Don’t Forget ‘Marginalized’ NJ Police Shootings: Newark Activists

NEWARK, NJ — Newark activists are marking the anniversary of George Floyd’s death by invoking the names of several people recently shot by police in New Jersey.

A year ago, the police killing of Floyd in Minneapolis drew thousands of people to marches, meetings and events across Essex County to decry systemic racism, including in Newark, where a massive protest took place.

The People’s Organization for Progress (POP), the group that spearheaded last year’s protest, plans to spotlight fatal police shootings in New Jersey at a rally at 5 p.m. on Monday, May 24 outside the federal building at 970 Broad Street in Newark.

Part of the POP’s recurring Justice Monday events, the rally will “spotlight police brutality victims in the state of New Jersey whose cases have been marginalized in the media,” according to the group.

Organizers wrote:

“The POP launched this protest in 2016 originally to center on lesser-known police killings in New Jersey, particularly of Abdul Kamal in Irvington, Kashad Ashford in Lyndhurst, Jerome Reid in Bridgeton and the shooting of Trenton teen Radazz Hearns, who incredibly survived his ordeal of getting shot in the back by Trenton and NJ State Police officers. Since then, several cases have been added to the haunting roster: Darrell Fuqua also in Bridgeton, Jameek Lowery in Paterson, and in just the past year Maurice Gordon in Bass River, Hasani Best in Asbury Park and the New Year’s Day police killing of Carl Dorsey in Newark.”

The death of George Floyd on May 25, 2020 galvanized the nation, including in Newark, the POP said.

“The incident became a spectacle as it was videotaped by witnesses who all pleaded for the officer to stop his actions,” organizers said. “It triggered mass protests against police brutality all over the world.”

“[Derek] Chauvin was recently convicted of murder for Floyd’s death, an extremely rare feat in police killings,” the group stated.

• See related article: 3 Newark Leaders Reflect On George Floyd, Murder Trial Verdict

But just days earlier on May 22, Maurice Gordon was shot in Bass River, New Jersey by a NJ State Trooper while suffering a "mental health crisis" – a case that got far less attention that Floyd’s, the POP stated.

‘A YEAR OF MOURNING, A YEAR OF PROTEST’

Meanwhile, Newark Communities for Accountable Policing and the ACLU of New Jersey plan to hold a forum about policing on Tuesday, May 25 at 6 p.m. It will be streamed online here.

The ACLU-NJ wrote:

“A year after the murder of George Floyd, several of New Jersey’s leading activists hold an important conversation about how New Jersey can stop police secrecy, empower communities to investigate police abuses, and ensure courts can hold police accountable for misconduct. The conversation, ‘A Year of Mourning, A Year of Protest: Justice in Policing a Year After George Floyd’s Death,’ features organizer Zayid Muhammad of Newark Communities for Accountable Policing, Khalil Gibran Muhammad of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, and senior staff attorney Karen Thompson of the ACLU-NJ, as well as opening remarks from ACLU-NJ Executive Director Amol Sinha.”

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