New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s “peaceful” protest zone outside a Newark immigration detention center was anything but peaceful on Friday night.
Protestors ignored orders to disperse as the unruly crowd clashed with federal officers and state police, shouting death threats to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel.
Officers eventually deployed tear gas and pepper spray.
“Kill yourself, quit your job, quit your job,” the rabble-rousers chanted at one point, according to New York Post coverage.
“Fuck ICE,” they barked and called the federal officers “murderers.”
As Breitbart News reported Friday, Thursday night’s installment of several days of protests included threats not only against agents but their families.
Some shouted on Thursday, “You’re dead,” and “I’ll kill your whole fucking family.”
“I have your face, motherfucker, you’re dead,” another screamed.
On Friday, ICE agents waded into crowds of protestors, detaining several violent instigators.
Eventually, New Jersey state police on horseback — part of the governor’s new response to the week of mayhem — tried to force the crowd away from the Newark facility. Officers deployed tear gas as state police in full riot gear pushed ahead in a solid line.
Gov. Sherrill announced Friday state law enforcement would establish a peaceful “protest zone” outside the detention center while at the same time blaming ICE for the weeklong unrest.
“We all need to do everything we can to cool things down now,” she said at a news conference.
“I will not give ICE the pretext to expand operations in our state,” she told reporters. “For that reason, New Jersey law enforcement is today establishing a peaceful, protected, protest zone in the area outside Delaney Hall.”
Sherrill deployed New Jersey state police to Delaney Hall on Friday night after Newark police claimed she was preventing them from helping out the feds.
Captain John Chrystal, president of the Newark Police Superior Officers’ Association, told the Post that his department was handcuffed by the governor and told to “stand down.”
Meanwhile, the New York Times reported early Saturday that federal agents had agreed to withdraw from crowd control in the parking lot area outside of the detention center and allow state police to maintain order.
According to the Times:
Markwayne Mullin, the homeland security secretary, said in a statement on Friday that the decision to remove the federal officers represented a victory for his agency because Gov. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey had refused to allow state police to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.“This is a win for law and order,” Mr. Mullin said in a statement. “Thank you, governor.”
Protests erupted in Newark over Memorial Day weekend after detainees claimed they were being kept in “inhumane” conditions that allegedly included overcrowding and low-quality food.
The Department of Homeland Security, meanwhile, has countered that the standard of living at Delaney Hall is higher than most U.S. prisons.
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the author of the New York Times true crime best seller House of Secrets and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.