Good evening. Welcome to New Milford's first ever antibbias symposium. Bias and hate crimes threaten the very fabric of our society. They divide us as families. They divide us as communities. They divide us in every walk of life. It
is imperative that we come together to unite against hate and bias in all forms. We may be many we may be many faces, but we are one family and we are truly stronger together. So, it's a great honor to ask the mayor
of New Milford, Michael Patrino, without whose support this event would not be possible, please come up. Office of the Mayor Proclamation. Whereas the Burough of New Milford is committed to fostering a community rooted in respect, dignity, and inclusion for all residents regardless
of race, religion, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or national order. Whereas bias, prejudice, hate crimes undermine the fundamental values of equality, justice threaten safety, well-being, and unity of our
community. Whereas acts of bias and discrimination not only harm individuals, but also erode the trust and cohesion that bind neighbors together and strengthen our burrow. Whereas education, awareness, and open dialogue are essential tools in
preventing bias incidents and promoting understanding among people of diverse backgrounds and perspectives. Whereas the Bureau of New Milford is proud to partner with the New Milford School District, Milford Police Department, Bergen County Prosecutor's Office, Bergen County Sheriff's Office, and numerous community organizations to
promote safety, inclusion, and mutual respect. And whereas this antibi symposium held May 20th serves as an important opportunity to bring together law enforcement, educators, faith leaders, advocates, residents to confront hate, share knowledge, build
bridges across our community. Whereas every resident has a role to play in standing against supporting those affected, helping to create a culture of acceptance, compassion, and accountability. Now therefore be it resolved that I, Mayor Michael Patrino, do hereby proclaim our continued
commitment to combating bias, prejudice, and hate in all forms, and proudly recognize our first new Milford Antibbias Symposium. Be it further resolved that we encourage all residents to participate in efforts to promote understanding, report acts of bias,
support one another, and work collectively to ensure that New Milford remains a safe, welcoming, and inclusive community for all. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Thank you, mayor. And I would also like to invite the superintendent of schools, Mr. Peter
Galasso, to come up and say a few words. And it's important to point out that the school district has partnered with the bureau from the very beginning with all of our community outreach symposia, from domestic violence outreach to the current antibbias program. Thank you, superintendent. Please come say a few
words. Well, thank you all for coming. I appreciate Councilman Seymour, the mayor, you know, allowing us to host. Uh it's always a collaborative relationship. Um so much of what the community does affects the schools and vice versa. Uh we are all one community
and the school a lot of times sees things first. So in any scenario, we have children from families from all demographics from a diverse population and what they're experiencing in the
news trickles into the home and then trickles into the school. So we are always looking for proper outlets for children, young men, young women um to find the right voice and and what to say, what they can't say, what's respectful, to have dialogue without
hate, to have dialogue without casting blame and and and getting angry. So we're always looking for outlets just like this. So whatever we can promote uh helps us all in the end. So I thank you all for coming and being part of this. Thank you, Councilman Seymour.
>> [applause] >> It's also a great honor and privilege to invite somebody to welcome you who's not just a partner with the burrow. He's a good friend of the burough. Like to ask our Bergen County Sheriff, Anthony Curtain, to please come up. >> Thank you, Matt. Good evening, everyone.
How you doing? All right. I bought a 12 pager, but I'm trying to condense it down to about maybe a minute. But no, it's great to stand before him, especially on conversations like this. And uh after talking to Matt for a while and uh we had a series of um Zoom calls,
I used to think about how I was raised as a kid. And um the community I came from, it was 98% African-American. So the exposure wasn't there. So when we talk about seeing someone from the Muslim community, unfortunately, stigmas
that I may have heard in my community, I carried out and treated them differently. And I think that's what we having in this day and time. And I think that's why we have so much problems with antibbias because in our homes, are we sending that correct message? Are we sitting down and asking the question
versus putting that negative stigma in our homes and allowing our kids to go out there and carry that message and believe what they're hearing in their home is correct. Now I was one of those but as time came on I started to uh look at things differently and realize I made
I can make more friends by having the conversation and learn even to this present day and time um which God has great me graced me to make 58. Thank you. you know, I know I don't look it, but um during that time, I acquired a little of wisdom. But with that, since
I've been the sheriff, I've gained and learned much more about dealing with more cultures. Hence, putting aside some of those negative things have been placed in my mind over the years. Even in law enforcement, you get conditioned to see things one way, and you tend to
believe certain groups acts the same. I mean, I started in '89. Uh, back in the day, I think it was Boys in the Hood was one of the big movies, and it was a stigma. Kids in uh, East LA, wore white shirts,
blue jeans, and for some reason in that movie, it all showed them with that negative lifestyle involved with crime, drugs, and so forth. And as a young officer, even coming back to the East Coast, you kind of govern yourself according to that because you go, "Okay,
negative, negative, negative, negative." you start looking at everything starting to see still believe in that mindset. So society has conditioned us to take things and causes this us to have that negative uh opinion of things and sometime we don't even realize it and that's that's the crazy part. Now again
coming back to the job LGBTQ this man over the years become one of my best friends. All right. Now, we have our differences, but yet and still the conversation, the opportunity to learn is one of the biggest things versus carrying that negative mindset and not
really understand. No different for me, but we can still have the conversation. Muslims, same thing. I've learned so much about the uh Quran that years ago I would have never thought about it. But building these
relationships, I step over and learn more. the uh Judaism, the Jewish culture, knew nothing about it. But I said, you know what? I'm gonna take a more of a uh a step and learn more about it because
when we talk about anti-semitism, do you really know what it is and how it offends? I've asked that question and a lot of folks go, so I tread ice, but who do I go to? Rather than I go to Google, I'll ask individual in their culture, what are you offended by? So that kind of control
in my mind dealing with someone antibbias. Now I say that me personally, but I put back out there to everybody else. Self-examination. Are you willing to sit down to learn about everybody? Contain your feelings and maybe that'll make things a little better. Social media kills us. That one line you see on
social media. Boom. Establish one thing to be one way and no one looks at it differently. won't get political, but I know there's a whole lot of political discussions we could probably have to about 1 in the morning when we talk about anti-bas. But I know this is a welcome. I can go
all day with this because it's something I really near is really dear to me because I try to learn about everything and every little thing possible. I mean, whoever thought 10 years ago I'd been going to ICO comes to a little bit of
Korean, but I picked it up. amalam alaikum salam mashah stuff I did not know but I picked it up along the way because I've gained these relationship and learned about cultures so I suggest to everybody in the room sometime walk away from the
social media gravitate to people who are willing to share that experience with you and you get to learn more then maybe we can control a little more of our habits those two young men out in San Diego I I would love to know what was going through their mind I think investigation wise they really didn't
shed much about it. But to do what they did in that mosque or the school is you got to just imagine what they were filled with, what type of hate they were filled with to go to that extreme as you would see with a synagogue. So those questions or discussions we have to be
willing to have to have that understanding and carry that forth. Want to thank everybody again. We want to talk about it. I'm buying a coffee. We can sit somewhere around here and have this discussion. And after a while, you throw something at me, tell me to be quiet, but it's okay. I'm good with that. Thank you.
[applause] Thank you, Sheriff Curtain. We've also been privileged and honored since we started our community outreach symposia back in 2019 to have formed and created our first symposia in partnership with the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office.
For those who don't know, our prosecutor is passionate about community outreach and making a difference in all of our communities and unifying all of our communities. So, I thank you, Prosecutor Miscella, for your friendship, your partnership, your collaboration, and your friendship
and support. With that, I'd like to invite the chief of the antibbias crimes unit, who's also the chief of the domestic violence crimes unit in the prosecutor's office. So you may recognize her from pre previous symposia. >> Thank you Matt. Good evening.
We hear so much these days about the divisions among us, the things that keep us apart. Race, religion, ethnicity, gender, and so much more. But perhaps true understanding begins when we
recognize that no two individuals are the same regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation. Celebrating those differences is the true essence of diversity.
