Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni speaking at forum on police and systemic racism at Pilgrim Baptist Church in Red Bank in June. (Photo via Zoom. Click to enlarge.)
New Jersey’s prosecutors on Thursday issued a denunciation of what they called mob “terrorism” in Washington DC a day earlier.
They called the attack on the Capitol building a “sickening display of everything America is not,” and contrasted the law enforcement response with the treatment of Black Lives Matter protesters in June.
“Yesterday we witnessed an unprecedented and malicious attack on a pillar of our nation’s democracy – the certification of a free and fair election as prescribed by the U.S. Constitution,” the County Prosecutors Association of New Jersey said in a statement. “The mob of rioters was a sickening display of everything America is not – this was not patriotism, but rather terrorism.
“After seeing the response in Washington, D.C. to the BLM protests this past summer, the lack of preparation for the well publicized event that was supposed to be a protest, but clearly with the tension and division in this country predictably would lead to violence, at a minimum raises the question – Are all Americans and their beliefs equally protected by the law?” the statement continued. “As Prosecutors it is our sworn duty to make sure everyone is treated equally under the law and call out when it is not the case.”
The CPANJ is a professional group founded in 2011 to maintain close cooperation between the New Jersey attorney general, the state Division of Criminal Justice and the state’s 21 county prosecutors. Monmouth County’s top law enforcement official, Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni, serves as its first vice president.
Here’s the full statement:
