4 police brutality protesters arrested
People's Organization for Progress members charged with unlawful assembly.
By JARED KALTWASSER
STAFF WRITER
PLAINFIELD -- Four men protesting police brutality were arrested Saturday and charged with unlawful assembly.
Now leaders of the group that organized the event say they plan to hold a news conference at 3 p.m. today at City Hall to stand up for their constitutional right to assemble.
"This really is a question of the rights of citizens," said Lawrence Hamm, state chairman of the People's Organization for Progress, which led Saturday's demonstration. "Is the Bill of Rights still in effect?"
The demonstration began at 11 a.m. Saturday at the intersection of E. Front Street and Park Avenue. The group was protesting violence in the area, specifically recent murders in Plainfield and Elizabeth, and the fatal police shooting of an 18-year-old mentally ill man Monday in Brooklyn, N.Y.
The four protesters marched in a circle holding signs that read "Stop Police Brutality" and called for peace on the city's streets.
Shortly after the protest began, a police officer arrived at the scene.
"He told us we were not really allowed to be there without a permit," said Steven Hatcher, chairman of the Plainfield branch of the organization, and one of the four men arrested Saturday. "He didn't tell us to leave, he just told us we weren't allowed to be there without a permit."
Hatcher said that at that point, the group stopped marching and chanting but stayed on the corner. Then, at about 11:40 a.m., a handful of officers returned to the scene. An officer asked to see identification from the four men. When one refused, the officer arrested him, then the other three.
Hatcher said he and the three other men were taken to police headquarters, fingerprinted, photographed and questioned. He said he was charged with unlawful assembly and given a Dec. 3 court hearing.
Police at the scene refused comment.
Police Chief Edward Santiago had not seen the arrest report when he was reached for comment Saturday, but he said that, in general, groups have the right to demonstrate on public property as long as they have a permit.
"You would tell them you need a permit," he said. "If they fail to disperse, then you have an arrest situation."
He said sometimes police will ask a group to move to a different location for safety reasons.
Santiago said he was familiar with the People's Organization for Progress.
"And they've always been above-board," he said.
Hatcher said the group, which is opposed to U.S. military operations in Iraq, regularly protests in front of armed forces recruiting stations in the city, with permits.
But Hatcher said he didn't think Saturday's event required pre-approval from the city.
"If he said we were wrong to not have a permit, that may be one thing," Hatcher said. "But do you have to get a permit if you've got four people standing on the corner?"
Hatcher said he has a good relationship with Santiago, and he said the group previously has stood on the same corner, without a permit, to mark the deaths of Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King, and nobody was arrested.
Hatcher thinks this time it was their pointed message that got the group in trouble.
"Only because we have signs saying 'Stop Police Brutality,'" Hatcher said. "It seems like this is the wave of the future. You can't speak truth to power anymore."
Jared Kaltwasser can be reached at (908) 707-3137 or jkaltwasse@gannett.com.
COMMENTLink to online story. Archived here.
The irony of this situation is the message that was directed at this act of citizen mobilization. Yet it as an act that ends with the arrests of four men for "unlawful assembly". It seems that the police had a amicable relationship with the People's Organization for Progress and that organization seems to have some right to assemble, but because they assembled over controversy directly related to the police force the Plainfield police decided to utilize the illegality of "unlawful assembly" to arrest the four men who joined the small protest. This is how the story reads to me.
Yet at play here we also have the right to assemble which is a historically relevant position, groups have a right to assemble as long as it does not damage etc...Yet permits are a way to control and prevent damage or chose which voices can be heard...that is a problematic in our society we have to live here. I'm on the fence.
But what I want to point to is the action of a PEOPLE'S ORGANIZATION FOR PROGRESS in Plainfield is crucial, because groups of citizens, call me utlitarian or utopian if you wish, can change, reshape, redirect activity and energy in this town. Voices should be heard, lawfully, but groups need to organize for progress, in conjunction with the govenment, with the police, with each one that cares in order to create a better Plainfield.
I am not standing on a soapbox preaching good morals and good will (okay I am a bit Smile; however, I do see the potential in the city of Plainfield and as a resident I think an active citizenry, involved in groups like organizations for progress, can help that potential grow. Progress is necessary. So right on there!
But as a historian, I see blinders here: I see a group of young Plainfielders being dispersed from a Park which sparked days of looting and violence. And I'm not sure if we're there, and you can argue that the dynamics are different and I will argue with, not against you. BUT stimied voices are dangerous to any society nonetheless.
Just my 1.75 cents
Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2007 5:32 pm
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
Published in the Star-Ledger, Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Protesters arrested for lack of permit
PLAINFIELD: Police arrested four members of an advocacy organization Saturday, saying they staged an anti-violence protest without a permit.
But the Newark-based group, People's Organization for Progress, say the four men arrested during a sidewalk protest against police brutality were tar geted because of the issue the group was publicizing, which included the shooting death of an unarmed teenager by police in Brooklyn.
The city's public safety direc tor, Martin Hellwig, disputed that assertion.
"The four were chanting, marching in a circle and holding signs at East Front Street and Park Avenue, said the Plainfield chapter chairman, Steven Hatcher, who was one of those arrested. The group stopped chanting but did not disperse after police officers said members couldn't protest without a permit, he said.
A few minutes later, while the four were standing on the sidewalk, police returned and arrested them, Hatcher said. He said the demonstration was a last-minute decision, adding he didn't bother to apply for a permit because turnout would be low.
One of the signs the four were holding read: "Stop Police Brutality," Hatcher said, which he believes contributed to the arrest.
Hellwig said the Plainfield People's Organization for Progress regularly stages protests in the city on a variety of issues. Whenever it does, the group has applied for and been issued a permit, as city law requires. The police have maintained a good relationship with the group, Hellwig said, a point Hatcher did not dispute.
Also arrested, Hatcher said, were Zacharia Jackson, Stuart Rosenberg and Jeff Hitchcock. All four were charged with unlawful assembly and are expected to appear in Plainfield Municipal Court Dec. 3, he said.
Link to online story. Archived here.
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
