By David Cruz
Correspondent
Cops and community. In Newark, the relationship’s been fraught, metastasized over decades of abuse and corruption. But after a damning report from the Department of Justice chronicling the department’s decades of abuses, the city and the feds entered into a consent decree that put into place a series of reforms. But an order by Attorney General Jeff Sessions this week threw the process into doubt. The memo called on the DOJ to “…immediately review all department activities — including … compliance reviews, existing or contemplated consent decrees and task force participation…”
Newark is one of 14 police departments across the country currently under consent decrees. And Mayor Ras Baraka says the city’s consent decree has been upheld by the courts and that no memo from the AG is going to change that.
“Obviously the court has said that we have a consent decree in Newark and they don’t have the authority to overturn a court decision so we’re OK with what’s happening in the city of Newark,” he said. “What happens as a result of other cities or how their support may wane in different ways, but what I said earlier is that we’re going to continue moving forward, developing what we think is important programs that we believe will help establish a great relationship between the community and the police here in the city of Newark.”
At the announcement of a program intended to bring cops and young people together this morning, the mayor and the police director said they were mindful of the Sessions memo but chose to focus on progress that is ongoing.
“I think it’s something that can change the culture and change the department for the better. It’s something that we’re going to work with. We’re going to continue to work with the Department of Justice and with the monitor and move ahead,” said Public Safety Director Anthony Ambrose.
Ambrose said a new administration may have its own outlook on things “and I think that the current Justice Department and the current attorney general looks at it that way but I’m following the consent decree unless otherwise told.”
Teenager Hadiyah James says she’s lost a number of friends to violence on the city’s streets. She was here this morning to talk to the mayor, hoping that he could inspire some optimism that things in her neighborhood might change. Was she satisfied?
“I don’t know,” she frowned. “It’s really like, you can’t really blame it on the cops only because there’s black on black crime, too, so I don’t know, people just need to find other ways to do things rather than killing each other over little petty stuff.”
The relationship between cops and community here has been improving, slightly, according to members of both sides. Longtime activist Cassandra Dock says it’s a fragile detente, hard fought to achieve and threatened by an indifference from the federal government.
“Let’s look at why these decrees came to be. Let’s look at who asked for these decrees,” she said. “The people that actually live here; the people that actually have experienced some type of brutality with an officer, these are the people that are asking for it, so now our Department of Justice, the new person that’s running it, is going to come in and say now we’re going to do a reform? Why? Why? Why don’t you come here first and ask why was it put there in the first place before you talk about reforming it.”
Officials say the reforms they’ve put into place have already started to show results and that they’ll continue to pursue them whether they have a partner in Washington or not.