When I was on the East Haven Town Council and we were in Executive Session then Councilwoman April Capone said, "Well maybe we should settle the case with Malik Jones." I strongly opposed that idea along with the other 13 Council members. I said for as long as I sit on this Council I will never vote to give one red cent to the Jones Family. Not because of hate but because of justice being served. When the jury trial resulted in a $2.5 Million Dollar judgment for Jones I said you must continue to fight it because if we cave, if we settle everyone will be lined up at the door waiting for their payout and our community and tax base will foot the bill.
It wasn't the money so much, after a while it all blends together but what was most important was to stand next to our Police Department which was being labeled as a racist department that hunted minority groups and would shoot to kill because of the color of their skin. That was the farthest thing from the truth and the 2nd Circuit Appellate Court concurred in their decision today.
What is and will always remain the truth is that Emma Jones lost control of her child Malik. Maybe Malik was a good person in her presence and as a parent it is sometimes very difficult to see the wrong your children do but unless Mrs. Jones was completely blind there was no way she could not have known the many criminal things that her son was doing and whom he was doing it with.
First things first is the rule of law. My two daughters are no angels but I know they are good kids because my wife and I keep track of their activities, whom they associate themselves with and hold them to account for their actions. I'm not saying that because I'm the Father of the Year, I'm saying that because it's my social responsibility to you and everyone else to hold my child to certain social expectations. Selling drugs, carrying illegal weapons, running from the police, endangering the countless lives with a high speed chase and associating with convicted felons is not in "my social expectations" for my children. Maybe that was acceptable behavior to Emma Jones but not to the millions of families who raise their children to respect the law and the Police that serve the public.
As a parent I can only imagine the anguish Mrs. Jones felt with the loss of her child but what I cannot understand is her total lack of accountability for her failure as a parent and expecting the Town of East Haven and the residents to shoulder the blame for Malik's lack of respect for the rule of law. Mrs. Jones fails to realize that her son was a drug dealer, was selling guns and moments before he was killed he placed the lives of many motorists and pedestrians in harm’s way by driving recklessly through the streets of East Haven and New Haven. Why is Malik Jones dead? It's not because Officer Floodquist killed him it's because of the life he lived and the lack of parental guidance that continued to allow the destructive behavior to end at the barrel of a police officer’s gun. Does Mrs. Jones for once ever think she owes the people of East Haven an apology for the way her son conducted himself in our community? Does she ever apologize for the poison her son sold on the streets that ended up in our community? Does she every hold her son or herself to account to Robert Floodquist for having to make a tough decision to use his firearm to defend himself against a 2 ton motor vehicle? The answer is no and it will remain no until she dies because she believes that her son did no wrong.
That's the difference between New Haven and East Haven. That's why there is gun violence every day in New Haven and not East Haven. That's why you can walk the streets of East Haven without fear. Try to do that in some neighborhoods in New Haven and it’s not that East Haven is a racist Town it's because we hold people to account and our Police Department enforces our laws. Emma Jones will never get that concept because she has never accepted the responsibilities as a parent for her part in the violent epidemic of crime that plagues the Greater New Haven Area,
As for the United States Department of Justice and their political collaborators, April Capone, Michael Lawlor, Frank Capone, Gene Ruocco, Paul Hongo. Patricia CoFrancesco, Fred Brow, Joseph Civitello and Frank Perigrossi what now? What's your case now that the hearsay about the East Haven Police Department has been once again NOT proven? These local people turned to the United States Department of Justice to seek political retaliation and used the Malik Jones case as a basis of their suspicion to bring about the biggest political witch hunt in modern time.
To quote East Haven's Defense Attorney on the Jones case Hugh Keefe, “The decision will have an effect on the Department of Justice’s civil complaint. It undermines the claims of the Department of Justice as outlined in a letter to the mayor in December of 2011. The only specifics cited in the letter is the Malik Jones case, Keefe said. The new decision, takes the water out of that argument completely,”
So now what United States Department of Justice? What is the basis of your current argument? Pack up your boxes, your investigation and all the destruction you put on our Town and get the hell out of here. The people of East Haven have put up with this case for over 15 years and where is our apology for being called racists, bigots and an unfriendly town? I suspect it will never come. You can go home now DOJ because you and your minions are the only ones not welcomed here in East Haven.
