Thanks for staying with us.
On the real story.
I'm Emma Wolf Forest.
And joining us now is Scott Esd,
the president of the Connecticut
chapter of the NAACP,
which stands for the National Association
of the Advancement of Colored People,
a more than century old civil rs
organization and advocacy group.
Scott, thank you so much for
being here with us this morning.
Thanks for having me. Thanks
for having me. I appreciate it.
Of course. So with Juneteenth coming up,
what does the day mean for you,
and why do you think it's so
important that we recognize it?
Well, you're talking about the
most horrific and most violent
and most hideous treatment that
I think that any people have.
Received on the face of the earh
what happened here in America?
And black people had to work
for free for many, many years.
Here in America.
Slavery was a very horrific
time for our people,
and we fought vigorously to try
to stop and abolish slavery.
And there were states that still continued.
To carry out the this horrific
practice and there were individs
in Texas that were still practig
slavery and the slaves did not w
and they finally had troops comn
to to make the state of Texas sp
practicing this horrific institn
here in America and you know.
You never, you know,
there was still forms of slavery
that were practiced after it.
But you know, it's a,
it's a big celebration for for our community.
And you know, it's just years and years
and years of mobilizing and organizing
and striving to to shut down th,
this, this institution called slavery.
And you know, black people and d
whites too died, died over, you know,
striving to stop this instituti.
And we applaud it and we and we
we we honor all those individuas
and we salute them for helping s
to to to rid that that that ver,
very terrible institution.
So a lot of people might have the day off
or see it marked on their calendars now,
but how can people honor the day and and
educate themselves and their families?
Well, we're you know the NAACP
is the largest and oldest civil
rights organization in the worl.
We have 2200 branches nationwide
and we have over 500,000 member.
There's various activities and
workshops and seminars and difft
programs and different celebrats
that we're having across the.
Across the country and we're also doing
many events across the state and we're
supporting others that are doing events.
So we're asking people to go ou,
learn more, get educated,
get informed more about Junetee,
understand the history of it and you know
educate your young people and educate.
Some individuals that are 304050
don't know a whole lot about it.
It was it was kept away from.
American history class in school
which is another horrific tragey
of keeping information and in
real education away from from
people black and white and Lati.
But it's it's it's very sad that
individuals in leadership would would
keep this information away but you know
it's important that we continueo
break down doors and and and make sure
this information is available to people.
We've seen people dismiss black
oppression as something of the .
Juneteenth, of course,
recognizes historical atrocitie,
as as you were saying.
But we're still seeing things le
nooses at schools here in Connecticut
and white supremacy messages painted on
murals right in front of our capital.
Hate is obviously still an everyday reality.
How can people start to confront and maybe
deconstruct that in their communities?
Well, hate crime is alive and
well in the state of Connecticu.
It's running rampant across the state
of Connecticut and it's really running
rampant amongst young people to.
We're seeing in different
high schools with his nooses.
We've seen that at the Ram
High School in Connecticut.
We've also seen in Simsbury and
Milford and other different ares
across the state where individus
are painting their faces black h
shoe Polish to doing black face
and and putting swastikas up an.
Putting the N word all over different
things and and and bullying youg
people and social media and onle
and there's some really really d
stuff going on here in the state
and we're seeing it you know in
pockets all across and now we're
seeing it right downtown in Hard
right in front of our capital.
So it's very bold.
It's right up in our face and we
as a people that are morally.
In tune with one another.
No matter what color you are,
we must, you know,
as we talked about it before, You know,
at one time slavery was legal,
Jim Crow laws were legal,
and it's imperative that people
of good faith do the moral thin,
the right thing to do,
and stand on integrity and make sure that.
We collectively go against individuals
that want to carry out these tyf
practices and continue these tyf
races practices not only across America,
but right here in the state of Connecticut,
Absolutely. And obviously
Juneteenth is about history,
but we want to talk a little bit about
some of the progress and policye
NAACP is pushing for here in our state.
A major policy of yours is police reform.
Where do you think Connecticut
stands on that topic?
Well, I don't know.
You know it it it ebbs and flow.
We just had a situation in New Haven,
CT with the, the the Randy Cox case where
we've seen officers being arres.
We're seeing the largest police brutality
settlement in the history of Ama
where they had a $45 million settlement
pertaining to the Randy Cox cas.
We had the Justice Petula case.
And Wethersfield, CT there's numerous
cases of the big case in West H,
CT where the state police were involved
in murdering a young man in West Haven,
CT So, you know,
there's a lot of problems in
in the state of Connecticut.
We look at George Floyd and Bria
Taylor and all these big cases e
Trayvon Martin and Mike Brown ad
Eric Garner across America and o
Mayor Rice and in those big old cases.
