New Brunswick community residents protested Tuesday at the corner of Seaman Street and Remsen Avenue against recent police shootings, supporting the existing concerns with local police brutality.
A crowd of about 70 protestors walked through the streets of New Brunswick after the New Brunswick Police Department’s involvement in the recent shooting of 19-year-old city resident Victor Rodriquez.
Rodriguez had fired a gun on Seaman Street near Remsen Avenue at 6:14 p.m. on Jan. 31, when New Brunswick officers on routine patrol shot him. The shot left him injured and possibly paralyzed.
Rodriguez’s relatives said the two shots he fired were blanks.
Andrea Rodriguez, Victor Rodriguez’s aunt, said she wants the police to start taking care of the local citizens instead of increasing brutality toward city residents.
“We want them to stop shooting our people,” she said. “We want them to work for the community, protect the community and not hurt the people living here. That’s what we are looking to get out of this.”
Debra Key, a New Brunswick resident, said the message of the protest focused on the deteriorating relationship between the NBPD and the local citizens.
“I’m here for justice for Barry Deloatch and for Victor Rodriguez. The police are plaguing our streets as we — all the people in the community — are trying to live,” Key said.
Barry Deloatch, a 47-year-old New Brunswick resident, was shot and killed during a Sept. 22 altercation involving two New Brunswick police officers, Daniel Mazan and Brad Berdel, in an alleyway near Throop Avenue and Handy Street.
During the time of the incident, Mazan’s attorney Lawrence Bitterman said in a statement that Deloatch was armed with a two-by-four piece of lumber allegedly used to attack Mazan, when Berdel shot Deloatch.
The New Brunswick Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association Local 23 and 23A issued a statement last week stating the officers used justified force during the incident.
The Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office is currently investigating both shootings. A grand jury is expected to begin hearing the Deloatch case next month.
Normon Gordon, New Brunswick resident, said further steps should be taken to educate against the violence that is affecting the city.
“The streets belong to the mayor and to the police — we have no rights down here,” Gordon said. “We need to tell these little young kids trying to be [gang members] to stop that nonsense and stay with the positive.”
Tony Vega, a New Brunswick resident, said that, like most people who were present the night of the shooting, Tuesday’s protestors believe police used an unnecessary amount of force — a problem that was not prevalent in the past.
“I was here when it went down and it was overkill. It was a bad situation,” he said. “We want the cops to be more neighborhood-oriented, like back in the day when cops would come around and say hello to people around the community.”
Key said the community has a duty to take their voices downtown to receive justice for what was done to Rodriguez and Deloatch.
Fahiym Torres, a community organizer, said the recent series of events unified the community, bonding local citizens together to try and solve the injustice they believe has been brought upon them.
“After the Barry Deloatch incident and now this unfortunate situation, we wanted to show that it wasn’t just about one race, but something concerning the entire city and community,” Torres said.
The protestors were not trying to further hurt the relationship between the police and the local citizens, but wanted to raise awareness about many of the city’s social problems, Torres said.
“This is not a police-bashing thing. This is for people to know that they cannot ridicule, pull over, shoot or commit any [forms of] corruption,” he said.
Torres said the protestors would remain persistent in achieving their goals of fighting social injustice.
“We have to stop the violence. We are here to fight corrupt policemen, we are here to fight a corrupt system,” he said. “Once something happens, whether once or 10 times in a row, you have to keep doing it and making your voice heard.”
