Mayor Sheena Collum,  SO Village Council and Municipal Prosecutor, Gracia Montilus:

We are outraged by the targeting of a Ceasefire Sunday attendee, Lisa V. Davis, on March 31, 2024 by the South Orange Police Department. At that time, she was issued two citations:  

1. holding a “special event without  a permit” 

2. “loud, continuous or excessive noise with specific claim of sound amplification equipment.” 

These false charges were issued by SOPD after Ms. Davis and other members of our group were verbally assaulted and threatened by an anti-Palestinian passerby as they stood on the sidewalk after the conclusion of a Ceasefire Sunday event. We demand that the charges be dropped and an investigation opened into why SOPD decided to press these false charges against an African American woman who was victimized by an aggravated bystander for exercising her democratic right to protest.

On March 31st, Lisa Davis attended the regularly scheduled Ceasefire Sunday demonstration along with 30-40 others. She was not an organizer, she was merely a participant in this peaceful event. At the end of the demonstration, a man stopped his car in the middle of South Orange Avenue, jumped onto the sidewalk, and began aggressively and violently berating group members. He yelled “terrorists” at two young women, denied the existence of Palestine, and berated the entire group, including repeatedly approaching Ms. Davis and others and yelling in their faces. At the time, Ms. Davis was holding a megaphone but not using it.

Due to the violent disruption caused by this anti-Palestinian aggressor, members of the group called 911 for protection. SOPD responded, spoke to the man, and took him for a wellness check. SOPD officers then requested further information from group members about the assault, and Ms. Davis voluntarily shared information, including video. The following day, without further questioning or contact from SOPD, she received a ticket by mail, containing the two false charges above. 

Ceasefire Sunday is a weekly gathering that has been held in SOMA since December 2023. Our events have been consistently peaceful and have attracted hundreds of attendees. They have also repeatedly been assailed by anti-Palestinian protestors, often with megaphones, yelling verbal abuse and seeking to deny our right to free speech and freedom of association. Assailants have threatened and spat on the group, and once, a car attempted to drive into us while we were crossing the street. Yet Ms. Davis, a peaceful protestor who was being victimized by an aggressor,  is the only person to have been ticketed in all this time. She is also a Black woman and a decades-long community leader against racism, who connects the struggle for Black liberation with a Free Palestine. The fact that SOPD targeted Ms Davis, as a Black woman, is an offense to our group’s commitment to oppose all forms of racism, Islamophobia, and anti-semitism.

The outcome of this case may cause further harm to community race relations, as well as negatively affecting the image of South Orange, which claims to be a welcoming and diverse community. 

We demand that these charges be dropped. Additionally, we ask for an investigation into the actions of the South Orange Police Department, seeking to determine why these charges were brought against Ms. Davis in such unjust circumstances after an “investigation” that consisted of viewing a live-streamed video on Facebook.