Protestors: Racial Biases Needed to be Weeded Out of Law Enforcement - TAPinto.net
BRIDGEWATER, NJ - First- and second-generation immigrants protested 14-year-old Z’Kye Husain's arrest despite freezing temperatures Saturday.
The protestors said Husain received disparate punishment by two Bridgewater police officers because he is Black and assumed to be the culprit in a fight between him and a light-skinned teen at the Bridgewater Commons Mall Feb. 12.
In the video, Husain was handcuffed with an officer kneeling on his back on the ground, while the other teen involved was sitting un-cuffed on a couch nearby.
“There is no other way to interpret this video,” said Venkat Venkataramanan, a resident of Somerset and president of Stage Friends USA, which organized the protest. “This situation could have been easily de-escalated through mere words.”
Stage Friends USA is a community nonprofit organization that has used theater to raise funds to promote social activities and community initiatives for the past 26 years.
Venkataramanan said he can't fathom what it means to be Black in America, but that doesn't stop him from trying to understand what it potentially feels like. However, he said some people just don't care, knowing it would never happen to them or their child.
“Should that be our attitude?” he asked. “If we do not object, how much more time will it take for this attitude to spread like wild cancer, to affect you and your family? Is it not our responsibility to uphold and protect the ideals this country stands for?”
Dolly Tharp, a Caucasian Bridgewater resident of Armenian descent, said that, at the very least, the two officers should be suspended while the investigation is ongoing.
“You want to investigate, fine, I can see that,” she said. “Investigate. It shouldn’t take 45 days, but they shouldn’t be walking out on the streets in the meantime.”
The Somerset County Prosecutor's Office has 45 days to complete their investigation, according to the guidelines from the New Jersey Attorney General for internal investigations.
For many immigrant protestors, not only do the officers involved need to be fired, but law enforcement agencies need to be weeded of racial biases and have stricter recruitment policies and standardized protocols for apprehending potential suspects, irrespective of race.
“We all know in the corporate world, we get very specific training right from the hiring process to the firing process, and everything in between, that you cannot have any bias,” said Balaji Prakash Rao, who works in cybersecurity. “How come we don’t have it in the law enforcement agency?”
Sanjana Iyer, an 18-year-old resident from Freehold and one of the youngest members of Stage Friends USA, said she’s tired of all the violence and endless conversations with friends on how to deal with law enforcement.
“This is the world that the lawmakers and law enforcers are leaving me with, this is what my generation is growing into,” she said. “Years of college education and a bar exam for a person to practice law and six months for a police officer to enforce it?”
But beyond better training and stricter policies, many protesters said they believe that when building a safer world for future generations, inaction is not an option, as some wish more protests were happening all around New Jersey in response to what happened to Husain.
“All it takes for the bad players to win is for the rest of us to remain silent,” said Parmesh Parameswaran, a resident from North Jersey, adding that the community needs to hold elected officials accountable and “public servants will fulfill their obligations.”
Kavi Ramasami, an immigration lawyer from Edison, said people need answers from officials who have been mostly silent as justice continues to be delayed.
“They have to be more responsible in answering us and being with us at this time,” Ramasami said. “I’m not saying they’re not doing whatever they need to do, but be with the public, get out the statements, give some updates and be more responsive to the community.”
“It’s not only being inclusive,” she added. “They have to be more conscious about how much we include the Black community particularly. [And] they should have come out more openly, stating that this is not right, and we will do the right thing.”
Venkataramanan agreed, saying that even Gov. Phil Murphy said the video was disturbing. On Feb. 15, Murphy tweeted that he was “deeply disturbed by what appears to be racially disparate treatment in this video.”
“I mean, the most politically correct statement he made, but at least he had the courage to say that,” Venkataramanan said. “None. No one has the courage to face us. What did they do instead? Canceled not one, but two council meetings. What are you afraid of? Afraid to admit the system has failed once again?”
For Dameon Stackhouse, a social worker and the Community Police Alliance coordinator for the Bridgewater Township Police Department, justice requires full emotional support for Husain since he will be traumatized for the rest of his life.
“And if we don’t start working with him right now on the trauma that he’s experienced, he will fulfill that self-fulfilling prophecy of becoming a criminal and ending up incarcerated by the time he’s 30 years old,” Stackhouse said. “I know this because it happened to me.”
Stackhouse said he grew up in Bridgewater and was harassed in his hometown, as well as in Somerville and Hillsborough.
“So, I know what it feels like, to think that you’re less than and to start doing things that they tell you you’re going to do,” he said.
Incidents like this aren't just momentary, "they're life-long things," Stackhouse said.
However, by making sure Husain has trauma-informed treatment for the rest of his life, it can help reaffirm that he's not less than anyone else and ensure he's given the opportunity to do things "that would take him to another level economically and socially," Stackhouse added.
Iyer said that’s one of the main goals for her and her peers, not to feel lesser than anyone else.
“The goal is to one day live in a world where I am able to walk out in the street and smile and laugh and not be afraid that the person across the street is going to see me or my friend or some other child anywhere in the world as anything lesser,” she said.
source: https://www.tapinto.net/towns/bridgewater-slash-raritan/sections/police-and-fire/articles/protestors-racial-biases-needed-to-be-weeded-out-of-law-enforcement
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