After several highly publicized police shootings of minorities over the last year, the debates surrounding the incidents have become polarized, with some citizens bashing police and others defending them. But it is possible, says a father/son team in Hoboken, to support the hard work of the police and at the same time make efforts to end racial discrimination.
Brant Reiter of Hoboken and his 13-year-old son Hudson Reiter decided to create a “walking billboard” to tackle racism and at the same time address disrespect of police officers.
It all began with a birthday gift. Brant wanted someone to give him a t-shirt that states “End Racism” on the front and “Respect Cops” on the back. That’s when he and his son decided that such an item could be used for a greater purpose; to start a new conversation about racism in our country.
“He wanted it for his birthday, and we kind of just put our minds together and thought this could be used for a good cause,” said Hudson. “We put it up on crowdrise.com and one thing led to another and now we are here handing them out for free.”
The duo began an online campaign at crowdrise.com to raise money for the shirts. They raised roughly $1,000 and were able to make 63 t-shirts that they handed out outside the Hoboken PATH station on Sept 8.
“This is two sides of the same coin,” said Brant. “We have to show that you can have both. You can end racism and show your respect for the police. That’s the only way we will be able to move forward [as a society.]”
He noted, “I think that because we are so polarized right now with social discourse that when there is a shooting of an unarmed black person, Black Lives Matter says ‘This has got to stop’ and then people come out and say they hate the police which is wrong,” said Brant. “No one wants to live in a society where there are no police. That would be anarchy, and when police are gunned down out there trying to protect the protestors [as happened in Houston this year], people have to wake up…let’s remember how police put their lives on the line every day and that there are police of every color.”
Police response
Hoboken Police Chief Kenneth Ferrante agreed that the topic has been polarized. He noted that he has seen an increase in the killings of police officers.
“You cannot wait for an incident to happen to do outreach and try to solve a problem.” — Chief Kenneth Ferrante
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“There’s a website called officerdown.com,” said Ferrante. “It puts a release out on every officer killed in the country in the line of duty.”
He added that the department has responded.
“During the tensions in the early summer,” he said, “which were showing the assassinations of police officers, we followed in line with New York and started putting officers out in pairs or small groups of three.”
Regarding racial tensions and interactions with the community, he said, “Communication is the key. You cannot wait for an incident to happen to do outreach and try to solve a problem. We are going to have situations where there is either officer misconduct or there is a perception of officer misconduct, and you need the relationships before these kinds of situations arise so that you don’t have a long lasting negative response by the community.”
When asked about the public impression about shootings of minorities, he said, “Is there racism in America? Absolutely,” but added that the last 20 months have been frustrating because the media’s headlines and reports are “broad brushed as the same type of conduct.” He said each case is separate and has “distinct fact patterns which make it different. They are portrayed as all being racist killings and that’s not the case…police as a whole are not racist.”
Ferrante said that in Hoboken, in the past two years, the police have received only one complaint from a person who believed he was falsely arrested, but the individual “had an extensive criminal history.”
Spurring conversation
Brant said he has gotten mixed reactions when wearing the shirt in New York City.
“I have worn this t shirt into the city just as a test run, and it depends which side people see you from,” said Brant. “Like this one guy came up to me and he approached from behind and he said, ‘Yeah that’s really cool’ and I turned around and said, ‘Well this is the other side of it, man,’ and he had a puzzled look on his face he didn’t know what to say.”
Brant said he became moved to try and encourage conversation after the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. On July 5, 2016, Sterling, a 37-year-old African-American man, was shot several times at close range while held down to the ground by two caucasian Baton Rouge Police officers. The shooting was recorded by bystanders and spurred protests. Then, a day later, on July 6, Philando Castile was shot by a St Anthony, Minn. police officer after being pulled over in a suburb of St Paul. Castile was driving with his girlfriend Diamond Reynolds and her 4-year-old daughter when he was pulled over. Reynolds told the media that Castile immediately informed the officer, when he was pulled over, that he had a license to carry a weapon and that he had the weapon in the car. Reynolds said that an officer shot him four or five times as he was putting his hands up.
Brant said, “I was coming out of work right after it happened, and there was a march and I just found myself joining the march and someone handed me an ACLU sign.” But he realized there were police officers protecting the protesters.
“I was looking around and I saw police of all colors keeping us safe and guaranteeing our right to protest and our right of free speech,” he said. “It just made me think, so often these two ideas of ending racism and respecting cops seem to come from opposite ends of a polarizing dialogue.”
Brant said that he has received some backlash on social media from friends who disagree with what he’s doing.
“I’ve got friends on social media who call me out and say ‘How could you put respect cops on the back of a t-shirt?’ and they would list all these things and links to all these terrible racist things that are happening, and I’m not denying it, but we cant move forward unless we come together,” said Brant.
Brant also said he views this as a learning experience for Hudson.
Hudson, who attends Hoboken Charter School, said that the school’s charter is service through learning with the main goal of “helping the community.”
He sad he felt this was a good idea and “It’ll help grow and maybe make a difference and get the word out.”
Hudson said that he learns about racism in school and on the news, but that he hasn’t had much experience with it yet.
Brant noted, “A lot of white people, frankly, are lulled into this false sense that we are in a post-racial society and everything’s fine, but talk to someone of color and they will tell you a different story.”
Marilyn Baer can be reached at marilynb@hudsonreporter.com