Community Organizers Harassed and Ticketed by Police for Feeding the Homeless

Newark Police Harass MXGM

According to Kwame Torien Easterling, one of the MXGM members present that night, the transit cops headed straight for Thenjiwe. One of the officers called out to her, stating that the feeding program was causing a mess, that the organization was to be blamed, and that she didn�t know what it was like as an officer working in this environment to �have to spend every day breathing in the same air as these people, bringing home diseases and eventually having to bring those sicknesses to my family.� Further making discriminatory blanket statements that the people at Penn Station were �disease ridden with TB and scabies� Thenjiwe was instructed, by the officer, to hand over her identification as she was detained to be given a ticket. She was then told that she would be given a court summons.

MXGM member Ayo Peterson, witnessed one of the officers mention that, �There are 37 shelters in Newark and these people do not take the opportunity to go to 1 of them.� The cops present also knew that the hospitals where some of the homeless persons would be sent to from Penn Station would come back only to arrive 1-2 hours later, and cynically mentioned that they would �time their arrival with a stopwatch�. Ironically enough members at the start of the feeding program were met with the Newark Police Emergency Services Homeland Security vehicle stationed at the curb a few feet away from where the feeding program usually takes place.

The ignorant remarks made by the NJ Transit police officers addresses a larger problem with the lack of training transit police officers have when dealing with homeless outreach. More importantly, this highlights the poor outreach and assistance by governmental and social services in Newark to make sure there is a successful transitioning of the homeless to a self-sustainable situation that meet sufficient standards for a better quality of life. In addition, the deplorable living conditions at many shelters in the area cause the over fifty people at Penn Station, not to mention other people not accounted for in the Newark area, not to meet these basic conditions.

The FEED NEWARK! Program of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, established eight months ago, strives to ensure the self-determination of the constituents it serves and politicizes around issues of race, class, and poverty in the city.