By David Cruz
Correspondent
Mothers still in grief, their sons killed in confrontations with police, examples, they say, of a national epidemic: police shooting unarmed men, under questionable circumstances, with no repercussions. With a sense that the justice system has been unresponsive, communities across the country have exploded in violence.
But in Newark, where police brutality and civil rights violations have been well documented, the community has raised its voice in large but peaceful demonstrations and it will go to that well again on July 25 when the People’s Organization for Progress will stage what it’s calling a Million People’s March Against Police Brutality, Racial Injustice and Economic Inequality.
“We’ve called this march in protest to the ongoing murder of unarmed black men, women and children, the violation of people’s constitutional rights by the police, discriminatory and disparate treatment of African Americans and other people of color by the police,” said People’s Organization for Progress Chairman Lawrence Hamm.
Hamm, who has been a community activist here for decades, invited some friends of international stature to announce the march, including William Howard, pastor of Bethany Baptist Church and professor and activist Cornel West.
“People gonna be upset. Gonna be mad because they’re tired of arbitrary police power but it’s gonna be channeled through love and justice because you got high quality leadership and you got black people of integrity honesty and decency in the face of too much arbitrary police power,” West said.
“Let me say I’m from gut bucket Georgia. I grew up in Jim Crow, down in the valley and what I have to say is that if we don’t stand up for our humanity, ain’t nobody gonna do it,” Howard said.
Mayor Ras Baraka, scion of what West called “radical democratic nobility” made history this year when he created the city’s first ever civilian complaint review board. Newark’s police department will soon be under the control of a federal monitor after decades of police abuse.
“It’s not about individual police officers and their acts because there are individual police officers who do great things consistently that you can read about. I was able to go to a police awards thing and hear about police officers who’ve done incredible things on the force, so it’s not about individual officers, it’s about a system that protects bad acts of officers and neglects to provide justice in an environment where black, brown and poor people are concerned,” Baraka said.
Baraka’s city — despite its dreadful record of police brutality — has not seen the kind of civil unrest that has rocked other cities. It’s a success, says the mayor, but there is a long way to go before the city’s police department can be an example for the rest of the country to follow. Until then, he said, Newark will do its part — again — on July 25.