So with that in mind, my name is Verid Adoni. Um I am the chief of the bias crimes unit and know a thing or two about bias crimes. Um, I offered these remarks today on behalf of prosecutor Mark Mucella as well as the Bergen
County Prosecutor's Office. We are here this evening to share knowledge, foster understanding, and reaffirm that your safety and security security matters to us. We are here to provide information about
bias incidents and bias crimes and to discuss what law enforcement and the agencies represented here tonight are doing to address the alarming rise in bias incidents. Our hope that tonight's panel will promote greater harmony and
understanding among all people regardless of their nine protected classes. Race, color, religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national or origin or ethnicity. That really is all
of us. We recognize that the unique nature of suspected or confirmed bias incidents require speeized and thoughtful response from New Jersey law enforcement community. Bias crimes in particular are message crimes. They are intended not
only to harm an individual victim but also to send a message to the entire community that shares the victim's characteristics. These in these incidents generate fear, anxiety, and insecurity not only for the
immediate victims, but for the broader communities they represent. Left unressed, they they may recur. They may escalate and and even provoke a retaliatory violence. I hope that after tonight's program, you leave with a
greater understanding of what bias incidents and bias crimes are, how they affect individuals and communities, and what resources and protections are available to you. Most importantly, I hoped um that the knowledge empowers you, empowers you to speak out against
hatred and intolerance, to support one another, and to work together to build a community rooted in respect, understanding, and inclusion. Each of us has a role to play in ensuring that Bergen County remains a place where every person feels safe, valued, and
protected. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Adoni. And I just want to again stress the importance of our community partnerships. This program was put together in partnership with the New Milford's public school district, the
New Milford Police Department, with the full support and partnership of the prosecutor's office and sheriff's department. And I can't stress enough that without the assistance of the Bergen County Prosecutor, these events would not be possible. They're instrumental in helping us to organize these events from their very inception.
So again, thank you. Finally, we have a few words tonight, some welcoming words from our congressman, United States Congressman Josh Godheimer. Hey everyone, it's your Congressman Josh Godheimer. I am so sorry that I can't be there with you in person. I have to be
in Washington, but I am so grateful for what you're doing and wanted to show all of my support. Uh first I do want to thank uh Councilman Seymour for his leadership and for bringing our community together around this critically important issue. Uh the antibbias symposium that you've put
together with with so many people together called together we scanned is so critically important especially given what's going on right now in our community and our country. Uh I also want to thank Mayor Petrino, Mayor thank you. want to thank uh Sheriff Curtin,
prosecutor Mella, all of the educators and faith leaders and advocates and everyone participating in this incredible event and discussion. I especially want to acknowledge that tonight's symposium grows out of a the success of your longstanding domestic violence awareness outreach and uh the
work and the programming that you do there. Uh, it's a powerful example of how New Milford continues to lead by bringing people together to tackle tackle even the toughest issues head on. And I want you to know how grateful I am for what you're doing. Whether it's
anti-semitism, anti-Asian hate, anti-sick discrimination, islamophobia, racism, or attacks against the LGBTQ plus community, we must confront hate headon, loudly, and together. There should be no room for hate in our great
state or country. Because hate against one community is hate against all communities. As a member of Congress, I've worked very closely with leaders across our state and the country to combat the alarming rise in anti-semitism that we've seen in our schools, online, and in our communities.
We must ensure that Jewish families feel safe practicing their faith and living openly without fear. And that applies to all communities of faith. We must do everything we can to protect religious freedom. When I see the numbers out of the ADL, Anti-Defamation League just a couple weeks ago showing that since
October 7th, we've seen a 70% increase in anti-Semitic acts. We've seen some of the highest violent anti-Semitic incidents on record. And of course, in the in the state of New Jersey, we're at the third highest number of incidents, Buring County being the highest in our
state. That to me is totally unacceptable and it's why conversations like this one are just so important. uh in Congress. I am the sponsor of the Anti-semitism Awareness Act, which passed the House last Congress to make certain that we as a country have the
tools to identify and fight anti-semitism wherever and whenever it happens. I also introduced a resolution this month condemning the vile hate spewed online by streamers, including Hassan and Candace Owens, whose views should be rejected as the vile
garbage that they are. they should have zero zero place in uh our politics today and in our state. Furthermore, this month is Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. I've been proud to stand alongside the AAPI communities
and help lead efforts including the Sick American Anti-Discrimination Act, which I introduced this year to confront hate and discrimination and ensure sick Americans are treated with dignity and fairness. Whether it's that community or Indian-American community or Korean-American, Chinese-American, or so
many more communities in our state, I've consistently recognized the contribution that these communities make to shape our nation for the better. Bringing all people together and making sure that we do everything we can to celebrate their perspectives is and their cultures to me
is so important. But that government alone, as you know, can't solve this challenge. the challenge that we face of hatred and continued hatred in many of our communities and acts of discrimination. Real change happens when communities come together, when neighbors stand up for neighbors. When
bystanders speak out against hate, when educators teach inclusion and respect, and when local leaders step up to the plate like you're doing here today, that's exactly what this to me represents. New Milford is sending a powerful message that Bergen County will
not tolerate hate, division, or discrimination in any form against anyone. At a time when hate and extremism are on the rise across our country, gatherings like this matter more than ever before. We are the strongest strongest when we stand united
across faiths and backgrounds and cultures and communities. No matter what your walk of life, we should let people know that Jersey is welcoming to all. Thank you again for your leadership, for your partnership, and for continuing this important work. It's so important, and I hope you know how much I
appreciate it. Here in the greatest country the world's ever known, if we work together and stand together and look out for one another, I know that our best days will always be ahead of us. Thank you so much. God bless you and God bless our families and God bless the United States of America.
Hey everyone, it's your congressman panel. Please take your seats. As mentioned earlier, we're joined tonight by the chief of the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office antibbias crimes unit, Miss Verdoni. Miss Adoni, would you define what a hate or and bias
crime is and the role of your office in addressing such offenses? All right, that's better. So biased crime, bias crime is any act or actually any offense that a violation of our
criminal laws um that is motivated by bias. It's got to be a criminal act committed by a person. Could be aggravated assault, could be robbery, could be criminal mischief, uh could be harassment. And if the person is
committing that offense with a biased motive, so he's selecting um his or her victim because of the person's uh protected class status. So he's selecting someone who is Asian because the person is
Asian. He's selecting somebody who is uh LGBTQ because that person belongs to that group. So that is it's got to be a violation of the law and it's got to be motivated by bias. Thank you. Thank you, prosecutor.
You talked about how there are protected classes or categories of individuals who are protected from acts of bias and acts of hate. We're also joined tonight by the longest
serving New Jersey Civil Rights Commissioner in history, Dr. Joan Rivetsz. Dr. Rivetsz, could you please speak to how you see hate and bias as it informs bullying in our communities?
>> Can you hear me? I see some naughty in the back. Yes. Can you hear me? All right. Thank you. Uh well, that was part of what I was going to talk about. Uh and it's near and dear to my heart. Um I see
basically that in the civil rights arena, we have the law against discrimination. And that law, think about it, a law against discrimination. That should take care of everything, right? Well, since 1945, this law was
signed in April of 1945 in the courthouse in Newark and it was the uh foundation for the division on civil rights. And we have one of the staff here today um who will talk to you
a little bit more about the laws. Um, as a commissioner, um, I found that the most important thing about our law against discrimination is not just the protected classes, but the outreach, getting to
know people. Um, you know, that if you don't know a person, you don't really think about them. >> And I am a great believer in history. I when I wrote my dissertation at
Colombia, I wrote it on the Third Reich. My parents were Holocaust survivors and >> I listened to uh Sheriff Curum and it hit home. Where do you get most of what is in you
that comes out in the public or in your life from your beginnings from your family? And the family has a great responsibility in our time to make absolutely certain that the youth that
we have brought into this world knows that there's civility, there's respect, and that's where it begins. And it doesn't end up in the prosecutor's office or where I uh have my uh division on civil rights that I oversee.
