Ridgewood Activists To Protest In Solidarity With Kenosha

RIDGEWOOD, NJ — Ridgewood for Black Liberation will again protest what they feel is a misuse of police power, organizing this weekend in solidarity with those demonstrating in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

This protest is the direct result of the shooting of Jacob Blake, 29, who was shot multiple times by a police officer in the Wisconsin town 40 miles south of Milwaukee.

However, it is also a statement declaration of their stance on the Ridgewood Police Department, and some of their recent actions.

The group, who has had a tense relationship with the department for months now, heightened by the arrest of one of their founding members, Thria Bernabe, recently called for the department to be defunded.

"Ridgewood must invest money taken from its police department into programs that begin to desegregate our community, open up affordable housing, fully fund programs that support our students and communities of color, pay reparations, and redistribute its wealth," the group said in a statement.

The statement issued by the group led with a reminder of a Latinx teenager who was arrested in the Village in late July while riding his bicycle. Video of the arrest was circulated widely on social media, the second video of its kind in the month of July.

Now, just a day prior to the Saturday protest, scheduled for noon at Van Neste Square, Police Chief Jacqueline Luthcke sent a letter to the group which used language published by the American Civil Liberties Union to warn of "criminal and civil responsibility."

"Please be on Notice that if you are involved in the legal exercise of a parade, assembly and/or protest, and there is a deviation from the A.C.L.U. guidelines for a peaceful protest for which you are either deemed responsible as an organizer or found to be participating, you may be subject to both criminal and civil responsibility," wrote Luthcke.

This isn't the first time the Ridgewood Police Department has used ACLU language against protesters, something the New Jersey chapter of the organization spoke out against in July.

"Ridgewood cherry-picked ACLU-NJ statements to rationalize suppression of protesters. That's not OK," the ACLU of New Jersey wrote on Twitter.

"You have the right to protest. (The Ridgewood Police Department) does NOT have the right to intimidate protesters. Don't try to use us to criminalize your community."

Luthcke, in a statement, said the language was used because the department felt it provided valuable context for how they feel organizers can “properly” demonstrate.

“The Ridgewood Police Department used the ACLU's language because we believe it offers good guidance on how to properly conduct protests. We fully support the rights of people to demonstrate peacefully,” she said, in a statement.

ACLU-NJ, did not immediately responded to a request for comment, but posted this on Twitter Friday afternoon.

Ridgewood for Black Liberation, who tweeted a response to the letter on Friday, said they will not be dissuaded from organizing.

"I think it's abundantly clear that when you don't try to make friends with the police, and actively placate to their whim, they're not interested in then performing an appearance of support, and will actively oppose it," a Ridgewood for Black Liberation organizer told Patch on a Friday phone call.

"They try to strike a neutral approach, but if you read the content of if, it's a tactic of intimidation."

The organizer declined to be named out of concern for their safety.

Making friends with the police is certainly not what Ridgewood for Black Liberation is trying to do, and they won't hide that fact.

On Aug. 24, the group published a list of demands in response to the events of the summer, and officially called on the Village to begin the process of defunding the Ridgewood Police Department.

"Ridgewood must invest money taken from its police department into programs that begin to desegregate our community, open up affordable housing, fully fund programs that support our students and communities of color, pay reparations, and redistribute its wealth," they wrote.

It was one of five demands the group is calling for, which include:

• A third-party investigation in the department aimed at addressing "patterns and practices of unconstitutional policing, intimidation and excessive use of force."
• The firing of any officers found to be involved in any of these practices
• Charges against Bernabe dropped
• All police be required to wear masks while on duty during the duration of the coronavirus pandemic

To the group, the defund movement is part of the larger call for continued action after multiple instances of Black death this summer.

But what does it mean to defund the Ridgewood Police Department?

"Defunding the police, for us, means examining the role of police in Ridgewood," according to an organizer.

For starters, the group said, how can Ridgewood better use the more than $7 million appropriated to the police department.

"Couldn't that money be used to fund programs in education?" they asked.

As part of the demands of the group, some of that money would indeed be filtered back into the school district for a "more robust anti-racist curriculum, but also into public housing, with the hope that affordable housing could lead to a more diverse community.

"It's about actually centering Black life and Black voices, but also understanding that the community as a whole is able to benefit from a reallocation of those funds."