New Jersey
Assemblypersons have broken new ground in proposing Assembly Bill
A114 requiring that all New Jersey public school students from
kindergarten through grade twelve be taught how to interact with
police—in other words to be “deferential at all times.”
It passed the Assembly unanimously and is mandated to be a part of
New Jersey Student Learning Standards in Social Studies. After some
initial pushback, the bill was amended to include a provision that
students also be taught their rights when encountering police
officers. Developed by a group of New Jersey African American female
Assemblypersons, the legislation is a copycat of an earlier law
passed by conservative Texas lawmakers which was more direct in
stating that it was focused on certain students, mostly in Black and
Brown communities. As documented in the National Book Award winning
book, Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, Ibram X. Kendi makes a compelling case that
throughout blacks sojourn in the United States, African Americans
have been viewed as having something wrong with them, being a problem
people.
This opinion has been
put forth as the primary reason so many males, and increasingly
females of color, have been gunned down in the streets all over this
nation in recent years by police officers who allegedly feared for
their lives. No matter that Laquan McDonald, who was veering away
from Officer Jason Van Dyke who shot him sixteen times in 2014,
thirteen times while he was lying on the ground; Van Dyke was backed
up by false reports by three of his colleagues (all of whom were
recently indicted for filing false reports and obstructing justice).
A year later, Michael T. Slager, a former police officer in
Charleston, South Carolina had a mistrial although unambiguous cell
phone footage showed him in a shooting stance firing multiple shots
into the back of Walter Scott, an unarmed black man who was running
away. And Philando Castile was shot five times in a rapid succession
of seven shots into his car by police officer, Jeronimo Yanez, after
a traffic stop in a Minnesota suburb with a four-year old toddler in
the back seat. Yanez was acquitted by a jury on one count of second
degree manslaughter.
The aforementioned
incidents are three of the most flagrant examples of the hundreds of
questionable deaths of males and females of color at the hands of the
police in recent years. As America’s minority groups rise
exponentially in size and collectively surge to majority status in
many of our nation’s cities, frictions between them and police
officers have escalated or have been revealed as a result of police
dashcam recordings and the ubiquitous availability of smart phones
with sophisticated audio and video capabilities. New Jersey
legislators propose to reduce these incidents by teaching school
children how to interact with police officers. Those who view this
approach as simpleminded are told that they are “mischaracterizing
the bill,” that the class will be communicating “the
talk” that millions of minority parents have given their
sons and daughters so that they avoid deadly encounters with police.
However, the difference
is that the class appears to be a one way directive, students
accommodating police behavior of any kind and conforming to the
status quo. There is no indication that the ability for police to
operate respectfully and sensitively in multi-cultural communities
will be enhanced by this course. There is also no corresponding
training for police in how to de-escalate volatile situations, a
program developed by the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill
(NAMI). These legislators, perhaps unintentionally, have repaired to
the old adage that “… something is wrong with those
minority people.” The New Jersey Senate is now considering
A1114 for final passage and perhaps forward it on to Gov. Christie
for his signature. Christie is anxious to receive it and to
demonstrate his ability to support police and manage minority
behavior in a blue Democratic state.
Nonetheless, citizens
across the state are fuming over what they are labeling “a
police deference bill” and wonder why the New Jersey State
Policemen’s Benevolent Association and the State Fraternal
Order of Police will have such prominent roles in shaping the
curriculum while the People’s Organization for Progress (POP)
and Black Lives Matter (BLM), the foremost advocates in opposing
police brutality and overreach in New Jersey, have been excluded from
participation. Lawrence Hamm, POP’s Chairman, suggested
alternatives to the class: “having a residency requirement
for cops so that they live in the communities they police;
de-escalation, emotional training for police officers in high crime
areas; and a special prosecutor for police officers charged.”
A recent poll indicates
that the “police deference bill” is now seeping into the
gubernatorial election. Minorities and the general population New
Jersey’s six must win counties for Democrats, Hudson, Camden,
Bergen, Passaic, Essex, and Union, are asking where Democratic
gubernatorial candidate, Phil Murphy, stands on the issue since two
of the individuals he is considering for selection as Lt. Gov. on his
ticket, Assemblywomen Sheila Oliver and Shavonda Sumter, are
co-sponsoring the statute. Moreover, minority citizens in
Bridgeton, Camden, East Orange, Irvington, Newark, and Jersey City,
where voters of color predominate, are strongly opposed to the class,
and the bill to legalize marijuana that Murphy has promised to sign,
which the African American clergy sharply resists. These feelings
could prove pivotal in turning out the vote on Election Day. Low
turnout among minority voters doomed the reelection chances of former
Democratic governors Jim Florio (1993) and Jon Corzine (2009).
It remains to be seen
whether the teacher unions, New Jersey Education Association (NJEA)
and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), will remain at the
table to craft the “police deference” curriculum since
they rely heavily on minority communities to support their agenda for
public education. The New Jersey NAACP may also have second thoughts
as it receives pushback from its membership. It is not at all clear
that there is a consensus for the “police deference” bill
in a cross-section of communities of color no matter what.
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