The news that the Paterson police department, after a 17-month takeover by the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office, is regaining control of its internal affairs department, left me completely puzzled.
When the Prosecutor’s Office made the announcement last week I couldn’t think of a more backwards move. Now’s not the time to give them back control. If anything, they need more oversight.
Let’s start with the fact that the concept of internal affairs divisions — departments of police officers investigating and policing other police officers —is already troubling. So, how anyone could’ve thought this was a good idea is highly questionable.
Here’s why it’s not: Since the takeover of the division began in April 2021 — following the arrests and convictions of several officers over several years leading up to that — it’s been scandal after scandal.
Two officers beating up on a teenager. The “Paterson robbery squad,” a ring of corrupt cops, for years targeting and stealing from residents. Plain clothes police officers fatally shooting a Black man. The disappearance of a man who was last seen with Paterson officers. A police chief who sleeps on the job while violent crime increases.
I could go on and on but you get the idea.
To make matters worse, the details of many of these incidents remain unclear. Even now, the Prosecutor’s Office, despite finding “deficiencies in past practices” in the internal affairs division, is not disclosing whether any of the more than 500 cases it reviewed, many dating back to 2018, led to any changes in their outcomes.
The people of Paterson want answers and clarity. And they deserve it. People like 19-year-old Osamah Alsaidi who was seen on video being repeatedly and brutally punched by officers, Kevin Patino and Kendry Tineo-Restituyo.
Alsaidi has said he was “humiliated, treated like an animal” and “tortured at the police station.” Prosecutors have said both officers filed false reports “in an attempt to cover up their conduct.”
They were charged by federal authorities but pleaded not guilty. Shocking.
There was also the group of five officers and their supervisor who were all convicted in a federal corruption probe for a two-year spree, from 2016 to 2018, in which they were robbing residents left and right.
Yes, robbing them. At least these five ex-officers had the decency of pleading guilty, but only after testifying against their former boss — in return for a lenient sentence, of course.
More recently, in December 2021, 25-year-old Thelonious “RaRa” McKnight Jr., was fatally shot by Paterson police in a dark alleyway in the city’s East Main Street.
The officers were not in uniform. And the interaction that led to the shooting is still murky. Paterson Mayor Andre Sayegh has said McKnight fired at the cops. But Sayegh was not at the scene and no evidence has been presented to back up his account of what happened.
McKnight’s brother, who was present during the incident, says McKnight was not armed when he was shot and pointed to photos and videos taken that night that show snippets of what occurred.
“And what about Felix DeJesus?” says Paterson school board member and community activist Corey L. Teague, who’s been helping DeJesus’ family in their search for him. “He’s still missing.”
Paterson man Felix DeJesus, a 41-year-old father of two, has been missing for nearly 8 months — since the cold February night two city officers say they dropped him off at Westside Park. Of course, we don’t know what happened exactly and it’s possible we never will, since the officers turned off their body cameras, violating the attorney general’s body-worn camera policy for police.
Crystal Garcia, the fiancé of DeJesus’ younger brother Giovanni, told me some months ago that the prosecutor’s office hadn’t provided the family with any updates on whether the officers who detained DeJesus were being investigated, much less the results of that possible investigation.
“We’re all kind of living in limbo because we still don’t really know anything,” she said at the time.
The problems in Paterson involving police and the department’s gross lack of transparency and accountability, are far from fixed. Clearly.
Even so, the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office, in a statement said, it had “ensured that current and future investigations are conducted thoroughly and fairly.” But again, keep in mind that it did not say whether its review led to any changes in the outcomes of those cases.
Mayor Andre Sayegh himself told the Paterson Press the prosecutor’s recommendations were “not for public consumption.” Hmmm...that’s interesting, especially coming from an elected leader, who’s long been saying he wants “more transparency and more accountability.”
Zellie Thomas, a Paterson teacher who’s the lead organizer of the city’s Black Lives Matter chapter, said it’s deeply disappointing that the mayor “who says he cares about rebuilding trust in police and rebuilding trust with the community is at the same time stopping that from happening.”
Teague agrees. “The [Passaic] Prosecutor’s Office seems to think, ‘Oh, it’s been a while and this is all starting to just go away now so, we can kind of just end our oversight,” he said.
“We have to prove them wrong, and show them that ‘No, this isn’t all just going to ‘go away,’ because what’s really improved in terms of transparency and accountability here? Absolutely nothing.”
Daysi Calavia-Robertson may be reached at dcalavia-robertson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Instagram at @presspassdaysi or Twitter @presspassdaysi.
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