Push For Civilian Oversight Of Police Continues In Newark

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Last Monday, January 28, defying subfreezing cold, the People’s Organization for Progress (P.O.P.) approached the three year mark of their Justice Monday protests against Police Brutality by taking to the streets and marching demanding Governor Phil Murphy sign into law the Independent Prosecutor’s Bill.

Joined by other supporting individuals and groups like the Green Party of NJ and Newark Communities for Accountable Policing (NCAP), P.O.P. marched through downtown during rush hour determined to be heard on the controversial bill that would require an Independent Prosecutor to investigate any deaths of unarmed civilians as a consequence of a police encounter.

The urgency of the demand for the bill came on the heels of a young man in Paterson, Jameek Lowery, dying in police custody on several weeks earlier.

Just after the march, P.O.P., led by their indefatigable chairman Lawrence Hamm, participated in a forum hosted by NCAP on NJ Advance Media’s groundbreaking study on the use and misuse of police force throughout the state over the last five years known as The Force Report.

Hamm was joined by Assemblywoman Britnee Timberlake, a co-sponsor of the Bill, and activist educator T.J. Whitaker of the MAPSO Freedom School in Maplewood.

Hamm echoed sentiments made plain early in the forum that the one area that The Force Report didn’t address was the need for Civilian Oversight of the Police.

“The people must control the police, and every major city in the state should have a Civilian Review Board with full subpoena and investigatory powers

Timberlake, a young stately legislator and proud mentee of Lieutenant Governor Sheila Oliver, had an emotional moment when explaining why the Bill was so important to her when she said that it “was for my son.”

“This Bill isn’t for any lobbying firm

“This Bill isn’t for anybody with an ax to grind.

“This Bill is for my son.”

Murphy signed the Bill into law several days later.

Whitaker informed everyone how his MAPSO Freedom School actually started out of the need to respond to what is now known as the July 5th Incident where Black Maplewood students were corralled by the police into nearby Irvington on the assumption that they had to be from Irvington because they were Black.

He then informed everyone that the following Monday, February 4th, ironically the anniversary of the haunting police killing of Amadou Diallo in 1999, the MAPSO Freedom School would begin a week of activities called Black Lives Matter Week of Action at School. P.O.P. chairman Hamm would keynote Monday’s session that will take place at Columbia High School, 17 Parker Avenue at 6:30pm after P.O.P. wraps up its 172nd consecutive Justice Monday Rally at the Federal Bldg.

P.O.P. and NCAP are discussing the possibility of another march and rally in support Newark’s pioneering Civilian Complaint Review Board, now in the NJ State Appellate Courts, in coming weeks.

Justice Monday takes place every Monday at 5 pm at the Peter Rodino Federal Bldg to protest New Jersey’s Police Brutality cases including those of Abdul Kamal and Jerome Reid, both shot and killed unarmed in police encounters.

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