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New Jersey authorities are suing Clark Township and its former police leadership, alleging a decade-long pattern of racial discrimination targeting Black and other non-white motorists, per NBC New York.
The lawsuit, filed by New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin and the Division on Civil Rights, claims that before the Union County Prosecutor’s Office took over the Clark Police Department in July 2020, the town’s leadership instructed officers to “keep chasing the spooks out of town,” using a racial slur to describe Black residents.
Data cited in the lawsuit shows that while Black and Hispanic drivers made up 37 percent of those stopped by Clark Police, they represented only 11 percent of the town’s population. Black and Hispanic drivers were searched at rates 3.7 and 2.2 times higher than white drivers, respectively.
The alleged directives to keep Black and non-white residents out of town came under the tenure of former Mayor Salvatore Bonaccorso, who resigned in 2025 after pleading guilty to unrelated public corruption charges. Bonaccorso had been recorded making racist and sexist remarks.
Current Mayor Angel Albanese and the New Jersey State PBA have pushed back on the lawsuit, calling it politically motivated.
“The fact is, oversight has been in place for over five years with no systemic issues identified,” Albanese said.
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