This FightBackBetter editor and candidate for Assembly in LD 16 calls upon all elected officials and candidates including NJ Assembly members Freiman and Drulis to announce IMMEDIATE AND TOTAL REJECTION of allowing transfer of Pentagon weapons, vehicles and technology of war to NJ State Police and to jurisdictions within LD16. – Bob Witanek

NJ legislative Democrats picked a dangerous time to give policing more power to suppress opposition as Trump moves forward with a parade of illegal executive orders latest of which is to convert local and state police forces into arms of the military and provide military equipment for operations domestically against the people. What a fine time to be be encoding the IHRA fascist narrative that polices what people are allowed to say about the Israel genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza, carried out by Biden and escalated and expanded into the West Bank further by Trump administation!

Out of one side of their mouths Democrat officials and their supporters call for people to speak up to challenge the Trump administration and out of the other side – they promote IHRA codification which is inspired by a Trump Executive Order from his first term and will lead to an iron fisted response to protected free speech participation in opposition to genocide.

The recklessness of NJ legislative Democrats – united with their Trumpian Republican partners in NJ legislature to be increasing repression through IHRA and the Brawl Act – while Trump is announcing arming our police forces with the weapons and technology for war – it shows which side the Democrats are on – they are sided with Trump and repression!

On Monday April 28 Trump signed another illegal executive order that purports to redefine legal precedent regarding police misconduct AND to arm local and state police departments with the weapons of war for use against “our own people.”

An Escalation of Oppression: Trump, the Military, and Suppression of Dissent by Jared Yates Sexton

In an essay by Jared Yates Sexton he warns:

The executive order titled “Strengthening and Unleashing America’s Law Enforcement to Pursue Criminals and Protect Innocent Citizens” is an escalation of immense magnitude. Behind a wall of strategized legalese and fine-tuned language, what lies here is the infrastructure of a violent crackdown by law enforcement and the military in the event of mass action and protests. Those of us who pay attention knew this was coming. Donald Trump’s actions during his first term hinted at his awful desires, but he and his acolytes haven’t even bothered to hide their intentions to enable this environment and use the power of state violence. Still, seeing it laid out so starkly is jolting.

Section 4 of the illegal Trump order talks about arming local and state police departments with military equipment:

Sec. 4.  Using National Security Assets for Law and Order.  (a)  Within 90 days of the date of this order, the Attorney General and the Secretary of Defense, in consultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security and the heads of agencies as appropriate, shall increase the provision of excess military and national security assets in local jurisdictions to assist State and local law enforcement.
(b)  Within 90 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of Defense, in coordination with the Attorney General, shall determine how military and national security assets, training, non-lethal capabilities, and personnel can most effectively be utilized to prevent crime.

NJ candidate for Assembly, Lily Benavides (LD26 GPNJ) is downright opposed to NJ’s preparations for war on its own citizens and residents:

NJ must reject military armaments to NJ police because then we will become a militarized state where a common citizen will live in fear every day. Obviously this will mostly apply to Brown and Black People as well as dissidents, supporters of Palestinians. Of course white folks too will be subjected to the physical and legal harm of further police militarization. Knowing the brutal tactics used by DHS, ICE and police who wouldn’t be in fear? Many innocent people will be detained, arrested, abused, kidnapped and disappeared. Some will be outright murdered. Those law enforcement officers that use racism to profile people will have an excuse for doing so if it becomes a law. There’s no surprise to hear that the Chiefs of Police and Sheriffs of NJ supporting such a measure knowing that racism is alive and kicking!

The Democrats are cherry picking what issues regarding Trump to raise – avoiding the issues related to the genocide against Palestinians and the political repression – and steering the scope of action away from demands for systemic change and toward once again voting for Democrats in the next midterms. By then there will be many bloodbaths abroad and possibly domestically.

The Democrats are not coming to save us – we need to rise up across the board relentlessly against the attempts to bring a war upon our own on our streets!