But there's some really big cases that go on,
right. Here in Connecticut, Ben Crump,
one of the top civil rights attorneys
in America is constantly here in
Connecticut fighting police brutality cases.
So you know,
it's alive and well here in Connecticut.
And I don't think Connecticut,
you know, should,
you know,
stick their nose up at anything
that's going on across America
because it's happening right hee
in the state of Connecticut ande
need to deal with it and deal wh
deal with it swiftly and decisi.
You mentioned the Randy Cox cas,
of course, many incidents of poe
violence happening post that.
And there's always this conversn
about police trauma in the black
community and how police can start an
attempt to build trust and relationships.
What do you think are some of
the steps of of healing and trut
building that police can do?
Well once again, you know,
we've the NAACP as a state
has been around for 114 years.
We've tried. Many different tac,
many different strategies,
some of work, some have not wor.
And as I stated that, you know,
racism is still running rampant
throughout the state of Connect.
And as we see,
people are going right up to the Capitol
where all the cameras that theye
around the Capitol and they don,
they don't really care.
They're going right out there and defacing
a very beautiful artistic expression that
individuals took the time to put together.
Right there and and you know,
I don't know how blunt or
more blunt a person can be.
So we're we're we're trying
to have individuals come down,
come together,
I shouldn't say down,
but come together and have
conversations and dialogues.
But as you as we see you know in Buffalo,
NY, there's young white racists
that are coming into grocery
stores and shooting people down.
There's individuals that go into
churches and shoot people down,
pray with them first and then go kill them.
Also, Pete,
our community has always been on
for dialogue in and in striving
to to do the right thing. But.
You know, this stuff is pretty .
And, you know,
you know,
I asked the white community form
to come up with some strategies
because the black community's ry
been working tirelessly to do i.
I think it's very important
that the white community needs
to stand up and make sure that,
you know,
people from their community are
held accountable.
We passed hate crime bills and
we have state prosecutors right
now that refuse to hold people
accountable for these racist cr.
So I think that we need to work
collectively to make sure the
people are held accountable.
And just a couple days,
about a week after the legislative session,
some bills that passed the Connecticut
is now allowing cities and towno
decide if they want to implemend
light cameras at certain intersections.
I know the NAACP has concerns th
feeling this will disproportionately impact
black communities and and inner cities.
Can you tell me a little bit
more about that? Once
again, we think that
this is a big money grab.
This is a huge business opportuy
for greedy business individuals and we.
Think that you know that,
You know, if it this wasn't
a great business opportunity,
they wouldn't be putting these millions
and millions of dollars into th.
They've been fighting for 10 yes
to get them up and we've been
fighting to try to keep them do.
Yes, there is a problem with transportation.
The NAACP is is a huge advocate
for public safety,
but we don't want to do it where
where we're setting ourselves up
for greedy businessmen to to mae
tons of dollars off of poor blak
and brown people in inner citie.
If it's, you know, a safety iss,
let's set it up in all 169 town.
Let's, let's, let's.
Make sure that there's no big fs
and big fees for people that don't pay
the I mean that on on these tics
and let's not make it a commercial issue,
let's make it a public safety i.
And I know that there's other
creative ways that individuals e
stopped or slowed down public sy
issues around traffic issues acs
the nation where they didn't put
these red light cameras up, but.
One thing that we've seen that people get a,
let's say a $35 ticket or a
$40 ticket or whatever,
then if they're not able,
if a single woman with four children is not
able to pay for that within a week or so,
then they it double s and then it triples.
And then you have fines and fees
and then you see license suspens
and then you see all type of
situations where people's licen,
license are suspended and
they're in a situation where.
Then now they're having a huge
conflict with the police and ths
is just snowballs and snowballsd
gets bigger and bigger and and a
bad situation and you just don't
need that in our community.
We just got past COVID where pee
were hammered economically and
now they're trying to offset the
budgets and balances,
balance their budgets off of the
poor people in inner cities.
Now with the red light cameras,
this is not a solution for public safety.
Just like the cameras that we've
seen in Hartford,
You know they have cameras everywhere
and still we have 40 murders in
the city of Hartford.
So we have to come with
not knee jerk solutions,
we have to come up real comprehensive
solutions to change this.
And money is not the all the the
the solution always to solving,
solving problems.
Well, thank you so much, Scott.
Unfortunately,
that's all the time we have lef.
But I really appreciate you being here.
I wanted to talk some more.
I know it's it, it goes.
Thanks for having me.
I appreciate you.
Appreciate you. And
we thank you for all your suppot
and letting making sure that vos
are heard in FOX 69, FOX 61.
Thank you so much. Well,
that does it for us on the real story.
If you want to watch these segments again,
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Have a great rest of your morni.