Credit: (Taylor Jung/NJ Spotlight News)Activists pressing for federal oversight of Paterson police posted a video that appears to show an officer striking their knee on a person’s head, another example they said for why an outside agency must investigate the department and its use of force.
Demands for that federal oversight increased after Paterson police shot and killed Najee Seabrooks while he was undergoing a mental health crisis on March 3.
The video, posted Thursday by Zellie Thomas of BLM Paterson, shows what appear to be Paterson police officers wearing vests labeled “street crimes unit” forcing a person down onto the sidewalk. Once on the sidewalk, the person is seen in fetal position, holding his head while what appears to be a police officer in a gray hat and police vest strikes the person in the head twice using his knee. Using knees as a weapon is banned in certain circumstances under the New Jersey attorney general’s guidelines for police use of force.
The ACLU of New Jersey said it sent the video and two others of the same incident to the state attorney general’s office and the U.S. attorney for New Jersey, calling on them to investigate the incident. On Twitter, the ACLU said Paterson Police Department’s “pattern of violence and abuse is widespread, systemic, and unmistakable.”
“At a moment when communities are already demanding justice for Mr. Seabrooks’ killing, this should be a wake-up call for leaders. Lawmakers must deliver on the delayed promises of police accountability by putting power in communities, not police,” the ACLU of New Jersey said.
Video circulating in Paterson
Thomas told NJ Spotlight News that while he does not know who recorded the incident, he believes the person being taken down by police is a minor, and that the incident occurred on Feb. 15 around 6:30 p.m. on Auburn Street between Broadway and Van Houten Street in Paterson.
Thomas said he was sent the video on Feb. 16, and that the video circulated within the Paterson community, primarily via text message, around the time of the incident, and then again after Seabrooks was killed.
Using information provided by the Paterson police, the attorney general’s use-of-force database shows that three Paterson police officers used force against a juvenile on Feb. 16. These officers used “legs/kicks, takedowns and arm bars.” The juvenile is described as an African American male and “active resistor” who failed to “disperse, resisted arrest/police officer control” and that they were arrested.
‘The City of Paterson has followed proper protocol and has referred this matter to the Prosecutor’s Office for review of any wrongdoing.’ — Mayor Andre Sayegh
The attorney general’s use-of-force guidelines say, “When dealing with an active resistor, in addition to the options available for passive resistors, officers may use physical strikes with hands or feet, OC spray, batons or asps applied with non-impact pressure, and taking the person to the ground. Intentional strikes to the head or face, which are only allowed in an act of self-defense, are not permitted when dealing with an active resistor. Police canines shall not be utilized against an active resistor.”
“It’s impossible for police officers to want someone to put their hands behind their back if you’re also kneeing them in their face,” Thomas said.
Under investigation
The incident is under investigation, first by the Passaic County prosecutor’s office and then again by the police department itself, Paterson Mayor Andre Sayegh said Thursday.
“The City of Paterson has followed proper protocol and has referred this matter to the Prosecutor’s Office for review of any wrongdoing. Upon the conclusion of the aforementioned review, the Department of Internal Affairs will conduct a thorough review of the incident,” said Sayegh in a statement.
An audit released last year by the Police Executive Research Forum found that subjects of Paterson police officers’ force were 57% Black, 34% Hispanic and 7% white, and suggested that the department “examine trends on racial and ethnic disparities in use-of-force cases, to determine the extent to which disparities reflect bias or may be explained by the nature of the incidents, whether arrests were made, and other factors.”
“This is not a random, isolated incident. It is just further proof of the systemic failure within the Paterson Police Department which was not solved by Prosecutor oversight nor by the increased de-escalation training. The people of Paterson deserve better than the harassment, violation of rights, and brutality at the hands of police,” said ACLU of New Jersey legal director Jeanne LoCicero.
