By Rayna Reid Rayford
From – https://www.essence.com/
Reprinted – by Texas Metro News
In February 2022, a video of the police singling out a Black teen who was involved in a fight at a New Jersey mall went viral. Two years later, Z’Kye Husain’s family has reached a settlement with Bridgewater Township.
The video footage showed police officers pushing then 14-year-old Husain down to the ground, while the other non-Black teen, was permitted to be seated in a chair and remain uncuffed. However, “[b]oth kids had thrown a good volley of punches, with the 15-year-old kid getting the upper hand on the 14-year-old as they traded heavy blows before officers arrived,” ABC 7 reported.
“Somerset County Superior Court Judge Robert Ballard sealed the settlement between the township and the teen’s parents,” on February 1 the first day of Black History Month, “after a Friendly Conference was held to obtain the court’s approval of a settlement on behalf of a minor.”
The family has chosen to not divulge the exact amount of the settlement. Their lawsuit had initially asked for $100,00. Per court documents, the final sum equates to “a little over $150,000 with the family set to receive about $113,000 after attorney fees.”
Although this matter with the Bridgewater Police was settled, attorneys for the family believe this signals a larger issue at hand, including discrimination and implicit bias. “[W]e can all learn” from this incident, said co-counsel Gregg Zeff.
Husain’s legal team is also pushing the New Jersey “Attorney General’s Office to release its report on the incident.”
“This settlement, however, does not end the Husain family or the wider community’s pursuit of justice and accountability from Bridgewater Township. That pursuit is far from over,” says civil rights attorney Ben Crump, Zeff, and the Bergen County National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
At a press conference last Thursday, the three abovementioned parties called upon the city of Bridgewater and for public authorities to take additional action. Zeff also made an announcement about “hosting their own Implicit Bias Training for officers in New Jersey.”
“We are not going to take any government funds. We are going to do this privately,” Zeff stated. “We want to take names and see who is showing up and who is not showing up. And Bridgewater we want to see you there. The job isn’t done and we aren’t going to stop until this sort of thing stops everywhere.”
At the time of the press conference, Bridgewater Township has not issued any comments.
