The Latino community makes up a growing portion of East Haven’s demographic–close to six percent according to the U.S. Census Bureau–but some local residents and businesspeople claim that this strong presence on the west end of town has made them a target for police harassment and racial profiling. The East Haven Police Department (EHPD) adamantly maintains that this is not the case. Instead, the EHPD says its presence in the west end is based on a high level of “activity” there and Main Street’s being a main artery.

Alleged tensions between the Latino community and the East Haven Police Department (EHPD) came to light recently after a New Haven priest was arrested inside a parishioner’s Main Street convenience store as, he says, he was attempting to document a pattern of racially based harassment and profiling by police.

The EHPD incident report states that Father James Manship of St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church entered My Country Store shortly after 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 19. Police report that Manship’s collar was not visible and his face was obscured by a hat. At that time, EHPD officers David Cari and Dennis Spaulding were watching Ecuadorian-American store owner Wildred Matute remove license plates from the store’s walls using a drill gun. The officers had advised Matute to remove the plates, some of which the officers allege appeared to be “new-style Connecticut plates” intended for resale.

According to the report, shortly after entering My Country Store, Manship concealed a “silver object,” causing arresting officer David Cari to “feel unsafe.” (Cari was previously shot in the line of duty during a shoot-out on the Q-Bridge. The suspect in that incident had been concealing a weapon.) Manship refused to show or tell the officer what he was holding in his hand, which was later found to be a small, digital camera. The report states that Manship carried himself in “an aggressive manner,” made “a scene,” resisted arrest, and yelled, “I’m a priest and you cannot touch me.”

Manship was arrested for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. He pled not guilty to both charges in Superior Court and is scheduled to appear again on March 27.

The arrest has prompted business owners along the west end of East Haven’s Main Street drag to publicly air their complaints and concerns about the EHPD’s alleged mistreatment of them. Many of these business owners worship at St. Rose and had begun confiding in Manship last June that they and their customers were being unfairly targeted by the EHPD for motor vehicle violations.

“It’s a matter of targeting Latino folks leaving the stores while Caucasian folks have not been,” said Manship.

As a result of what he was hearing, Manship said, he began video recording to gather “concrete stories” and evidence of police harassment.

EHPD Chief Leonard Gallo said he wondered why Manship’s parishioners’ complaints were not brought directly to the police department.

“No one has come forward with me,” said Gallo. “I’m more than willing to sit down with anybody to discuss this, but to classify us as racially profiling-I emphatically deny that…In the last 10 years since I’ve been chief I’ve integrated this department…with a Spanish-speaking officer, females, and people of color…We’ve worked very hard at it…We do not target any race, color, gender, or creed…We do not allow that.

“Could we use some more Spanish-speaking officers? Yes,” continued the chief. “Some dialogue is probably necessary here…I just think that the racial profiling remark was just uncalled for and not correct…I do not think that happens here…but I’m going to keep an open mind to everything…I want a peaceful community and I’m willing to go to the plate for that.”

Branford resident Marcia Chacon, who’s owned and operated My Country Store at its current location with her husband for 10 years, shared several stories with the Courier about the harassment she said her customers have endured since last summer. Chacon said the situation has become particularly bad in the last two months. She said she’s “very frightened” by the police and that her business is hurting because her customers think twice about patronizing it.

Chacon said that the EHPD had conspicuously placed a patrol car in front of, across the street from, or behind My Country Store every day for months. Patrol cars had not been stationed since early last week, however, and Chacon thinks it is because of the media coverage of Manship’s arrest. Gallo said the EHPD determines which areas of town it will patrol based on “visual checks.”

“I would say there’s a lot of activity on the west end…It’s a main road there,” said Gallo, who also pointed out that there are three bars in that area.

Chacon, who said that not all of her Latino customers have driver’s licenses, said that the police frequently pulled over without cause and ticketed people leaving her store who appeared to be Latino. She said that when she confronted one EHPD officer about this practice, he told her her customers could walk to her store from New Haven if they wanted to make a purchase there. Chacon said she was also told her customers were free to go back to New Haven with the “other garbage.”

Gallo said he was surprised that Chacon and others with similar complaints had not brought these incidents to the attention of the EHPD. In the absence of such a complaint, he said, the veracity of the comments has to be questioned.

While Manship said it’s “unfortunate” that his arrest punctuated his attempts to gather evidence of police harassment, he expressed hope that the incident would lead to community-wide healing. Gallo, too, said he hopes for this. He said a conversation was planned between town officials and some concerned citizens at press time.