The Green Party of New Jersey Supports the Family of Jameek Lowery

and the Paterson Community in

Seeking Answers to Important Questions in the Matter of His Death

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Zellie Thomas, (973)979-5133, Black Lives Matter and co-chair of the Green Party of Passaic County

Carrie Gordon, (973)412-6577. Communications Chair of the Green Party of NJ

Madelyn Hoffman at (973)876-1023, Green Party of New Jersey member and recent candidate for U.S. Senate in New Jersey

Craig Cayetano at (201)320-9753, cp-chair of the Green Party of Passaic County

The Green Party of New Jersey fully supports Jameek Lowery’s family, the people of Paterson, and Black Lives Matter activists in their efforts to obtain answers to a host of questions surrounding the death of Jameek Lowery, a Paterson resident who came into a Paterson police station seeking help.

Members of the Green Party of New Jersey have attended many of the rallies on the steps of Paterson City Hall and have interviewed family friends, local pastors and others in order to better understand everyone’s concerns. What is motivating protesters is a desire for the truth — how did a man who had no external injuries upon arrival to the police station wind up in a hospital bed covered in bruises, with a potential broken cheekbone and busted eye socket and serious internal injuries. Jameek Lowery’s Facebook live video upon arrival and subsequent photos of Jameek in the hospital reveal a stark contrast in appearance from one to the next. We support the family’s request that all videos and documents related to Lowery’s death be released to his family and to community leaders.

“On Tuesday, January 8th, instead of answers, the police gave us mace,” said Zellie Thomas, Black Lives Matter activist and Green Party member. “On Friday, January 11, when we wanted to know what happened to Jameek at the Paterson Police Department, they brought us there, cuffed. You can jail a revolutionary, but you can’t jail the revolution. We won’t stop until we get justice for Meek and all victims of injustice.”

“We were peacefully marching when police motorcycles drove into the middle of our group right up on to the sidewalk and then proceeded to use mace. It was very scary,” said Carrie Gordon, Communications Chair of the Green Party of New Jersey who attended the Friday night, January 11th protest “I’ve been to many rallies and this has never happened.” These intimidation techniques are inappropriate and indicative of poor community relations on the part of the Paterson police department.

“We ask that the police department focus on the facts of the case,” said Madelyn Hoffman, Green Party member. “Discussion about meningitis and Lowery’s past history with the police has no direct relevance to the main questions at hand. What we need to know is how and when Jameek Lowery ended up so seriously injured in an apparent beating and how and when he died. The community is demanding answers!”

Targeting and arresting two Black Lives Matter activists and rally organizers, Hawk Newsome and Zellie Thomas, also a member of the Green Party of New Jersey, on Friday night, for simply exercising their first amendment rights to peacefully protest, is yet another example of questionable and inappropriate police behavior.

We join the Paterson community’s call for the Attorney General to move the investigation to a different venue outside of Passaic County and to appoint an independent prosecutor to conduct the investigation. Coincidentally, there is a piece of legislation sitting on Governor Phil Murphy’s desk (A3115/S1036) that would require just that. We urge the governor to sign it and urge all those concerned about justice and fairness for those brutalized by the police to call the Governor at 609-292-6000 and ask him to sign it immediately.

However, as the Reverend Dr. Charles F. Boyer, Executive Director of Salvation and Social Justice, stated, “Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal is vehemently opposed to codifying independent prosecutors into law. He is concerned that trust in county prosecutors will be undermined. We on the other hand, are concerned how families’ and communities’ tragic realities are shaped in moments like these.”

Lastly, we call on New Jersey residents to contact Mayor Andre Sayegh of Paterson at 973-204-5617 to say that to date the actions of the Paterson Police Department in the matter of Jameek Lowery not only ignore important concerns of Paterson residents but appear to the rest of New Jersey and the country as if the Paterson Police are more interested in trying to intimidate protesters than in providing answers to some extremely important questions.

The situation in Paterson is of particular concern in the context of the recently released Force Report released last year after a 16-month study conducted by Nj.com. The Report concluded that the state’s system for tracking the use of force by police is broken, but that the use of force is disproportionately applied toward African Americans. Statistics for Paterson indicate that based on population, a black person in Paterson is 78% more likely to have forced used on them than a white person. Based on arrests, a black person is 459% more likely to have force used on them than a white person.

Given these statistics, It is essential that the residents of Paterson and New Jersey get answers to their many critical questions.