Larry Hamm, the chairman of the People's Organization for Progress leads "The Long March For Justice". The march is a nine-day 67-mile trek from Montclair To Trenton for Police Accountability, Social Justice, And Economic Progress.
The march started on Friday in Montclair at the intersection of Church Street and Bloomfield Avenue, in Montclair, New Jersey and ends end at 1pm on,Saturday, October 16th, at the State House in Trenton.
Hamm spoke with WBGO's Doug Doyle prior to embarking on the walk.
"We're doing this march because while George Floyd's situation did a great deal to draw public attention to the issue of police brutality and even sympathy for those of struggling to change policing in America, the actual reforms that have happened in the aftermath have not been too many. We're doing this to try and keep the pressure on to bring about major reforms to policing that need to happen. At the top of the list and it's really the one that spurred us on to do this is the bill A4656/S2963, introduced by Assemblywoman Angela McKnight that would enable cities to create police review boards with subpoena power.”
There are other police related initiatives that POP wants to highlight and support during the march. These include a bill to make officer disciplinary records public, a bill banning and criminalizing chokeholds, a bill establishing requirements for use of deadly force and a bill ending qualified immunity in New Jersey.
The group is also demanding that Governor Murphy veto a bill that would allow police to view bodycam footage before issuing their reports.
At the national level, Hamm is calling for the passage of HR 1280, the George Floyd Justice In Policing Act. That measure passed by the House of Representatives would create a nationwide data base for police misconduct; require racial profiling training of officers; create nationwide standards for police use of force; eliminate no knock warrants; ban the use of chokeholds; and eliminate qualified immunity for police.
The first day of the march covered Montclair to Orange, East Orange, Irvington, and Newark with a rally at Newark City Hall. Over the weekend the walk went through Newark, Hillside, and Elizabeth on Saturday and then Elizabeth, Roselle, Linden and Rahway.
Monday, October 11th, the march begins in Rahway and goes through Colonia, Iselin, Metuchen and Edison.
Here's the schedule for rest of the week:
Day Five: Tuesday, October 12th Edison, Highland Park, New Brunswick. Day Six: Wednesday, October 13th New Brunswick, Somerset, North Brunswick, Franklin Township, Kendall Park. Day Seven: Thursday, October 14th Kendall Park, Princeton. Day Eight: Friday, October 15th, Princeton, Lawrenceville, Lawrence Township, Ewing. Day Nine: Saturday, October 16th Ewing, Trenton. Finish Line rally 1:00pm in front of State House Annex, 131 West State Street, Trenton.
For more information about the various stretches of the march, you call the People's Organization For Progress (POP) at 973-801-0001.
