{"id":5084375,"date":"2019-09-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-02T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ctlatinonews.com\/the-el-paso-mass-shooting-could-it-happen-in-connecticut\/"},"modified":"2019-09-02T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-09-02T04:00:00","slug":"the-el-paso-mass-shooting-could-it-happen-in-connecticut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinonewsnetwork.com\/ctln\/2019\/09\/02\/the-el-paso-mass-shooting-could-it-happen-in-connecticut\/","title":{"rendered":"The El Paso Mass Shooting: Could It Happen in Connecticut?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By <\/em>Brian Woodman Jr.<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>CTLatinoNews.com<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

A month since the tragedy, Latino leaders expressed dismay with the August 3 El Paso mass shooting and revelations of a racist anti-Latino manifesto attributed to the shooter. They and law enforcement officials spoke with CTLatinonews about concerns regarding whether the incident could repeat itself elsewhere — including in Connecticut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne thing we are watching carefully is the modest but notable growth in targeted hate incidents,\u201c said Steve Hernandez, executive director of the Connecticut General Assembly\u2019s Commission on Women, Children, Seniors, Equity and Opportunity (CWCS). \u201cThe current political climate is emboldening hate groups. Connecticut is not immune to it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

Werner Oyanadel, the Latino and Puerto Rican Policy Director\nfor the commission, criticized U.S. President Donald Trump for not doing more\nto discourage hateful chants and comments from the audience during his rallies.<\/p>\n\n\n

\u201cWords at that level matter,\u201d said Oyanadel. \u201cOur president\nis not trying to stifle that. He needs to be clearer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

Brian Foley, an executive aide of the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection Commissioner James Rovella, said his department and others conducted a cross-country conference with the FBI the day following the shootings and discussed whether copycat shootings could occur.<\/p>\n\n\n

\u201cWhile that was a concern, we did not see an immediate threat identified,\u201d Foley said regarding the possibility of a hate-based mass shooting targeting Latinos. \u201cWe have not found an immediate threat but it is being taken seriously. We understand the Latino community is concerned.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

He described a quickly-organized meeting between state and\nlocal police in New Haven following a potentially threatening comment on social\nmedia prior to the city\u2019s August 10 Puerto Rican Day Parade.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

SUGGESTION: Puerto Rican Festival: \u201cIn the presence of hate, we will respond with love\u201d <\/h4>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\n\n

Charles Grady, a public affairs spokesperson for the FBI\u2019s New Haven office<\/a>, said there was no specific threat of hate-based mass shootings in Connecticut to mirror the El Paso incident, although he added that the office and other law enforcement agencies in Connecticut have examined different public threat scenarios since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n

Grady added that hate crimes, in general, were rising, referring to recent FBI statistical reports. Bureau data from last year and the latest available as of press time indicated there were 111 incidents reported in Connecticut in 2017 — 66 of them were based on ancestry, race or ethnicity. According to the 2016 data, there were 106 incidents in Connecticut and 62 of them were based on race, ethnicity or ancestry. <\/h4>\n\n\n

According to a state police report provided by Foley, there\nwere 13 hate-based incidents in New Haven in 2017 – the largest of any town or\ncity. Seven of the incidents were based on ethnicity, according to the report.<\/p>\n\n\n

The state data indicated that Blacks were the most frequent target of ethnically-based hate crimes that year and accounted for half of the 66 incidents reported. Seven of the incidents involved Hispanic targets.<\/p>\n\n\n

Thirty-three of the incidents in 2016 also involved Blacks, according to the state data. Six of the incidents involved Hispanics.<\/p>\n\n\n

Hernandez described Connecticut as a \u201cpurple state\u201d rather\nthan red or blue, which put it in a potentially distinguished position.<\/p>\n\n\n

\u201cConnecticut can stand out in standing against divisive\nrhetoric,\u201d he said, adding that he was still not satisfied with the state in\nthis regard. He said the commission was working both legislative houses in the\nstate and across the aisle to address these issues.<\/p>\n\n\n

On August 5, President Donald Trump condemned racism in his speech following the shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n\n\n
  • <\/figure><\/li>
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    El Paso mass shooting memorial <\/h4>\n\n\n
    \n\n\n

    \u201cIn one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and\nwhite supremacy,\u201d stated Trump in his speech \n\u201cThese sinister ideologies must be defeated. Hate has no place in\nAmerica.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

    He added that \u201cwe have asked the FBI to identify all further\nresources they need to investigate and disrupt hate crimes and domestic\nterrorism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

    Hernandez replied that \u201canti-otherness\u201d needed to be\nconfronted through meaningful action.<\/p>\n\n\n

    \u201cLeadership requires utterance of principles and follow-through,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are pronouncing values but not connecting the dots.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n

    He noted efforts by the Collaborative on Academic, Social and Emotional Learning — an organization created by the state legislature during the last session and operated by the commission to address bullying, build social and emotional schools and support a positive educational climate. He said the collaborative studied links between self-destructive behavior like suicide and violence. <\/p>\n\n\n

    \u201cAddressing alienation and mental health issues would be a\ngood first step,\u201d he said, adding that youth disconnected from society due to\nreasons like  early trauma and extreme\npoverty sometimes gravitated to extremist ideologies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    \u201cThe current political climate is emboldening hate groups. Connecticut is not immune to it.\u201d
    \nSteve Hernandez, CWCS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","ghostkit_customizer_options":"","ghostkit_custom_css":"","ghostkit_custom_js_head":"","ghostkit_custom_js_foot":"","ghostkit_typography":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1495,576],"tags":[1564],"ppma_author":[565],"class_list":["post-5084375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime","category-democracypolitics","tag-el-pasohate-crimesmass-shooting"],"acf":[],"mb":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Jermaine Smith","author_link":"https:\/\/latinonewsnetwork.com\/ctln\/author\/jay\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"\u201cThe current political climate is emboldening hate groups. Connecticut is not immune to it.\u201d Steve Hernandez, CWCS","authors":[{"term_id":565,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"news-editor","display_name":"News Editor","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"mfb_rest_fields":["title","uagb_featured_image_src","uagb_author_info","uagb_comment_info","uagb_excerpt","authors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinonewsnetwork.com\/ctln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5084375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinonewsnetwork.com\/ctln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinonewsnetwork.com\/ctln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinonewsnetwork.com\/ctln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinonewsnetwork.com\/ctln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5084375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/latinonewsnetwork.com\/ctln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5084375\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinonewsnetwork.com\/ctln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5084375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinonewsnetwork.com\/ctln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5084375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinonewsnetwork.com\/ctln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5084375"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinonewsnetwork.com\/ctln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=5084375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}