Photo by Chris Sykes People's Organization for Progress Chairman Larry Hamm holds up a sign that says exactly how he feels on Saturday, Dec. 3, at a protest in Newark run by his organization against U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.
People’s Organization for Progress Chairman Larry Hamm holds up a sign that says exactly how he feels on Saturday, Dec. 3, at a protest in Newark run by his organization against U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.
NEWARK, NJ — The People’s Organization for Progress held its 45th consecutive “Justice Monday” rally in front of the Peter Rodino Federal Building on Broad Street in Newark on Monday, Dec. 5, as part of the ongoing effort to convince U.S. Attorney General for New Jersey Paul Fishman to open up federal civil rights investigations into several police-involved shooting deaths and allegations of police use of excessive force on unarmed black male suspects.
But the most recent rally was different from those prior as it took place two days after P.O.P. held a march through downtown Newark to protest the election of Donald Trump, on the same day news broke of a mistrial in the case of former South Carolina police Officer Michael Slager. Slager was on trial for murder in the April 2015 shooting death of Walter Scott, an unarmed black driver.
P.O.P. Chairman Larry Hamm said the 45th Justice Monday rally was also notable because Trump’s unexpected victory against Hillary Clinton means the clock is ticking on Fishman’s tenure as the state’s federally appointed U.S. attorney general, adding a sense of urgency to the protest rally.
“The Trump administration is really shaping up to be a real monster’s ball of reactionaries, racists, vultures, profiteers, privateers, corporate raiders and it’s funny, because he’s appointing some of the same people that he was speaking against during his campaign, so I’m sure, before this is over, some of the people that voted for Trump are going to be at least surprised and at best outraged. They’re angry and they should also be angry at themselves for going for the okey-doke,” Hamm said Monday, Dec. 5.
“We continue to press U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman to launch civil rights investigations. We’re not sure what’s going to happen now because, with the election of Donald Trump, Jeff Sessions is going to be the new U.S. attorney general and he gets to appoint the attorneys for the rest of the country. So Paul Fishman, I guess, will be done on Jan. 20.”
The outcome of the the Slager case left many at the rally despondent and angry.
“Were outraged today at the situation in North Charleston, S.C., where Officer Michael Slager will walk away from the death of Walter Scott,” Hamm said. “He shot Scott, who was unarmed, in the back, killing him dead. And because of one white juror holding out, a mistrial was declared. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I’m hoping that the prosecutor will pursue another trial.”
Hamm’s remarks were delicate, compared to those made by Sheila Reid.
“It’s a shame that South Carolina had to say what they said about the police officers,” said Reid on Monday, Dec. 5. “Like they say: If you want to get away with murder, just put on a police uniform, then you can get away with murder. You got the weapon, you got a fake behind a badge when you put on the uniform and they won’t know the difference. They’ll snatch you down just like as if you were a dog.”
Hamm and Reid made their remarks against the backdrop of the chant “Honk your horn if you’re against police brutality; honk your horn if you’re against racial profiling.”
“This juror said that he could not bring himself to convict this officer, which goes to show you how flawed the criminal justice system is,” Hamm said. “I think it’s called the ‘voir dire,’ when they have the grand jury and they question the prospective jurors. Obviously, they did not query this person enough to find out that he had a bias for police. I’ve been on juries where they asked me ‘Do you have law enforcement members in your family?’ But that’s not enough. They have to go further and ask these people how do they feel about the police but they don’t. And so these people get through and you get these juries, almost all white, and they won’t convict these officers.
And when it comes to Trump, Hamm said that although the election is over, the Electoral College won’t cast votes for the new president until Monday, Dec. 19.
“It ain’t over because he ain’t even president yet. It’s not over until Dec. 19, when the Electoral College votes because, in actuality, in the United States of America, we do not have direct elections,” Hamm said. “We have an election, but that is not what determines the president. We don’t even elect the electors. The people that are going to choose the president aren’t even chosen by us. In most cases, I think they’re chosen by the state legislatures.
“There is an effort on one hand to get the electors of the Electoral College — I believe there are 538 of them — to get them to change their vote to reflect the national vote, because Hillary Clinton won the popular vote and, by last count, she was 2.5 million votes ahead of Trump. There are many countries in the world that don’t have 2.5 million people. On the other hand is this recount that was requested by Jill Stein and the Green Party. We don’t know how this recount is going to turn out. There’s a whole lot that was wrong with this election. And this is the second time this has happened in this century. The first time was with Al Gore in 2000. It’s happened twice in 20 years.”
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