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The newly formed Asbury Park chapter of the National Action Network hosted an urban empowerment summit at Asbury Park High School Saturday with Network president Reverend Al Sharpton delivering the keynote address.

The main issues the local chapter will focus on are public education, studying the fairness of the local criminal justice system, and looking into cases of possible police brutality, Sharpton said.

Problems in those arenas are not unique to Asbury Park, but in urban centers throughout the country, he said.

“What is going on in Asbury Park affects us all over New Jersey, all over New York – all over the country. Because the first problem in education is that there is a commitment by those that are adverse to all of us, to shut down public education.”

Along with defunding public education, there is an attempt to privatize the criminal justice system, Sharpton said.

The action network will be researching recent accusations of police brutality in the city along with studying cases in the criminal justice system, comparing the demographics of those in the local prison system with their crimes and punishments.

“Folks are doing an inordinate amount of time for petty crimes, while others are getting parole that have done egregious things,” he said.

He also stressed unity among likeminded individuals.

“The fight has never been about black and white, it has also been about right and wrong,” said Sharpton. “There are some whites that are right and some blacks that need to get back. Although some of you may look like me, just because you are my color doesn’t make you my kind.”

With a new city council election set to take place in November, Brother John Muhammed, of the Neptune Nation of Islam, said a ticket was already being formed, naming city residents Daniel Harris, Duane Small and Remond Palmer as potential candidates.

Harris told the Sun he is going to run and will be formally announcing a ticket “in the near future.”

Harris, Small and Palmer were part of the unsuccessful A-Team ticket that ran in the last May election. Muhammed cited multiple tickets caused residents to split their votes as the reason the ticket did not win.

“We split our vote and we lost because we were not united,” Muhammed said. “We can’t let that happen this time…if you have it in your heart to run, I’m asking you to fall back. If anyone puts up a ticket against these brothers, I’m coming after you … we already have a ticket – one ticket, one Asbury.”

Following Sharpton’s speech, public educators from around the state discussed issues urban centers face.

Representatives from Camden, Atlantic City and Pleasantville expressed frustration with the state fiscal monitor’s presence in their districts, believing the monitor’s power needs to be checked and the decision-making put back into the hands of local school board officials.

“I am under the impression that the monitors are not here to produce results, they are here to plan for failure,” said Jerome Page, vice president of Pleasantville School District’s Board of Education.

“We have a state monitor, and we have had a state monitor for six years,” said Board of Education President Geneva Smallwood. “But the point is this: with all of the monitors who walk with us hand-in-hand, side-by-side, we are still not being able to make the right decisions and use the money properly to education the students to the full extent that they deserve.”

“Atlantic City is no different than Asbury Park … we are all fighting the same fight, we want to make sure that the children, the parents, and all of the stakeholders get what they need to make sure we are doing what’s right in our community,” said Ed Cooper, vice president of the board of education in Atlantic City.

Former Asbury Park Board of Education president Remond Palmer, who moderated the event, said Governor Chris Christie changed the criteria to become superintendent in the district from requiring a background in education to a background in business.

“The educational system is failing our children in Asbury Park,” said Palmer. For anyone who does not take responsibility for that, you, too, are failing the children of Asbury Park.”

The rally also celebrated the achievements of Asbury Park High School senior Daquane Bland-Bennett, a recent recipient of academic and athletic scholarships to attend West Virginia Wesleyan College in the fall.

Diteko Hammary, president of the Sportz Farm Foundation, presented Bennett with the foundation’s first Scholar Athlete of the Year Award [both shown at right]. Bennett is graduating with a 3.7 grade point average, among the top ten in his class, Hammary said.

In addition, Joseph Creekmore, of the International Free and Accepted Modern Masons , was given a local community service award. The masons conduct coat drives, walk the streets against gang activity and partner with other organizations to promote high school equivalency programs for dropout students.

By midsummer, the district eight masons will start a youth job organization in the city, Creekmore said.

The cause for the youth job organization is twofold.

“So that kids don’t get caught up in gang violence, and to avoid peer pressure which is so much a part of gang initiation,” he said.

“The children in this town are capable of being educated, they just need the proper opportunity to succeed,” said a Revernend Kevin Nunn, a minister at Spirit of Truth World Vision Outreach Center and vice president of the Asbury Park-Neptune Ministerial Alliance.

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