The decision, posted at the bottom of this story, could be appealed to the state Supreme Court.
Practically speaking, the lawsuit is about legal fees since the contested documents have been published. Most of the file on killer cop Philip Seidle was released in December by the office of New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal. Grewal’s office initially opposed release of the file, but in the wake of the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers last summer, his office acted independently from Neptune and released the file to the Press and the public.
The file confirmed earlier Asbury Park Press reporting that Seidle’s domestic turmoil was known to local law enforcement.
The policy specifically bars intentional strikes to the head or face in most circumstances.
“Never (as a police officer) would you stand toe-to-toe and just trade punches with somebody,” said Chris Burbank, the vice president of law enforcement strategy at the Center for Policing Equity and the former chief of the Salt Lake City Police Department. “So, I don’t see the benefit of this other than for an archaic tradition.”
Just two county police academies Cape May and Mercer still include boxing in their training programs, and Mercer hasn’t featured it during the coronavirus pandemic, Aseltine said.
But the drill also has many defenders in the police community who argue that police officers will inevitably encounter uncooperative and violent offenders and need to be taught how to defend themselves in a physical confrontation.