By George Ygarza
Asked about police intervention in Paterson by editor Tom Moran, Jerry Speziale, the public safety director in Paterson, provided a sobering response: “Today’s victims are tomorrow’s shooters,” he said. “You get retaliation… You go out and become the shooter. So, it’s almost like that, going back and forth.”
Talk about victim blaming.
In response to the long-documented violence and corruption of the Paterson police department, several New Jersey organizations are now calling for the resignation of Speziale, with nearly six thousand people signed on to a petition that began circulating in early March 2023.
While replacing Speziale, who for the last 10 years has overseen the deadliest police department in New Jersey, would bring a necessary shakeup to the department, the reactionary stance the police take towards the community runs deeper than one individual.
Take for example the guiding metaphor of the thin blue line, often etched onto badges, patrol vehicles, and even weapons. The so-called “Blue Code” of conduct and silence has drawn a line on the ground, keeping away any form of oversight or accountability.
Often evoked by police, this innocuous visual metaphor is a representation of their warrior mentality, driving a belief that they are the last line of defense in a world they believe hangs on the precipice of chaos.
This mentality quickly led to the reactionary Blue Lives Matter campaign at a time when people around the country were rallying against anti-Black police violence across the United States.
Today, the guiding us vs them mentality can be observed in the oppositional stances police take in response to communities demanding any semblance of justice, accountability, and transparency from the police.
After years, if not decades of advocacy and campaigning, the city of Newark passed an ordinance to establish a Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) in 2016. Newark mayor Ras Baraka hailed it as a great victory, ushering in a new epoch of responsible policing. However, the victory was short-lived, as the Fraternal Order of Police, Newark Lodge No. 12, filed a lawsuit in State courts. A decision in 2020 found components of the CCRB unconstitutional.
At the state level, Police unions have moved tirelessly to upend any form of legislative accountability. Take for instance their long battle to keep the names of disciplined officers a secret or their campaign against ending qualified immunity.
As in other cities across the country, Newark’s fight for police accountability came across a powerful and influential foe, the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP.) Time and time again, the FOP has stuck its head out for its own rather than those it purports to serve.
Writing about the FOP political theorist Geo Maher stated, “The central weapon for guarding and expanding the power of the police is not the department itself, but a parallel structure: the benevolent association, the fraternal order, all those organizations that masquerade misleadingly under the heading of “police unions.” Behind closed doors, it is these organizations that negotiate police contracts—placing impunity from accountability front and center—and lobby for special legal protections.”
The FOP deploys various forms of propaganda, smear campaigns and other tactics to undermine community calls for accountability. They attempt to instill fear in communities by promulgating moral panics about high crime rates. However, the reality is a far cry from how the police paint it: about 4% of police calls respond to violent crimes.
A union in name only, the FOP uses perverted and co-opted forms of labor rhetoric to claim they are fighting on behalf of their working conditions when in reality they are instrumentalizing the law to oppose any accountability.
When asked whether he would support the implementation of a Civilian Complaint Review Board, public safety director Jerry Speziale stated that he would. Yet, in a gesture of manipulated innocence, he claimed that it was not because of any community or police opposition that it has not yet been implemented but rather the legal statutes that have held it up.
Writing about the increasing amount of legislative influence police have had since the 1960s, the author Kristian Williams writes, “In fact, since the late sixties, they have moved beyond their quest for independence and have begun to pursue political power.”
George Ygarza is a popular educator, community organizer and organic researcher.
Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.
Here’s how to submit an op-ed or Letter to the Editor. Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow us on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and on Facebook at NJ.com Opinion. Get the latest news updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.com’s newsletters.
Ad Choices