Good evening.

Would like to call this Court of Common Council public portion public comment portion meeting to order for today, March 9th, 2026.

My name is Council President TJ Clark, and I'm joined by our majority leader, uh, Kelly Billerdew, uh, Councilman uh Madley Rosato, Councilwoman Marilyn Rossetti, our Tom La City Clerk, Eric Lusa, Councilman John Gill, Councilman Alex Thomas, uh, Councilman Josh Mitcham, and we have a special councilwoman that's joined us on the dais as well.

Uh junior councilwoman.

Um thank you for joining us tonight uh in person and for those who are viewing us virtually.

Uh this committee committee meeting is being broadcast live by HBATV.org, Channel 96, Frontier Communications six zero three two, HPA TV Facebook, Page, HPA TV, YouTube, HBA TV, Roku TV, Apple TV, Amazon, and all apps.

Public comments shall be conducted in accordance with the following procedures.

Each person shall give his or her name, address, and if he or she represents a group, shall in addition state for the record the name and address of said group or organization.

Each speaker shall limit his or her remarks to three minutes, and our timekeeper this evening is Councilman John Gale.

All remarks shall be addressed to the council as a body and not to any member thereof.

During the public comment, no member of the council may address the council as a member of the public.

Any person making personal impertinent or slanderous remarks or who becomes boisterous while addressing the council shall forthwith bar be barred from further audience at said meeting unless permission to remain as granted by a two-thirds vote of the council members present in voting.

During the public comment, there should be no debate by the council, although questions may be asked by council persons by council of persons making such presentations.

And before I call our first uh speaker, I just want to read something uh to the general public uh this evening.

Before we open tonight's public comment period, I want to take a moment to address the heavy cloud that is hanging over our city.

Over the last few weeks, Harford has seen two deeply painful tragedies.

The officer involved shootings of Everett Walker and Stephen Jones.

Our hearts go out to their families.

And we extend our condolences to all the families tonight.

Our neighbors in Blue Hills and Parkville and across the city and the community who was feeling the weight of these losses.

We, the council, hear your pain, and we recognize the trauma these incidents have reignited within our community.

To those of you that are here to testify tonight, we are here to listen.

Your voices are a vital part of how the city heals and how we can move forward.

As council president, I want to be clear about where we stand and the work that we are doing behind the scenes.

In the days following these incidents, I've had multiple conversations with Mayor Arvalampalam and many of my colleagues on this council.

Our priority in every one of these discussions has been the same, ensuring a process that is fully transparent and holds our police officers to the highest possible standards of conduct.

And to that end, we're actively exploring ways to better integrate mental health supports within our first response efforts, looking into whether our officers are equipped with the right non-lethal to de-escalate when responding.

The State Office of the Inspector General is currently conducting its independent investigation into both shootings.

By law, we must wait for the IG to conduct their investigation and take any disciplinary to conduct the investigation to work release their final findings before the City of Harvard can conduct its own investigation and take any disciplinary action.

We ask tonight for your patience with that legal process, but please know that our patience does not mean silence.

We are committed to using the findings of those reports to push for policy changes necessary to keep our residents safe, and that's every resident.

We look forward to hearing your comments tonight, and please remember to always reach out to us when you are in need.

With that said, uh the first person to speak tonight is Alyssa Peterson.

All right, uh good evening, Alyssa Peterson, uh Grandview Terrace.

Uh two months ago, one of your council members sought to have my free speech rights violated before this council.

I even went to the extraordinary step of showing my pre-prepared speech to a member of the Hartford police who had very politely found the need to warn me ahead of time of my conduct before council.

I had never had to do this in 35 years before coming for this body.

To be clear, no council member has the right to deny a constituent of their free speech rights, especially when I use no profanity and name no specific member.

All this venomous targeted action did was to cement my commitment to pursuing both criminal and civil remedies available to me.

So stay tuned.

Tonight, however, I am not speaking of a polite member of Harvard Police, but I'm seriously, but a seriously compromised member who, by all accounts of public video footage, looks like he never set foot in our police academy.

Of course, I speak of Officer Joseph Magnano, whose conduct against a mentally disturbed man has been ruled a homicide by the office of the medical examiner.

Our police chief and our police union president wrongly got out in front of Officer Magnano's shooting by unnecessarily citing to criminal law cases or use of forced procedure.

Their premature comments wrongly inflames staff and the public and only gives cause for future greater civil penalties.

How will our city possibly afford millions in future lawsuit fees and settlement?

As executive overseers of the city, the political response has been dismal.

Where were the supervisors on this scene?

We want to know the exact location of the supervising sergeant, the lieutenant, and the captain at the time.

Why did Officer Pignano with 15 years of emergency response team training not have better control of the scene?

Why didn't any officers see that McNado was out of control at this scene and warn him off?

Or even warn they were trying to de-escalate.

How many millions of dollars has this council spent on taser technology, but officers don't regularly carry them like other cities or have non-lethal combatants like beanbag guns or wood batons or a battering ram stored in their car trunks?

What about possibly using a police car to pin this man down?

We need action from this council.

Last year, your public safety committee was canceled in seven different months.

How irresponsible for Hartford's number one issue.

I am calling for our new council public safety committee chair risotto to conduct its next meeting in person, not virtually.

The public has a ton of questions that can be answered now.

And such a council form is the lawful method of doing it.

