EQ-11
10-04-2007, 10:11 AM
http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=1136267078&channel=959028755&lineup=-1
New London — Returned to freedom after six hours in lockup, a 16-year-old told her mother police took her mug shot.
“It was random fights,” she said as she bent on the sidewalk, putting her laces back in her shoes.
Nearby, an 18-year-old holding his release papers buckled his belt, twisted his hat to the side and ducked a photographer as he stepped into the street.
The two were among a dozen teenagers and a handful of adults arrested by New London police Tuesday for taking part in street fights in the city.
Some participants videotaped the fights. Thus far, police have used a confiscated video to draw up more than 34 warrants. They say they expect the arrests to continue over the next two weeks.
Several angry and concerned parents gathered at the police station Tuesday afternoon after learning that their teenagers had been pulled out of class at New London High School and arrested.
New London Schools Superintendent Christopher Clouet said the students were escorted out of the school without handcuffs and taken to the police station, where the arrest warrants were served.
Dolores Cook, whose 16-year-old son was arrested on four warrants Tuesday, yelled to School Resource Officer Anthony Nolan, “I want my damn child out of your jail!”
The fuzzy, jumpy video shows fights taking place in various locations throughout the city and at different times of the year. New London police Capt. William Dittman said the scenes are evidence of crimes ranging from second-degree assault to inciting a riot.
Cook said her son was only watching the fights, some of which an expert has said are gang-related.
“Everything these children do — black and Hispanic — is gang-related, according to the police,” Cook said. “There aren't no real gangs around here.
“It was called childhood when I was growing up,” she said.
Cook said that when she finally saw her son after several hours, he told her police had not given him anything to eat all day.
“I'm trying to educate my kids, and they're trying to make my kids gang-bangers,” Cook said.
In the 22-minute video obtained several months ago by The Day, some of the New London fights took place behind the former Edgerton Elementary School on Cedar Grove Avenue. Others appear to have been filmed at the Bates Woods and Briarcliff Manor apartment complexes, and some took place in the area of Belden and Blackhall streets and Connecticut Avenue. Dozens of spectators are seen at some of the fight scenes, and an adult woman appears in one segment.
On the same day that Gov. M. Jodi Rell announced that New London would receive $78,000 in grant money for programs that combat urban youth violence, administrators were working to figure out which students would be permitted to return to school the next day, dealing with a reported fight between students on Jefferson Avenue and an after-hours bomb scare. (A maintenance worker found a note in a restroom claiming there was a bomb in the building. The school was evacuated while school and police officials swept the building, finding nothing suspicious.)
New London High School Principal Daniel Sullivan III said most students in the school weren't aware that the arrests were being made Tuesday. He said the school would decide its own disciplinary action on a case-by-case basis.
As of late Tuesday afternoon, Sullivan said, the school still had no information from the police about what charges had been lodged.
“We're still trying to get as much information as we can. ... Like anybody, we're aware of the tapes, saw bits and pieces on the news. We are aware of what students were taken into custody at the school today,” he said.
Dittman said some young people were arrested on multiple warrants. Some who will be served warrants, he said, are already in prison serving time for other crimes. The highest charge doled out to a student at New London High School, he said, was second-degree assault, a Class D felony.
“We have a population of almost 800 students,” Sullivan said. “Certainly this is not representative of us as a school. But just because these students made errors in judgment, we can't just abandon them.”
New London — Returned to freedom after six hours in lockup, a 16-year-old told her mother police took her mug shot.
“It was random fights,” she said as she bent on the sidewalk, putting her laces back in her shoes.
Nearby, an 18-year-old holding his release papers buckled his belt, twisted his hat to the side and ducked a photographer as he stepped into the street.
The two were among a dozen teenagers and a handful of adults arrested by New London police Tuesday for taking part in street fights in the city.
Some participants videotaped the fights. Thus far, police have used a confiscated video to draw up more than 34 warrants. They say they expect the arrests to continue over the next two weeks.
Several angry and concerned parents gathered at the police station Tuesday afternoon after learning that their teenagers had been pulled out of class at New London High School and arrested.
New London Schools Superintendent Christopher Clouet said the students were escorted out of the school without handcuffs and taken to the police station, where the arrest warrants were served.
Dolores Cook, whose 16-year-old son was arrested on four warrants Tuesday, yelled to School Resource Officer Anthony Nolan, “I want my damn child out of your jail!”
The fuzzy, jumpy video shows fights taking place in various locations throughout the city and at different times of the year. New London police Capt. William Dittman said the scenes are evidence of crimes ranging from second-degree assault to inciting a riot.
Cook said her son was only watching the fights, some of which an expert has said are gang-related.
“Everything these children do — black and Hispanic — is gang-related, according to the police,” Cook said. “There aren't no real gangs around here.
“It was called childhood when I was growing up,” she said.
Cook said that when she finally saw her son after several hours, he told her police had not given him anything to eat all day.
“I'm trying to educate my kids, and they're trying to make my kids gang-bangers,” Cook said.
In the 22-minute video obtained several months ago by The Day, some of the New London fights took place behind the former Edgerton Elementary School on Cedar Grove Avenue. Others appear to have been filmed at the Bates Woods and Briarcliff Manor apartment complexes, and some took place in the area of Belden and Blackhall streets and Connecticut Avenue. Dozens of spectators are seen at some of the fight scenes, and an adult woman appears in one segment.
On the same day that Gov. M. Jodi Rell announced that New London would receive $78,000 in grant money for programs that combat urban youth violence, administrators were working to figure out which students would be permitted to return to school the next day, dealing with a reported fight between students on Jefferson Avenue and an after-hours bomb scare. (A maintenance worker found a note in a restroom claiming there was a bomb in the building. The school was evacuated while school and police officials swept the building, finding nothing suspicious.)
New London High School Principal Daniel Sullivan III said most students in the school weren't aware that the arrests were being made Tuesday. He said the school would decide its own disciplinary action on a case-by-case basis.
As of late Tuesday afternoon, Sullivan said, the school still had no information from the police about what charges had been lodged.
“We're still trying to get as much information as we can. ... Like anybody, we're aware of the tapes, saw bits and pieces on the news. We are aware of what students were taken into custody at the school today,” he said.
Dittman said some young people were arrested on multiple warrants. Some who will be served warrants, he said, are already in prison serving time for other crimes. The highest charge doled out to a student at New London High School, he said, was second-degree assault, a Class D felony.
“We have a population of almost 800 students,” Sullivan said. “Certainly this is not representative of us as a school. But just because these students made errors in judgment, we can't just abandon them.”