Almost three weeks after the fatal police shooting of 15-year old Michael Anglin, little has been released to the public by the law enforcement officials investigating the case. With minimal news coming from the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office, more than 100 angry community members converged on City Hall last week to protest what they are calling the absence of justice in the matter. In a march that began at Monumental Baptist Church on Lafayette Street and concluded on the front steps of City Hall prior to Wednesday’s City Council meeting, members of an outraged community voiced their thirst for a sense of justice. Unfortunately, it is an unquenchable sensation that can never be quelled when a teenager is cut down by gunfire. On Jan. 28, the Michael Anglin was allegedly involved with two friends in a botched car theft that ended with Anglin’s being fatally shot by a police officer. Questions remain: Was there a struggle for the arresting officer’s weapon, as initially reported by the Jersey City Police? Did the boy attempt to flee with his accomplices? Did the police act accordingly, or did they go too far? In New York, the Amadou Diallo trial inches to a close in New York, with the public asking questions as to why NYPD officers fired 41 bullets at an unarmed suspect. In the Anglin case, only one bullet was fired, but the end result is still the same: Controversy abounds. Since the shooting, Councilman-at-large L. Harvey Smith and a group of black leaders, consisting of Rev. Edward Allen and local clergy, have stepped to the forefront in the search for the truth. While the Prosecutor’s Office sifts through evidence, the community has not been told a great deal. In collecting clues that may point the investigators toward the truth, the Prosecutor’s Office said that they have fielded a wide range of eyewitness accounts that are wildly different from each other. The Prosecutor’s Office’s Chief of Investigations, Daniel Gibney, was unable to provide any information about new clues that investigators have compiled since the shooting. “It’s amazing to have interviewed so many people with such different versions of what happened,” Gibney said last week. Officials said that because of regulations set forth by law, they were unable to disclose any new information at the present time. Awaiting the results of a series of forensics tests, which dissect the trajectory, angle, impact and chemistry of a gunshot, the investigating team believes they are close to uncovering the truth behind the events that claimed Anglin’s life on a snow-covered January night. It is believed that once the results of the forensics lab tests come in, roughly three-quarters of the so-called “witnesses” will be eliminated. “The Prosecutor’s Office will continue to interview and conduct more tests to make sure [there are no factual errors],” Gibney said. “We’re out there everyday doing our job.” Gibney said that he anticipates that they will have the case “wrapped up in the next couple of weeks.” While he was mum on the details of the investigation, Gibney let it all hang out in defending his office against remarks made in a local daily newspaper by Harvey Smith, who helped to lead the march on City Hall. In his comments, Smith questioned the credibility of the investigation. Gibney took great offense and said Smith was completely out of line. “Councilman Smith wants to know something,” Gibney said, “but that doesn’t mean we have to tell him. His statements are very troubling to me.” “He’s talking about credibility?” Gibney continued. “What is that? Is he saying that we’re not doing out job? He’s a politician, and he’s trying to come across as a caring person. He’s a politician, and he is not a caring person.” The councilman stood alone among his fellow council members when a resolution that he authored, calling for state and U.S. Attorney General’s intervention in the Anglin investigation, was defeated 6-1. Councilmen Mariano Vega and Bill Gaughan were absent from the meeting, from which many disappointed activists left early. Because the case involves a police shooting, the JCPD must stand down and allow the county Prosecutor’s Office to handle the investigation. Such is common practice in all instances where an officer injures or kills a suspect.
Questions and anger linger after Anglin shooting
