On February 4, 2012, the Salem County NAACP conducted a forum dealing with resident complaints of police harassment. The problem was nobody really showed up, except myself and twelve others. The NAACP executive board mentioned several times, that if the people are being harassed, then why they are not here speaking about it? This is where the chapter NAACP leadership comes in at. Why would the NAACP expect for there to be a room full of people at the Saint Mathew Masonic Lodge, when leadership distributed the information the day of the event? Proper planning prevents poor performance. The forum was held on Saturday which is a day where families have already made arrangement of their day. That makes me think the chapter NAACP did not want a room full of people speaking against the Penns Grove Police Department. The information could have been conveyed well in advance if the leadership wanted full community participation.
During the forum, personnel from the executive board had said that many people complain about the Penns Grove Police yet when they look into the matter, they see that no complaint was ever filed. With my interaction in the community, I have gathered from the people, they feel as though, what is the use of filing a complaint when "nothing ever happens." A lot of the residents experience that when they do file a complaint against the police, the police step up their agitation against the people. I asked the NAACP Executive Board, "is there something they can do to look into the Penns Grove Police files, to determine who the problematic officers on the force are?" Mayor Washington who sits on the board said, "No, I will not allow outside organization to look into my police department." How does the chapter NAACP expect people to feel comfortable and come forward to file a complaint against the allege officer(s), when the leadership will not execute promoting police accountability?
A study was done by the Latino Leadership Alliance of New Jersey (LLANJ). The statistics show Penns Grove Police rank number one in South Jersey in "Use of Force" and "Use of Force Complaints". Compared to Camden which is the biggest city in South Jersey and also has an 200 man police force, Penns Grove Police has 14 to 16 man force that accounts for 66% of the "Use of Force" and "Use of Force Complaints", which beat out Camden Police. Camden has a population of 77,344 people. I believe given the statistical data that warrants an investigation into the police department, to weed out the problematic officers who are imploring their "Gestapo" like tactics on the people. Also, there are four police officers from Penns Grove going to federal court now, for civil rights violation against a Hispanic family. I am currently involved in a "police brutality" case in New Brunswick, New Jersey, where two police officers shot an unarm, African-American in the back, who had no guns, no drugs and no warrants. I co-organized a protest consisting of 300 to 400 people. After the intense march applied pressure on the New Brunswick Police, that next week a former Police Sgt., from Internal Affairs was indicted for mishandling 81 internal affair complaints.
Here you have a situation where the people were filing complaints, yet they were being thrown away or lost. It does not matter whether you file a complaint or not, if leadership does not hold their police department accountable for their actions, then the local provocation on the people by the people, who swore to protect and serve, will continue. Several times when the President and Vice-President were addressed with questions in regards to law of civil rights, they had no answer, and their only response was, "If we do not know we can get the answer."
That is strange in my opinion, because if the President and Vice-President receive a complaint and conduct their own investigation, are their findings in their investigation base off of their own assumption or is it base off actual knowledge of civil right laws? If the President and Vice-President have no true knowledge of civil rights laws, then how can they conduct a fair assessment investigation? In my opinion, I think the President and Vice-President of the Salem County Chapter of the NAACP, should have their legal personnel conducting the investigation, because their can actually be a legitimate civil rights violation in which may become overlooked because they are not trained in civil rights law. The President and Vice-President are just holding a position. When you do not have knowledge in an area of dealing with people and law, you cannot seek true justice and you are actually doing the people a disservice in making sure their rights are not compromised.
"We write because we believe the human spirit cannot be tamed and should not be trained."
Nikki Giovanni
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