Salvation and Social Justice Condemns Hunting at the Border

Several news reports over the past week have documented police officers alleging that the North Brunswick Police Department “hunted” Black and Latino drivers to fulfill ticket quotas. Ask any Black or Brown person in New Jersey if we are surprised. We all have experienced being targeted and have avoided certain areas whenever possible to avoid being racially profiled. Our communities have long suffered from “the hunt.” Salvation and Social Justice thoroughly condemns racial profiling and calls on the Governor to respond and the Attorney General to investigate this egregious violation of civil rights. More importantly we call on all authoritative state agencies to scrutinize all Black and Latino adjacent majority White townships. It is imperative to study how tickets are being issued to whom. 

NJ Advanced Media’s release of “The Force Report,” found that statewide, Black people are more than three times more likely to face police use of force. Many of the areas with the highest rates are majority White townships with proximity to majority Black and Brown cities. In response, Salvation and Social Justice conducted hearings throughout the state and many of the testimonies confirmed the very kind of targeting alleged in North Brunswick. We call on officials to require municipal level reporting on stops which include race and ethnicity. Additionally, municipalities should be financially responsible to make whole all those they have targeted. We must end all state and municipal sponsored monetization of Black and Brown people.