POP chairman Lawrence Hamm. Photo: Facebook.
The People’s Organization For Progress (POP) “Justice Monday” protest against police brutality will be held today, Monday, FEBRUARY 8TH, 5:00pm in front of the Rodino Federal Building, 970 Broad Street in Newark, New Jersey.
The protest today will observe the fifth year anniversary of the weekly Justice Monday demonstrations. A demonstration was planned for the February 1st anniversary date but was cancelled due to last week’s snow storm and rescheduled for today.
The protestors will call upon the Acting US Attorney for New Jersey Rachael A. Honig, whose office is located at the federal building, to launch a civil rights investigation into the death of Carl Dorsey who was shot to death by a Newark police detective on January 1st.
“We have been having these Monday protests against police brutality for five years since February 1, 2016. There have been more than 225 Justice Monday protests,” said Lawrence Hamm, Chairman, People’s Organization For Progress. “Initially, we started them at the federal building in Newark because the office of the U. S. Attorney for New Jersey is located there,” he said.
“We demanded then and we are still demanding that she launch civil rights investigations into the police shootings of Abdul Kamal, Jerome Reid, Kashad Ashford, and Radazz Hearns. All of the shootings occurred in New Jersey. ” he said. “Since then we have added other New Jersey police shootings to the list including that of Carl Dorsey.”
Kamal was killed by police in Irvington. Reid was killed by an officer in Bridgeton. Ashford was killed by police and state troopers in Lyndhurst. Hearns was shot seven times in the back by a Trenton cop but he survived.
The scope of the demands of the weekly protests include justice for all victims of police brutality including George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Rayshard Brooks, Elijah McClain, and others across the United States.
Another demand is a call for the New Jersey State Attorney General, Gurbir Grewal, to launch an investigation into to the murder of Earl Faison by police in Orange, New Jersey.
The Justice Monday protests are also a demonstration of support for the Newark Civilian Complaint Review Board. Protestors will demand that the New Jersey State Legislature enact laws that will enable Newark and other municipalities to give police review boards subpoena and investigatory powers.
There had been over 200 Justice Monday protests when POP temporarily suspended them in March of 2020 in response to the Covid-19 crisis. The Justice Monday protests were re-started on June 8th of last year on response to the death of George Floyd . Some of the weekly protests were also cancelled due to inclement weather.
Those who are planning to participate in the upcoming Justice Monday protest are asked to wear face masks and gloves and to practice social distancing at the event. For more information please call (973)801-0001.
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