NEWARK, NJ — The People’s Organization for Progress marked its 100th consecutive week of Justice Monday protests outside the Paul W. Rodino Federal Building in downtown Newark on Monday, Jan. 8, despite the bitter weather.
“Man, it was cold out there yesterday,” said Hamm on Tuesday, Jan. 9. “It’s been hard to continue to protest in this extraordinarily cold weather we’ve been having, but we didn’t miss a day. In fact, we were out there Christmas Day, which was a Monday, and New Year’s Day, which was a Monday. They call the cold weather we’ve been having for the last week or so a ‘cyclone bomb,’ but we were out there and we were out there last night.”
Hamm and the People’s Organization for Progress have gathering to convince Craig Carpenito, New Jersey’s new interim U.S. attorney, to open Civil Rights investigations into the “Jersey 4,” a list of unarmed black residents who were shot by New Jersey police. They include: Abdul Kamal, who was shot and killed by Irvington police; Kashad Ashford, who was killed by Lyndhurst police; Jerame Reid, who was killed by Bridgeton police; and 14-year-old Radazz Hearns, who was shot seven times by Trenton police, four times in the back.
Hamm attended all the meetings between Reid’s surviving family members and former New Jersey Attorney General Paul Fishman, who was appointed by former Democratic President Barack Obama. Fishman and a host of other Obama-era attorney general appointees were not re-appointed after Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election.
On Monday, Jan. 8, it was announced that U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions had appointed Carpenito, Christie’s “Bridgegate” trial lawyer, as New Jersey’s interim attorney general.
“What interesting is Jeff Sessions or President Trump have announced a number of attorney generals,” said Hamm on Tuesday, Jan. 9. “I think it was Craig Carpenito who was a lieutenant of Gov. Christie to replace Paul Fishman. Once all the preliminaries have been handled, he should probably get approved as the next New Jersey attorney general. We’re going to reach out to him, the same way we reached out to Paul Fishman.”
Hamm said he does not hold out much hope for a dramatic change in the federal government’s policy, when it comes to prosecuting police officers and other members of law enforcement accused of civil rights violations.
“We’re going to keep fighting, regardless,” said Hamm. “We’re not optimistic. Fishman did make an effort to reach out to the victims’ families and interact with the families, but we still didn’t achieve our goal of getting full-fledged civil rights investigations into the deaths of Abdul Kamal, Kashad Ashford, Jerame Reid and Radazz Hearns. That being said, we’re not overly optimistic about what we can get from this new attorney general, who is a Trump appointee. But we’re going to continue to push the channel for change.”
Meanwhile, between Justice Monday protests and the People’s Organization for Progress’s other protest and civil disobedience actions, Hamm said he will be continuing his call for criminal justice and law enforcement reform at upcoming events across New Jersey, in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, Jan. 15. He is scheduled to speak at the group’s annual MLK Program on Thursday, Jan. 11, at 6 p.m., at Abyssinian Baptist Church, 224 West Kinney St., Newark.
“This entire week is MLK Week and we also tied Monday’s protest to the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., because police brutality and criminal justice reform were both parts of his civil rights movement. I’m going to be speaking at 11 different places this weekend,” Hamm said.
“We will be having a panel discussion on ‘Martin Luther King: Lessons for the 21st Century’ that will be followed by a discussion with the audience,” said Hamm. “I’ll be moderating the panel. Our panelists will include (P.O.P.) Vice Chairwoman and East Orange resident Ingrid Hill, (P.O.P.) Vice Chairman Larry Adams, activist Bill Davis, Orange at large Councilwoman Donna K, Williams and poet and People’s Organization for Progress minister of information Zayid Muhammad. On Monday, Jan. 15, we’re having our annual MLK march at noon, starting at the MLK statue outside the Hall of Records in downtown Newark.”
For more information about People’s Organization for Progress’ events, call 973-801-0001.
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