I as I've not heard of Mayor Olam Palam calling a critical town hall meeting.

Thank you for listening.

Thank you.

Corey Betts.

Good evening, Council President and Council members.

Again, I I read this earlier, but um, I think it's very important that I say it again here in this council chambers.

My name is Corey Betts, and I'm president of the Greater Harford Branch of the NAACP, and I'm also first vice for the state conference of the NAACP.

I am here tonight because our city has recently experienced two police shootings involving men who are in the grip of mental health crisis.

These incidents have shaken our community and raised serious questions about how Harford responds when families call for help during moments of distress.

Families in the city should never fail that reaching out for help and a mental health emergency could lead to tragedy.

And while an investigation is underway, tonight is not just about a single incident.

Tonight is about a system that our community has been raising concerns about for years.

Harford is one of the poorest capital cities in the United States, and I'm gonna keep repeating that.

And within this city, there are 19 census tracts that meet the federal definition of concentrated poverty.

That reality matters because concentrated poverty brings with it trauma, instability, and a greater need for mental health support.

Our neighborhoods are carrying the weight of decades of disinvestment, and those pressures show up in the form of crisis cause that families and first responders are forced to navigate.

When those moments happen, the response should not rely solely on law enforcement.

Our city must build a response system that treats mental health emergencies as a health emergency.

Let me repeat that as a health emergency.

Harford has faced questions about policing and accountability before.

Fifty years ago, here we go again, right?

This city was forced into a reform through the case of Centron versus Vaughn, when residents demand constitutional policing and greater accountability.

Today, our community is once again asking leadership to rise to that moment.

We need a coordinated crisis response team with trained mental health professionals are part of the first response.

We need stronger investments in community-based mental health services so families have somewhere to turn before situations reach a breaking point.

And we need a clear protocol that recognized that every emergency requires every emergency, not every emergency requires a law enforcement response.

Members of the council, this is not just about reacting to tragedy.

This is about building a system that prevents the next one.

The people of Hartford deserve safety.

They deserve compassion and they deserve leadership that is willing to confront difficult realities and work towards meaningful solutions.

The Greater Hartford NAACP stands ready to work, right?

But we must act with urgency.

Thank you.

President Betts.

President Betts.

Can you state your address for the record, please?

880 Asylum Avenue.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Next speaker, Elaine Hatcher.

Good evening, everyone.

I don't think personally that a decision you have to wait to fire this gentleman.

And I you lose that word loosely.

He came in like the Wild Wild West.

He unloaded his gun.

He only put nine bullets in the gentleman because he probably only had nine.

When he arrived on the scene, Stevie was contained.

Stevie was good.

Stevie never one time lifted that cleaver in a minute manner to anyone.

And here is General Order 5.06, the Thody wrote in Section C.

The first thing it says is take steps to calm the situation.

The situation was calm when he when he rolled up in there, like he was some renegade cowboy and shot that man for no reason.

Stevie wasn't doing anything.

He was just being Stevie.

I've lived in that Blue Hills area for 50 plus years.

And as long as he'd been walking up and down that street, he's never bothered anybody.

He's never injured anybody.

The council should take steps to have the mayor enforced the chief of police the fire him.

That was a homicide.

He would, you don't even put they would not have even put nine bullets in a dog.

And this is the second individual that got killed within eight days.

And both of the gentlemen had mental illnesses.

What if it was your family?

What if my grandkids was walking down the street when this idiot rolls up and decides to put nine bullets in the hem?

He endangered our whole community.

And this happened right up the street from my house.

So something needs to be done.

Not saying, oh, we're gonna do this or we're gonna do that.

Do something.

Get him fired.

There's no reason for him to be on the on the police force.

He's gotta have he must have mental illness.

Thank you.

Can you say for the record your address?

Oh wow.

My bad.

83 East Morningside Street, Hartford, Connecticut.

Thank you, ma'am.

Don't be rolling by my house.

No, ma'am, nope.

Next speaker, Zoe Chaffield.

Uh hi, so my name is Zoe Chatfield.

I today was actually here in my capacity as president of the board of Hartford Decides.

Um I have a few of my board members here with me, and they had expected me to read something that I prepared.

Uh however, um, out of respect for the deep tragedy that our community is grappling with, and the fact that there are so many people here that deserve a chance to speak.

I instead just going to keep it even briefer and say that um every year, council, mayor's office, you grapple with how to distribute the budget.

We only have limited funds, and how we use those funds impact every single person in this room.

Um I actually unrelated to this and prior to any uh police shootings, um, had a meeting with the um Office of Violence Prevention folks to talk about ways to collaborate because I do genuinely um believe, and not just blowing smoke up anyone's butts over here, believe that part of community safety is um how we invest in our resources in our communities, um which includes the capital improvement budget, um, which is the only piece of the budget that we have a small ability to control.

So this is my abbreviated and um unprepared speech, uh basically uh plea to council to continue to allocate funds from the capital improvement budget to Hartford decides and to everyone in this room.

Reach out to us, you know.

We can't do everything, but we do have a small way to work with community members to improve your neighborhoods.

So thank you.

That's it.

Thank you.

For the record, does Harper Decides have an address?

We do, but I forget what it is.

My address is 32 Home Street Hartford.

Ours is something else also in Hartford.

Thank you.

Next speaker is Deborah Davis.

