|
Promoted by Jason Springer Last night, after having become a voice in the recent dialogue over Newark's crime statistics, I was slated to appear on WBGO-FM's weekly call-in show Newark Today with Mayor Booker and Newark Police Director McCarthy. Unfortunately, the Mayor and Director nixed my appearance, and WBGO allowed it happen.
Here's the background. The ACLU-NJ represents three young Newarkers who suffered abuse at the hands of the Newark Police and then had their complaints mishandled by Internal Affairs. When we met with city officials in September about the case, we discussed some of the problems and shortcomings with Internal Affairs (IA), and provided a list of reforms we believe will make the Internal Affairs system more accessible. The city's representatives expressed concern and promised to look into the possibility of implementing our reforms, and the dialogue is ongoing.
So when I received an email saying that the Mayor and Police Director would hold a press conference on Wednesday to tout both their very impressive reduction in murders and the reduction in citizen complaints to IA, I was surprised. I couldn't quite believe that they felt it was appropriate to tout the reduced IA stats with some many flaws left in the system. A reduction in complaints filed with Internal Affairs does not necessarily mean a reduction in police misconduct.
|
