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Hudson County Prosecutor Releases Bostwick Avenue Findings

October 7, 2020/in Greenville, header, Latest News, News /by Jersey City Times Staff

Today the Office of the Hudson County Prosecutor released its findings regarding the May 5 melee on Bostwick Avenue involving civilians and police.  (Jersey City Times weighed in on the incident here.)  

 

STATEMENT ON REVIEW OF BOSTWICK AVENUE USE OF FORCE BY JERSEY CITY POLICE 

The Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office conducted a detailed and thorough review of the May 5, 2020 Bostwick Avenue street fight and response by members of the Jersey City Police Department. The extensive review included examining video footage retrieved from numerous Body Worn Cameras and private camera and social media footage, as well as interviewing more than a dozen individuals. 

While any use of force by an officer is difficult to watch, in many instances the totality of the circumstances must be reviewed and understood before judgment on those actions can be rendered. 

In this specific situation, Jersey City police officers responded to multiple citizen 9-1-1 calls regarding a large street fight on Bostwick Avenue between Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive and Ocean Avenue shortly after 5:15 p.m. Callers described a group of 20 to 100 individuals engaged in a physical altercation that included screaming, punching and kicking. This incident occurred during the Executive Order signed by Governor Murphy requiring individuals to stay home and/or social distance due to the COVID-19 health emergency. 

Video footage clearly depicts responding officers attempting to disperse the crowd using verbal commands and constructive authority only. No force was used by the officers attempting to disperse the crowd, end the on-going hostilities and arguments and enforce the “Stay At Home Order.”

However, after repeated attempts to de-escalate the incident with verbal commands to disperse failed, Body Worn Camera footage and cell phone/social media videos show a chaotic scene unfold. Ultimately, several individuals – while resisting arrest and/or interfering in the officers attempt to effect a lawful arrest – took criminal action toward the officers justifying the use of some degree of mechanical force. 

While attempting to stop a physical altercation between two civilians fighting with each other, a responding officer had a juvenile actor reach toward his duty belt in a possible attempt to disarm the officer. The juvenile actor immediately fled and the officer initiated a foot pursuit. The officer caught the juvenile while attempting to flee into his house. Video footage clearly shows the juvenile actor punch the officer in the head. As the responding officers attempted to arrest the resisting juvenile actor, a large number of individuals jumped on the officers and physically assaulted the officers and interfered with the arrest. 

During the ensuing struggle another officer was pushed to the ground with an actor climbing on top of him exerting physical force against the officer. Another individual interfered in police efforts to subdue and arrest the actors. OC Spray was deployed by two officers and one officer used his baton on two individuals. Four adults and two juveniles were charged with numerous offenses stemming from the aggravated assault upon the officers and subsequent interference with police action. 

As part of the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office’s review, a complete canvass was conducted on Bostwick Avenue in attempt to speak with any witnesses to the incident. In addition to this review, Prosecutor Suarez and members of the HCPO staff met with community leaders to view the Body Worn Camera footage. This video has also been made available to the public. 

Additionally, all video footage was shared with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office of Public Integrity and Accountability (NJ OPIA). The Prosecutor’s Office has consulted with and been in communication with the NJ OPIA from the start of this investigation. 

The Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office has completed its criminal review of the force employed by Jersey City police officers during this incident. Based upon the totality of circumstances, there is an absence of proof beyond a reasonable doubt that these officers committed criminal acts. Accordingly, these officers’ use of mechanical force will not be presented to a Hudson County Grand Jury. 

However, this does not end the inquiry. This matter must now be reviewed by the Jersey City Police Department Internal Affairs Unit for an administrative investigation to determine if the officers’ use of force was consistent with the Attorney General’s Use of Force Policy and the Jersey City Police Department’s (“JCPD”) Use of Force Policy contained in JCPD General Order 02-16.

Policing Continues to Dominate at Municipal Council Meeting

September 15, 2020/in Bergen Lafayette, header, Heights, Latest News, News /by Aaron Morrill

The Katyn memorial, Reservoir 3, a police shooting, and an ordinance to bring the Quality of Life Taskforce into The Department of Public Safety took up the lion’s share of time during last Thursday’s city council meeting. The meeting clocked in at a mere five hours, a relief to those at the end of the caller list.

The council approved an ordinance (20-062) creating the Exchange Place Pedestrian Mall and reaffirming protections for the controversial Katyn monument. In 2018, the statue became the subject of an international uproar when Jersey City’s Polish community and Poland’s President Andrzej Duda objected to Mayor Steven Fulop’s plan to move it to another location. Ultimately the mayor backed down and the city council voted unanimously to allow the monument to stand in Exchange Place “in perpetuity.”

Slawomir Platta was one of many callers to commend the council for its decision. “Once a monument is built into the soil of the city, it becomes the history of the city.” Krystyna Piorkowska wasn’t as keen on the new mall.  “[The council] is not aware of how much of Exchange Place has been handed over to become a private driveway for the hotel and the Hartz Mountain Building…it will look pretty, but it won’t be really be usable by people.”