We don't see the cases if they are not fermented in the home. There is absolutely no reason why a child who is born will get opinions on racism without
having been taught. And I know that for a fact because before I was even a civil rights commissioner, I was working with the attorney's general's office of bias, crime, and community relations as a
community relations out uh outreach specialist with Robin Parker, who was deputy attorney general at the time, and state investigator uh Tom Culp. And what we found was that the more that we got out into the
community, not even so much working with the youth, but working with the adults who were the role models for the youth, that this made a difference. And getting to know somebody, whether it's breaking bread with them or working out problems
with them or just getting to know them, that's not going to end up in a relationship that isn't going to work. somewhere sometime somehow. So I say all of you who are here tonight, thank you for coming and having the interest in
this subject which I think is so very very important. We can keep our statistics down. They're way up. Why? Because in New Jersey we're honest. Go to another state where you know that they they cannot just have three
incidents a year. It just isn't happening. And should we be punished because we're honest? No. Let's face it head on. And that's my solution to that. And I've been working on this for decades. I am now 82 years old. I can
tell you a lot of things that I have learned in my lifetime. Things don't change that much even though they do. You go back to basics. Learn history. Do not repeat it. And that is my advice for tonight.
Thank you, Dr. Rivetsz. We're also joined tonight by the deputy director of the New Jersey Division of Civil Rights, Mr. Michael Campion. Uh, deputy director, would you please talk to what is the role of the division of
civil rights more broadly and how do how do you collaborate with local law enforcement and community partners? >> Sure. Thank you. Um, so Dr. Rivitz mentioned the law against discrimination which was passed 81 years ago and it is
uh the most robust civil rights law in the country. And think about that. That was in 1945. 20 years before the federal civil rights act. Uh so uh one of the things that the law against discrimination established
was the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights. And I I I really get goosebumps read reading our mission statement. I'll read it. The mission of the division on civil rights is to prevent, eliminate, and remedy discrimination and bias-based harassment in employment, housing, and
places of public accommodation throughout New Jersey. So, we have a role in doing that, and we do it in multiple ways. Um, I lead our investigations unit, uh, which is in the enforcement section of the division on civil rights. It's not criminal, it's
civil enforcement. uh and any member of the community can file to verify complaint with us and if it states a claim we will investigate it uh if there's uh a vi if there's
discrimination in housing employment or public accommodations and and what's public accommodations that's very broad it it could be a restaurant it could be a stadium it could be uh state and local government facilities
that are open to the public and it's schools. Uh school is a place of public accommodation. Uh and so we we will investigate those claims and when there's when we find that there's probable cause to support discrimination, we will litigate it in
in state court or administrative court. Um but we do more than enforcement. Uh we have a policy unit that helps uh or that develops regulations uh helps craft statutes uh for the legislature to
consider uh provides guidance documents and and other documents for the public. Uh we have a community relations unit that meets with the community across New Jersey to help educate uh the community in many different areas about law against discrimination and and
what can be done to prevent discrimination from happening. Uh we also have an education and training unit that provides specific training for employers, for housing providers, uh and for the general public around the state.
Um, and and lastly, and I should have included this in the beginning, with our investigations unit, we have what we call our in affirmative enforcement unit that doesn't investigate the individual complaints we have, but looks for systemic issues of discrimination that may be happening uh in our state and
then we can bring lawsuits on behalf of the attorney general or uh the director of the division on civil rights. And so about the the long-winded way of me getting the relationship. So in in all this work, we collaborate. You know, we we enforce the civil laws. My colleagues
enforce the criminal laws. And not everyone will know the difference of what's what. And so we talk we we talk with each other. We we do it at events like this. But also if we get a complaint that we think is criminal, we'll pass it to the our appropriate colleagues in the attorney general's
office and county prosecutor's office, local law enforcement, etc. Uh, and so it's very important for for all of us to keep talking and we do in New Jersey. I've been working in this space for for almost 20 years. And one thing I'm really proud of is the relationships
between all of the different offices. We have different bosses, but we have really one goal to to help protect the community and help protect the rights of the community. >> Thank you. Thank you, Deputy Director. We're also joined tonight by We're also joined tonight by Lieutenant
Scott Petri from the New Demilford Police Department, who's also a proud resident, father, coach, and leader throughout our community. Lieutenant, thank you for joining us. Would you please speak to how how does the police department
independently investigate complaints of bias and hate and how are officers trained at the academy and how to separate personal biases when doing their jobs? >> Well, thank you Matt. [clears throat] Uh the New Milford Police Department under the leadership of uh Chief Brian Clancy,
we take our uh jobs very seriously. Uh we act in the utmost professional manners at all times. We take every complaint whether it's from a resident, a victim, a witness or even anonymously and we receive it, we review it and we
give it its uh utmost attention and we make sure that we investigate thoroughly. Uh the key point is that the complaints are not just dismissed simply because the conversations are difficult or uncomfortable or involve uh sensitive
issues. We have an obligation to investigate them fully, review the facts, and come to a decision whether uh uh there's merit to it whe or if we can uh prove probable cause. And that's when we call our partners over at the prosecutor's office and let them know
what we have and seek their guidance and advice. Uh as far as uh training of our police officers, um the first thing we do is we make sure we hire only the very best. So that starts with the background
investigations and the interview process uh that we have and a rigorous background investigation can weed out 90% of our problems. Um from there you know because like you said the problem starts in the home right so our home
interviews are important our our interviews with their friends and families those things are all very important to us. From there, when uh the recruit gets in the academy, we take every class as a point to not just teach whatever we're teaching. So, I teach
report writing at the police academy, but I we also incorporate things such as antibbias. And the instructors and I for report writing, our first rule is that everyone is a person and deserves respect. It's
the first rule we have. Second rule is tell the truth. Third rule is don't forget about rules one and two. So if we can see everyone as a person, if we can teach the officers there to
use their two ears and listen more and talk less, they're going to have a a better time of understanding people that are different than them or come from different backgrounds. One of the things that uh we say is especially in report writing it your
personal beliefs don't belong here. Your your own uh ideas if they are counter to what a professional police officer do they don't belong here. Um so regardless of how you might feel about a subject if
uh a person says their preferred pronouns is they them that's how you will refer to them for the rest of the report is as they them. Uh, and your opinions don't matter here. It's only what you do here professionally. Um,
it's, you know, police officers are human. We're not perfect, but we do the best that we can to make sure that our own personal biases don't infect our professional careers. Thank you, Lieutenant.
We're also joined tonight by Detective Sergeant It Sham Shandri, also known as Izzy, from the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Prepar and Preparedness Operations Bureau. Sir, thank you for joining us tonight. And
in your role at Homeland Security, what do you see are steps that could be taken in the future to help prevent horrible tragedies and attacks such as the mosque shooting in California? >> Sure. Thanks, Matt, and thanks for uh inviting me here. Really glad to be
here. So um my on my office and in the office that I work for we focus on uh four four core missions which is counterterrorism, counter intelligence, cyber security and preparedness. And my current role now is that I do outreach for the uh focus on the faith-based uh
communities out there. But as our office, we are very security based. So we do provide a lot of uh resources out there in preparation if there is an attack but also trying to prevent attack. So in a combination of all what we do, one part is that we do uh
intelligence particularly on uh counterterrorism, right? So the see see something say something campaign that actually comes through our office. So here in New Jersey, we have uh quite a bit of law enforcement, right? So we have 541 municipalities, 21 counties, state agencies, and the federal
government. So we have a mechanism in place. So when you do report suspicious activities, they goes through a process all the way up to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Joint Terrorism Task Force and each layer of information that comes in is visible to everyone. So that communication piece is there, right? So
prior to 911, the biggest issue was the communication between both the federal agencies including down to the states, right? That that being the case, uh what we do is it's about relationships. So just like Mike had mentioned earlier,
relationships do matter. So we all talk to each other. Every single local, county, state, federal law enforcement talks to each other. It's very important. Now, my current role now is that faith-based piece. So I oversee what's called the interfaith advisory
council. Uh that's a a council that we started about u 2020 th 20 thou 2012 where we were starting to see a lot of violent acts happening across the nation two houses of worship. So a place where you go to worship is now being attacked.