Deborah Davis, 421 Blue Hills Avenue in Hartford.

And yes, I am enraged.

Yes, I do stand here because I know that this shouldn't have ever happened.

Specifically in our neighborhoods.

This is a neighborhood where everyone sort of knows everyone.

And prior to this, even the officer that we had into the community, sometimes identified with folks.

And that was sort of back in the day where people knew each other.

That was important.

So we should make sure that number one, that our particular officers that are coming into our communities, they become familiar right away because we have like a family in the Blue Hills neighborhood.

And people know each other, and that's important.

Unfortunately, this was a tragedy.

And mental health has been undiagnosed in our community for such a long time, over 20 years, maybe even longer.

Because people are undiagnosed, not having access to the resources, not being able to understand how individuals are coming to them and talking to them about services.

We need folks because of what we do, mothers united against violence.

We have boots on the ground.

We know exactly sometimes where this person is spacing himself, or she is in terms of mentally.

But we do know that there's a lot of people that have been diagnosed with they have trauma, trauma.

So our services and the mental health need to be even more reinforced.

This was a tragedy.

Over the entire country, we're getting emails and individual comments about how does a person unload nine bullets into a person that was barely walking, and the individual walked up to him.

That was the devastation of it.

And I understand everything as it relates to oh, I'm going to make sure that this person doesn't get close to me.

Um, they have this um, I want to.

I didn't understand that part what he did because it was within 30 seconds that he was able to get it off.

Nine rounds.

We are devastated.

But more importantly, we need the council, council president, counselor members.

We need you to act.

We need you to beef up our our uh mental health services in our community.

We need you to make sure that you are in front of this.

We need the mayor in addition to help and to come to the community to communicate because this would have happened 10 days ago if it were somewhere else.

We do know that, but at the same time, we want to make sure that we do our part as the community, but we want to make sure that we understand the power of mental health, the power that we need to keep those cameras in our community.

We need to make sure that's important as well as making sure that we have more training for our police officers, and if they're going into the community, make sure they become familiar with the community that they're in, and not just come up and roll up on people and taking them out.

That is unacceptable.

We have a lot of work to do, and by having every item that we do with boots on the ground, violence prevention, intervention, what we do every day.

We work with so many victims, and this for us is a tragedy.

But I want to thank you for just listening because I know I could talk for a long time, but I also know that this is an issue that we need to deal with, and we want to be with in the front, we want to be on the side, and we certainly want to make that we get the reinforcements in every area.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next person, Henrietta Davis.

Awesome, they got the wrong name.

Henrietta Beckman.

Thank you.

Umrietta Beckman, 211 Cleveland Avenue, Hartford, Connecticut.

Um these recent shootings is very frightening as a citizen and as a mother and grandmother in the city of Hartford.

We know that our police is here to protect us, but we also have to um they they need a lot of more training, and that was evident of what had just recently happened.

And um these families shouldn't have to be going through what they're going through.

I know that there's probably mental illness in our uh practically all of our families, somebody in our family has a mental illness, and they have to be treated differently.

You have to be really patient with them.

You have to understand them, and if the the officers that were um on the scene, if they worked in that area, then they should have knowledge of the persons or the people who live in that community.

Therefore, they know how to escalate it, they could wait it out.

But if you don't you don't know the community, then you're liable to react the way that the officer reacted the way he reacted.

But we just want to say that you know we want our communities to be safe.

We want the respect from the police, and we want our community to respect the police.

So it goes both ways.

So I just want to say that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Reverend Henry Brown.

Good evening, counsel.

Good evening.

For 25 years, I've been walking up and down the streets of Hartford, advocating for our citizens.

And what happened to Mr.

Walker, and what happened to Mr.

Jones, fragile me.

It broke me.

Because we are talking about two innocent men that don't have police records, but they had an issue because they were sick.

Now, either one of those men are going to be home with their loved ones tonight when we break up out of here.

And in each instant, the family members saw them killed right in front of them.

But I haven't heard anybody from the council from the mail office.

I haven't heard not one comment.

Where are you?

Where are you when these families need you?

D families, these families need leadership.

Because right now, they're broken, and who to say it ain't gonna happen to somebody in here?

They're gonna be broken necked.

You are our leadership.

We've been talking about mental health for how many years, and it's rampant in our community.

Practically everybody in our community is traumatized.

They seem so much violence that then when it happened to them, it's just a numb.

Something better got to happen here.

Mr.

Jones should be with his family.

Mr.

Walker should be with his family.

Somebody dropped the ball.

But we want to point it at the police.

Yeah, they're involved too.

And what happened to Mr.

Jones?

That cop should be fired immediately.

It should be no discussion about it.

He should be gone.

You don't shoot a human being nine times at point blank range.

You don't do that.

You don't do that.

He was a human being just like everybody else in here.

And he didn't deserve what he got.

He didn't deserve that.

And if there's any ounce of humanity in any of you, he'll be gone.

Thank you.

Yes, sir, thank you very much.

Hello, my name is Laverne Terry.

I'm a part of Mothers United Against Violence.

Not because I lost a son or a daughter, but because I lost many family and friends.

I want to take a moment to talk about something that attacks too many families.

The loss of people experiencing mental health crisis during encounters with police.

When someone is struggling, when someone is in crisis, they need understanding, care, and train, mental health support, not force.

