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Chants of “Stop police brutality” and “No justice, no peace” rang through downtown Newark as gatherers rallied before the march, where Lawrence Hamm, chairman of POP, reflected on the organization’s decades-long campaign against police violence. Though current data shows that police killings are down, the mappingpoliceviolence.org project caveats this data, as law enforcement agencies across the country have been resistant to providing information about police killings.

The homes were built as Newark continues to face affordability challenges. Research conducted by Rutgers Law School’s Center on Law, Inequality, and Metropolitan Equity (CLiME) found that rents in Newark have risen faster than incomes, increasing concerns about housing stability and homelessness. The report highlights differences among Newark’s five central wards, with the East and Central Wards experiencing new construction, which is driving rapidly rising rents.

This October, the movement’s focus on early voting comes amid the midterm elections. Currently, the Republican Party holds both the House and Senate majorities by a slim margin, with the smallest number of seats in the House needed to control it—218 out of 435 voting members. In the Senate, Republicans, Democrats, and Independents have 53, 45, and 2 seats, respectively. Organizers state that the focus on voting will allow Americans to reclaim power and politically express themselves without intimidation, and No Kings pledged to invest in local communities to do so.

The protests aim to signal government leaders that climate policy is an urgent matter. For Dr. Sheats, New Jersey’s Bill S232— which requires the NJDEP to consult environmental justice communities when evaluating pollution-related permits, among other protections— has been a significant policy endeavor. S232 was passed on September 18th, 2020 and supported by over 165 organizations including the New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance, which Dr. Sheats co-founded.