It's not safe. So we wanted to get ahead of that. And problem with that was although we and law enforcement were talking to each other, the community, the faith-based community and the community as a whole wasn't that relationship with law enforcement didn't really exist that much, right? So we
started a we started the council to begin that dialogue in that security p perspective. So 2018 we had about 250 members. We currently now have 6,000 members across the the state of New Jersey and that covers all the religious
bases. So in that in that aspect of it and what we do and provide those resources, we provide training um active shooter training to all houses houses of worship across the state. We've trained at least like the last 14 months approximately 7,000 uh congregants
throughout the state of New Jersey. Emergency operation plans, you got to prepare in case things happen. So we not only do training to how to write an emergency operation plan, we created templates that are really easy to use. It's just in case something happens. We
we purchased uh 7,200 stop to bleed kits uh from $400,000 and that we're providing to all houses of worship throughout the state uh at least three for each house of worship, four for religious schools that we just launched. But not only that, we are providing training on how to use those
items in those stop kits. Uh we teamed up with the the various hospitals here in the state of New Jersey, Hackasac, Meridian, Cooper, Robert Johnson, Barnabas, uh Atlantic Health, uh as well as um the trauma council in the state of New Jersey. Uh I think we did approximately 80 of those trainings so
far. But the other aspect of is and and very important from the beginning of that that mission was that that relationship with law enforcement. So we have two programs that we we do. one it's called Chai with the cop where we bring out law enforcement particularly with the underserved communities that don't have that engagement with law
enforcement no agenda any topic you want to have a conversation with a lot of lot of things that I learned as I'm going out through the faith-based communities is that a lot of folks don't know what law enforcement does it's very confusing u so providing a actually a presentation on what law enforcement does but it's a
countywide base uh based program where we bring in all the municipalities here in the state of New in that particular county to one location when again you can have those conversation with the law enforcement talking about anything you want to talk about any concerns you have. And then in terms of actual
physical uh security uh we provide site assessments and these site assessments are uh done by professionals trained professionals certified folks go through your house of worship and outline all your security gaps but not not only that provide a report that's 50 to 80 pages
outlining uh the security gaps but best practices. So those a lot of those are no cost, low cost, but with that we do we do have grants that our office administers. One is a federal grant, one is a state grant. The federal grant is part of a larger grant nationwide under FEMA, Federal Emergency Management
Agency. That particular grant you can apply up to $150,000 and it covers a lot of your expensive items, what's known as target hardening equipment. that covers cameras, doors, panic alarms, windows,
ballards, lighting, fencing. Um, and this and the second grant is a state grant. One part is a target hardening. You can apply up to 100,000. And the other is security personnel where you can hire uh extra duty law enforcement or private security. Just to put it in
context, um we did and provided awards to houses of worship, not and nonprofits, mostly houses of worship. The last 14 months, $100 million here just in the state of New Jersey. So that money is out there and that money is could be used to protect yourself. But
the whole program and these resources are designed to be holistic. And it's important that yes, we can do what we can do, but it's important for the community, the faith-based community to also engage. We can only do so much. It has to be a teamwork. So, that's all I
have to say for today. Thank you so much. We appreciate it, sir. On the topic of faith, we're also privileged to be joined tonight by Pastor Peter An from the Metro Community Church in Englewood. Pastor, could you
please speak about the interfa the intersection of faith and power and how can you as a pastor reach out to communities and help communities and help unite them through service and outreach? >> Thank you very much. Um, also I'm very
proud to serve as volunteer clergy for the Burton County Prosecution's Office under uh, Prosecutor Mousella and I'm privileged to be a part of that as well. Um I have the immense privilege of of pastoring a church in Anglewood, New Jersey where over 30 nations are
represented and uh it's very important because to navigate a multi-thnic community and trying to figure out how do we best build community amongst each other within the church uh it's really critical before we can even think about how do we do this outside we have to
first figure out how we can do it amongst each other. And so that's really important. And one of the things that we've been doing is that we've been teaching our our parishioners that there is a difference between uh justice and compassion. And in the Old Testament, the word for justice is mishvat. And it
it means to treat people equitably. And I think most faith communities love the idea of compassion. They love the idea of being compassionate towards those who are less fortunate. And it's a beautiful thing that we do that. But one of the things that we try to do within our church is that we try to help people to understand that justice is very
different. In order for us to truly be about justice, we don't just have to look at the outside. We got to first take a really hard look at ourselves. And we have to ask ourselves, if we really want to be about justice, we have to first ask the question, how have I been complicit in the injustice? How
have I played a role in injustice within my own community, my own society, in my culture in which I live in? And that's hard to do because people don't like to look at themselves. They like to look at others and criticize what other people are doing. But it's very important that we ask ourselves that first. And so that's that's sort of like the first
prong approach that we try to do within our church. And the other aspect is because we're such a a diverse congregation. We ask ourselves, you know, in order for us to really be a true diverse congregation, we have to make sure that power in the church is shared ethnically. So if there's going
to be a diversity of people within the church, we have to make sure who are the power power brokers. I'm one of them and our elders. How are we going to be able to share that power ethnically so that everyone has a voice? I think that's critical not just in the religious
sector but also in the private sector in the you know in in uh in the county office and and things like that. And so that's really key. And so, uh, one of the things we try to help people understand within our church and outside is that we have to learn to love our neighbor. It's the great commandment. Love God with all your heart, mind,
soul, and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. But contextually in the New Testament, your neighbor is somebody who is very different from you. Ethnically, your neighbor can actually be your enemy. And God really wants us to get to
a place that we can do our best to love even our enemies, people that are so different from us. And so that really kind of sets the landscape for us not not just to tolerate each other within our church, but really love each other and knowing that we need each other to live out the greatest commandment in the
Bible, but also now we are to go outside the church and do our very best to love our neighbor outside. And Englewood's a very diverse community. And um I'm I'm very I I'm very privileged to be a part of a church but also a town where we
have been building bridges where different faith communities have come together. we've done things together um worship together and uh and it's been a huge blessing and uh and also asking ourselves who are the people who are who don't have a voice in our community and how can we best go about serving that
population and so in next Saturday if you guys have folks who need it we actually have a health fair that we have organized amongst uh our church people we have plenty of doctors and physicians and medical professionals but we have and we'll be I think we're going to be hosting it at Greco Elementary
and we're offering to anyone in the Anglewood community come be a part of. We also have a pretty vibrant life on life um uh mentoring program with some of the most at risk young people in Englewood and we've worked with the uh with the school system and we've been
able to identify and it's been a pretty amazing sort of a success where I would say close to 99% of our people who start the program from 9th grade will end up graduating and going to either college or will end up uh being a part of some
kind of training at some type of trade So things like that. So those are just some of the things that we do, but we really feel like it's important for us to take a look at ourselves first and make sure that we're doing our best to live into this so that we can uh be the best neighbors we can be in Burton County.
>> Thank you, pastor. We're also joined tonight by David De Mo. Mr. Demo is the chief investigator with the Middle Sex County Department of Corrections and Youth Services. Um, I don't know if you're aware of this, Mr. Demo. I we also both I believe both
worked at the Mammoth County Prosecutor's Office many years ago, so we share that in common. Chief Investigator, would you please speak to the role of your office in combating hate and bias? And if you don't mind, in particular, what is the impact of hate
and bias on our LGBTQ community, particularly our youth, and what can we do to help them? Uh thank you and great to see you again and thank you panel for inviting me to be a part of this conversation tonight. Uh thank you superintendent for having me back here.