Across the country, families have lost loved ones who were in their most vulnerable moment.

There were sons, daughters, parents, and friends who needed help, compassion, and patience.

This issue is not about attacking every police officer.

Many officers serve with dedication and want to help their community.

But the reality is mental health crisis requires specialized training and involvement of mental health professionals.

We must do better.

Communities need stronger crisis response teams, better mental health resources and systems systems that prioritize care over confrontation.

Because when someone reaches their breaking point and calls for help, that call should lead to healing, not tragedy.

Every life matters, every person deserved dignity, and together we must work towards a future where mental health crises are met with compassion, safety, and support.

Thank you.

Thank you.

For the record, what is Mothers United?

Mothers United's address.

Thank you.

I can't pronounce the first name, last name, Saiz.

Hi, my message isn't that fiery.

I think I'm more just tired.

Um good evening, members of the city council, community leaders and neighbors.

I first want to say thank you.

Thank God that we have the energy and resilience to show up here time after time in the face of adversity to seek and receive justice.

Uh justice from Malachi and all families and victims who lost their lives due to violent acts.

Every person in our city deserves to know that when someone is in crisis, the response they receive will protect their life, their dignity, and their humanity.

My name is Roy Al Saez, inaugural flow artist for the city of Hartford, and I'm here this evening in support of the community in Mauve, Mothers United Against Violence, an organization committed to keeping our community informed, aware, and engaged in the issues that affect our safety and well-being.

Recently, many Hartford residents have been having difficult conversations about how situations involving mental health crises unfold when emergency services are called.

These moments are often emotional, complex, and fast moving, and the outcomes can deeply affect families and entire communities.

When these situations arise, our police officers are often the first people called to respond.

That reality makes it even more important that our city continues to strengthen collaboration between law enforcement, mental health professionals, community organizations, and residents, so that responses in moments of crisis prioritize safety, care, and understanding.

But tonight, I also want to focus on something equally important the role of the community.

Real change does not happen through policy alone.

It happens when communities become informed, prepared, and engaged.

When we learn to recognize signs that someone may be in distress, when we check in on our neighbors and loved ones, and when we support families before situations escalate into emergencies.

There are mitigating circumstances where you don't shoot the kill.

This man took nine bullets, one bullet in his kneecap would have brought him down.

So what I'm saying is uh if you don't address the police academy, which trains police officers to do exactly that, you're not going to make any progress.

So don't just cry to city council, take your issues to the police academy, or this is never going to change.

Bottom line, call up the police academy and ask them how they train their young cadets, and they will they will uh justify a shoot the kill.

Okay.

So now do I have some minutes left?

So utility polls.

Uh I'm I'm glad that Lynn Bestoff did a an interview with me and others about these polls that are dangerous to everybody.

That this poll on Hillside Avenue remained sticking out of the ground for five to ten years.

Miraculously after this interview, before it was even shown on uh uh uh channel 30, the poll was removed, and another one was removed on Hills uh on uh Linmore and Maple Avenue.

This is a problem throughout Harford and throughout Connecticut.

It's a bifurcated system.

When a new pole is placed, the old pole has to be removed.

But the you but the electric company is only obligated to change their wires to the new pole.

So that's a broken system.

Next, up to 40 percent of all the street signs are missing on our streets.

Get them done, get them fixed.

I mean, you know, we don't even know where what street we're driving down.

Um 911 first responders.

When the fire department was tasked with being first responders, uh they did not uh allow every time uh a fire uh personnel goes out on call, they send their truck and ladders out to service a call.

Those trucks and ladders cost uh um at least a half a million dollars.

West Harford from the beginning put out a small uh vehicle to go out to calls.

We've been wasting tens of millions of dollars with the waste of of these uh truck and ladders, and it's time to invest, buy a fleet of small vehicles to go out on 9-11.

My next door neighbor had two truck and ladders go out to her car her house, and it was a false alarm.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Iva Lisa Carrera.

Eva Lee.

Thank you.

Um thank you for the console for meeting us here today.

I wish the mayor was here.

He um canceled that forum, you know, he had to address the public and then went to go film something promoting um soccer watch parties.

So um it is my hope that he does reschedule that.

But thank you for being here to see you guys.

Um it's very disappointing that I have to be here, but I mean not only was a man shot down on Blue Hills Avenue, which you'll be hearing about from almost everyone else in the room, but um you have Everett Walker who um his family called for mental health, and um 11 officers bum rushed his house.

Um I don't know what's going on with that, and the city and the mayor's response was so poor that the police union was emboldened to ask for more money, despite the fact that they get new take-home vehicles every year.

So um I'm thinking maybe they can you know hold on to their vehicles for a year and probably invest that money in training instead.

So um I will give council back their time.

I'm disappointed, and it's my hope that this officer gets fired.

So you're gonna pay him one way or another.

You can pay him retroactively, or you can pay him now.

Um sending a sign would be to fire him now and just pay him later.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Eva Lee.

Eva Lee.

Can you state for the record your address or organization you're representing?

Um BLM 860 is located um or where headquartered on Clark Street.

Thank you.

Hi.

My address is 990 Capital Av.

Um so I just really wanted to come here to speak today because you know, my dad, he lived in Harford since he was 18 years old.

Um, he worked since he was 18, so he was working in Harvard for over 35 years.

