Civil rights activist Larry Hamm also spoke, voicing outrage at the circumstances that led to the lawsuit.
A lawsuit against Bloomfield, its fire department and a number of its employees compelled a press conference with the plaintiff of the lawsuit, his attorney, civil rights activists and a state senator, on Monday, Nov. 24.
A hostile work environment and racial discrimination at the fire department is being alleged in the $25 million lawsuit which requests a jury trial. Accounts of Patrick Thomas, a Black firefighter being taunted on several occasions, with a noose, by Walter Coffey, a white coworker, is at the center of the complaint.
The press conference, which was attended by about 50 people, took place outdoors, near Watsessing Park, along Bloomfield Avenue. Michael Ashley, the attorney for the plaintiff, said Thomas had tried “to end this for over two years,” but now there was no option but to sue. He said there was no question Thomas was taunted with a noose, experienced emotional distress, and that there was no dismissing a hostile work environment based on race.
“We want Coffey fired,” he said. “Because Coffey wasn’t fired, it means the town condones his behavior.”
According to the complaint, on Nov. 16, 2023, at a fire department knot-training session attended by Patrick, Coffey, other firefighters and supervisory personnel, Coffey tied a hangman’s noose and threw it toward Patrick. Coffee, while laughing, asked Patrick to figure out what type of knot it was. The incident was recorded on closed-circuit TV.
“I know exactly what this is,” Patrick responded. “This is a noose. That is what people use to hang my ancestors from trees. You think this is funny?”
Coffey continued laughing. He is currently suspended without pay. The Essex County Prosecutor’s Office charged him in December of 2024, with bias intimidation. In April, 2025, a grand jury indicted him for that.
Coffey is in pre-trial intervention which allows first-time offenders to avoid conviction or jail time, according to the complaint. Patrick is on paid, extended leave.
State Sen. Brittany Timberlake, D-34th District, at the press conference, said that lynching is murder.
“It is terrorizing a people for white supremacy,” she said. “I have stood with every community and I’m certainly going to stand by my people.”
Timberlake said she would not be satisfied “until that firefighter is let go.” A video of the noose taunting incident was widely viewed, she said, and anyone seeing it and not coming to the same conclusion about Coffey was part of the problem.
“Who would I be if I wasn’t standing out here?” Timberlake asked.
Kasey Dudley, the president of the Bloomfield Board of Education, also spoke.
“We cannot stand up and teach our children about vile racism when adults do not,” she said. “Children shouldn’t be afraid of firemen. We deserve better for Bloomfield.”
The civil rights activist Larry Hamm spoke, saying the noose is a symbol of racist terrorism, his litany being met with loud, voiced approval.
“There’s no place for a noose in Bloomfield,” he said. “There’s no place for the swastika in Bloomfield.
“There’s no place for the burning cross in Bloomfield. Coffey must go. If this happened to another person of a different race, that person with the noose would be gone.”
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