Mayor and Council,

It has long been understood that your main responsibility as elected officials is to represent the interest of the people who elected you to office. However, as of late, your actions suggest you have lost sight of your purpose and role. Specifically, we believe you have forgotten the oath and the pledge you made to residents, especially those of us in the Black community who have been demanding transparency from the Roselle Police Department for years. As you are aware, the Star Ledger’s use of force report article showed systemic racism in NJ police departments and how use-of-force is used disproportionately against Black residents. Among those, Roselle Police Department was ranked 18 out of the 468 police for their use of force. This data is a problematic and grave concern because these statistics show the Roselle Police Department outranks 450 other NJ police departments. These findings are alarming and thus begs the question, why have you refused to address this structural racism in our police department? Your failure to adequately address this question demonstrates your unwillingness to protect Black people and effectively address Black residents’ mounting concerns. To suggest, as you have so often done, that structural racism cannot exist in Roselle because we have a Police Chief who is Black is the epitome of a racist and fallacious argument.

Although you have known about the Star Ledger report for years, you have chosen to turn a blind eye towards the problem. As a result, the concerns of many residents have not been made a priority despite their outrage. The borough residents have demanded transparency. Instead, you have rebuffed their demands by continuously refusing to disclose statistics surrounding: police stops, police arrests, police use of force reports, and overall police misconduct statistics. It is well known that police unions have a long history of paying public officials to remain silent when the community demands accountability from their local police departments. Based on your inactivity, we can only wonder whether you have fallen victim to this history and become complacent and complicit. It is our hope this is not the reason you have stood side by side, seemingly in solidarity with the Roselle Police Department and not answered to the Roselle residents.

Since the police killing of George Floyd, you have performed every shallow symbolic gesture to show the Black community you are concerned with police violence. Many of you have given speeches, taken a knee, and even cried in public. Yet, you still refuse to use your authority to hold the police accountable and call for the release of all information on police lawsuits and settlements over the last 10 years. When juxtaposing your actions and words, it is readily apparent the two are diametrically opposed. Your inaction has emboldened the Roselle Police Department. As residents, we deserve to know if and how our tax dollars are being spent on police misconduct and wrongdoing. Moreover, we deserve and demand police accountability.

Recently, you collaborated with the Union County Freeholder Board to paint “Black Lives Matter” on the street without addressing the BLM movement’s demands. In your statement, you called the painting an “affirmation” of Black lives. How can you affirm Black lives without addressing concerns of structural racism in the Roselle Police Department? If you want to affirm black lives, you should do it using your power to pass legislation to shed light on the inadequacies and shortcomings of the department. The same should hold true of the Union County Freeholder Board. They, too, should release the same data for the Union County Police Department.

As Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. so poignantly stated, “justice delayed is justice denied.” You have the power to make the requested data public. Instead, you’ve employed delay tactics by moving this crisis to a committee, and having your chief of police give a speech on his outrage of the brutal killing of George Floyd. The trauma Black people have endured from centuries of police misconduct deserves an urgent and collective concern from all municipal council members.

If you want to show the Black community you are serious about holding the police accountable, we implore you to place a motion on the floor at the next meeting to request the Business Administrator and Chief of Police to begin the process of collecting data regarding: police stops, police arrests, police use of force reports, police lawsuits and settlements covering a span of the last 10 years. We are entitled to make an adequate and informed assessment of our police department based on data and facts, not from speeches, statements, and propaganda.

Roselle can only be a safe community when we invest in social programs, job opportunities for youth, recreational programs, and fund community anti-violence programs that help decrease shooting in specific neighborhoods. The empirical evidence and research show hiring more officers do not correlate to a safer community. We currently have a 7.2 million dollar police budget but only a 200 thousand dollar budget for recreational programs. We need to divest 1 million dollars from our police budget and ensure we make wiser investments in our youth and community anti-gun program. A report by Harvard University explains why police officers do stop crime or reduce gun violence. The safest communities in the nation do not have more officers; instead, they make investments in the community and use their budgets to support youth, underprivileged families and social programs.

You have an opportunity to demonstrate to Black residents you do not take them for granted by ensuring police transparency and accountability through the creation of a civilian review board. Further reassurance can be provided to residents by allowing them to file online police complaints on the borough’s website. We call on you to prove you are not afraid of the police union, by speaking out against police violence and refusing to accept their campaign donation. We urge you to seize this moment and show the Black Live Matter movement you are not attempting to co-opt their efforts by disclosing all police data demanded above. Demonstrate to Roselle residents you care about our youth and the creation of a safe community by divesting 1 million dollars from our police department and investing it into employment opportunities for youth, recreational programs, gun violence prevention programs, mental health counselors and social programs for low-income families. Right now is a time for you to take action and a stand against injustice because “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

In Solidarity with Black Lives Movement,

Minister Archange Antoine

Associate Pastor

St. Matthew Baptist Church of Roselle