East Haven Officers' Civil Rights Trial to Start in April: White Cops Accused of Targeting Latinos

Racism/White Supremacy = Collective Color Inferiority + Numerical Inadequacy. Racism is a strategy for white genetic survival. [MORE]  Following an investigation by the FBI, four East Haven police officers were arrested and accused of abusing Latinos in the working class community of 28,000 people which was nearly predominately white a generation ago. In the middle of the 2000s, the demographics of East Haven began to shift. The Latino population grew from 4 percent of the city’s residents in 2000 to 10 percent in 2010. For some white residents, the changes felt like an existential threat.[MORE] (Gun control for victims but not cops? In photo, East Haven cop David Cari, a racist suspect facing jail time).

Racial Targeting or Racial Targeting is a police officer or a person in authority who uses his authority to harass, intimidate, or arrest non-whites (practice racism). In many cases, racial profiling is condoned by city officials (such as East Haven Mayor Maturo in photo), to send a messsage that non-whites are not welcome to live, work, shop or even drive through ceratin white areas. It is also used as a psychological tool to remind non-whites that they are not due the same rights that whites take for granted in a white supremacy system. [Anon]

Last year the Department of Justice issued a 23-page report which said, "our finding that EHPD officers have engaged in discriminatory policing against Latinos is based on the following: 1) EHPD targets Latinos for discriminatory traffic enforcement and treatment; 2) EHPD abuses its authority by retaliating against individuals who criticize or complain of EHPD's discriminatory conduct; 3) EHPD fails to take corrective action following judicial findings of discriminatory customs and practices within EHPD, including a deliberate indifference to the rights of minorities in East Haven; and 4) EHPD willfully disregards basic and common procedures used by police agencies and mandated by state law to prevent biased policing. Our evidence therefore shows that EHPD singles out Latinos for discriminatory treatment."

The DOJ noted "serious concerns that EHPD engages in unlawful searches and seizures and the use of excessive force. In addition, we are concerned with reports that members of EHPD have created a hostile and intimidating environment for persons who wished to cooperate with our investigation."According to the report, EHPD employs approximately 50 uniformed officers, only one of whom is fluent in Spanish. [MORE]

Mayor Maturo said, "I don't believe these charges at all," and "I stand by these officers."The day of the arrests, when asked by a reporter what he was planning to do for the Latino community that night, he replied, "I might have tacos when I go home."[MORE] In November, the town signed an agreement to reform the police force and avoid a federal lawsuit. Making a reference to slavery, Maturo said with a laugh, before signing the document “as I’m signing this, should you put a whip behind me?” [MORE]   

From [HERE] The trial of the two white East Haven police officers facing federal civil rights charges will begin with jury selection on April 1. Testimony in the trial of David Cari (in photo) and Dennis Spaulding will start on April 8. U.S. District Court Judge Alvin Thompson is estimating the trial will take at least a month, telling attorney's in a conference call Friday to clear their schedules through May 8.

Cari and Spaulding are currently out on bond. Cari's was changed this week after he was arrested last week on state charges of illegal deer hunting on Regional Water Authority property in East Haven. Federal prosecutors tried to have his bond revoked, but U.S. Magistrate Holly Fitzsimmons ordered 24-hour confinement at his mother's house.

Cari and Spaulding are both facing charges of conspiracy against civil rights, deprivation of rights for making arrests without probable cause and obstruction of justice. Spaulding also has been charged with unreasonable force by a law enforcement officer. If convicted they face maximum sentences of 20 years.

Two other East Haven officers, Sgt. John Miller and Jason Zullo, who were indicted last January along with Cari and Spaulding, have plead guilty to lesser charges. Miller plead guilty in September to one count of deprivation of rights. He has agreed to testify at trial against his fellow officers.

Zullo plead guilty to one count of obstruction of justice in October. He was supposed to be sentenced earlier this month but it was delayed after his attorney Norm Pattis objected to the government's attempts to have alleged civil rights violations that were not part of the plea be included as relevant conduct for his sentencing.

Zullo plead guilty to filing a false police report about a chase involving a motorcycle through East Haven. Zullo did not put in his report that he bumped the motorcycle at least twice causing it to careen off the road. His sentencing has not been rescheduled.

Some of the evidence that prosecutors are trying to get into the sentencing in Zullo's case will be the basis of their case against the other two officers. Included are numerous car-to-car chats involving the officers in which disparaging remarks about Hispanics abound and where they discuss stopping cars leaving Hispanic owned businesses in town.

Both Cari and Spaulding were involved in the My Country Store incident that led to the start of the civil rights investigation two years ago. The Rev. James Manship was arrested while trying to videotape the arrest of a Latino man inside the My Country Store on Main Street.

Spaulding and Cari were both involved in that arrest. The two officers also are caught on security tapes going back to the store after the arrests and trying to get the owner to give them copies of the security tape. They are seen walking into the back room of the store searching for the tapes.

Following Manship's arrest, a federal civil rights lawsuit prepared with the assistance of the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization at Yale University was filed against the department. Nine plaintiffs alleged racial profiling and the use of excessive force by police. The lawsuit has been put on hold until the criminal proceedings are completed.