Um he went to school and he got his CDL license.

He also raised all his children in Harvard and encouraged us to help the community go to school and pursue our dreams.

Um each of us have our own separate careers.

My sister's going into nursing.

I'm in social services right now, but I also have my own business in Harvard, and my brothers is getting his CDL license.

Um my dad lived a very simple life.

Um, he didn't believe in material things, but he always wanted us to have the best things and what we wanted.

Um he's been a huge part of my life, and now he's not here anymore.

Um, he's always my biggest supporter, and you know, he always encouraged us to do good and not get in any trouble.

He's never gotten any trouble, he's never got arrested or had a police record.

He would have been the model man for Harford, and especially since there's such a stereotype that everyone is in Harford is so bad.

But my dad worked very hard to go against that, and for us to not go against that.

Um, I do a lot of community events outside of Hartford, and many people ask me where I'm from, and I say proudly that I'm from Hartford, and they are very shocked because of the way that I carry myself and the way that I act.

But it's not like you know, everyone in Harford is a bad person.

And my dad wanted people to know this whenever they looked at us because he didn't care how he looked, but he said we are a reflection of him, and that's all that mattered.

And he didn't even get a chance to retire or buy his house, which he was planning on doing at the end of this month when his lease was up.

So it's like we have to rearrange our whole life without our father, and we've never had to live like that before.

Um, yeah, so my auntie's gonna say something now.

In the words of Bob Marley, get up, stand up, stand up for your rights.

State your name and your address.

My name is Sarika Walker, and Everett Walker was my brother.

As my niece was saying, he was a hardworking man, and you know, just doing his hustle.

He would have hurt no one, but he had to die the way he did.

So my question is to the council is like, what are we gonna do to prevent this happening from any other family?

I don't want another family to feel the pain that we feel.

We really need to make a change and make a difference.

We need to be to see a change.

We want to see a change that's in the world today.

We can't let it keep happening.

It has to stop somehow, somehow.

We can't repeat history like this.

We've been fighting too long.

So when is it gonna stop?

That's my question.

Thank you.

Justice!

Justice!

Justice!

Justice!

Justice!

Justice.

It's not just us, it's justice.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Our next speaker, Shamar Logan, good evening, uh, Shamar Logan, 196 Trumbull Street, Harford, Connecticut.

So the public was asked tonight to be patient, as the public is always asked to be patient in moments like this.

But patience is a strange thing to ask for when a man's life has already been lost.

At this point, two men's lives have been lost.

So patience, I feel like is a strange thing to ask for.

And really, when the community is told to be patient, what we actually hear is accountability can wait.

Men are a mental men are in mental distress and they need help, but instead of receiving care, they receive bullets.

And as quiet as it's being kept, and we haven't said it yet, implicit bias can indeed turn a moment of crisis into a moment of perceived threat.

Now the medical examiner has already ruled this cleaning a homicide, yet the officers are still employed.

So what the public is being asked to accept is something that is fundamentally unacceptable.

That even when the system recognizes a death as a homicide, accountability is still delayed or avoided altogether.

And what makes us even more painful is that Harford had a system in place and had a model for something better.

There was a program that could send social workers and crisis responders to certain calls and set up police, which gives more opportunity for care instead of escalation.

But funding runs short, but funding never runs short when it comes to police escalation.

So now we're standing here in the aftermath of a tragedy that might have been prevented.

So the questions that are being asked of this council in the city, it's not complicated.

Will the city choose real accountability?

Will this city choose to fully fund mental health response response systems that actually save lives?

Or will we continue accepting a system where people in crisis are met with force instead of help?

And the public is watching you all.

And as long as I have a voice and a platform and the stamina, I will make sure the public continues to watch you all.

And we will remember what's gonna happen next.

Because accountability delayed is absolutely accountability denied.

And this community is not going to forget who chose to delay that accountability.

Thank you.

Peter Little.

We're tag teaming tonight.

Little mama.

This afternoon at Phillips Metropolitan CME Church on Main Street in North Hartford, Ben Crump, the Attorney General of Black America, came to our city to announce that he was representing the Jones family.

If y'all don't know who Ben Crump is, and I think every black person in the audience certainly does, but I'm not sure that every white person on the council does.

You need to learn, and you need to learn fast.

Ben Crump was the attorney who more than any has delivered settlements to families who were victimized by police misconduct, notably 45 million dollars to the family of Randy Cox in New Haven just a few years ago.

So study up, council members.

Ben Crump is coming to town.

Bring it down just a little.

The meeting was overflow.

125 or more people there.

I'm embarrassed for my race.

Five percent, if you discount the media, were white people.

The media were everywhere.

I'm surprised that the council didn't show up.

Not one of you came, and it was noticed.

I encourage you to watch the video because you were called out multiple times by the leaders of that meeting, including Corey Betts.

I'm not sure if Corey's still in the room.

Including Scott Estale, the head of the statewide NAACP, including Michael Ferguson, the attorney, the principal attorney for the statewide NAACP, and other attorneys.

Michael Jefferson.

Michael Jefferson, did I say Michael Jackson?

You said Ferguson.

Sorry, first Michael Jackson.

Michael Jefferson, thank you, TJ.

The silence was deafening.

And by that I mean that the mayor, the council members, and of course the HPD were completely absent.

You need to watch this.

You came off as completely disconnected.

