38°
“FREE THEM ALL.” was written in block letters below which spatters of red paint ran down a garage door, on an outdoor trash can and along part of the driveway of the sheriff's home in Englewood.
The vandals struck sometime after 9 p.m. Tuesday, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said, while seeking the public's help finding those responsible.
The attack follows protests the past week at the county jail run by Cureton, a former president of the Bergen County chapter of the NAACP.
Protestors with signs, drums and megaphones have rallied several times over the past week outside the jail in Hackensack, at times blocking traffic on River Street, and even damaging property, in support of fasting detainees.
"Fight ignorance not immigrants," one recent sign read. Another said, "Reunite the families."
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement earlier this week confirmed that, at one point, from four to nine detainees at the jail had stopped eating food directly supplied by corrections officers.
The ICE spokesman didn’t say for how long, however.
It also wasn’t clear whether the detainees were eating food bought at the jail commissary in lieu of facility-supplied meals.
Also unclear was whether their primary opposition was to conditions at the facility – which some say makes them susceptible to contracting the coronavirus -- or to ICE policies in general.
Both reasons have been cited by protestors, attorneys and groups who’ve called for the release of all ICE detainees from custody at the four facilities in the state – three that are publicly operated in Bergen, Essex and Hudson counties and a privately-run facility in Elizabeth -- that contract with the federal government to hold them.
Many have been arrested for other crimes and were ordered held under detainers filed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement so that they can be brought before federal judges for deportation hearings.
The detainees say they should remain free while they await the hearings.
Several detainees went on a similar strike at the Essex County Correctional Facility in Newark earlier this year, demanding their release for what they called humanitarian reasons amid the first burst of COVID-19.
Since then, more than 40 hunger strikes have been reported at facilities throughout the country.
Meanwhile, prosecutor's detectives and Englewood police were reviewing surveillance video and other evidence.
Musella asked that anyone who saw something or has surveillance video or information about the vandalism contact the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office at (201) 226-5532.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Pascack Valley and receive free news updates.