This is the second time I've been back lucky enough to be back in this school. The first time I was talking to the student population and now I get to have a conversation with your community. Thank you Mr. Prosecutor. But really thank you team for being here. I recognize I'm speaking to the choir here. Thank you for taking the time out
of your night to be a part of this very important conversation. So, as um was said, I'm the chief investigator for Middlest County Department of Correction. So, you're saying, "What the heck is he doing up here in Bergen County, but I'm also a member uh executive board member and lifetime
member of the New Jersey Bias Crime Officer Association, and I co-chair uh the LGBTQ law enforcement liaison program. So, I'd like to start by talking a little bit about how we formulated the LGBTQ liaison program. I've been uh involved in law enforcement
38 years. I'm old. I'm a dinosaur. I've been doing this a long time. And when I was invited back to Middle Sex County to be the chief investigator for the Department of Corrections and Youth Services, I was sitting at my desk in jail and I got a phone call from one of
our largest stakeholders, uh, Garden State Equality, uh, the largest LGBTQ uh, advocacy and education organization in our state. And they said to me, "Hey Dave, we got a problem." And I said, "Okay, what's the problem? And how can I
help?" and they said, "The LGBTQ community does not trust law enforcement." I said, "Let's come up to the jail." I invited them up to the jail. We sat down in the wardens conference room. We had a conversation and we thought about putting together a team of dedicated law enforcement
professionals who would go out there and start to rebuild trust between the LGBTQ community and law enforcement. When we think about uh who are our victims of bias in our state and nationally in the country, uh the number one victim, this
is fact-based according to the FBI uniform crime report and New Jersey State Police Uniform Crime Report, the number one victim out of the nine protected classes is skin color and it is our black community. The number two victim is religion. And even with the
rise of criminal activity and biased incidents towards our Muslim, Sik, and Hindu community post September 11th and even now with what's going on in our country, um the Jewish community has always been number one when it comes to targeted hate in New Jersey. Uh and
number three used to be a direct tie, uh almost the same numbers between our LGBTQ plus community and our Hispanic community. And right now, uh, LGBTQ plus has overrown our Hispanic community. I learned a long time ago in law
enforcement. If there's no trust, there's no relationship. Think about it. If we don't have trust, if we don't trust our significant other, divorce. If we don't trust our partner at work, we don't want to work with them for 8, 12, or 16 hours. If we don't trust our neighbor, we're not inviting that
neighbor to our home for a burger or a beer or a refreshment. If we don't trust our own family, the dysfunctional ones, we're not inviting those family members over to our home when we have our holiday celebration. So, if there's no trust, there's no relationship. So, the first thing we had to do is rebuild the
trust between the LGBTQ community and law enforcement. In our mission statement, that's our number one priority to rebuild that trust. So, community engagement, going out there, having conversations, talking with one another about our differences, educating. There's only one way to stop
hate, and that's to educate. We can't lock our way up out of it. That's to educate. As the sheriff said in opening remarks, it's learn behavior. Think about this. When we were all crawling around in diapers on our living room floor, when we were infants, some of us
a little closer, for some of us like me, a little bit far away, our families invited somebody that was not my skin color into my home. My our families invited somebody that was not my religious value into my home. My families invited somebody that was
not my sexual orientation, real or perceived or gender or gender identity into my home. I didn't hate them. We loved everybody. So where do we go from that innocence to today in 2026 having such an increase in bias-based
activity in our communities requiring a law enforcement response? It's all about education. It's all about educating the ignorant. That's where it all starts. And it starts a lot of times with our kids in our schools. Who do our kids learn it from? Let's call it out. Let's
be real. Let's be honest tonight. Parents, their peers, the media they choose to watch or choose to listen to, the music they listen to, they choose to watch and choose to listen to. It's all learned behavior. So part of our mission for the LGBTQ laser program is to go out
and educate. So, community outreach, community engagement, rebuilding trust with the communities in which we serve. The second part of our mission is a recruitment and retention part of the mission statement of the LGBTQ laser program. We learned uh post Mr. Floyd's
murder that there is one way we can rebuild trust in the communities in which we serve. That's to make our police departments and our law enforcement agencies better reflect the communities in which we serve. So, a recruitment tool uh as well. The third part of our mission statement is all of
us are resiliency officers. So there are unique challenges in law enforcement and stress factors and a lot of other things that I don't want to talk about tonight. But if you're an LGBTQ identifying officer, there's additional unique
challenges even in 2026 in our the most diverse state in the entire country, New Jersey. So we're resiliency officers for each other. And I can't tell you how many times we'll get phone calls from our straight counterparts. I just recently got a phone call from a
straight colleague who said, "Dave, my son just came out to me and I just need to know how to to continue that trustful relationship as his father." I can't tell you how many times we've gotten phone calls from um our counterparts
where they said, "My daughter or my son just identified as being transgender, and I don't know how to continually show uh the trust and support and love to my transgender son or daughter." So that we're resiliency officers. That's what
we do. And then the fourth part of our mission statement speaks volumes to what the lieutenant talked about. We also go out into policemies and train law enforcement officers, cultural competency, walk a day in the LGBTQ
uh community shoes. And all of that together is what we're doing. Now, when we see the RI Pride Month coming up in June, we're going to continually see those numbers of biasbased activity uh happen in our communities rise. But it's
because we're going out into the community and the community is trusting us to see something to say something. So the message that I want to share with everybody is if you see something, say something. Please report it. Please
trust that law enforcement is going to take your concerns seriously. As a lieutenant stated, as the sheriff stated, as the prosecutor stated, we're going to take your concerns seriously. And if it's a bias incident, we're going to forward that to our stakeholder organizations who we partner with and we
may forward it to the division of civil rights uh out of the attorney general's office who's represented here tonight by the assistant director. We if it's a biased crime, we are going to investigate that fully. And the legislature when they approve the bias crime statute 2C161, it's called bias
intimidation in New Jersey. They gave law enforcement a lot of teeth because it's the only statute that says if you commit the crime, you're going to be charged with it. But it also says it gives law enforcement a lot of teeth to conduct the investigation to determine whether or not it rose to the level of a crime. Therefore, if you commit the not
only if you commit the crime, you can be charged with it, but if you threaten to uh commit the crime, you can be charged with it. If you talk about conspire uh to commit the crime, you can be charged with it. So, it gave law enforcement a lot of teeth to rebuild trust in the community, to correct the wrongs that
are doing that are being done to our community because of the nine protected classes. And as an openly gay police officer, I just want to say to the team, uh, I am so thankful that you are here willing to have the conversation with me, with law enforcement, and we are
willing to work together to stop hate in our state. So, I thank you very much for being here tonight. Thank you. Dave was just talking about how there's so many acts of hate and bias everywhere throughout our communities. So people
may wonder why should we be concerned about an act of hate or bias that happens far away from here in another part of the country such as the the shooting in California of the mosque or even another part of the world. Lieutenant Petri, why should we be worried here locally about incidents
that happen far away? >> Well, thank you, Matt. Uh, one of the things that we teach our recruits and I try to teach our fellow officers here, uh, the world is no longer round, and it sounds crazy, but information flows so
quickly that the world is actually flat and it's folded on top of each other. So, if something pokes a hole at the top, it goes all the way through to the bottom. So something that happens in the Middle East impacts our communities here in New Milford, not even New Jersey, not
even Bergen County, New Milford. If something happens out in uh San Diego, our prosecutor's office is putting out directives letting us know to uh patrol our houses of worship a little bit closer. If something happens in
Minneapolis, if something happens in St. Louis, it directly impacts us here as a community in New Milford, in Bergen County, in New Jersey. It's not these issues aren't local issues anymore uh
from far away places. When we were probably all growing up, it was a blurb on the nightly news as a oh by the way, or an article in the USA Today, oh uh this is what happened out in Minnesota.
uh that's no longer the case. It is instantaneous to our phones, to our pockets, to our hearts, to our minds. So the world is no longer around. Information flows so quickly that what happens anywhere impacts us here locally
and we have to be hypervigilant about that. We have to be aware of it because if we think that we're isolated from these incidents, if we think that these things cannot happen here or we think that the our communities are uh not
vulnerable to the hate and and the crime that is out there, we're just fooling ourselves. You know, we're we're sticking our heads in the sand. Um, so we try to let everyone know that our communities are emotionally impacted by what happens
elsewhere in this world. Uh, families worry about how their families are going to go to school the next day, how they're going to go to work the next day, how they're going to enjoy the the presence of God on the Sabbath or on Sunday. Um,
what we need to do is, and I think our prosecutor does an excellent job of it through his office, is make our local uh, officers aware of what goes on and how it impacts us here locally because again, nothing is an isolated global uh,
it it didn't happen just in the in the African continent. It it's happening here in New Jersey. So, uh, we try to make our officers very well aware of that and [snorts] to, uh, take those concerns seriously and to again listen more, talk less, and and hear the the
voices and concerns of our our citizens. >> Thank you, Lieutenant. Dr. Rivetsz, it's one thing for us to hear from a great, fantastic panel of experts who possess tremendous experience, expertise, training, and
credentials. And it's incredibly educational to hear such fantastic knowledge. But how can that land and connect here in our local communities? How can we actually make the people who live here in New Milford and elsewhere feel safe?
