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Nutley, N.J., police detective Peter Sandomenico was present when a bunch of mooks surrounded the town's Christopher Columbus statue during a Black Lives Matter protest. He didn't like that a protester ID'd him on Twitter. Hence, the felony charges. https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/6/21355999/twitter-cyber-harassment-felony-charges-police-protests-retweet @verge
Why does the detective feel he can do this? Well, Nutley Police Chief Thomas Strumolo takes a hard-line approach to law enforcement and, as it turns out, is a member of UNICO: The Italian-American organization that planned (and unsuccessfully tried to stop) the Columbus gathering
Meanwhile, in a statement riddled with spelling and syntax errors, Nutley Public Safety Director Alphonse Petracco, expressed a distaste for voices from outside the town. He targets a rescue squad president who is "is not a Nutley resident" https://www.tapinto.net/towns/nutley/sections/police-and-fire/articles/township-of-nutley-public-safety-director-issues-statement-about-nutley-volunteer-emergency-and-rescue-squad @TAPintoNutley
In response, Nutley Volunteer Emergency and Rescue Squad President Jon Arredondo -- the first Hispanic president in his organization's history -- addressed Petracco's claims on their merits. He doesn't address being framed as an outsider.
Why dwell on Nutley? Well, my sister and I were educated there. Our family's church is there. I was a Boy Scout there (Troop 147). Many of my friends still live there. Many of the issues that @Nutley4BL and the Columbus statue revealed have festered for decades.
They leech into unexpected corners, and manifest as hostility toward outsiders. That isn't no: Racist Newark politician Anthony Imperiale would come to Nutley begging for campaign funds. It's driven people out of town for generations... and left more unseemly characters in charge
But, within the last decade, Nutley has seen an influx of new residents from Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Jersey City, Hoboken, and other points east. They don't see Nutley's abrasive features and simply adapt: They rightly chafe at them.
At one point, Nutley's diversity consisted of Irish families and Italian families. Today, it has thriving communities of black, Caribbean, Latin American, South American, South Asian and Pacific Asian residents who aren't content penne vodka served with a side of casual racism.
Those communities are the future, and they're only growing. On the north side of town, adjacent to Route 3, the old Roche Laboratories have yielded to a @SetonHall medical school and Ralph Lauren offices. https://on3nj.com/ralph-lauren-arrives-in-nutley-opens-office-at-ex-roche-site/ @ON3NJ
Those facilities are already bringing in new residents who view the town, its schools, its government, and its public servants differently. Where Nutley was once content to keep "them" out and secure its borders, its residents now focus on the well-being of those within.
The public safety director views Nutley through the same delicatessen windows he's wiped for decades. The police department still views itself as an army at war with Newark, Passaic, and Paterson. The issues @Nutley4BL and @NutleyUnited are addressing are institutional.
Those institutions aren't used to criticism, largely because critics at places like the Bergen Record, Star-Ledger, and Nutley Sun have long disappeared. But social media isn't going anywhere, and they're hard-pressed to exclude it or police it. Hence the felony charges.
It may not look like it when a bunch of low-IQ juiceheads are protecting a statue from 2000. It may not seem that way when officials go after a volunteer squad and its president. It may not feel like it to sued protesters. But Nutley is changing. All the above is the proof.
The same violent tantrums occurring nationally are occurring in Nutley: Entrenched interests are trying to hang on, and being met with resistance at every turn. The kids aren't running away anymore: They're joining @Nutley4BL, organizing and protesting.
Nutley finally has people willing to push back and create the place they want to live in. The more the thickheadedness and corruption of the town fathers is exposed in places like that, the sooner they're driven from power. Keep pressing. @ACLUNJ has your back.