Once again, policing was a major theme for many callers, most from the organization Solidarity Jersey City. One member, Elena Thompson, was critical of the police for shooting a suspect at the Salem-Lafayette housing complex. “Despite putting the gun away, despite running away from, not towards police, a JCPD officer fired three shots at this young person….Mayor Fulop reflexively defended the officer who shot this young man” prior to the conducting of an investigation, she said. “Too much blood has already been let at the hands of the JCPD, ” she added.

Jena Lichtenstein, also from Solidarity Jersey City called in to criticize a first reading ordinance (20-074) that would place the Quality of Life Taskforce within the Department of Public Safety. “I’m particularly concerned that tickets and fines won’t be applied equitably. We have only to look at Ferguson, Missouri…Quality of Life for who? What are you doing to make sure that we promise better quality of life for our Black and brown neighbors and not just the white neighbors in Ward E?” Amy Torres added that “a city budget deficit cannot be filled on the backs of the working poor.”

Yvonne Balcer objected to calls to defund the police, complaining that diversion of funds for social workers would duplicate funds already being spent at the county level. “I am personally very grateful to have cops in Jersey City. I don’t want us to become like New York City or Chicago or Portland where they’re defunding cops, and there’s mayhem in the streets.”

June Jones, with the Morris Canal Community Development Corporation and the Community Coalition called to object to a planned 17 story development “that offers only 5% affordable units. …This land is being proposed for parkland.” She complained that Councilman Jermaine Robinson had met for two years with the developer without consulting community groups. “What an ultimate disrespect for the community….It’s not fair that we have a redevelopment plan that we have language in a contractual agreement, and that no one is implementing it.”

Councilman Robinson countered. “The land that is being talked about is not parkland; it is private land. This project will offer affordable housing, it will offer affordable commercial space, and it will offer Jersey City’s first recreational facility that will be deeded back to the city.” Caller Ashley Christmas agreed. “I think it’s a major win for the city.”

Sarah Borroughs, incoming president of the Jersey City Reservoir Preservation Alliance, asked that a resolution before the council to approve a contract to build paths and lighting at Reservoir 3 in the Heights, be postponed. “It is…untrue that we have been meeting weekly and receiving satisfactory details regarding the anticipated work and plans for the reservoir,” she said.

Outgoing Alliance president Cynthia Hadjiyannis called to ask for “a couple of weeks” to allow for a public presentation of the plans. Architect Zeenat Insaf agreed saying, “I don’t think they’re ready to start construction.” Attorney John Frohling added that “the best cities in the country are those that listen to the neighborhood. Give it more study.”

Councilman Boggiano was eager to see the resolution pass and the construction begin. “It’s dangerous conditions up there. …I guaranty to the people of Wards C and D that this park, this reservoir, will be done correctly….we’ll work closely with the Alliance…to make sure that this becomes the jewel of the Heights area.” While commending councilman Boggiano, Councilman Rolando Lavarro was a “no” vote. “I’m reminded of another project in Ward C—the Loew’s Theater—where advocates, stewards of a historic asset like the reservoir also opposed what was being proposed….they would like more time.” Nonetheless, the council went on to adopt the resolution 7–1.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What does “Defunding” the Police Mean?

June 25, 2020/in header, Latest News, News, Uncategorized /by Alexandra Antonucci

In 2020, 43 percent of Jersey City’s salary budget will go toward the police department, reported Ward E Councilman James Solomon recently via email and Instagram.

In the aftermath of the police killing of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, by a Minneapolis Police Officer and the ensuing national protests to defund the police, this is no insignificant statistic. But how Jersey City should change its own spending and policing practices depends on which residents and politicians one asks.

“It really is about your priorities, and the mayor’s priority is in essence that the police are the most important thing that the city [has] and therefore they need a vast majority of the funding, and I just think that’s sort of out of balance,” said Solomon.

In the 2019 Municipal Budget, the Jersey City Police Department received $106,169,591 for salaries and wages, and $1,410,339 for “other expenses,” totaling $107,579,930. Renovations of police district buildings were budgeted to be $58,200,000.

Community programs, such as the Summer Food Program, which provides nutritious meals and snacks for children in low-income areas, received a budget of $711,126.

To Solomon, who represents the Downtown Jersey City neighborhood, “defunding the police”  means reallocating funds to anti-violence initiatives and to health and human services.

“For me, we need a strong police department, and at the same time, we need a strong, well-funded community that is specifically working on anti-violence initiatives for the community,” he said.

“We should fund recreation opportunities, we should fund better health services in the communities. Our police in essence have become a part of our first responder team to address homelessness, and I think that’s a big mistake because it’s not what they’re trained to do, and it has the potential to result in more negative outcomes. We should have trained outreach teams, and Jersey City has a trained outreach team, but it’s underfunded.”

