Women kick off conference play, PAGE 16
BRITISH FLAVOUR: Joe Brooks to grace The Space, PAGE 8
QUChronicle.com
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The QUINNIPIAC Volume 80 Issue 3
September 29, 2010
CAUGHT ON TAPE Senior faces charges after recording New Haven arrest
Courtesy of Kenneth Hartford
A video freeze frame shows a New Haven police officer motioning towards senior Kenneth Hartford, who recorded the arrest of Ryan Lally from his cell phone.
While there are no laws on the books in Connecticut that make filming a police officer illegal, Quinnipiac senior Kenneth By Matt Ciepielowski Hartford found Senior Managing Editor out on Saturday night that it isn’t quite so simple. According to multiple witnesses, within minutes of Hartford beginning to film a Quinnipiac student being arrested outside of Toad’s Place in New Haven, an officer tackled and handcuffed him. Hartford was charged with Disorderly Conduct and Interfering with a Police Investigation. He went on to spend the night in jail at 24 Union Avenue. In a short video that he took on his cell phone before his arrest (available on quchronicle.com) officers can be heard swearing at Hartford. The officer who ultimately arrested Hartford said, “Put that in your fucking pock-
et and get the fuck out of here.” When Hartford then tried to capture the officer’s name and badge number on video, the officer shoved him away. According to Quinnipiac senior Dominic Grenga, when Hartford attempted to return to the area to resume filming on his cell phone, he was thrown to the ground and handcuffed. New Haven police spokesperson Officer Joe Avery said that Hartford “kept interfering with officers and was asked to back off.” Hartford was screaming at the police officers, Avery said. “All I wanted to do was record the arrest, so if there were any inconsistencies later, it could be used to help [the student] out,” Hartford said. Quinnipiac law student Mario Cerame is building his law review on police using in-
timidation to stop citizens from filming police encounters. According to Cerame, Hartford’s civil rights may have been violated. “There may be an equal protection argument here,” Cerame said. “What's even more interesting to me, is that on the video, the police take a suspect into custody because the suspect knows Kenneth—because the suspect knows the cameraman. That suggests invidiousness and animus by the police towards people who film police.” If the police acted with animus (a legal term meaning arbitrary dislike of, or hate), Cerame believes that Hartford and the other student may have a case using the equal protection argument of the Fourteenth Amendment. The equal protection clause essentially establishes that the state may not treat people differently when they are in similar situations NEW HAVEN, continued on page 4
After a tour in Iraq, Elizabeth Suarez is back in the classroom Walking towards the School of Law on a sunny Friday afternoon, Elizabeth Suarez, a 26-yearold Quinnipiac junior, passes me her iPhone, telling me to By Phil Nobile cycle through a few photos. Staff Writer They’re photos of her in a dusty barrack, holding an M-16 rifle and wearing a full army uniform. She is smiling. “Well,” she said between drags of a cigarette. “I wasn’t always.” Looking at Suarez, there is not much to indicate she is a veteran of the Iraq conflict, one of the longest and most debated military involvements in our country’s history. Wearing the normal attire of any college student, Suarez attempts to define the past 10 years of her life, from her youthful aspirations to time spent stationed in both Baghdad and Baumholder, Germany. “First going to Iraq, it was kind of depressing in a way, because I didn’t know if I was going to come back,” Suarez said. “Not necessarily from danger, but anything can happen in a country like that, in a situation like that.” Suarez served as a supply sergeant in an engineer unit at U.S. Falcon Base in Baghdad, 10 kilometers from Camp Victory. Her position included not only constructing plans to ensure the safety of infantry units, but also performing breaching and demolition assignments. “In Iraq, we did a lot of conducting like that,”
Suarez said. “We used specialized equipment to clear IEDs [improvised explosive devices] to clear routes for other units to go and do their patrols.” Born in the Dominican Republic, Suarez has had a penchant for travel as long as she can remember. settling down at school was the last thing on Suarez’s mind after traveling in several different countries with her parents “I got accepted into UConn, went for a bit, but became too stressed with the workload,” Suarez said. “I wanted to try a different environment.” After going into a recruiter’s office and passing the test, Suarez achieved her goal and shipped out after six months. She underwent basic training, waking up before 5 a.m. to do hours of exercise and physical training. Suarez was then deployed to Germany in 2004, where she underwent a common routine of waking up early, traveling to get equipment, ordering supplies and meeting with company commanders and executive officers. It wasn’t until 2006 that Suarez received notification she would be stationed in Iraq. “It definitely wasn’t my choice,” Suarez said, laughing. “I knew it was going to happen, but when it did I called my mom immediately and said ‘Mom, it happened.’ ” Suarez remembered her mother being in a panic, but will always remember her being in support of her decisions. It was “the only way I could IRAQ, continued on page 3
Charlotte Greene / Chronicle
“I would do it again if I could,” Quinnipiac junior Elizabeth Suarez said of her military experiences in Iraq and Germany.