Statement to Trenton Council and Mayor Jackson on the Police Director

Language and action are two of the core ways people establish trust with one another. Language is also used to divide. Words within our technological, entertainment, social media and political spheres are the covenants by which we look for evidence, assess truths, frame biases and prejudice, determine policies, and invoke the rule of law. Police actions in this regard, particularly the Director’s words and actions are utterly instrumental, in building the core relationship with the community that is required, for Trenton to improve its COPS or Community Oriented Policing Solutions model.

The Director’s utterance of “hood rats,” to describe Trenton residents are words that are hurtful to a community often wounded and still reeling from the use of derogatory words and restrictive policies to send symbolic messages - and to create institutional barriers and biases about which communities have more value than others. There is no question about the disproportionate differences in police treatment of Black and Latino minorities in comparison to other groups, locally and nationwide. These things cumulatively give the words of a Police Director even more gravity.

In the last two weeks there have been at least 8 shootings. Four adolescents 16 and 15, were shot in the Chambersburg Section. I reminded Council the last time I was at the podium that this part of the city was documented as being one of the most dangerous. In this same period gun violence has been committed twice in the Wilbur section, the latest resulting in the murder of a 26 - year old black male. These eruptions of violence make the words of a police director more important.

The leaking of tapes a year later suggest different interests of the police fraternity within the department are splintered; with possible instances of unfairness along the lines of scheduling, nepotism and patronage. These things make words and actions of critical importance to achieve departmental efficiency. Perhaps, if these things were being addressed through the building of trust, using right and progressive language and action, the politics of the fraternal order could be minimized. In the context of our public safety sector and its management of Trenton citizenry, the words of the Police Director are even more disturbing.

And then there’s the lacking advocacy on your part, Mayor Jackson, to establish and uphold a standard of behavior; of community guided interaction and engagement by the police, without which Community Oriented Policing Solutions cannot work. We’ve spoken previously about a lack of advocacy and accountability regarding the TBOE and how to ensure long standing problems and structural funding deficits in the district can begin to get addressed. You were asked to be more aggressive in that regard. It has not happened. The state operates almost as if they’re a puppeteer determining much of the direction of Trenton’s development, the use of its most valuable parcels of land, planning of bridges while the administration follows along; with no advocacy on how funds could be better leveraged in the interests of tax payers, residents and public safety. I was also wondering if there’s a place to determine the results of the Trenton Violence Reduction Strategy and how is that working? Lastly how is the distribution of guns being handled? Why is it that between the FBI, State Police, Mercer County Sheriff’s and Prosecutor offices, and our police, we are unable to minimize the number of available firearms on the streets?! Who is seeding city streets with the hardware?! So there really doesn’t seem to be a value for finding the words of advocacy within the city's best interests; this coupled with the inability to accurately reflect the humanity of its residents is unacceptable. And the people continue to die.

With this as backdrop, how much action and accountability can we expect in identifying and addressing substantive COPS options? National Night Out is appreciated by the people of this city; many of them who need more wholesome experiences, in ongoing environments of trauma. The Explorer’s Program is up and running and doing exceptional work - that is appreciated; but these are not the bricks and mortar of reducing violence and certainly don’t provide community integrated, proactive solutions to Trenton’s public safety problems and the protection of its residents. The police first have to trust their leader, then each other - and then in agreement with each other, value the humanity of the people. I support the call for Parrey’s resignation.