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Connecticut residents form armed group to defend against violent crime
The ‘Self-Defense Brigade’ patrols neighborhood streets in Hartford, while monitoring surveillance cameras and video from drones and homes

By Bryan Llenas
A predominantly Black neighborhood in Hartford, Connecticut, hoping to fend off violent crime, has turned to an armed group of citizens to patrol their streets by land and by air.

The so-called “Self-Defense Brigade” — made up of about 40 legally armed citizens — are voluntarily patrolling the streets of Hartford’s North End wearing body cameras mostly on nights and weekends, according to the group’s founder, Cornell Lewis.

When the armed volunteers are not on the streets, the group monitors video feeds from a dozen drones hovering over the neighborhood, and 75 home surveillance cameras in the neighborhood.

“The Democratic machine in Hartford is either unwilling or unable, incapable of doing it, and people are paying their tax dollars, and they’re not really getting any kind of service,” Lewis told Fox News. “So we want the people to understand, number one, self-defense is not a dirty word.”

Hartford’s Democratic Mayor Arunan Arulampalam has denounced the group over concerns they will enact vigilante justice.

“Our community has seen so much pain and trauma, and what we need is for those who love this city to do the hard work of healing that pain, not walk around our streets with guns trying to take the law into their own hands,” Arulampalam said in a statement to Fox.
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The group began patrolling the neighborhood at the behest of Archbishop Dexter Burke of the Walk in the Light Church of God. A shooting in February left two men dead near his church and he had enough.

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Fox News

Grand jury declines to indict man who was accused of chasing down, killing alleged car thief

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — A Harris County filing from last month shows a grand jury declined to indict a man in the death of an alleged car thief.

On March 9, Dushawn Caples was at home when he reportedly heard someone steal his vehicle. That’s when he allegedly grabbed his gun, got into his wife’s car, and followed the driver.

The driver, along with a passenger, refused to stop, and that’s when authorities said Caples fired shots into his stolen car.

Then, at about 4 a.m., deputies responded to a crash on Golden Eagle Drive. A 17-year-old, later identified as Danell Cotton, died from gunshot wounds, and another man was seen running from the car with a backpack, according to investigators.

At first, deputies believed it was a possible road rage case. Caples’ wife called 911 to report the stolen vehicle and deputies pieced together what happened, according to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.

Caples was charged with murder and booked into the Harris County Jail. The case went to a grand jury, with his attorney claiming Caples acted in self-defense.

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ABC 13

There’s none so blind as those who will not see.
John Heywood

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