New Jersey police arrested a Black man during a traffic stop that he alleges officers conducted in bad faith and as a blatant act of racial profiling.
Jamaal M. Holmes, 34, of Ocean County, faces charges of obstruction of the law and resisting arrest, but a video he took of the June 2 incident is raising serious questions.
The footage went viral online, and Jackson Township Police Chief Mary Nelson said in a June 7 statement that the department has launched an internal investigation.
Holmes appeared in court on July 16, where he denied committing any crime. His attorney, Joseph Champagne, told local news outlets the judge delayed the case because Jackson Township police have yet to turn over bodycam footage.
Holmes’ turmoil began when police officers drove by him as he sat in his car, on the phone, in the parking lot of his apartment complex. In a June 2 Instagram post, Holmes said he left the complex and drove more than three miles before the police pulled him over.
At that point, the officer laid out his reasoning for the stop on camera. The cop accused him of looking suspicious when he ducked down in his car “wearing a sweatshirt in 80-degree weather.”
The officer said: “I was a little concerned. It looks like you were reaching down, hiding your face when we came by. You’re wearing a sweatshirt in 80-degree weather. You got a handicap placard up. There’s people that complain in The Mews about people parking in handicapped spots.”
Holmes asked, “Was I parked in a handicap spot?”
The officer replied, “No, I was just wondering if you have any documentation of that. I’m just telling you everything.”
As Holmes handed over his driver’s license and paperwork, he asked for the officers’ badge numbers and to speak to a supervisor. The cop seemed skeptical that Holmes lived in the neighborhood, asking, “Is that where you live? You live in the Mews? You live there?”
The encounter escalated when the officer told him to step out of the car, but Holmes refused to do so until a supervisor arrived. “I know my rights,” he said. According to the video, the officer made him exit the vehicle and put him under arrest.
“Bro, yo! Now you just broke my f–ing door handle, bro,” Holmes told the cop, as he continued to ask for a supervisor. “Yo, why you grabbing me, bro? Why you ripping my papers?”
In his Instagram post, Holmes said he asked for medical attention at the police station: “When my phone stops recording, they are slamming me up against my car, twisting my arms and crushing my back, that has screws and rods from a spinal fusion just 2 years ago.”
Police later said they pulled Holmes over for an expired inspection sticker, although officers never gave him that reason during the stop, according to the video. Court records reviewed by local station News12 confirm officers ticketed him for the violation.
Champagne told the outlet: “Based on the video we have reviewed so far, Mr. Holmes asked a basic question: Why was he being stopped? A basic question deserves a basic answer.”