I also find comments from this body promises of transparency and accountability to be disingenuous.

Let's look at the history.

First, transparency.

This policy 5.06 that Elaine held up a moment ago, which directly addresses the question of how the police are to interact with people experiencing mental illness has been deliberately and intentionally withheld from the public for more than five years.

If you go on the HPD website now, it's missing.

You find 5.05.

Then you find 5.07.

Where is 5.06?

Thank you, John.

I'll take just 30 seconds if you'll get if you'll grant me that.

Accountability comes down to a number of things.

And one of the ones that's gonna come up also, and I think the NAACP is going to take an interest in this, is the favorite topic of the union contract, which, as you probably know, those of you on the public safety and quality of life committee know is coming up for renegotiation.

Mark my words.

There'll be more on that to follow.

Thank you for your attention.

Mr.

Mr.

Little.

Mr.

Little, can you please stay for the record your address?

Apologize.

I'm here representing American Justice Project.

I live at 42 Kenmore Road in Bloomfield, Connecticut.

06002.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker, Laquisha Jenkins.

Lapucia Jenkins.

All set?

All right.

Haley Neeble.

NABLE.

Hi, um, I'm Haley Kinable.

I live at 338 Asylum Street in Hartford.

Um, I've dealt with mental illness for most of my life, and I love people who deal with mental illness, and I've been on both sides of a crisis call.

And there just really needs to be better options for people who are struggling than police.

People who are mentally ill do not need police in their face.

There used to be a crisis team, and even then when you would call the crisis team, you'd still get police.

And that there just needs to be other options.

People can't keep being injured and dying, and they're struggling.

Like people are struggling, and there's no options other than calling the cops.

I shouldn't be scared that if I call for help for someone that I love, that I'm gonna lose them.

Like that should not be something that I have to think about when I'm already dealing with mental illness and people that I love.

It's absolutely ridiculous.

They're like there needs to be better options.

That's all I have to say.

Our next speaker, thank you very much.

Our next speaker is Reed Hopkins.

Hello, my name is Reed Hopkins.

I live at 79 Orange Street in New Britain.

I concede my time, but I stand uh I stand with the families that were murdered by the police, and what's happening is wrong, and this all needs to stop.

And I'm not seeing action being taken here.

So uh in New Britain, we've all been affected, and in Hartford, people are continuing to be murdered by the police.

This is not okay, it needs to stop.

Thank you.

Next speaker, Kamora Harrington.

So, hey, y'all.

We're all here for the exact same thing tonight.

Zoe, I like what you did, right?

Um, and maybe about 18 years ago, Zoe's mom hired me when she was working with the police sergeants, when it was understood.

We all know, right?

We're gonna talk in euphemisms, that the human beings who you hire to police us are inferior when it comes to understanding humanity.

And I was hired, there were eight sergeants, and those are the sergeants who are going to try to step into what being a part of a community could look like.

Thank your mom for that, because it gave me a window.

Let her know.

It gave me a window into what we've got, right?

I have spent my entire life coming into this room after the people who you hire murder us.

That's my lifetime, right?

I'm looking at y'all.

You say I can't address each of you as people.

I know y'all.

I've known y'all since you were born, and we have a commitment to our city and our people.

And this week has been hell.

And I swear a lot, but I'm not going to tonight, right?

We're going to do some weird roll shit.

Oops, there I go, right?

But the God people show up and do what the God people do because that's what they're supposed to do, right?

And the state shows up and does what the state's supposed to do because that's what they're going to do.

And the activist is supposed to show up, right?

Last week, your mayor wrote the most mealy mouth, let's just wait and pray statement that he sent out to all of our faith leaders who stood in their pulpits and read the words of the state when they're supposed to be representing God.

I am not a God person.

This is our Garden of Gethsemane week and moments.

And those of you who understand what I'm saying, you understand what I'm saying.

We are better than this.

We're thinking about y'all are thinking about the law.

They killed Menon's daddy.

Do you know Menon?

Did you see that, sweet baby girl?

Did you see her?

She's ours.

And your employees murdered her daddy.

Look at y'all.

Look at our leadership.

And look at our moral leadership.

So this is why I'm asking y'all to step into that moral place.

Because when the God people recite the words of the state on Sunday morning to their congregations, we have lost.

This is Hartford.

Asylum Avenue is named Asylum Avenue.

Why?

The Institute of Living takes such pride in their incredibly long journey here.

Right?

They've been doing it for the longest.

We're nuts.

We're crazy.

Drive down Park Street, drive down Broad Street.

We have PTSD.

Y'all know we are nuts.

They take over our communities, they separate us, they scatter us, they build big old parking garages for themselves.

They have wonderful ad campaigns talking about all the wonderful stuff that they do, and we are nuts.

Do something about them, make them stand in their truth and understand we have lost it.

Because when the God people say what the state says to do.

So let's follow.

Thank you.

Our next speaker, Sharika Walker.

Rashawn Lee.

I um would love to have some questions to you all.

But I don't think your answers would matter.

No disrespect to the assembly.

My name is Rashawn Lee, and I am the executive director of Clarissa Lee Law Group.

My wife is Clarissa Lee.

She couldn't be here today.

So I had to come stand in the gap.

I was at the press conference as well.

I'm very familiar with Ben Crump for all the matters.

I'm a kid from East New York, Brooklyn.

