The liberal administration of New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker dispatched 35 armed police officers to Ella T. Grasso Boulevard, accompanied by a municipal bulldozer, to sweep the area and evict the remaining members of the community that had grown up there during the COVID-19 pandemic. New Haven’s notoriously violent police arrested people’s advocate and Amistad Catholic Worker’s representative Mark Colville, who set up a tent on the property in solidarity when the eviction notice was promulgated.
Of the crisis, Mark said:
Friends of New Haven,
Tomorrow (Wednesday, 3/15/23), Mayor Elicker is planning to double down on the deepening human rights emergency for economic refugees in our city, over which he presides without conscience or responsibility. He has ordered the forcible removal of our neighbors from the tent city on E.T. Grasso Boulevard, which has been their home for the past three years. He has provided no alternative for these neighbors except to “apply” for help in getting housed. This comes after the city has neglected to provide any essential services there- not even regular trash removal!- and while the agencies involved in service delivery to our homeless neighbors continue to routinely send people there for help because they have no place else to send them…. CITY LAWS WHICH DENY THE RIGHT OF OUR ECONOMIC REFUGEE NEIGHBORS TO TAKE REFUGE TOGETHER ON PUBLIC LAND ARE A DIRECT VIOLATION OF THE U.N. UNIVERSAL DECLARATION ON HUMAN RIGHTS.
Elicker is the hand-picked mayor of the Democratic regime, plucked from his position as an independent to run against old-Democrat and Working Party candidate, former mayor Toni Harp. Upon his victory in the Democratic primary of 2019, Elicker said “People want the establishment politicians that have been in office for decades to step aside and make space for leadership that brings new ideas and new energy.”
Since that 2019 election, Elicker’s ideas have been the same old ideas. His leadership has been the same old leadership: the leadership of Yale and New Haven capital, its iron fist tightening. Under Elicker’s watch, Randy Cox was thrown, unbuckled, in the back of a police van like Freddy Gray, and paralyzed by the New Haven police: the enforcement arm of Elicker’s regime.
During the pandemic, most services for the unhoused were shut down. Wait lists for shelters on the state’s 2-1-1 phone line run to months. Soup kitchens and shelters have been closed. Now, Elicker strikes out as the representative of New Haven’s capitalists by unleashing New Haven’s vicious police on the encampment at Ella Grasso Boulevard. In fact, Elicker has been building up to this final stroke for two years. His health inspectors have harassed the unhoused community and threatened time and again to sweep the area. Using a tried-and-true capitalist tactic, Elicker outlasted organizers and activists and wore down the resistance and empathy of the local housed community with repeated warnings and near-sweeps.
Finally, earlier this month, Elicker made his move. After cordoning the press off and away from the sweep where they couldn’t ask any questions, Elicker gave a statement indicating that he was working to “arrange travel out of state” for the unhoused people.
Meanwhile, Mandy Management continues to crank up the rents in New Haven – some tenants have seen increases of as much as $550 a month. Evictions are soaring and the property speculators that have “invested” record amounts of money in New Haven properties so they can gentrify, expel tenants, and increase rents have gone unchecked. This is the first of many blows dealt by Elicker and the Democratic machine of New Haven in 2023; it will not be the last.How long before the Bridgeport “eviction tsunami” breaks over New Haven with Justin Elicker’s willing collaboration?
