Lamont: CT Taking Opposite Strategy Of Trump For Protests

CONNECTICUT — Gov. Ned Lamont and the Connecticut State Police commissioner said that the state’s protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd have been largely peaceful and that they hope to keep it that way. There is some concern that the large gatherings of people could spread the coronavirus in communities that have already been hit disproportionately hard by the virus.

“We have to be able to do two things at the same time, fight for justice and defeat COVID,” Lamont said.

He said from what he has seen, most protesters are wearing masks.

Congresswoman Jahana Hayes also echoed the same concerns and said she is worried that a surge in cases could affect communities. Her husband is a Waterbury police officer who contracted the virus.

“I saw first hand how scary this virus can be and I just encourage people there are other ways to get involved,” she said.

Lamont participated in a call with other governors, President Donald Trump and other White House officials about the protests. He said Trump urged governors to turn police action into a military-type situation, which Lamont said would be pouring gasoline on the flames.

“They had a very different message,” Lamont said. “They said what’s the matter with you governors how come you’re not out there showing these guys whose boss?... How come you are not quote dominating the battlefield?”

State Police Commissioner James Rovella echoed Lamont’s sentiments about the call.

“I was very surprised of the forcefulness and the words used, but that’s not the Connecticut way,” Rovella said.

He added that he is comfortable that state police can handle protests and hope that looting and burning won’t occur in the state. He urged protests to stay off the highways because they are dangerous for protesters, police and motorists.

Trump urged governors on the call to mobilize the National Guard during protests.

"You have to dominate. If you don’t dominate, you’re wasting your time," Trump said. "They’re going to run over you. You’re going to look like a bunch of jerks. You have to dominate and you have to arrest people and you have to try people and they have to go to jail for long periods of time."

Attorney General Bill Barr said there is intelligence that "professional instigators" are moving to secondary cities when they run into strong police and National Guard presence.

"The reason we have to control the streets is not just to bring peace to that town, but to give us the opportunity to get the bad actors, because they are going to go elsewhere," Barr said on the call.

Hayes, a former Waterbury teacher and national teacher of the year, said the past few days have been painful for her and her family.

“We witnessed an execution if you will because we watched the life drain out of George Floyd while he lay on the ground, and we watched other police officers stand by and that is unacceptable,” she said.

The actions of those police officers made the job less safe for her husband and other good officers, she said.

“This is a profession where there is no room for a few bad apples,” she said. “If the airlines said we only had a few bad pilots we would never accept that. There needs to be accountability.”

Her husband, when off-duty, knows to put his hands on the wheel and put the interior light on if he is pulled over, she said. Right off the bat he explains he is a police officer.

“In the five seconds it would take for him to say that he doesn’t want a sidearm to be noticed and a confrontation ensue,” she said.

She added that protesting isn’t the only way to affect change.

“Protest is not the only way to engage in this conversation,” she said. “The one thing we all have control over is our actions, put yourself in proximity to these communities talk to people, get to know people.”

She taught her students about the Montgomery bus boycott, but also about how not everyone who took part in the civil rights movement protested. Many typed up flyers or decided not to spend their money at certain establishments.

Young people weren’t able to experience Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but they did experience one of their contemporaries being admonished for taking a knee in protest, she said, referring to former NFL quarter Colin Kaepernick

Lamont said he worked to make his administration diverse and he is working to make state police more diverse as well.

Hayes encouraged police to take the conversation and recruitment efforts to the community instead of calling them to recruitment drives.

See also: Major Connecticut Mall Closed Due to 'Abundance of Caution'

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• Man Accused Of Kidnapping, Assault On I-95: State PD
• Lamont Clarifies Coronavirus Testing, Talks Racial Justice Issues
• CT Residents Take To Streets, Highways In Protests