海角换妻鈥檚 juvenile justice system and car thefts were the hot political topics over the summer. Media outlets picked up the story and largely showed white victims in the suburbs with minority suspects in 海角换妻鈥檚 cities.
Local critics cried foul over the coverage, asking for context. Mel Medina is one of them.
If you were to take a quick look at , you might think his full-time job was fact-checking the 海角换妻 GOP鈥檚 tweets.
Medina is actually the former policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of 海角换妻.
鈥淢y main issue is, I鈥檓 deeply concerned that children are being used as scapegoats for a larger goal of returning 海角换妻 back to an era of being tough on crime, and restarting a mass incarceration machine,鈥� said Medina.
Across the country, crime 鈥� including motor vehicle thefts 鈥� spiked during the pandemic, but the data don鈥檛 show that children are to blame for the rise and vehicle thefts are now subsiding.
Mike Lawlor, who was Gov. Dannel P. Malloy鈥檚 criminal justice adviser, now teaches at the University of New Haven.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 no surprise that sensational stories are likely to be the lead stories in the local TV news, and in all forms of media, because they鈥檙e very dramatic, and they鈥檙e scary to people,鈥� said Lawlor. 鈥淎nd so people see this stuff in the news, and they react to it. It鈥檚 not blaming them for reacting to it, I鈥檓 just pointing out that, if you put it in context, things are actually a lot better now than they were five years ago.鈥�
Lawlor says that on the political front, the narrative has shifted 鈥� to us versus them.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not a criticism. I mean, I was a politician, I had to run for office. I know the kinds of things that you felt the need to say in order to get people to vote for you,鈥� said Lawlor.
The politics of it all showed up in Glastonbury, where a mailer paid for by the Glastonbury Republican Town Committee shows a broken windshield and reads in part, 鈥淚t happened to them, and it could happen to you!鈥� The back of the mailer says people are afraid of carjackings, shootings and robberies.
Medina says the mailer has racial undertones despite race not being mentioned.
鈥淭he mailer鈥檚 problematic because it鈥檚 borrowing on a theme, a politically motivated theme that has been entrenched in our larger media narrative, that the problem we have are young Black and Latino kids stealing cars,鈥� said Medina.
But politicians on both sides of the aisle say it鈥檚 more of a city-versus-suburbs issue.
鈥淚 think the conversation has been heightened and elevated because you鈥檙e starting to see it unfortunately in suburbs,鈥� said Erin Stewart, New Britain鈥檚 Republican mayor.
Lawlor says there鈥檚 a simple solution to all of this.
鈥淭he one thing that would really help and wouldn鈥檛 cost anything, and you could implement it overnight, would be to convince everybody to lock their cars. If the cars weren鈥檛 so easy to take, people would stop doing it,鈥� said Lawlor.
Not so fast, says state Rep. Craig Fishbein, a Republican.
鈥淒emocrats don鈥檛 want solutions here and they continue to blame victims. I constantly hear 鈥榣ock your cars.鈥� But even if you do lock your car, the next blame is where you shouldn鈥檛 have left that thing in your car.鈥�
City or suburb, Black or white, locked or unlocked car 鈥� when it comes to juvenile justice, politicians are sticking to their narratives.
To see Part 1 of the series, click here.
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