Jersey City resident John Hines wants funds reallocated, too. But he also wants more community involvement from police officers.

“I don’t think the solution is defunding them, I think the solution is taking the allocated money and putting it [in] other places like back into the community,” he said. “If you look right now you have police on every corner in this town but most of us are afraid of them. Some of these cops will be on the same corner for months and months and nobody will even know their name.”

While Solomon and Hines may think of defunding the police as simply reallocating funds, Jersey City teenager A’dreana Williams disagrees.

“I think the term ‘defunding’ the police is used so that it can ease people into the idea of abolishing the police because anybody who can understand what’s happening to black people in this country and black people on this earth [can] understand that defunding the police is not enough, and we need to abolish the police,” she said.

Williams, an 18-year-old recent graduate of McNair Academic High School and former member of its Black Diaspora Club, explained that police reforms alone are not enough because the very structure of policing in the United States is oppressive.

“It’s an oppressive structure that cannot exist in order for true liberation to be,” she said.

According to Williams, McNair students are forced to go through metal detectors to enter the school and are then scanned with a handheld wand, given an identification card proving that they were students, and called by numbers.

When one of her friends was sent to a juvenile detention facility, he reported back that in terms of security apparatus, there was little to no difference between “juvie” and high school.

Compared to the massive resources dedicated to security, McNair has only one nurse to attend to the entire student population. According to Williams, the school used to have two, but one of them got laid off due to “cuts to the budget.”

So, what would Williams like to see from the Jersey City government in regard to policing? For starters a formal apology for “what happened on Bostwick Avenue,” referring to the May 6 fight on the street in Greenville that was widely criticized for the police’s use of pepper spray and batons. Beyond that, Williams would simply ask for less policing as a whole and for certain officers to be retrained to use their talents in different roles — community organizers, social services, etc.

“If the mayor prioritized us black people and his black citizens, he would say ‘There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to fix this problem. No matter how much it costs us, we will fix this issue because not only is it a Jersey City issue, it’s an American issue,” she said.

It’s an issue that will be discussed in the coming months.

Much of the June 12 City Council meeting was devoted to the subject of reforming the city’s police department. And at the urging of Council President Joyce Watterman, the council just voted 8-1 (with Councilman Richard Boggiano abstaining).to form a committee to examine a variety of different police procedures.

Boggiano did not respond to a request for comments.

But Jersey City is not monolithic in its criticism of the police.

Resident  Norman Hart favors reallocating money from the police toward after-school programs and the greater community but he is sympathetic toward the police and the purpose they serve.

“I feel we need to get rid of the bad cops within the community, but I feel like all police aren’t bad, and police should still have their job, because if we defund the police then how are we going to stay safe,” he said.

Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop agrees.

“Our officers serve as mentors, most of them live in the city; they are coaches, they do positive work. I don’t understand this defund the police conversation as we can invest more in social services for sure without defunding public safety,” the mayor Tweeted.

Flyers have been circulated around the city that urge residents to contact Mayor Fulop and not allow defunding, saying the Jersey City Police Department is “filled with heroes” and that the “city is safe because of their work.”

The source of the flyers could not be determined.

Then there’s a comparison with Newark, NJ, since its population is only six percent greater than that of Jersey City. Newark’s 2019 police department budget was $155,000,000 — 45 percent higher than Jersey City’s. That makes Jersey City’s public safety budget appear small.

As for Williams, a self-described “black child desiring to be prioritized,” the hope remains that local government will take heed of the overwhelming call for fundamental change.

“We need to start investing in a government that cares [rather] than a government that punishes,” she said.

News Briefs

Hudson County Community College has been named the recipient of a one-year, $850,000 investment from the JPMorgan Chase. The investment will be utilized for a program the College developed to address the challenges of the economic crisis in Hudson County that were brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. The program is designed to provide lasting improvement in the County’s workforce ecosystem.

Mayor Steven Fulop and the Jersey City Economic Development Corporation (JCEDC) have launched the latest round of emergency funding to provide over $2.5 million in direct aid and support to Jersey City’s neediest residents, regardless of immigration status. The city will partner with  York Street, Women Rising, United Way, and Puertorriqueños Asociados for Community Organization. 

Mayor Steven Fulop is joining forces with Uber to announce a new agreement that will expand residents’ access to COVID-19 vaccinations with free Uber rides to and from Jersey City vaccination sites. Phase 1B includes essential frontline workers and seniors 75 years old and over.

The federal Paycheck Protection Program, which offers businesses loans that can be forgivable, reopened on January 11th. The revised program focuses first on underserved borrowers – minority- and women-owned businesses.

Keep abreast of Jersey City Covid-19 statistics here.

Governor Murphy has launched a “Covid Transparency Website” where New Jerseyans can track state expenditures related to Covid.  Go here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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