Families of people lost to police violence in 海角换妻 gathered at the state Capitol in Hartford Friday to share stories of their loved ones. Jazmarie Melendez talked about her brother Jayson Negron, who was shot and killed in 2017 in Bridgeport. He was 15 years old.
鈥淢y brother's four-year anniversary is approaching soon. His story and the stories of police violence are very repetitive,鈥� said Melendez. 鈥淚 remember him as being somebody who loved music, who loved fashion. My brother would try to sew clothes, and he wanted to become a rapper. He had so many different interests and aspirations that were just completely taken from him.鈥�
Families say holding protests and making spaces to uplift and share the stories of lives lost at the hands of police is one way to push for legislative change. Melendez said these cases often fade from the public eye when police officers are cleared without accountability.
鈥淚n 海角换妻, we see national cases, and although for a moment, some of our cases get that national attention, like my brother鈥檚 story -- hit national news for just a moment and then faded away,鈥� said Melendez. 鈥淥ur families are still left behind with this feeling of wanting justice, of wanting to seek true change.鈥�
Also sharing her story was the mother of Steven Barrier. Valerie Jaddo said that instead of celebrating her son鈥檚 23rd birthday in 2019, she was notified that her son died while in Stamford police custody.
鈥淭hat left me with a giant scar in my heart that no parent, sister, brother and grandparents should ever have to go through,鈥� said Jaddo. 鈥淢y son did not have to die. He was having a mental health crisis. And instead of being treated by doctors and therapists, he was arrested and surrounded by police.鈥�
Jaddo says she still remembers him looking through the window to see her come home and numerous phone calls to check in on her.
鈥淏ut now our sons are dead and never coming home,鈥� she said.
Kira Ortovela misses her friend Mubarak Soulemane, a New Haven man who was shot and killed by a state trooper after a high-speed car chase off Interstate 95 in West Haven on Jan. 15, 2020.
鈥淗e was a really good friend of mine,鈥� said Ortovela, an organizer with Justice for Mubarak. 鈥淎ll of these different cases always have the same thing to light. Without the continuation of these protests, there鈥檚 not much that happens in these cases because it鈥檚 all trying to be as hidden and thrown away as much as possible.鈥�
Alicia Strong wants long-term solutions. She is president of the New Britain Racial Justice Coalition, an organization for racial and economic justice that started in the wake of George Floyd鈥檚 killing by Minneapolis police.
For Strong, it鈥檚 about "really starting to invest in our communities and starting to address the root of crime, which is poverty and mental health, instead of putting more police, criminalizing our community and instituting more violence.鈥�
She said she鈥檚 lost faith in the criminal justice system, but she hopes the outcome of the ongoing Derek Chauvin trial and protests across the nation will bring investment in communities rather than in more policing.
