Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube

Cops Violently Arrest Black Protester at Abolish ICE Demonstration.

Protesters showed up in solidarity with detained immigrants on hunger strike and to call for the abolition of ICE. The police attacked.

Sam Carliner

December 11, 2020
Facebook Twitter Share
Photo: Montana Samuels/Patch

On Friday, December 11, Bergen County Jail police used violence to shut down a demonstration in solidarity with ICE-detained hunger strikers in the jail. The action, which was scheduled to run from 1-4 p.m. outside the facility in Hackensack, NJ, ended early when a group of cops singled out one of the few Black protesters in the crowd and violently arrested them. Shortly afterward, they threatened to arrest anyone who remained outside the jail.

Protests in front of the jail have had a strong turnout over the last several weeks, especially on weekends. One of the regular protesters, who asked to remain anonymous for their safety,  described the scene of an earlier action which took place on Sunday. “We took the street and we marched over cause we had enough people. There were a ton of people. A wife of one of the detainees spoke and just like the heartbreak in her voice, it was unfathomable. Her kid had a sign that said ‘Please release my daddy.’”

The police claimed that they were arresting the protester because he refused to remain on the other side of the barricade that had only been constructed that Tuesday. After an exchange in which the protester explained that he wasn’t on private property and his taxes paid for the jail where immigrants are being held, the cops attacked him and other protesters who were trying to protect him. While all that took place, immigrants separated from their families were in the jail where they are at a greater risk of catching Covid-19. 

Multiple protesters at the December action said that cops have gotten more aggressive as the protests have continued into the fourth week. Actions have taken place outside the jail consistently since November 27, with a loyal group of people showing up to demand the release of the hunger strikers from the jail and voice support for the greater movement to abolish ICE and the police.

Ridgewood for Black Liberation, one of the groups involved in organizing solidarity actions for the hunger strikers, has called for jail support for the arrested protester. Many of the demonstrators who were forced away from the jail stayed within the area, organizing legal support.

The protest and the police response perfectly highlights the inherent racism and violence of the police. The police used violence to physically separate the group and silence demands for the safety of those in the jail. Enforcing borders and dividing the working class is what cops have always been paid to do and this was just one more example of that. In response it is imperative that the working class continue to support the abolition movement and connect the struggle for the abolition of ICE and the police to the broader struggle against the capitalist system. It will be a long fight, but the consistent, multi-week-spanning solidarity of the Bergen County Jail protesters shows that people are willing to see it through to the end. Ridgewood for Black Liberation has already announced that they’ll be returning tomorrow.

Facebook Twitter Share

Sam Carliner

Sam Carliner is a socialist with a background in journalism. He mainly writes for Left Voice about US imperialism. He also tweets about imperialism as @saminthecan.

Guest Posts

Monetary Tightening, Inflation and Bank Failures

Michael Roberts takes on bank failures, inflation and the Fed.

Michael Roberts

March 14, 2023

“We Need to Make a Change”: Trans Youth Speak Out and Walk Out

The following is a speech by a student activist from NYC for Trans Rights.

Alex Carroll

March 10, 2023

Ominous New Attacks on Trans Rights Remind Us…It’s Capitalism

If the viciousness and hostility against trans people and ultimately all LGBT people is today open-carried on the Far Right, it is our dependence on fair-weather liberals and the politicians of the Democratic Party that is our Achilles’ heel.

Ian Scott Horst

February 17, 2023

NATO’s War in Ukraine: Building the Anti-war Movement We Need Requires Clarity

As part of the ongoing debates among socialists on the war in Ukraine, we publish this guest polemic.

Rob Lyons

February 17, 2023

MOST RECENT

A group of protesters, in the front of whom are a line of protesters wearing red vests. In the front right corner, a white sign reds "vive la retraite," with a skeleton wearing a red hat in the middle of the sign on a black background with a text bubble on its left that reads, "oiv a bosse, c'est pas pour en crever!"

“French March”: The Right to Revolutionary Optimism

Evoking memories of '68, the students enter the fight against Macron. In our chaotic world, the future can only be built in the streets.

Eduardo Castillo

March 26, 2023

Joe Biden Is Deporting Russians Who Escaped Putin’s Draft — Let Them All In!

The United States is deporting Russians who sought asylum following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This is a heinous attack against war resisters and shows that the proxy war in Ukraine is about capitalist rivalry first and foremost.

Sam Carliner

March 26, 2023

On Monday, Germany Will Experience a “Mega-Strike”

On March 27, German railway workers and public sector employees will shut down the whole country. All trains are being canceled. Airports, freeways, hospitals, and daycare centers will all be affected.

Nathaniel Flakin

March 25, 2023

France: On the Frontlines of the War Against Austerity

The French masses have raised the banner of class struggle in what is becoming the first major battle against austerity after the pandemic. Working people across the world should pay attention.

James Dennis Hoff

March 25, 2023