Miron revealed Tuesday that all full-time workers and some part-timers, including the entire 100-member police and fire departments, were required to attend half-day training sessions over the past eight weeks. The mayor said the training, conducted by the Justice Department’s Community Relations Service, is an outgrowth of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and was provided at no cost. Miron said he was “strongly advised” by the Justice Department not to release details of the training sessions, or that they were even being conducted. One was a March 2006 brawl in the South End that ended in the arrest of Councilman Alvin O’Neal, D-2, and then-15-year-old Titasheen Mitchell, both of whom are black. The homeowners, Joyce Mounajed and Jennifer Cervero, at first insisted the decoration was only part of their elaborate Halloween decor and vowed not to succumb to pressure by the community and police to take it down. The training sessions conducted by the Justice Department were the third and final phase of a three-part plan to address racial and cultural diversity in Stratford. More Halloween News

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