Police, town officials must
address serious charges

In the wake of serious allegations against the Freehold Borough Police Department, a thorough investigation is called for and should proceed with all due speed.

The allegations being made against the police by a borough resident are especially troubling, given the fact that the department has no history of the type of behavior that is being alleged.

The charges stem from the July 25 arrests of Ziyadah Perry, 24, and Zurinah Perry, 21, on charges of aggravated assault on police officers, resisting arrest, and spraying bodily fluids on police officers.

The sisters and their grandmother, Norma Randolph, a civil rights activist in the borough, claim that not only were the sisters victims of police brutality during their arrest, but were excessively mistreated afterward while being processed at police headquarters.

Ziyadah Perry claimed her shirt was torn off during the scuffle with police officers and she was forced to walk topless before male police officers even after being taken to headquarters.

What allegedly took place at police headquarters while the Perry sisters were being pro-cessed was especially offensive to NAACP officials and to Randolph, who said she arrived at police headquarters at about 2 a.m. July 25, an hour after the arrests were made. Randolph said one of her granddaughters was naked from the waist up, lying on a wooden bench in handcuffs facing the wall with her skirt pulled up and her buttocks exposed.

Joseph Taylor, president of the Greater Freehold Branch of the NAACP, said he is most concerned with the treatment the women received at police headquarters. Taylor said he is in the process of arranging a meeting with Mayor Michael Wilson, Police Chief Michael Beier-schmitt and a representative from the Monmouth County Human Relations Commission to review what took place on July 25.

Freehold Borough Police Capt. Michael DiAiso said he is conducting an investigation into what took place before, during and after the incident.

This situation should not be allowed to fester in the borough. Residents need to know whether the charges being made against the police have merit. If policies and procedures need to be addressed, or discipline meted out to individual officers, then that should be the course of action followed, and with due speed.