How can we educate ourselves here locally to do more to make each other feel safe? How do we apply the knowledge we're hearing here tonight among all of ourselves? Well, I think you begin by knowing what
the resources are that are available to you, whether they're in New Milford or they're in Bergen County or in the state of New Jersey, just about any situation that arises can be handled and helped
with the right the proper knowledge. So I think the council for one in Milford can make certain that everything that's available to the residents of your town is something that you know about. That's
where I would begin. I think that would be helpful. Perhaps you already do that to some extent, but you have to also have your finger on the pulse of your community and know what it is that's important to the people as the
population changes, as the uh lifestyles change. Uh you have to be relevant. So know your community uh community, know your leaders. It doesn't just work one way. This is uh
total involvement in order to protect us all to keep us all safe as you said um a moment ago and I think that's very important to repeat. I don't believe the world is flat. I mean that much I don't know very much science but I don't
believe it's flat but I do know that if something is impacting someone on the other side of the world it's going to ripple down somehow right here in Milford to where I live in Pamis uh out in California it doesn't matter where we are we're all human things that happen
in one place are going to happen in another thing is to know each other so that we can turn to each other in the time of need and that doesn't happen just by, okay, if it happens, I'll figure it out. Let's work together and
make sure that we know you know your neighbor. You know the the person down the street. You don't have to like them, love them, or or anything, but at least interact with them. And I know that when I see an ambulance on my block, I may not know that person, but I'm going to
see if I can be of help. Even though I'm not a medical professional, I carry the title of doctor, but please don't call me for anything like that. I'll be happy to help in any situation that has to do with bias, prejudice, family, community.
I am pretty much secure in knowing that I think if I don't know the answer, at least I know where you should turn. And we need more people who can help each other. Just basically, it doesn't matter if you never talk to
that person, but at least know that you can turn to them. And again, the council, the governing body, the police department, everybody in the churches, the schools, you all should know each other so that if something comes up,
this is not a foreign place and we don't know where to turn. And that would be my suggestion. >> Thank you, Dr. Rivetsz and Mr. Campion. what happens because you spoke earlier about the different almost the separation between the criminal side,
the criminal prosecution side of in of protection and the civil side. So, we're learning what to do when the when there is a clear cognizable crime under the New Jersey law. But what about somebody who just goes to
shop, right? Going about their business and there's a comment or the the little slice or somebody comes up to somebody and says, "Hey, you smell bad." What can people do in those instances
when it may not rise to the level of going to the prosecutor? That's a really good question. Uh and and I'm going to build on something that uh Chief De Mo said earlier like so I'm gonna answer the question but let me
take a step back. Um we we on this sitting at this table and all our colleagues we have a job to do beyond enforcement and that's really to engage with our community um and so to
build trust so people are comfortable coming to us. Uh there are many communities who maybe for good reason don't trust law enforcement. Um and they'll see something, they'll experience something whether criminal or
something smaller uh like a slight that may not be criminal, but they're not going to tell us. They're not going to talk to us. They don't trust us. So what we are trying to do is build trust with the community. And it's not one meeting. Oh, it's like, okay, we met with this
group, check the box. No, it's our jobs to develop those relationships and keep doing it over and over again. Uh so why am I saying that now in response to this question? Um we want people to be comfortable
reporting to us. Um and so that makes it comfortable reporting to us. And we ask, at least in our office and I know at many of my colleagues offices, we ask people to report smaller things even if they don't know if it's a crime or even if they don't know it's a civil
violations because if something's happening there at a there at that maybe that place of public accommodation, a store and there's and it's perhaps someone who works there who manages it and it's continually saying something about a particular race, religion,
sexual orientation, etc. that may be evidence to us about something we're already looking at. Uh and so we ask everyone to report to us. We have our own bias portal, but again, we share information. Uh if you Google
the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights, you'll see how to report to us or call us. Uh so what my message would be, even it's something small, even if you don't think it might be anything, let us know. Uh because if you don't tell us, we won't know. And that might be important
evidence we're not seeing. >> Thank you. And assistant prosecutor Adoni. >> So I want to add to that. So um in New Jersey we have um both bias crimes which I spoke about but also what's called bias incidents. And the bias incident is
a is something that comes out of the attorney general's office. Um it defines bias incident is any act that is motivated by bias. It doesn't have to be a criminal offense. he does not have to violate the laws of uh the criminal laws of New Jersey. And so this the example
that you gave um Matt about someone a comment that doesn't rise to the level of a criminal offense, what do you do with that? You report that because in New Jersey we have a very robust reporting system here. If you report that to law enforcement, law enforcement
has to report it on a portal that goes to the prosecutor's office, the attorney general's office, the state police, the homeland security. It goes to several agencies. And why do we need to know that? We need to know that because as Michael said, we are we build upon it.
We can determine later on if it repeats itself. If let's say a person um is now later on committing a criminal offense, we have that comment, we can build a case of of of a bias, a criminal criminal bias. Now remember to prove
bias intimidation. It's a it's not an easy task. You have to go into the mind of the offender. You have to establish motive. Why did a person commit the crime that he committed? Why did he assault the the victim? Why did he punch the victim? Why
did he rob the victim? Why did he kill the victim? We want to know the why. The why determines bias. If the why is I hurt the victim because the victim is black or Asian or Jewish or Muslim, then we know the act is motiv motivated by
bias. But sometimes it's not that easy to prove because how do you prove what's in the mind of the offender? You don't always have words uttered. You don't always have um the information to lead you to that. But if you have those
little incidents that happened, for example, the Shopright incident where the person said made a comment that is not a criminal offense toward someone who is of a prot protected class and then later on commits a crime against
another member of that same protected class. Now we're building a case. Now we have something to work with. So that's why we ask the community to report to report any time and every time that you come across a any act that is motivated
by bias because that can come a long way. Now a lot of times we have victims that are very frustrated by the fact that hey I reported but you did not prosecute. I reported that somebody said a mean and offensive derogatory bias
motivated word and you said you did nothing. And I just want to put it out there that we also have freedom of speech and you we we hold our freedom of speech rights sacred sacred and those rights
benefit us in in in multiple way multiple ways in in a democracy in this country. Saying something that's offensive is not a crime. It's part of our freedom. It's when we cross the line and we commit a [clears throat] criminal offense that
now you're subject to prosecution. But that's why we're asking all everyone to report even those freedom of speech acts that are those offensive bias motivated words because those may serve us later
should a person commit and and violate the laws of New Jersey. Thank you, prosecutor. Uh Izzy, I'm going to go back to you um with Homeland Security for a moment if you don't mind, please. We've heard a lot about reporting. We've heard a lot about
coordination. Uh Lieutenant Petri talked about how an event on one side of the world can impact the other part of the world. in your job, in your role at Homeland Security, how do you how does your agency help to coordinate the reporting
that takes place to connect law enforcement and other non-law enforcement resources around the country? >> Sure. Thanks, Matt. Um, so I [snorts] wanted to actually um follow up with what the assistant prosecutor had just mentioned about the reporting. So, not
only does the reporting come through in an automated system where every agency that needs to know is notified, but we actually take all the bias reports that come in and we overlap them with our suspicious activity reports. These reports are more focused on
counterterrorism. So, it then gets another extra set of scrutiny and that scrutiny goes all the way up to the FBI joint terrorism task force. So we use all this also to see and connect the dots right in order to prevent anything
from happening. Now in that sense it's also a blur line between actual bias and terrorism and the attack that happened over in San Diego a couple of days ago right now is being investigated as a as
a hate crime. So think about that like like the way things are right now in this country. They are very polarized and you're starting to see that rise in bias and biased crimes. But in that sense, what is happening now is that
international terrorism is no longer the top um threat we're looking at. is actually domestic terrorism and as homegrown violently violent extremists racially im uh and religiously motivated meaning that white supremacy is the
biggest threat to the state as well as the country and that's where that blurr blood blurring comes from and that radicaliz radicalization process that occurred under international terrorism is also happening in the domestic terrorism world as well. So that being
the case, uh to answer your question, Matt, so we'll take u you know something that happened a couple years ago that was overseas October 7th, right? Being a very very diverse um state. We have a
very big Jewish population. We have a very big Muslim population. And within the Muslim population, you have a lot of ethnic uh diversity as well. So that particular situation and and you look at across the state, we really didn't have
a lot of issues, right? Even though there was contentious right after October 7th and even after for a while, but we didn't have the issues that the other states had. And why? So when that happened because we have all this outreach, we've built this these
relationship, but today's point we built trust. We built trust through having more than one conversation, one more than one meeting. So when we when we took a step back uh the lieutenant attorney general's office, state police,
us governor's office, we built and we used those trust to have those conversation after October 7th. We went out and tried to make sure uh to keep those um temperatures down and that's one of the reasons that we did not have
