Senator Shirley Turner turning tragedies into triumph

Senator Shirley Turner (D-15) believes tragedies that are fueling the Black Lives Matter movement could give momentum to her battle against lawmakers like Senator Joe Cryan, who is supported by pro-Trump police unions and stands in the way of vital reform legislation.

Turner spent more than 20 years trying to reform the police, but in the wake of the historic guilty verdict in trial of George Floyd’s murderer, Derek Chauvin , the Mercer County lawmaker listed her 2021 legislative priorities.

Those include criminalizing police chokeholds, requiring law enforcement officials to live in the towns they serve, not incentivizing police officers to seek quotas in the issuing of tickets or arrests, and making changes to improve recruitment and diversity in law enforcement.

Standing in Turner’s way is Cryan, a former Union County Sheriff who opposes key reforms and advocates ‘tough on crime policies’ that have resulted in mass incarceration of Black and Latino men.

Cryan is trying to squeeze the life out of an insurgent candidacy by Assemblyman Jamel Holley, who would be the first African American senator to represent Union County if he is successful in the June 8 Democratic primary.

Cryan was endorsed by the New Jersey State Police Benevolent Association (PBA), a pro-Trump police union, on the day Chauvin’s trial began.

Cryan convinced 450 people to pay homage to the killer during a vigil in Union. None of the people in the crowd realized what Cryan had done while they were emulating Chauvin’s murder technique by kneeling for about nine minutes, but the incident was celebrated by a local chapter of the right wing Oath Keepers group.

Cryan voted against legislation that would allow municipalities to require law enforcement and other emergency personnel to live in the towns they are employed.

Turner also wants Governor Phil Murphy to enact Assembly Bill 4656, which would authorize municipalities to create civilian review boards with full subpoena powers to oversee police.
Holley, a civil rights champion in the Legislature who is running for state Senate in the Democratic primary election on June 8, has co-sponsored much of Turner’s police reform measures.

New Jersey State PBA leaders who gave Cryan an unusual pre-primary endorsement visited the White House last year to show their support for Donald Trump during his unsuccessful re-election campaign.

The president of that same police union recently excoriated Senator Cory Booker for condemning the police shooting that killed 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant in Ohio.

Cryan campaign spokesperson Andrew ‘A.J.’ Stewart dismissed the African American lawmaker's challenge.