Protest to question circumstances of professor’s death

Although his lead to of death stays unknown, colleagues and friends of the late Yale assistant professor Samuel See are mobilizing in his honor.

A public demonstration scheduled for this Tuesday will protest actions taken by New Haven Police officers surrounding — and allegedly involved in precipitating — See’s death in a New Haven jail approximately two weeks in the past. A Saturday e mail forwarded to members of the Yale faculty by Christopher Miller ’83, professor of French and African-American studies, asked concerned members of the University community to attend a march starting at 12 p.m. in front of New Haven City Hall.

“A death in jail is a political death,” wrote the organizer of the march, Nathan Brown, an assistant professor of English at the University of California, Davis. “This is specifically the case when it is the death of a gay guy, given the structural and historical homophobia of policing, incarceration, and the legal technique in the United States.”

The march will proceed via campus and the downtown community just before ending at NHPD headquarters at 1 Union Avenue, in which See was discovered dead on Nov. 24. See, who was on depart this semester from the English department, had been detained following a domestic dispute the preceding afternoon with his husband, Sunder Ganglani.

“We need to have to demand solutions,” Miller informed the Information in a Sunday e mail. “And the silence of Yale University in this is deafening.”

Yale Spokesman Tom Conroy could not be reached for instant comment Sunday evening. The University issued a press statement on Nov. 27  following news of See’s death, expressing condolences to See’s household, colleagues and buddies. Conroy said in an electronic mail to the Information final week that Yale was in touch with police as nicely as state judicial officials — and focusing its efforts on providing assistance to individuals in grief.

Brown mentioned the protest will raise queries not only about the managing of See’s arrest and incarceration but also about the validity of the details the NHPD has released on the topic. Even though See’s trigger of death is unknown — and will likely stay so at least until finally the chief state healthcare examiner’s workplace concludes its toxicology report — Brown mentioned the “carelessness and … violence of the police response definitely exacerbated people leads to and contributed to his death.”

However See and Ganglani had mutual protective orders against 1 another, Ganglani had returned to See’s Wooster Square property on Nov. 23 to retrieve some belongings. When police — known as in by See’s sister, who was out of state — verified the protective orders, they moved to arrest and charge the two men. See allegedly resisted arrest, in accordance to press statements from the NHPD, and fell and minimize his eye in the method. He was handled for the damage at Yale-New Haven Hospital that evening and then positioned in police lock-up, charged with violating a protective buy, interfering with police and threatening in the 2nd degree — having allegedly yelled at arresting officers “I will kill you.” See was located dead in his cell at about six a.m. the next morning, Nov. 24.

Brown, who knew See as a fellow Ph.D pupil at the University of California, Los Angeles, said he final spoke to See above the phone in 2012 and knew him to be “struggling with depression.” He explained the arrest was unwarranted and excessive, specifically in See’s own house and provided his apparent mental well being concerns.

Yale Law School professor Stephen Wizner explained in a Sunday e-mail to the News that the assortment of genuine actions taken by law enforcement in response to a breach of a protective purchase may possibly vary based on the certain type of order in query.

“It is conceivable that the purchase that was issued in favor of See’s husband towards See prohibited See from allowing his husband into the family members residence,” Wizner explained, including that he could not comment more especially with out seeing the real order. “It does seem to be odd that See would have been arrested in his own home.”

Brown stated any death in police custody merits scrutiny, notably due to the reduce over his left eye See sustained even though police were arresting him. Even though the health care examiner has ruled out trauma from the injury as the lead to of death, Brown said the lower is evidence of the violent conditions of the professor’s incarceration. He referred to as the police statement that See had lower his eye when he fell down a “dubious claim.”

In a press release last week, NHPD Chief Dean Esserman stated he had ordered an inner investigation into the circumstances surrounding See’s death in addition to the probe becoming carried out by the department’s Investigative Solutions Unit. Both investigations will incorporate a full overview of video from the detention center, which is administered by the state Judicial Branch, and interviews with all officers and state Marshals concerned.

Offered first police “negligence,” Brown stated, considerable doubt stays about the effectiveness of these investigations. He further queried the intentions of the NHPD by noting that information of See’s death was not released right up until three days after he was discovered unresponsive in his jail cell. Esserman apologized for the “late reporting” in his statement, calling it a deviation from standard process.

Brown said a couple of of See’s friends from the west coast will be attending Tuesday’s march. He said his message has also been circulating inside of the Yale community and via academic networks across the east coast because he very first announced ideas for the protest last week.

Protest to question circumstances of professor’s death