cited and arrested for anything they do that is illegal, every infraction, every crime etc. The eye will stay on them.
Interesting, and they say it has worked elsewhere.
guest (Guest)
Re -- gun tracing: Knowing where the guns are coming from is good to know. The problem is that it is sooo incredibly easy to buy guns in some states, like Va (or is it W. Va?)
The guns are pretty much legal when they leave the factory.
At some point, a number of them fall into illegal transactions.
Some of them come from straw buyers at local gun shops here in Connecticut. Gun shops here have been caught for this - knowingly selling to a straw buyer. A straw buyer is a legal buyer who is reselling to those with no legal right to own a gun, such as convicted felons. Some straw buyers come back repeatedly, so the shop knows it. Others bring the felon with them to the store.
I read of one case here in Connecticut and was surprised to see how long it takes authorities to deal with the gun shop and how light the punishment is, even when the sale can be traced to the use of the weapon in a murder. I would like it to be much more severe for gun shops when the evidence of their knowledge is sure. This gun shop knew they were selling to a straw buyer and no one doesn't know what that means. That shop owner sold it, knowing it could be used for murder and did it to make a buck. It's disgusting.
But, again, with other states being so lax, it is only a national, regional, state by state effort that will help in terms of the availability of guns.
Rural areas without urban gun problems have a hard time understanding why they should be subjected to heavy regulation and more intrusions into their privacy because cities can't solve their problems with violence. Wacko NRA extremism obscures the fact that there are reasonable people living in a totally different kind of America who resent having to pay for our urban problems and can barely conceive of them. Not that there is not gun violence in rural places but you know what I mean.
There are rural areas in America where it is truly prudent to have an old shotgun, if not for a rabid animal then a freak intruder. If your sheriff is an hour away driving, even if you have a phone (And many don't have any cell phone reception or landlines).
So anyway, out front protecting both their interests plus the interests of a bunch of wackos is the NRA. NRA seems to have a strategy that works of acting crazy and unreasonable almost 100-percent of the time.
Mayor Bloomberg in New York -- this is one of the issues he goes national about all the time. He knows it is going to take cooperation. For example, guns are coming up the eastern seaboard from places like Va (or W.VA -- again, can't remember which) He has to use every other strategy to lessen gun violence and can't rely on tight regulation of gun sales elsewhere. Same here in New Haven.
guest (Guest)
"--Instituting an anti-gang injunction to name high-risk offenders. This would be modeled after one in Oakland, Calif. Jefferson said those named would be prohibited from specific activities, such as hanging out in a certain area and associating with some individuals in a neighborhood. They would be subject to an evening curfew."
This idea was mentioned on the list above -- I think this is a horrendous idea as it is so unconstitutional it is not funny unless that person is on probation and these things are required as part of their probation, part of their sentence.
Freedom of association, freedom to walk down a particular public street, etc. taking that away is plain illegal. It declares certain people, not behavior, as illegal and where is the due process? Without even being charged and convicted of anything? By virtue of being well-known as a jerk or a menace or undesirable? And no oversight on who declares it? no process? This is the worst idea ever and similar stuff has rightly been attacked by progressive legal advocates.
The new program announced for new haven I think is a better approach, which is, take this incredibly good way out or be policed so hard you can't take it. It's brilliant because the way out offered is jobs and education. If that offer is real, these kids will be crazy not to go for it
CT Livable Streets Campaign (Registered User)
CT Livable Streets Campaign (Registered User)
Update: Interesting NHR headline article today with more solutions discussed.
Many reasons violence in New Haven is heading down; 2012 has seen reduction in homicides, shootings
Dec 31 2012 By Shahid Abdul-Karim
http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2012/12/31/news/new_haven/doc50e0fde65bc1d421602685.txt?viewmode=fullstory
I like these quotes from Mr. Castillo:
“Crime is related to social-economic conditions, lack of employment, and desperation issues; these issues cause idle time and folk relapse into drug use and guns for survival,” Castillo said.
“Businesses in the community need some type of tax break or incentive to hire ex-felons and our young people.”
Carrie40 (Registered User)
關閉 Carrie40 (Registered User)
Reopened Guest (Guest)
Westward Ho (Registered User)
關閉 City of New Haven (Registered User)