Social justice advocates say they’re not surprised by the state attorney general’s report concerning a pattern of “deeply disturbing” data showing Black people got arrested by Clark police at a far greater rate than their representation in the population.
“Clark is understood as a sundown town. Clark was bad for Black people when the sun was up,” said Rev. Charles Boyer, founder of the Salvation and Social Justice organization. “You didn’t want be in Clark, period. And even more so in the daylight because people could see who was driving.”
Mayor Sal Bonaccorso and police officials in Clark “expressed views that suggested they encouraged bias-based policing,” according to the report. But Attorney General Matt Platkin said he could not file criminal charges because “the ability to draw the kinds of definitive conclusions necessary to support criminal charges was rendered impossible by deficiencies in the data.”
Platkin recommended that two Clark police officials, including the chief, should be fired; both are on paid leave. Platkin added that only Clark officials retain the legal power to do that. The right to terminate is up to Clark’s mayor and a Republican township council that has supported him for decades.
NJ Advance Media first broke the story of secretly recorded tapes containing racial slurs made by Clark officials. Antonio Manata, the whistleblower, is a former Clark Police lieutenant. The department literally locked him out but kept him on the payroll, and compensated him $275,000, the attorney general’s report says.
“I’m glad justice was served and is being served,” Manata said of the report.
Manata also blew the whistle on Bonaccorso allegedly using township staff to work for his business, and fraudulently using an engineer’s credentials to illegally remove underground oil tanks. The attorney for Bonaccorso, who is facing criminal charges, said his client “denies each and every allegation contained in the criminal complaint” and claims the attorney general’s report “besmirches Mayor Bonaccorso, the town, and the police force.” Bonaccorso apologized last year for his comments, stating, “It was wrong, I’m embarrassed and ashamed to have spoken that way about a race of people.”
Platkin was careful to exclude Clark’s rank-and-file police from criticism. The Union County Prosecutor’s Office has run the department since Manata’s red flag in 2020.
The report sparked a firestorm of debate in Clark, where some support the mayor for keeping taxes and crime down while others want the police who are on paid leave to be fired.
