🚨New Jersey AG Calls Clark Township a Modern-Day Sundown Town And Instructs Police To Terrorize Black People🚨
For generations, Black Americans have said that racism in this country was never just about individual hatred. It has always been about power. It has always been about institutions. And when those institutions are controlled by people who believe Black people don’t belong, racism stops being an opinion and becomes policy.
That’s exactly what the State of New Jersey says happened in Clark Township.
According to a civil rights lawsuit filed by the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office, town leaders and members of the police department spent years creating an environment designed to drive Black and other non-white people out of the community. The lawsuit doesn’t describe isolated incidents or a few bad decisions. It describes an alleged pattern of discrimination that stretched across nearly a decade.
The complaint alleges that former Mayor Salvatore Bonaccorso repeatedly used racist language and encouraged police leadership to keep Black people out of the town altogether. If these allegations are true, this wasn’t simply prejudice behind closed doors. It was prejudice backed by the authority of government. It was another case of government backed racial terrorism.
The numbers cited in the lawsuit paint an alarming picture. Although Black and Hispanic residents made up only a small percentage of Clark’s population, they accounted for a disproportionately large share of traffic stops. Black motorists were reportedly searched at far higher rates than white drivers, raising serious questions about how policing was being carried out.
Investigators also allege that officers were deliberately assigned to roads leading into Clark from neighboring communities with larger minority populations. Routine traffic enforcement, according to the lawsuit, became a tool for deciding who was welcome and who was not.
Perhaps the most striking accusation is the state’s description of Clark as a modern-day sundown town. That term carries enormous historical weight. It refers to communities where Black people and other minorities were intimidated, threatened, or driven out before nightfall. The Attorney General argues that Clark’s leadership used intimidation and discriminatory policing to create that same kind of environment.
The lawsuit doesn’t stop with the township itself. It names former Mayor Bonaccorso, former Police Chief Pedro Matos, and other officials, alleging violations of New Jersey’s anti-discrimination laws and the state constitution. The state is seeking compensation for those harmed, along with long-term oversight of the township and its police department to ensure these practices cannot continue if the allegations are proven.
The former mayor has denied the allegations. Current Mayor Angel Albanese and representatives of the New Jersey State Police Benevolent Association have argued that the lawsuit is politically motivated.
Now the case moves into the courts, where evidence, testimony, and the legal process will determine whether the state’s allegations can be proven.
