A new lawsuit claims that the mayor of Spotswood, New Jersey, tried to have a Black man removed from a municipal building because of his race.
Mayor Jackie Palmer reportedly ordered officers from the Spotswood Police Department to remove the man on April 22, 2022.
The lawsuit was filed on Jan. 15 in the Superior Court of Middlesex County by Spotswood Police Officer Richard Sasso Jr. According to Pix 11 News, Palmer went on a racist rant after she tried to have a Black man inside the municipal building in Spotswood removed by the police. Sasso is suing the Borough of Spotswood and Palmer for unchecked power, cover-ups and overt racism, including the incident in April.
Palmer is the mayor of the predominantly white town with a population of less than 10,000 people, and she allegedly approached a Black man in the Spotswood Municipal Building while “clearly aggravated” and told him to leave the town hall for no reason. The man reported the incident three days later, on April 25, 2022, at the Spotswood Police Department, and Sasso was assigned to investigate.