What Happens When Racist Cops Walk
If the FBI can’t even hold police accountable, then where does that leave my family and others in seeking justice?
In the barrage of endless breaking news, you wouldn’t be alone if you likely missed a recent important story: the federal hate crime trial of a former New Jersey police chief. For three weeks this fall, a jury in Camden, New Jersey, listened and deliberated over the fate of Frank Nucera Jr., who served as chief of the Bordentown Township Police Department until his resignation in 2017. Nucera faced three counts: a federal hate crime charge, deprivation of civil rights under color of law, and lying to the FBI. Back in 2005, when Nucera was deputy chief, I tried to have this very same police department investigated for what I said was a culture of racism, negligence, and corruption after my dad’s death. Too bad nobody listened then.
“Despite what the defense tells you, those aren’t just words, they’re elements of a crime,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Gribko in closing arguments of the Nucera trial. “The defendant is not being charged for his words. He’s being held accountable for his actions.”
The charges against Nucera stemmed from an incident in September of 2016 when he allegedly slammed a black teenager’s head into a metal doorjamb…
