An empty casket strewn with flowers stood outside the Connecticut state Capitol building Wednesday, at a symbolic memorial service for George Floyd and untold other African American victims of police violence.
The gathering began with anguished cries of “Momma, I can’t breathe,” the final words uttered by Floyd, who was killed by a Minneapolis police officer last month. It concluded with a stirring call to address racism.
“We’re going to have to have some uncomfortable conversations … kumbaya … [doesn’t] work anymore,” said state Sen. Douglas McCrory, a Democrat from Hartford. “For my white friends who are in power politically, financially, you’re going to have to start listening to us and collaborating with us … it’s time to put words into action.”
The ceremony was preceded by a funeral procession: More than 300 cars made their way from Windsor through Hartford’s North End before arriving at the Capitol.
Organized by the YWCA Hartford Region and a coalition of groups, the procession was led by a hearse from the black-owned Howard K. Hill Funeral Services.
The solemn gathering was one of several public protests and calls for change in Connecticut Wednesday. In Danbury, hundreds of people marched from the public library to I-84, shutting down the highway for about an hour.
In emotional remarks outside the state Capitol, speaker after speaker said it was time to demand change.
To Gov. Ned Lamont, who attended but did not speak, the Rev. A.J. Johnson said “We need you. We need you right now.”
A long line of mourners placed flowers on the empty casket.
“As George Floyd took his very last breath … he didn’t know that it would take him laying in a box dead before a nation called his name and cried out for transformation,” Melinda Johnson, of the YWCA, told the crowd. “We stand here because we have too many mothers, too many daughters, too many friends, too many lovers laying in boxes, dead.
“Black women, our feet are tired. I don’t know what it will take for us to change our minds about how we groom this next generation. But our children are watching right now …. The sign behind me says ‘racism was the original pandemic.’ “
“Turn your pain into action. … we can change this,” Johnson added. “We will change this. We must change this.”
McCrory and several other speakers provided a template for social change. Hartford City Council member Wildaliz Bermudez spoke about the enormous resources consumed by the city’s police department.
“Over-policing is happening right here in our own communities,” she said. “What we need to ask ourselves, as a community, is what specific changes do we want to see?”
Hartford police are seeking to increase the budget for vice and narcotics by $500,000, bringing total spending for those line items to about $4 million, she said.
“How can we demilitarize this system of oppression that has been keeping us down for decades, for centuries?” Bermudez asked. “We must ask the difficult questions. Now is the time to do it.”
Mayor Luke Bronin’s office said Wednesday the increased spending for the vice, narcotics and intelligence division results from the division taking over certain investigatory functions from other divisions, including assuming auto theft investigations, previously the purview of the major crimes division. Bronin’s office said the new police budget represents a nearly 4% decrease in spending.
McCrory said black people “were not shocked” by the killing of Floyd.
“We are tired. We are numb. We are traumatized. And we don’t know what to do next,” McCrory said. “We are hurting.”
“We have systems in place that need to be disrupted,” he said, pointing to law enforcement, education and health care. “We are going to put legislation in place. We have to get in front of it.”
Howard Hill, a community leader who owns the funeral home that carries his name, urged African Americans to use their economic clout to support black-owed businesses.
“Economics is what makes this country turn,” Hill said. “Change is a process that starts within you … and it’s every day, with the decisions that you make, how you spend your money. That’s your power.”
Danbury protesters march onto I-84
Wednesday’s protest in Danbury began at the public library, with individuals sharing personal stories and rallying cries over a megaphone. Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton was in attendance, and spoke briefly to the hundreds of protesters before the march began. Boughton started a black lives matter chant over a megaphone, which was met with mixed reviews, including one protester who said she wanted to see police officers and politicians keep that sentiment year-round, not just on one day or week.
“I’m sick of seeing people mistreated,” said Solomon James, a rising junior at Southern Connecticut University who was one of the organizers of the protest.
James expected 200 to 300 protesters on Wednesday, though the final number far exceeded his expectations. He said he had more than 200 messages and emails from people in Danbury, sharing negative personal interactions they have had with city police officers in the past.
“My goal, I tell all my friends, when you leave your house, your No. 1 goal is to get home safe,” James said. “Your No. 1 goal is to get back to the house safely so you can see your family. It’s a fear — I walk out my house and people don’t see my education, they don’t see that I’m in college, they don’t see that I’m well-spoken. If we’re not on the court or on the field, all they see is another black man in America.
“That’s the saddest [stuff] ever. The saddest.”
The mass of protesters marched a mile from the library to the Danbury police department, taking a knee at the intersection of Franklin and Main streets, before arriving to the station. The group waited outside the entrance, chanted and called for police Chief Patrick Ridenhour to address the crowd.
Ridenhour spoke to the protesters before holding a brief question-and-answer session with the crowd, with topics ranging from the length of training to be a police officer, to what he and his squad is doing to make systematic changes.
“I’ve been wearing this skin 21 years longer than I’ve been wearing this uniform,” said Ridenhour, a black man. “If people don’t think that I don’t understand what is going on here, you’re wrong.”
Said James: “In terms of what they said, I’m going to hold them accountable. I’m not going to just do this protest and end it. I want to meet with the police chief. I want to meet with Mayor Boughton. I’m going to start going to city council meetings. I’m going to keep doing more and more.”
Following the congregation at the station, protesters continued to march onto I-84, shutting down traffic on both sides of the highway for nearly an hour. One group of protesters collectively took a knee in front of police, chanting “No justice, no peace.” One car, surrounded by protesters, sped off with some people being knocked to the ground, though no one appeared seriously injured.
James had urged the crowd to return to the library as opposed to shutting down the highway, with the fear of injury and arrests. At the urge of police and other protesters, the crowd began to make their way off of the highway and return to the library after about 45 minutes. No arrests were reported.
Wednesday marked the fifth straight day of protests in Connecticut, which has seen gatherings in Hartford, New Haven, Waterbury and other smaller towns. The demonstrations have been nonviolent.
Nicholas Rondinone can be reached at nrondinone@courant.com.
