Ariela Lopez, Contributing Photographer

Seven advocates charged for putting up and refusing to take down tents at an encampment protesting New Haven’s homelessness policies appeared in court on Thursday. Their legal representation requested extra time before their plea hearing and the activists are now scheduled to return on Dec. 4.

The New Haven Police Department arrested the seven individuals on Monday morning and cleared tents from an ongoing encampment set up by the local Unhoused Activist Community Team on Oct. 16. City officials had previously engaged with the encampment participants twice , offering them services and instructing them to remove unauthorized structures, including tents. 

On Monday, encampment organizers re-erected four tents, and seven protesters — including Mark Colville, U-ACT’s lead organizer and two Yale students — sat inside them as police cleared the structures and made arrests.

The arrested individuals’ Thursday court date was preceded by an organized rally on the steps of the New Haven Superior Court. U-ACT advocates and a crowd of Yale students — including 41 students arrested in last spring’s pro-Palestinian protests who were also scheduled to appear in court that day — sang and chanted in support of housing policy reform and an end to police “sweeps” of homeless people from public places.

“As Yale students, we see a clear connection between the student movement for Palestine and U-ACT’s fight for housing justice in New Haven,” Adam Nussbaum ’25, one of the arrestees, wrote to the News. “Sweeps of unhoused people in this city remind us of the constant evacuations and bombings inflicted on Palestinians. Here and there, we stand against the violence of displacement.”

Though the Yale students arrested last spring have staged rallies on the courthouse steps for every legal appearance, Thursday’s gathering was notably centered on the city’s treatment of homeless New Haveners. Signs included “Fund housing, defund police” and “Displacement is a crime from New Haven to Palestine,” as well as the Green encampment’s signature refrain, “Where then shall we go.”

Advocates that were arrested at the U-ACT encampment, including Nussbaum, Zara Escobar ’26, Shannon Carter and Shawn Gargamelli-McCreight, spoke at the rally. Carter spoke about the harm of conducting sweeps of homeless people, which they contrasted with the communal nature of the protest encampment.

“There’s protection, both mental and physical, in community, and we are trying to build that community while the city is wasting resources trying to tear it down,” Carter said.

The seven individuals arrested at the encampment on the Green are represented by Greta LaFleur, a professor in Yale’s American Studies department whose independent legal practice is also representing many of the students arrested at pro-Palestinian protests at the University last spring.

In court, LaFleur asked the judge for a continuance for each of the cases, mentioning that she needed time to “determine if other cases” of hers would resolve on Thursday.

The seven U-ACT-affiliated arrestees were brought before the judge prior to the Yale students. By noon, 14 of LaFleur’s student clients’ cases had been closed, when the students accepted plea deals to drop their charges from misdemeanors to simple infractions.

All of the protesters have been charged with criminal trespassing and disorderly conduct — class A and class C misdemeanor charges, respectively. Colville, Escobar, Gargamelli-McCreight, Billy Bromage and Alexis Terry are also charged with interfering with an officer or resisting arrest, a class A misdemeanor. The maximum penalty for the interfering charge is up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $2,000.

New Haven Police Department communications officer Christian Bruckhart told the News that the interfering charge was “most likely” because those protesters had to be physically removed from tents by officers. 

The New Haven Code of General Ordinances, Chapter 19, Section 5 prohibits building temporary structures in parks without a written permit.

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ARIELA LOPEZ
Ariela Lopez covers Cops and Courts for the City Desk and lays out the weekly print paper as a Production & Design editor. She previously covered City Hall. Ariela is a sophomore in Branford College, originally from New York City.