During the two-hour discussion, Police Chief Michael Carignan fielded dozens of questions, ranging from inquiries about the department's cultural competency training to its outreach with local youth. Though this was the first virtual iteration, these discussions have been taking place for more than five years through a collaborative initiative called Nashua Community Conversations on Race and Justice — and organizers say the program has significantly improved community-police relations within the city during that time.
As the state budget moved through the legislature this year, New Hampshire had its eyes on a provision commonly referred to as the ‘divisive concepts’ legislation. The language has been a point of widespread controversy, but now that it’s law, many Granite Staters are left wondering what exactly is in the bill.
Opponents of the law argue it could put a chill on conversations about systemic racism, white privilege and implicit bias; supporters say the legislation protects all New Hampshireites from discrimination — including white people.
The state budget provision that opponents say puts a chill on important conversations about race has been law for a few weeks, but community members are still looking for guidance on what they call unclear language.
Educators and civil rights activists, among others, say as they await more information from the state, they are concerned the law is already leading to self-censorship in school curriculums, workplace diversity training and police implicit bias classes.
More than half of the state’s Council on Diversity and Inclusion abruptly resigned Tuesday, citing concerns that the state budget signed into law by Governor Chris Sununu silences important conversations about race.
It is now illegal in New Hampshire to teach in schools or train public employees that someone “is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously.”
Nearly 30 years ago, Charlotte DiLorenzo moved to Newmarket from Massachusetts, where she had lived her whole life. The lack of racial diversity in her new home state was nothing less than culture shock for her.
“I lived in Beverly, I grew up in Lynn, I worked in Boston. I was sort of used to being in diverse communities and being around a lot of diverse people,” DiLorenzo, who is Black, said. “Things were so different.”
Unknown to DiLorenzo at the time, and to many New Hampshireites today, the same Granite State that Dilorenzo met in 1993 is home to the nation’s first African American person elected to public office — in 1768.
After Asma Elhuni, Lebanon resident and Movement Politics Director for Rights and Democracy New Hampshire, was arrested Thursday alongside four other activists at the State House, she said their fight against the “immoral” legislation in the state budget that Gov. Chris Sununu signed Friday is not over.
Despite the budget being signed and sealed, Elhuni vows to revitalize community outreach efforts in the wake of the legislation. The activist said New Hampshire communities “will not be divided,” and Rights and Democracy will focus this summer on engaging more people than ever around the state.
Like many New Hampshire mothers, Joy Adumene of Manchester struggled to help her four kids with remote learning during the pandemic.
Unlike most parents, Adumene and her husband had an added challenge: as immigrants they never went through the American school system so helping their children — ages 15, 14, 11 and 6 — left them feeling especially lost, she said.
I’m not really a cat person. I mean, I don’t hate them by any means...they just aren’t my thing. Now, I’ve played nice with them in order to win the affection of a woman or two, but you can bet your bottom dollar that I’m not buying catnip and litter boxes for any stray cat looking to seek refuge in my apartment. With that being said, I have a profound respect for their hunting skills and independence.
Members of the governor’s police accountability commission expressed disappointment after Attorney General John Formella shot down a request for an emergency meeting to discuss “divisive concepts” language in the proposed state budget.
The legislation would prohibit discussing or teaching concepts like systemic racism or critical race theory in schools and governmental agencies.
Some Granite Staters believe sworn officers are needed on campus to protect students from threats of violence such as school shootings. Others raise concerns about criminalization of student behavior and the apparent disproportionate impact of school policing on students of color and those with disabilities. And as conversations around policing continue to evolve, some are looking for alternative ways to keep schools safe.
But when it comes to talking about race, there are no wrong answers, said Richard Haynes, who organized the event with Kristen Butterfield-Ferrell. The duo has hosted three Culture Keepers, Culture Makers event series in the past, and started their most recent, hosted by 3S Artspace in Portsmouth, on Thursday (May 13). The series will continue for three more weeks, encouraging people from around the Seacoast and throughout the state to start talking openly about race and equity, exploring the issues through the lens of visual art.
For the past five or six years, Nashua Police Lt. Carlos Camacho has been teaching new officers about implicit bias, whether it’s an unconscious bias toward people of other races, genders, socioeconomic class or sexual orientation. As part of the training, he shows the officers how they tend to gravitate toward others they find commonality with, reveals the ways they perceive people who are different and encourages them to learn about those differences and find common ground with them.
Being in the right state at the right time likely saved Ronald MacKinnon prison time when he made the decision to not seek immediate medical care for his wife.
Debbie MacKinnon, 52, was experiencing what then-71-year-old Ronald had thought was a seizure in the front seat on their drive from Keene to Brattleboro, Vermont, just across the border. He also knew that she had a history of seizures and drug overdoses, which combined with the seizures, “may require emergency medical attention,” he later wrote in a court narrative. But instead of seeking immediate medical care for Debbie, he ordered his daughter not to call 911 and instead pulled the car over to splash water in her face.
Court diversion advocates across the country say diversion saves money and reduces crime. But in New Hampshire, and nationally, the data to support this claim is hard to find.
Without more data collection and analysis, experts warn that it will be difficult to prove to funders and the public that diversion is as effective as advocates say.
Joshua Deveer doesn’t try to fight his place in life anymore.
“I used to think doing something was everything, and now I’m starting to realize that, maybe not doing something is everything,” says the 23-year-old from outside of a modest North Conway inn, where he pays $600 per month to live. “Maybe restricting my footprint here, making sure that I watch my steps is what’s most important.”
Nicole E. Rodler, chair of the New Hampshire Juvenile Court Diversion Network, calls school resource officers (SROs) “the gatekeepers” of the juvenile diversion system.
While their exact roles vary by school district and police department, SROs are generally tasked with keeping school campuses secure, protecting staff and students, mentoring students, and handling in-school juvenile offenses. They are the officers most likely to know the background and circumstances of young offenders because of their frequent contact with them in school (at least during non-pandemic times).
Only a few months away from graduating from Spaulding High School, Dillon Guyer made a seemingly small decision that would change his life. He remembers his 17-year-old self as a typical rambunctious teenager who skipped a few classes a day to smoke weed with his friends behind the school. Something anyone at that age may have done.
This time, they got caught.