a lot of those issues. So another example, so yes, uh two days ago, we had that that attack on the Islamic Center of San Diego. The attorney general on Monday night wanted to have a conference call, reached out 3:00 yesterday. We had
that conference call. We had majority leadership in the Muslim community, approximately uh almost 200 folks and and also the interfaith community in a transparent way. Hey, this is what's going on in the law enforcement side. Within hours of that attack happening,
the attorney general, the colonel of state police, us, we were on the phones with the leadership. We sent out the uh act to local law enforcement to up the patrols here in in the state of New Jersey for not just the the mosque, but
also other houses of worship. So, we we do do a lot in terms of having those relationships, building those trusts. And if you hear the theme tonight, it's all about trust. We we are trying to have that trust with the community. And
that trust, at least in my role, has has gone a long way because the reporting that a lot of times doesn't come through. A lot of folks across the board of all the communities do call me and say, "Hey, this is what's going on." Because lot and a lot of folks don't trust law enforcement. But having that
trust is the biggest biggest key factor. So, >> thank you. And and and and pastor, for people who don't feel comfortable going to law enforcement and prosecutors because they don't have the trust,
can they come to someone like yourself? And if so, how can you help them in ways that are that actually improve their safety and their sense of peace? >> Yeah. Um so recently I think over the past year or so one of the big things
that we've been kind of focusing on as a church is you know um kind of dealing with the undocumented community and goit's largest population is the Latino community and so uh we have first generation speaking Latin people within our community and just trying to figure
out what is the best thing we can do to come alongside of them to support them and help them um uh if something would have happened where if I were to invade our church and how do we go about doing this? Um, so that was an important thing uh that I the prosecutor's office has
helped me with. We actually went and I talked with them about that. Um, and they gave me some really good input on kind of what to think about. Uh the other aspect of it is just yeah dealing a lot of times people come within that situation just because there's a deep sense of fear even though people hear it
uh legally um it's been huge and so our pastors including myself we've had to connect with different folks not just the Latino community but the Asian community and others just to kind of try to dispel and try to help them through this and giving them some really good advice as well uh during this season. And so that's really helpful for us as
well so that we can do that. uh we've had to we actually have had to uh make sure there was a a family where they actually needed some legal service and we were able to help in terms of that and help them so that they can get representation so that um they won't have a chance to hopefully never get
deported and things like that. So, uh, the thing is, the great thing is that in the faith community, we have an opportunity where our parishioners can come and actually seek help and get advice and we actually have a pastor in our church where we've just hired her just for justice, advocacy, and compassion type work in Anglewood and
beyond. And so, you know, she is really just incredibly vigilant um, uh, in terms of connecting with the people in our church and outside and all seeing what the needs are in Anglewood. We also have a very good relationship with Angwood PD. We actually hire Anglewood PD on Sundays uh to come and be at our
at our church and they're there all day from the moment we get there early in the morning till when everyone leaves. And so they've been incredibly helpful for us and the partnership that we have with Angipedia has been a real big blessing for our community. >> I just have a follow-up question for
you, pastor. Um, I'd like to go back to a question that was asked earlier as it relates to the the the when a slight is when there's a slight or there is a negative comment when as the assistant prosecer pointed out it's free speech may not cross over the line into a
cognizable crime or bias crime. How can you as a faith leader help someone who is targeted with disparaging comments based on even the their religious attire that they wear in
public, these kind of disparaging, rude comments that are clearly motivated by a hate and a and a very strong hatred? How can you help those individuals? >> Yeah. So, I think solidarity is very important. And so, I think part of it is not just, hey, don't worry about it. It'll be okay. you know, we're here to
support you, but also trying to trying to understand the level of their pain and and you know, growing up, uh, I I'm a Burn County resident my entire life, almost been here since the third grade. And so, I've encountered some of my own, um, you know, ra racism and so forth. So I think there's just a depth of
solidarity but also at the same time um encouraging them to not allow that to uh create within them the sense of hate and anger towards the person because again we try to teach that we are to do the best we can to love and care and understand and and do our best. Now, if
it's something in which they feel like they feel like within our church, if it's happening, they feel danger, then that's different and we address that right away and we take care of that as a staff. And there are times we've actually had to ask people to leave our church because we felt like it wasn't a
safe environment for our people that they actually posed a threat to actually hurt some of the people within our church. And so whenever that happens, when we know that there's somebody where their intentions is, you know, to potentially hurt people within our congregation, we've actually had to ask them to leave um and step away from our
congregation. And so that's been an important part to make sure that we can kind of protect our folks within our church to make sure that there's nobody that's going to be there where their intention is to actually hurt somebody within our church. >> Thank Thank you very much for that, Pastor. And I'm going to go back to
investigator Dominico. What can you say to an individual who is in the LGBTQ community who is afraid to come out because they're afraid of facing this bias and they're afraid of facing this hate? How can you encourage that person to come up with the the
courage and the bravery to come out in such a in such a dangerous time that we live in? and and how would you advise that person who again faces that rude comment that may not be a crime but is still extremely hurtful.
>> So the coming out process is different and difficult for everybody. I cannot sit up here as one openly gay man and say what it's like. But what I will share with you is this. Um, people, if somebody has the courage to come out to
you, uh, you should take that as a badge of honor because people come out to the people they love and trust the most last. Why? They don't want to hurt them and they don't want to be hurt by them. So, um
I would say to the LGBTQ plus community, like I've said many times, um trust that law enforcement is going to take your concerns seriously. Trust that law enforcement is going to understand that unique victimization.
trust that you have a support system here tonight in law enforcement, faith-based leaders, um, civilian staff that we're going to take your concerns seriously. And if you see something, say something.
That's the most important thing because what we've learned tonight, too, is the correlation between bias incidents and potential domestic terrorism. So, you might not think it's important to see something or say something or report it. It is extremely important because that
gives us the ability to have our finger on the pulse of what's going on in our communities and a bias incident could turn into a biased crime um down the road and it could become worse if we don't do anything about it. So, if you see something, say something. Look, I
think it's really important specific to the LGBTQ plus community, but everybody uh that we need to understand that communication is the key. Trust is the key. If you see something, say something and understand that specifically in New
Jersey, Bergen County, here and across our state, law enforcement takes your concern seriously. And it a bias incident, we're going to document it. We're going to report it. We're going to work with our stakeholder organizations uh and then if it's a biased crime, we're going to investigate it and we're
going to prosecute it vigorously. >> Thank you. Uh Miss Mr. Campion, what can we do at home? What can we do at home with our children as young as elementary school age to teach them tolerance? to teach them from
the very beginning and the early stages of their lives to be more tolerant, more empathetic, and more respectful of other people. So, what I would say here is just expose your kids to to many different
communities and cultures. Uh, and that that's the way to do it. Expose them to your friends if they're from different communities and cultures. encourage them to be friends w with uh many in their school and and show openness and tolerance. Uh I think it's as simple as
that. >> Assistant prosecutor, same question. >> Education, education, education. I cannot stress this word enough. Um at the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office, we have a juvenile unit that um deals
obviously with uh those children and I will say children they range from anywhere from the age of 9 10 to 17 18 well 18 is an adult but up until 17 um who commit bias acts and
I if we statistically speaking if we look at the numbers most of the bias acts committed that that that are committed in Bergen County at least or I would say even the state of New Jersey are committed by juveniles and
it is not a surprise because we talked about it we have social media we have you know we learn it it's a learned behavior and a lot of it comes out of ignorance and a lot of it a lot of the kids especially the younger they are um they don't even know that they're drawing a swastika they just sew it
somewhere and they do it or they don't even know the meaning of a derogatory bias motivated Um, what we try to do at the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office and throughout the state is rather than prosecute these children and put them through the criminal justice system and
h and then create a record a criminal record for them, we educate them. We we have the police department uh do a program with them what's called station house adjustment. instead of uh being prosecuted, we they work with police
officers uh and they do some sort of an assignment. They they would do they would write something, they would visit, they would do community service and we try to educate them. We tell them what the consequences could be if they were prosecuted traditionally,
how serious that is. So we have a program in in Bergen County called the tier program uh tolerance, empathy, um acceptance and respect. And that program is designed for juvenile offenders to again to teach them about diversity to
teach them how to respect their peers and respect other other people with differences. So I think that if I had to say one word again it would be education. the more we educate them about bias and about the differences and about diversity
um the more we're going to gain in terms of not having those bias incidents. So educate, educate and work with our schools. Yes, >> Dr. Rivetsz, >> I agree 100% about education and I did
work uh with the prosecutor's office here in Bergen County many years ago. uh Jay Fay, he was the prosecutor at the time and several prosecutors after him. But I was uh called from Trenton to come into Bergen County where I live and I
love Bergen County. Um the Superior Court um needed someone to come up with an educational component to the sentencing of youthful bias crime offenders.
