This is an open letter to Mayor Harry Rilling and Norwalk Police Chief Thomas Kulhawik.
The Race and Social Justice Coalition at St. Paul’s, a diverse group of over 60 church and community members, has been learning about issues of race and justice for the past four years. Through research and examination of books, discussions, films and much more we have grown into a coalition which is concerned about human rights and issues of social justice, within the state of Connecticut and particularly in the city of Norwalk where two- thirds of Coalition members live. While our efforts to date have focused on housing and education, recent events in our country, a Norwalk town hall meeting on police accountability and the incident involving Senator Bob Duff last summer, have made us add police accountability to our agenda and triggered this letter. The review of the Duff incident, made internally and then approved by Mayor Rilling, a former police chief, was opaque to many Norwalk citizens