I'm one of them dudes that was running around shooting people.

I know what it is.

I know what it is.

I've been incarcerated.

I've been on both sides of the law.

And I'm 50 years old now.

So I'm going to tell you something.

That young lady changed my whole purpose of being here tonight.

Because I have five sons.

And I have two daughters.

And let me tell you something happened to me.

The whole trajectory of my family changes.

There's nothing they can do that is really, really gonna be effective to replace me.

There's no money that Brent Ben Crump could even bring.

Because I know he's gonna get at it, so be prepared.

And you know, if you don't spend if you would have spent the money up front to make sure that people come to the scene that really care.

We'll be it, we'll be in a different position.

Now, it's important that I'm uh also clarify that I'm not pointing fingers.

So when I say if you, I'm not meaning you per se, but I am going to say you're in a position of leadership.

And see, at my home, I have to be accountable for what happened in my house.

There you go.

I can't point the finger nowhere else.

And when you think of, when you think of Mr.

Jones and think of Mr.

Walker, you know, try to think of them as your brother, your cousin, your father, your son.

Try to think of it that way, and you'll start looking at things a little bit different.

Clarissa was a part of the police accountability review board.

Somebody reminded me of that today.

And I told my wife, I said, get off the board.

They're wasting our time.

We run a personal injury law firm.

We got money to go get.

They have a meetings about meetings.

They never meet in decorum.

They somebody got caught up doing this and doing that, so they couldn't be around.

If you look at Harford, again, I'm from Brooklyn, but I live here.

My kids are here.

My family is here.

My mother died in St.

Francis from pancreatic cancer.

I said, wherever I go, I can't say I'm not around from Harford.

I know I'm running out of time, but I'm gonna give you this one thing.

You have to understand that these people are hurt.

And if you walk through the streets of Harford, I've been here 25 years.

I've drove down Main Street, Albany Ave 25 years.

And when I first got here, I got to Harvard.

I said, damn, this shit is fucked up.

And I'm from East New York.

I can't, how can I say that?

And then guess what?

I rolled down Main Street and Albany Avenue again.

And guess what I said?

I ain't gotta say it again.

So something gotta give.

Because if we're I was in the same room for the 119 commission, we was complaining about you know children being lost and not being available and not going to school and not getting an education, and nothing got repaired.

It's 119,000 youth that are not being able to connect.

So then now I'm gonna say that if we can't get youth right, if we can't get mental health right, if if the organizations that uh the businesses are leaving Harford, we can't get that right, it's empty.

This becomes Gotham.

It looked like something out of Batman.

Something has to give, and the old guards has to be removed and replaced because they don't got no great ideas, and you gotta put people in play that really care.

If you're doing an interview, you shouldn't just look at my resume.

You need to do an assessment of how much I care about the community that I'm in.

People not not coming because they don't care, people not coming because they don't believe anything gonna be done.

It's 23th Street.

Thank you, sir.

Holly Halloway.

She's not.

And Royale had spoke already, right?

All right.

Okay.

We do not have any more speakers who are signed up tonight for our republic.

Yes, sir.

Yes.

I'll let you go ahead.

I'll let you speak.

Go ahead and speak.

Thank you for having me.

Please state your name and address for the record.

Yes, three minutes.

Yes, my name is Howard Fair.

Uh I'm an uh advocate, public service to the uh city of Harvard and all surrounding towns, because it's not just all about Harford, it's about all our cities and all our towns.

Let's get it right.

So, about uh our people.

Um, I've been working as a coach for over 35 years with young people in Hartford.

I've been dealing with young people all my life.

Um I for the most part, I think Harford police department up to this point was doing a good job.

I didn't, you know, me myself, I seen Harvard police very visual, doing a lot of social outreach to people, but in this case, I think they dropped the ball.

I don't know who was uh behind these two officers and uh training, but I think the training they did was subpar.

And I think they had no idea what they was getting yourself into, you know, as far as dealing with people with mental illnesses and mental substances.

I think that we all are accountable for what's going on in our community.

Am I right though?

We as a people we all accountable, and we need to see something, we say something.

I don't care if your kids or not, because right now in this society, our kids are misguided, they have no idea where they're going.

And you know, all our people are caught out on substances, mental health, and it's not being addressed.

We're not addressing the mental illness or the substance abuse in our in our city.

And with that said, we we have to all take a self-preservation of ourselves.

Am I right?

And ask each other, what can we do to make Harford better?

We can't know it takes a team.

It's we just can't leave it up to y'all.

We can't leave it up to the police department, we can't leave it up to the teachers in the school, we can't leave it up to the prep to the parents.

It's a collective body, collective body.

Am I right?

We all have to be a collective body here to do to issue to deal with these issues right now.

So my thing is this officers needed to be held accountable for the actions.

Um I'm sorry it happened.

Uh I love the Hartford Police Department, but on this matter right here, um, I'm really like taken back, and it puts a black eye on the rest of the the officers who do good jobs out here.

There's a lot of officers that do good work out here.

And but guess what?

We all have to have accountability, sir.

And everybody has to have accountability until you wake up this morning, till you go to bed at night.

You ask yourself as a Christian person, what did I do to make my community a better place?

What did I do to make my city a better place?

What did I do to make the world a better place?

We gotta all self-check ourselves, people.

Thank you so much.

Mr.