And as far as the court was concerned, it was a punishment, but it had to be meaningful. My first objection was that education is not a punishment. It's an opportunity. And we have to embrace it as such. And when you're dealing with
youth and you want them not to go down that road where they're going to face a record and a life that really you don't want them to slip into, it's very important that they understand that we care about them. And that's why they're
getting this opportunity. They may have done something very foolish, something very hurtful, but that doesn't make them a criminal right away. they can slip into it as I said, but the compassion that you can give them through education
and as I said things begin in the home and the sheriff said the same thing and what I did in that case was have the parents come or a guardian or someone who's responsible for that youth
could be a grandparent could be anyone an older sibling please come along and make certain that if you're going to do this sentencing, they're sentenced along with this juvenile to have the opportunity of the education that could get them on the
right road and so they could be productive citizens as they grow into maturity. And so I had this under control. We went to Ramapo College. I had the parents there. Um it was a
biased uh incident where um it was uh directed toward a teacher they didn't like who was Jewish and it didn't matter to me whether it was that or something else but it had to be handled a certain way. But when I gave it to the
prosecutor at that time was jumping for joy saying this is what we're going to use. This will be the template. I said no you must not have a template. Each case is different and you have to if you're going to educate know who you're dealing with. If you're going to
sentence a parent along with a child to an education, they miss a day of work or they uh are volatile and you don't know it. this is going to be taken out on that youth and send that youth further down into the rabbit hole that will make
them one day regret their actions and have a lifetime that they can't erase it again or or ever see um a time where they don't feel that I'm being blamed and I am now the victim and they are
when that happens. And I just want to make sure that we understand that education can only go so far and you cannot um force it. It's got to be something that can be accepted and relevant to the person that you're trying to reach. So, thank you for
bringing up the educational portion. It is definitely the answer, but how we go about it, that's the question. >> Thank you. And >> thank you, >> Lieutenant Petri. I'd like to ask you as a father, as a as a coach, what would you say to your kids?
>> Well, you know, I I was thinking about this question as you're going down the line here, and we have a very unique opportunity in our own home where we have three generations who sit around at dinner table every night. We have my mother-in-law, my wife and I, my mother-in-law who was a baby boomer, us
who are generation X, we have, you know, generation Y and the and and alpha. And I can tell you that I'm very hopeful for our future and our youth because I'll say when we talk around the table and we hear [snorts] just an inclination
of it and my wife wants to want to know when she's going to enter the conversation. Here she comes. My wife will hold my boys to task. What What do you mean by that? Explain yourself. And we hold our boys to a higher standard. You know, we hold them to the standard
that uh we hold ourselves to. Um and to hear from an older generation at the same table is a blessing as well, you know. So, we take all that and we put that together in in how we raise our boys. uh as a coach and uh as someone
who uh has mentored youth in our town, I treated every one of my players and every one of my uh parents and their families as if they were my own and I championed them and I uh went to bat for them. And if I felt that even one
referee or one coach or one player was slighting one of my players, I stood up for them. And I made sure that they knew that they had a champion in their corner, you know, and I made sure that our parents knew that while we were out at other games and we were away, that we
were representing New Milford and that we were representing the best of our town and that I wouldn't tolerate anything from our own stands. So I I we we held ourselves to higher standards in our home, outside of our home, in our
classrooms, and on our fields and in courts. And I I just have to say uh one thing, one last thing on this. When my boys were very young and we were uh I was asking, "Oh, you know, tell me about that person in your class,"
they used everything in their power to describe this one person in their class. And they could have just went right to his race and I would have known exactly what they're talking about, but they said, "No, no, you know, he's that short kid and he's got that short hair. Uh he was uh Woody for Halloween and uh you know, he he he kind of has like a little
bit of an accent." And they kept going and going. I I just How far can they go? and they never got to it. They never said the easy thing, which was to just to reduce that person to race. So, I'm very hopeful for our future. I'm very hopeful for our youth because this
generation is much different than boomers, much different than Gen X. They're much more exposed to all these different ethnicity, uh, ethnicities, cultures, uh, orientations. So, I'm very hopeful
for our youth and and and our future going forward. >> Thank you, Lieutenant. And Mr. Camping, >> I I just wanted to add on on the education point. I wanted to put in a pitch for the services of the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights. I mentioned our education and training unit. We have
several programs geared towards children. Uh and so I ask you to come to our website. Uh we can come to you. We have virtual programs. uh and we have some recorded programs. We also have a youth ambassadorship program where where
high school students can do internships with us. Uh and so I I encourage folks interested to to to look us up on that. Uh and similarly, we have a a competition each year of an art program where we select art that uh sort of
shows the values of the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights and Combating Hate and Bias. And one last point, I agree with education. One of the things when we do when we have an investigation, it involves a school. And when we see a school doing the right thing,
one of the things that they're doing is when a bias incident occurs, the first thing they do is they say, "This is a bias incident." They don't try to sweep it under the rug. They don't try to say, "Well, it was something else or something less." They see anti-semitism. They see
Islamophobia. They see a racist comment. they label it what it is and make sure that everyone knows it's wrong. I think that's something we could all do in our homes as well. And I think everyone here is saying that. >> Thank you. I just wanted to point out, as I said in the beginning of this
program, we create these symposiums to educate, to raise awareness, and to unite our communities. And it wouldn't be possible not only without our tremendous panelists and experts and agencies who volunteer their time, not just at the event themselves,
but in the preparation and the windup to these events. These events wouldn't be possible. It's also important to point out the tremendous support that we get from our mayor and our entire council who's here tonight to our superintendent
who anytime we need anything offers full support, full collaboration, and true partnership. And just as importantly, we're grateful to all of you in our community because it's not just through praise and compliments that motivates us to run
these programs. It's actually through constructive feedback, even constructive criticism that we learn how to do more and how to do better for all of you because that's why we're here tonight. So, with that, I'd like to pass the mic to assistant prosecutor Adoni for any
closing message to our community. >> Thank you, Matt. Thank you so much for coming here. I will say that I have prosecuted all varieties of cases throughout my career, burglaries and robberies and homicides and domestic
violence. And I have to say that prosecuting bias crimes is the most difficult of all. And it's not because it's difficult for me. It's because I see what it does to the community. Um bias crimes like no other really does
tear the community apart. Um it is as I said earlier it is not a crime that is directed against one particular individual. It's a crime that's directed at the community. So when one uh member of the Asian community is attacked, everybody is afraid. When one one member
of the Jewish community is attacked, the entire Jewish community is afraid. And that's why our job in law enforcement is very very difficult because there's so much emotions involved in in in prosecuting a a biased crimes case. It
is not clear-cut. It's not just about fingerprints and CSI type evidence. We're talking about what's in the person's head, emotions. We're talking what he does to a community. And so we we're doing this symposium
in order to educate the public, in order to foster understanding and also um make sure that you all do your part and report anything any act of hate that you see and cooperate with law enforcement.
Hopefully trust law enforcement um when you um see something. Thank you. >> Thank you, assistant prosecutor. like to thank our panel, [applause] our technical team who does an amazing job with our live street, Dan Pit,
Melorina, Councilwoman Lisa San Husen, our chief of police, Brian Clancy for his tremendous support, and the New Milford Police Department, Bergen County Prosecutor's Office, Sheriff's Department, and all these great agencies up here. Thank you. We are truly stronger together. I'm GL. I hope that
we can unite as a community against hate and bias in all forms. Have a good night.