The whys behind Trumbull and Milford post-Christmas mall fights
Simultaneous brawls in three malls around the state on Thursday have officials wondering what could have been done to prevent them — particularly since the same thing seems to be happening year after year on the day after Christmas.
Leon Smith, executive director at Citizens for Juvenile Justice, said a better job needs to be done planning for periods when youth are out of school.
“The lack of activities and services really comes into play when kids have nothing but down time, be it summer, winter break, etc,” Smith said Friday as footage of the fights circulated on social media.
Smith said if kids had better access to pro-social activities — and mentors to connect them to positive things to do — there would be far fewer of them getting into trouble.
“It's about investing in prevention early … rather than waiting and spending a lot more, with more damaging effects, to handle kids in the system,” Smith said.
As for timing, Smith said holidays can be super stressful for everybody. Kids are no exception.
“We have no idea what these kids have going on at home that they are going to the mall to get a break from,” he said.
Data and evidence suggest that rates of domestic and family violence spike during the holidays.
Harry Bell, a Bridgeport security guard who also works as a youth mentor, said stopping fights will take more than giving kids something productive to do during free time.
“We need them to start interacting with each other young so when they do get of the age of the young kids who were fighting yesterday, (they) have history with each other in a positive light,” Bell said.
That is why, he said, his mentoring work focuses on youth from ages 8 to 13.
Bell said Thursday’s mall fights appear to have been set off because of disputes that began on social media — often between youth that don’t interact with other in person. That is, until there is a winter vacation from school and a public, indoor meeting place.
“We have to understand that our youth are letting out anger,” Bell said. “I believe that our youth knows that when they go to a mall or even off their block that it's a possibility that they will get into a fight,” Bell said.
The fights on Thursday come one year to the day that fights broke out at Milford’s Connecticut Post Mall and the Buckland Hills Mall in Manchester in 2018. In 2016, youth fights were reported in 15 malls across the country — from Tempe, Ariz., to Elizabeth, N.J., on Dec. 26.
Kingsley Osei, director of Connecticut Against Violence, said he remembers in the 1990s there used to be frequent fights at the Trumbull mall, mostly on Saturdays and often related to gang activity.
Some fights could be planned, he said. Others are simply youth hanging out at the mall and inevitably running into each other’s groups from different sides of the town.
On Friday, Trumbull Police Chief Michael Lombardo agreed that Thursday’s incidents appear to have been sparked by a combination of school being closed and teens looking for something to do.
“They meet other people they know there,” Lombardo said. Then if one group encounters another, and there are people in the groups that dislike each other, the potential for conflict increases until a large-scale fight breaks out, he added.
In the Trumbull brawl, recorded and posted on YouTube, numerous youth are seen hitting each other as a crowd gather outside of Target on the second level. Others join in and police enter the fray to break things up. Seven were charged and two hospitalized.
Trumbull police considered closing the mall early, but decided against it because the situation had quickly been brought under control, Lombardo said.
“We had 15 officers there, plus police from the other towns,” he said. Milford mall, where a number of private duty officers were reportedly hired on Thursday, did close early.
Carolyn Vermont, a community liaison for Bridgeport Mayor Joseph Ganim, said she thinks some of the young people engaging in acts of violence in malls simply have no respect for themselves, others or authority. Some may have ongoing disputes.
“I am really saddened by the mall incidents,” Vermont said. “We have a great deal of work to do as a community. There are many effective programs providing services for youth. However, we have to find a way to get into the hearts and mind of these young people. They have to learn to practice kindness.”
Violence, she added, is a learned behavior.
“They can unlearn it but it is going to take a lot more work than what is currently in place,” Vermont said.
Donald Eng contributed to this report.
lclambeck@ctpost.com; twitter/lclambeck
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