By Brenda Flanagan
Correspondent
Marchers in Jersey City this weekend complained about recent police shootings here, their voices echoing protests in Ferguson, Missouri.
Violence flared in Ferguson after police shot and killed an unarmed black man, civil unrest that brought U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to the scene last month.
Holder’s unrelenting focus on civil rights resonates deeply in New Jersey.
“He put it in the forefront more so than we’ve seen with any other AG,” said Delacy Davis.
Davis — former East Orange cop and founder of Black Cops Against Police Brutality — marched in Jersey City Saturday, and cites Holder’s sensitivity to people’s history and their emotion.
“His leaving at this point in New Jersey of course gives concern to those of us who know there’s still civil rights work that needs to be done in the area of policing in New Jersey,” Davis said.
New Jersey’s ACLU notes Holder made a substantial impact in Newark where residents wanted the Department of Justice to investigate police procedures.
“Under the Holder Justice Department the AG came in and conducted a three-year investigation and has now set into motion a process for the first chance for real reform of this department in decades. To that end, the Department Of Justice played a real role in changing the ground game here in Newark,” said Ari Rosmarin of the ACLU.
Holder’s the third-longest serving U.S. AG. President Obama recognized that when he announced Holder’s plans to resign.
“Over the summer he came over to me and said he thought six years was a pretty good run,” Obama said.
But it also provided time for Holder to earn the enmity of powerful politicians. In the New Jersey/New York metro area, the need for surveillance and intel against terrorist threats collided with privacy issues.
“The concern with the National Security Administration and collecting data wholesale was becoming ripe says many pundits for a court challenge down the road,” said Political Scientist Greg Bordelon.
Bordelon thinks the president will try to avoid a political gunfight. And polls say Republicans have a good chance to take the Senate.
“I think the president may pick a safe nominee as he continues his last two years in office,” Bordelon said.
As for the political reality, it leaves very little wiggle room. The Obama administration wants Holder’s successor to gain confirmation while Democrats still control the Senate.