Charges against the two cops stemming from this incident had been dismissed several months earlier by a lower court judge, who claimed that under "political pressure" the two had been unfairly turned into "poster boys for racial profiling."

Forces fighting police violence have been encouraged by the ruling. On the other hand, Americop, an ultraright pro-cop outfit headed by a police sergeant in Nutley, a suburb north of Newark, denounced the appeals court ruling as a "travesty." He has called a march in support of Hogan and Kenna in Nutley for January 20.

The ruling came on the heels of a December 19 decision by a federal jury here finding five Orange, New Jersey, cops guilty of violating the civil rights of Earl Faison, a 27-year-old Black man they beat, robbed, and killed on April 11, 1999. The civil charge carries a maximum 10-year sentence. Although prosecutors failed to bring criminal charges against the cops, the recent verdict is a victory for opponents of police brutality.

The January 5 ruling also follows the state government's release in late November of 90,000 pages of police files documenting the long-standing practice of "racial profiling."  
 
Outrage at cop brutality
Underlying these events is the widespread outrage against, and resistance to, cop brutality among working people. The result has been an open debate in ruling circles in New Jersey, conducted in the courts, state legislature, and big-business press, over what levels of police violence are deemed necessary and "acceptable" today.

The April 1998 turnpike shooting put a national spotlight on New Jersey cops acting as judge, jury, and executioner. Four Black and Latino students, headed for a basketball camp in North Carolina, were stopped, allegedly for speeding. Within minutes, troopers Hogan and Kenna had fired into their vehicle at point-blank range, wounding three of the students, two seriously. Denny Reyes, 20, was shot six times; Leroy Grant, 23, four times; Rayhawn Brown, twice. The attack was witnessed by two passing motorists whose testimony challenged the cops' claim of self-defense.

In the case of Earl Faison, the jury heard eyewitness testimony from cops themselves of how the young man was beaten after he was handcuffed, and then pepper-sprayed with a canister held directly against his nose and mouth.

Faison, who suffered from asthma, died within an hour of being taken into custody in April 1999. He was one of several "suspects" rounded up in a brutal police operation carried out by Orange cops following the killing a few days earlier of a fellow cop allegedly investigating a robbery.  
 
 
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