Jazz Hayden's case profiled in The New York Times
Monday, September 10, 2012 at 12:51AM 
Andrea Mohin/The New York Times
NY Times - In the streets of his native Harlem, Joseph Hayden is a familiar presence, patrolling the neighborhood with his video camera, ready to document interactions between the police and the residents they stop — and doing so at an age when most people have retired.
“Like I tell them,” Mr. Hayden, 71, said recently of the police, “I’m on your side to make sure there is courtesy, professionalism and respect. Isn’t that what you advertise on the side of your car?”
Urgent action to support Jazz Hayden before Grand Jury Hearing
CopWatch Video Playlist Shot by Jazz Hayden and ATH
Reader Comments (2)
What Mr. Hayden and others are doing is exactly what needs to be done to inhibit, if not stop, stop and frisk. The unreasonableness of this policy has to be exposed, and that can only happen if people bear witness and record what is happening. People making sacrifices made the lens of the press turn on the deep south and it changed. This policy will change through exposure and challenges in court, too.
That said, I was disturbed while reading the Times article, when Mr. Hayden, while acknowledging a conviction for manslaughter, says “I’m not ashamed of anything in my life — nothing, absolutely nothing”. Staying a criminal is the issue, but killing someone, then, years later, displaying no remorse for that act, indicates a serious lack of growth. It's also not the message to send to those who are following in Mr. Hayden's footsteps. If Mr. Hayden acknowledges guilt for that crime, he needs to reconsider his lack of shame or elaborate on why taking that life was justified and not shameful. Otherwise, he's muddying the waters.
Brian, my statement requires clarification. The person that I am accused of killing got what he deserved, he knocked the window out of my car, reached in and assaulted me , and told me he was going to kill me. He also threatened two women who I was transporting to the beach. I ran into a store and grabbed a knife to defend the women with. The bully and his friend tried to take the knife from me and in that process the bully literally impaired himself on the knife. He killed hisself. The shock in his eyes is embedded in my memory. Ithis is why I feel no shame, I was defending myself and two defenseless women.