Dispatch from the Bridgewater Protest

Bridgewater, New Jersey - William Stroock: Yesterday we attended a protest at the Bridgewater Municipal Complex.  The crowd was protesting the incident at the Bridgewater Mall earlier in the week in which police broke up a fight and handcuffed 14-year-old Z'kye Husain, but not the white kid with whom he was fighting. 

Here's the Bridgewater Patch story of the protest by Alexis Tazarri, which relays the facts perfectly. Here's WNBC's report. We do not see ourselves in any pics or video. 

The protest was sponsored by the People's Organization for Progress, a Newark based activist organization. We'd describe them as a black liberation group. 

Above is the 91-year-old Reverend Daughtry, we were told, a longtime civil rights activist from NYC. 

We'd say a hundred, maybe a hundred and twenty people attended. The crowd was overwhelmingly African American. The majority were not from Bridgewater. We know this because organizers talked about bringing people over from Newark and few of the speakers were locals.  Neither Z'Kye Hussain nor his mother attended the protest, though an aunt was present. Police not only kept their distance, they stayed inside their HQ.

There were several speakers, mostly professional activist types, though a few 'civilians' and a lawyer spoke too, as did Z'Kye's aunt. The speakers and speeches struck as generally amiable and positive. The atmosphere was friendly, joyous even. There was plenty of call and response from speakers and crowd. We heard plenty of 'that's right' and 'amen' etc.

We didn't hear a whole lot with which to disagree, at least in the macro. Who's against African Americans doing better? One speaker pointed out that Democrats control New Jersey but seemingly do nothing for African Americans. We were sorely tempted take the mic and ask, 'Why not vote Republican? What do you have to lose?' But we weren't there to be part of the story. 

Readers may want to click on the Patch story to see what Bridgewater locals think of the story, incident and protest. Spoiler, not much.  

Police Blotter: Brisco

NJ Mall Fight – My View. This is my perspective of the Bridgewater Commons Mall fight that took was reported by NJ.Com. As a 24-year veteran of law enforcement, I believe I am more than qualified to comment of the actions of the two Bridgewater Police officers involved. 

In a nutshell, there was absolutely nothing wrong with the actions taken by either officer. Both subjects were actively fighting when the officers arrived and each officer moved to control one of the combatants. One teen was already on the ground and an officer assumed positive control and immediately started handcuffing him – at which point the teen did not immediately comply and submit to handcuffing. Simultaneously, the female officer took control of the other teen, who immediately ceased his aggressive actions and appeared to comply with her verbal commands. The female officer then went to assist her partner in controlling the other teen. 

The only change in the officer’s tactics that I would recommend would have been to handcuff the “compliant” teen immediately. However, from the perspective of the female officer, it appears she perceived a greater threat to her partner and went to assist. Alternatively, OC spray could have been deployed against both subjects immediately upon the arrival of the officers. The fact that this is under investigation by the county prosecutor is ridiculous and political pandering.