by Thomas Breen The New Haven independent
Adam Walker | Thomas Breen photos Orosco (left): “Violence is rising, fear is spreading;” Mayor Elicker (right), with Chief Jacobson: “We had a very difficult weekend. No life lost is acceptable.” And yet, “the numbers still indicate that we are going in the right direction.”
Republican mayoral candidate Steve Orosco used a recent spate of gun violence as an opportunity to criticize Mayor Justin Elicker and call for state police to intervene in city law enforcement before “the feds are forced to step in and do his job for him.”
Elicker countered that New Haven already partners with state police, that Orosco appears not to understand how city government works, and that violent crime is still on the decline, notwithstanding the tragedies of two homicides on Sunday and Monday.
Orosco, a mixed-martial artist and frequent Republican candidate for local office, put forward that violence-focused critique in an “open letter” that his campaign strategist, Jason Bartlett, sent out by email on Tuesday.
The letter came in response to an exceptionally violent weekend — including the shooting death of 18-year-old West Havener Dillon Cornelius on College Street between Crown and Chapel at around 2:52 a.m. Sunday; the shooting injury of a 23-year-old Hamden man who appears to have been an innocent bystander of the same gunfire that killed Cornelius; the shooting death of 40-year-old New Havner Dennis Atkinson at Ferry Street and River Street on Monday at around 4:44 a.m.; and the shooting injury of a 31-year-old New Havener on Shelton Avenue in Newhallville at around 7:31 a.m. Monday.
This burst of separate incidents of gun violence came a few days after Mayor Justin Elicker and Police Chief Karl Jacobson held a press conference at police headquarters in which they documented how, per the city’s regularly compiled crime stats, violent crime — in particular confirmed shots fired and non-fatal shooting injuries — has dropped dramatically since its pandemic-era peak.
“Residents know the truth: violence is rising, fear is spreading, and the pain is all too real,” Orosco and Bartlett wrote on Tuesday. “You can massage the numbers, but you can’t hide the reality people face every day.” (They offered no evidence for their claim that Elicker, a three-term incumbent Democrat seeking another two years in office, is “massaging” the numbers or that violence is rising.)
Orosco and Bartlett also put forward a number of policy prescriptions to address violent crime in the city. They included an implicit reference to the Trump administration’s recent takeover of the Washington, D.C. police department. To quote directly from the letter:
Increase police presence in the neighborhoods under threat.
Restore officer morale with clear, steady leadership and real investment.
Call for mutual aid — from the state police (as done in past crises). Or is the mayor planning to sit on his hands until the feds are forced to step in and do his job for him?
Focus funding on youth engagement with proven programs instead of more desk jobs at City Hall.
In a Tuesday evening phone interview, Elicker pushed back on Orosco for his political opportunism — and apparent ignorance of what city government is currently doing to combat violent crime.
“We regularly hold press conferences giving updates [about] the challenges that the city faces on crime” and to share crime statistics, he said. Last week was no different.
“I have never seen Mr. Orosco at any funeral for a homicide victim, at any vigil, at any scene of a homicide,” Elicker added. “I’ve never heard him provide any solution before he was running for mayor.” Elicker said that, for every pedestrian fatality and homicide, he calls the point of contact for the victim. “I go to every wake, every funeral of victims of homicides. I see first hand the impacts these things have on our community. It’s heartbreaking.”
In response to criticism that he is “massaging” the city’s crime stats, Elicker said, “That sounds like a Trumpism. We work very hard to be consistent and be transparent about the numbers,” through CompStat reports that are put out on a regular basis. “The numbers are the numbers. The facts are still the same, that crime — including violent crime — is overwhelmingly down in the city.”
That “doesn’t mean that there is no crime in the city,” he continued. “We had a very difficult weekend. No life lost is acceptable.” And yet, “the numbers still indicate that we are going in the right direction.”
As to Orosco’s call for the state police to step in, Elicker said, “we regularly work with state police” already — including on joint regional task forces around dirt bikes, ATVs, and stolen cars. Orosco “clearly doesn’t understand we already work closely with the state police.”
Same goes for investing in safe, productive opportunities for young people. “We work very hard on youth engagement,” through the city’s Youth Connect program. The city has “invested more in youth jobs,” including through the summer Youth @ Work program. Elicker noted that he did not see Orosco testifying before the state legislature, as the mayor and so many other local advocates did this past session, calling for the state to increase funding for public education.
And in response to Sunday’s and Monday’s gun violence in particular, the mayor said, “Police have increased resources in several of the areas” where they believe there are “group or gang issues.” He noted that Sunday’s homicide on College Street appears to have been the result of groups of people who knew one another and who were fighting.
He said the city also hosted an “emergency meeting with Youth Connect” after Sunday’s homicide “to make sure that the young people we felt were at risk of being killed and potentially being involved in the violence, that there was a plan for each one of them” as the city tries to intervene before another shot is fired and another life is lost.
Orosco and Elicker are slated to face off as the Republican and Democratic candidates, respectively, in the Nov. 4 general election. Neither is facing a primary challenger, meaning that there won’t be a mayoral primary for either political party on Sept. 9. Registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans in New Haven by more than 10 to 1, and every local elected office is currently held by a Democrat. A Republican hasn’t won a New Haven mayoral election since 1953.