By Zayid Muhammad
They were not only wearing their famous orange and black gear on this day. Some had on that gear especially made to honor their fallen friend and colleague, that red and black gear, his smiling face on the front, and a quote of his on the back that bespoke his vibrant personality and input on the work of making peace he so cherished.
“You are going to go through a lot of stuff in your life, but its about how consistent you are and how true you are to yourself,” Najee Seabrooks…wisdom Najee would impart to young people navigating a violent environment and trying to learn to exercise good judgment…
Tuesday marked the third anniversary of the tragic police killing of Paterson violence interventionist Najee Seabrooks!
The Paterson Healing Collective, where Najee did his inspirational work, hosted a moving in house healing tribute to his memory capturing just how that amazing young man is sorely missed in their space.
In their Healing Hubb which is centered by a larger than life picture of Najee and his magnetic smile, they each reflected how and why they are grateful for what Najee brought to their lives and to their space and poured and passed onto each other water and a container sharing what Najee poured into them.
His younger brother Sutan finished the reflections with this:
“He was more than a big brother showing me how to live, but not only for me, with my friends being around, he was a big brother to them too.
“I miss him,” he said pointedly.
They finished and poured water into a jade plant decorated with a number of pictures of Najee that will be presented to his mother Melissa Carter. Jade plants are hallmarks in many eastern cultures as generators of positive energy.
“We are grateful for the life and legacy of Najee,” they all chanted in unison winding up their gratitude healing circle lead by their beloved in house therapist Alia Berry.
“Long live the spirit of Najee,” they continued.
“He is very much here in the hearts and minds of all of us.
“Ase,” pronounced ‘Ah-shay,’ which means ‘so be it’ in Yoruba, they finished.
Seabrooks was tragically slain by Paterson police officers in a mental health crisis on March 3rd, 2023. Most infuriating about the incident is that team members of his Paterson Healing Collective were on hand and ready to intervene, but were denied doing so by the police.
His death set off a firestorm of protests and debates on the need for alternative responses to police to persons facing mental health challenges. Those protests and debates would come to a head with outgoing Governor Phil Murphy signing into law the Seabrooks Washington bill, named after Najee and Jersey City’s Andrew Washington who was killed under similar circumstances just a few months after Najee’s fateful incident. The bill mandates the piloting of community led crisis response teams in several New Jersey counties with 2M to be allocated for each county. Of course, Passaic County, where Paterson sits, was among those counties. Murphy signed the bill into law back in January of 2024. Yet to date no funds have been released as several of those designated counties have already established the personnel who are ready to assume that pioneering responsibility.
The Paterson Healing Collective is gearing up for a one day symposium that they are cohosting at Montclair State University on March 31st summing up five years of the impact of their work, “consistent” work, using Najee’s language, even after the devastation of his death, and introducing their personnel who would do their crisis response work.
Several people have loss their lives to the police in mental health challenges since the bill has been signed…Victoria Lee in Fort Lee and Deborah Terrell in New Brunswick.
Could their lives have been spared if Seabrooks Washington had been fully implemented? We’ll never know.
The time to release these funds and give this work a chance is now…
Follow the Paterson Healing Collective at Patersonhealingcollective.org. To register for their symposium, use this link…https://forms.gle/Rsoe35kyKreBxZfE7