First Sikh attorney general in US says public safety is 'just about trust'

FIRST Sikh attorney general in the US and New Jersey’s longest-serving attorney general Gurbir S Grewal has said that public safety is just about trust and no need to overcomplicate it, the New York Times reported.

He was recently selected to run a key enforcement division for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) after its former director resigned days after taking the job.

He will assume the new charge this week, the report added.

In a 10-minute video farewell, Grewal highlighted the need to restore and enhance trust in government and in the criminal justice system, particularly among communities of colour.

“Justice is simply not about numbers of arrests or convictions. Justice is also about the cases we don’t make, the individuals we keep out of the criminal justice system," he was quoted as saying by the New York Times.

Born to Indian immigrants in Jersey City, Grewal, 48, will remain rooted in the Garden State, commuting between Washington and Bergen County, where his wife, a doctor, and their three daughters will continue to live.

In the three-and-a-half years since he was named attorney general by Governor Philip D  Murphy, Grewal joined dozens of multistate lawsuits against the Trump administration. The cases helped to create a bulwark against efforts to remove some families from food stamps and exclude undocumented immigrants from the census count, the newspaper report added.

In his position as attorney general, Grewal oversaw all policing departments and each of the state’s 21 county prosecutors.

In December, his office rewrote the rules governing the use of force by the state’s 38,000 police officers and required them to intervene if they saw a colleague using illegal or excessive force. The policy, which takes effect next year, limits when the police can strike, chase or shoot civilians or use canines.

The changes were accompanied by the publication of a website that allows users to search and track incidents in which a New Jersey police officer reports using physical force.

Earlier this month, Grewal also released more than 10 years of data involving motor vehicle stops by State Police troopers, including the race or ethnicity of the drivers pulled over or charged.

In June, the state Supreme Court unanimously ruled that police departments are required, as directed by Grewal, to release a list of officers who have been subject to “major discipline” that led to a suspension of five or more days.

A bill pending in the Legislature would require the release of far more still-secret police disciplinary records, much like the repeal of a section of New York’s civil rights law did in New York City.

In his first year in office, the Indian American ordered police officers in local, county and state agencies to limit the voluntary assistance they offered federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, who during the Trump administration had stepped up arrests.

The directive won key backing from police leaders, but it also prompted lawsuits by several Republican-led counties and a nonbinding ballot referendum in Sussex County, where voters overwhelmingly gave the policy a symbolic thumbs down, the report added.

Grewal also frequently highlighted upticks in bias crimes and hate speech. He has spoken forcefully about understanding the sting of racism as the first Sikh in the country to become a statewide attorney general.

In May 2018, he described getting death threats and being called “towel head,” “rag head” and “terrorist.” Months later a New Jersey radio host referred to him as “turban man.”

“It’s not easy when everything is hyper-personalised, and you’re targeted because of your religious identity and your appearance,” he said.

Grewal has also ordered all state and local law-enforcement agencies to share information about people who sell and buy guns used in crimes and blocked companies from marketing or shipping ghost guns to New Jersey residents.

A lawsuit filed by his office over how the weapons manufacturer Smith & Wesson advertises is seen as the country’s most consequential legal battle over the future of gun control.

Grewal's office has issued a subpoena for internal Smith & Wesson documents, which, if obtained, could expose the inner workings of an industry that is typically shielded from revealing its secrets by federal laws that make it immune from liability for gun crimes and deaths, The Times report said.

According to Grewal, a community walk is a potent way to reduce gun violence, by eliminating barriers that can separate the police from residents.