The former chief of a small township in New Jersey has been arrested on federal hate crime and civil rights charges for what federal authorities described as a pattern of racist comments and behavior — including slamming an African-American teen's head into a metal door jamb and saying that black people are "like ISIS."According to a criminal complaint in the case, filed in federal district court in New Jersey, Nucera frequently referred to African-Americans by racial slurs and espoused violence toward them. In November 2015, for example, when he was talking to a subordinate officer about an African-American man he believed to have slashed the tires of a police vehicle, Nucera said, "I wish that [expletive] would come back from Trenton and give me a reason to put my hands on him, I'm tired of 'em. These [expletives] are like ISIS, they have no value. They should line them all up and mow 'em down. I'd like to be on the firing squad, I could do it," according to the complaint.
Nucera also used police dogs to intimidate African-Americans, bringing canines to high school basketball games when his department was providing security and positioning them near the entrance to the gym, federal authorities alleged.http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/n...102-story.htmlThe physical violence of which Nucera is accused occurred in September 2016. According to the criminal complaint, the manager of a Ramada hotel called police to report that two African-American teens, an 18-year-old man and a 16-year-old girl, had failed to pay for a hotel room the night before and were swimming in the hotel pool.
When officers arrived, according to complaint, the teens resisted arrest. One of the officers pepper sprayed the 18-year-old, and both teens were eventually handcuffed and taken into custody, according to the complaint.
Several minutes later, as officers were walking the 18-year-old toward a stairwell, the teen briefly stopped and began shouting, according to the complaint. Though he was not kicking or struggling, Nucera approached, grab the teen's head and slammed it into a metal door jamb, according to the complaint.