United Black Agenda Responds to Police Conduct at Bridgewater Mall

Coalition Calls the Police Officers’ Treatment of Black Child Discriminatory and Harmful

NEWARK – The United Black Agenda coalition (members listed below) today issued the following statement regarding police conduct when responding to the scuffle between two boys at Bridgewater Commons mall.

“We all saw the video. Two boys – one Black and one white – engaged in a scuffle in a Bridgewater mall. Police arrive and, while simply placing the white boy on a bench, aggressively wrestle the black boy (named Kyle) to the ground and handcuff him, while bystanders watch and record.

“This shocking and discriminatory treatment is unacceptable and calls for disciplinary action.

“Our criminal justice system cries out for meaningful reform. Indeed, a Black youth in New Jersey is almost 18 times more likely to be locked up than their white counterpart – the highest racial disparity rate in the country.

“How did we get here?

“It starts with the racist stereotype of Black youth as ‘super predators,’ with research showing that Black boys and girls are seen as less innocent and more mature than their white peers.

“It starts with the disproportionate disciplinary action taken against Black students, with studies showing that Black students are disciplined more harshly and frequently than white students for similar behavior.

“And it starts with the over-policing of Black communities. Here in New Jersey, a Black person is three times more likely to have force used against them than their white counterpart. And, following arrest, Black people are more likely to get entrenched in the criminal justice system.

“New Jersey’s Black communities can’t wait any longer for meaningful criminal justice transformation.

“New Jersey must finally take a decisive stand to say that Black Lives Matter in our state beyond the use of hashtags and platitudes.

“We can’t wait any longer for meaningful police accountability. New Jersey must immediately pass legislation to ban and criminalize law enforcement chokeholds, create municipal civilian complaint review boards and end immunity for law enforcement.

“We can’t wait any longer to save our kids. Governor Murphy and Acting Attorney General Platkin must finally and immediately close New Jersey’s three youth prisons, two of which were ordered to be closed four years ago – and invest $100 million into the communities most impacted by youth incarceration.

“And we can’t wait any longer for police to make good faith efforts to communicate with advocates and impacted communities. To that end, we demand a meeting with Bridgewater Police Chief Paul Payne immediately to discuss this incident.

“We can’t wait for the next George Floyd. The next Maurice Gordon. Or the next Kyle.

“We are tired of waiting.

“Because, in the true words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (not the contemporary watered-down version used to support complacency), ‘For years now I have heard the word ‘Wait!’ . . . This ‘Wait’ has almost always meant ‘Never.’ We must come to see . . . that ‘justice too long delayed is justice denied.’”

The United Black Agenda consists of the following groups and representatives:

• Ryan P. Haygood, CEO & President and Andrea McChristian, Law & Policy Director,  New Jersey Institute for Social Justice
• Elise Boddie, Founder, The Inclusion Project at Rutgers University
• Rev. Dr. Charles F. Boyer, Executive Director, Salvation and Social Justice
• Carolyn Chang, Past President and Current Social Justice Committee Chair, Association of Black Women Lawyers of New Jersey
• Rev. Eric Dobson, Vice President, Fair Share Housing Center & Co-Convener, Black Multifaith Alliance
• Reva Foster, Chair, NJ Black Issues Convention
• Jerry Harris, Member, New Jersey Institute for Social Justice Board of Trustees
• Richard T. Smith, President, NAACP New Jersey State Conference