Bear.

Yes.

Cynthia, I got it.

I'm gonna call you.

I just need him right quick.

Okay.

What's your address, please, sir?

For the record.

Yes.

Uh I'm uh 450 Barbara Street, Hartford, Connecticut.

Thank you.

Councilwoman and thank you.

Thank you.

Councilwoman and attorney Cynthia Jennings.

Okay.

Thank you so much.

Um, one of the things that I think is critical.

All right, I'm sorry.

I'm Cynthia Jennings, and I'm a civil rights attorney and an environmental attorney, and I'm also a former member of the Hartford City Council for five years.

I live at 86 Hartland Street in Hartford.

I'm here tonight because two Hartford families are grieving loved ones whose lives ended during mental health crises.

This is not only a public safety issue, it is a civil rights issue.

We have an affirmative obligation as a city to ensure that individuals with mental health disabilities are not subjected to discriminatory treatment based on their race, based on their their occupation, based on their lives and what's happening in their lives at this time.

I would beg to differ and say that 99% of the people that live in Hartford have been faced with so much trauma that we all have mental health disabilities.

Go ahead.

Go ahead.

When a police officer or any government person interacts with a member of this community, they have to remember you are interacting with taxpayers, and the taxpayers have a right to a reasonable accommodation, de-escalation, and appropriate crisis response whenever they are interacting with people that work for them.

Yes.

Yes.

When that obligation is ignored, the consequences are not only tragic, they may also be life-ending and life-threatening.

When I listen to Mr.

Walker's daughter, and what it is that that daughter is facing now.

You better believe that it's hard to replace a black man in this community.

It is hard to replace a father that loves their children, who who gives up their his life to make sure that they can eat and they can sleep and live in an appropriate place.

The question before this council is simple.

And it's are we prepared to ensure that Harford's policies reflect modern crisis intervention practices, or will we consider and continue to accept the discriminatory and very racist treatment that people are receiving in this city.

Had it been a white person, things might have turned out differently.

Had it been a person that didn't have mental disabilities, things might have turned out differently.

Other cities have implemented behavioral health crisis teams, co-responder units, and non lethal intervention protocols that reduce the likelihood of deadly consequences.

Hartford must do the same.

Because the measure of justice in a city is not how it responds when people are at their best, but how it protects them when they are at their most vulnerable.

Mr.

Walker's daughter at one of the events that I went to talked about why he was having mental disability.

He watched his daughter die from cancer at an early age.

And she said for days he couldn't get up off that floor.

This man was going through a crisis that no one knew about but the family, immediate family and friends.

But that's not what we've hired our police to do.

It is their job to do use non-lethal force.

They could have taken uh they could have they could have sprayed him with pepper spray.

That he that man would have succumbed.

There's so many other non-lethal ways to deal with someone who's in a mental health crisis.

Right.

The beanbags, they have beanbags now.

They could have called the fire department and you had them do what they used to do to us in the 60s with a fire hose and knock that man over.

It is my sincere hope that Hartford acts proactively to ensure that this kind of a tragedy never happens again.

And that the legal consequences never occur again.

Because when you're dealing with people that are that are working and paying taxes in this city, who do you think is gonna pay for the legal fees that come out of this?

And we should, because we have allowed someone to lose their father, their husband, their brother, their uncle.

It is an injustice, and it is up to the council and the other leaders in this city to come together and make sure that the police department represents the people that it serves, that they treat people with justice and and of and and instead of um treating them as if they were working for them.

I think it's very important that we take this into consideration.

I think it's when when this obligation is ignored, the consequences are only not only tragic, but they are also a true liability for this city.

Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak to the council.

Justice!

Justice!

Justice!

Justice!

All right, justice!

Thank you very much.

Uh, this concludes our public comment.

Okay.

She I am going to speak.

I'm sorry, are you about to speak?

Yes, she was about to speak.

I am going to speak for her.

Miss, I we called Miss Holloway to come.

This is Malachi James's mom.

And you know we've been working on the resolution.

But when we told her what had happened, she's seen what had happened.

This is a movement, non-violence, non-violence, auto accidents, non-they're all violent, everything is violent, and people are coming together because they know that at some point this has to stop.

And so, whatever we do, the moms and the dads and the sisters and the brothers, we ought to think about them like they're your relatives too.

Because we're an extended family, but she came all the way from Middletown.

I said, You have to stand because she's representing another child that we lost senselessly, and we're hoping that that resolution will pass because we need the reinforcement to let people know that you're not gonna sit, but you're gonna act.

You're gonna act and you're gonna put some teeth in it.

And this mom is gonna have tears for the rest of her life, for the rest of her life, because that's what grief does to you.

As long as it doesn't take her out, that will be our only consolation to make sure that we're doing things continuously.

She also supports cameras, she said they needed to have more visibility when that accident happened by a Tesla, which was like a truck hitting that kid.

And if you think about it, you think about that impact, as that kid died instantly.

We have to have heart.

We have to have action.

And now, with an addition to two more families, we have families across the board hurting the Walker family.

And then we have Mr.

Steve's family.

We have so many families that haven't even stepped up.

So I had to make sure that her voice was heard.

She came all the way from Middletown to be here.

And whatever we have to do across the state, we're going to do it.

But this is our city.

We live here.

We need to make sure we work together to make sure we get action.

That's really key.