ACLU asks Bellmawr to investigate citations given to protesters

The state branch of the American Civil Liberties Union on Tuesday asked Bellmawr to investigate whether its police officers were improperly issuing citations to punish political expression at roadside protests in the Camden County town.

In the letter, Rebecca Uwakwe, the group’s criminal law reform advocacy director, said the organization had been contacted by members of South Jersey progressive group Cooper River Indivisible who said they had been issued criminal or traffic citations during antifascism rallies on Sundays in Bellmawr.

“If Bellmawr officers are targeting participants and supporters of lawful protests with citations, Bellmawr is interfering with their constitutionally protected activities and violating their civil rights,” Uwakwe said in the letter.

Officers had issued citations to protesters for jaywalking, honking, and other offenses, Uwakwe wrote, adding the government could only impose content-neutral restrictions on speech in public forums like sidewalks. Those protections generally bar penalties for political expression.

It’s not clear how many protesters or passersby were cited by Bellmawr Police.

The ACLU was still conducting interviews and is not representing every person issued a citation, Uwakwe said, but citations were issued to attendees of multiple protests occurring on different days.

“We really want to bring it to their attention in hopes that this stops,” she told the New Jersey Monitor, adding, “We’re looking forward to a response. We’re looking forward to a discussion. We want people to feel protected as they exercise their First Amendment rights.”

Cooper River Indivisible’s weekend protests generally draw a crowd of between 20 and 30 people, Uwakwe said.

Guidance issued by the New Jersey attorney general instructs police to avoid enforcing every violation when dealing with conduct protected by the First Amendment unless the officer has no other way of maintaining public safety, guarding themselves, or protecting property.

As its single example, that section of the 2021 guidance lists “obstructing a sidewalk” as a violation that might not be enforced if doing so would implicate First Amendment rights.

The circumstances of the citations are unclear. The ACLU-NJ did not immediately respond to a request for further comment, nor did Cooper River Indivisible.

An employee of the Bellmawr Police Department on Tuesday afternoon relayed that its chief, Keith Williams, had not yet seen the letter. The department did not immediately return an emailed request for comment.