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Hudson County officials thought they had the perfect solution. A prosecutor's memo directing every officer to watch mandatory First Amendment training before a major journalism event seemed like smart preparation. The deadline was clear: all law enforcement must complete the video by 11:59 PM, on their own time, non-compensated.
The plan fell apart within hours of being tested.
The Training Nobody Watched
Two journalists arrived at the Hudson County courthouse the day after the memo was issued, hoping to discuss the training with officers who had supposedly watched it. Their first stop was the prosecutor's office, where they asked to view the same video officers were required to study.
The response was immediate stonewalling. A sergeant directed them to file an open records request by email instead of providing any assistance or comment about their own training initiative.
Since officials refused to discuss their own policy, the journalists decided to test whether officers were actually following the mandatory training order.
Floor by Floor Reality Check
Starting on the ninth floor, the journalists approached every officer they could find with a simple question: have you watched the required First Amendment video? The results were damning. Zero officers had viewed the training. Most had never even heard of the memo that supposedly required them to complete it by midnight that same day.
One officer was in the middle of directing traffic and confirmed he had seen the video, making him apparently the only law enforcement officer in Hudson County who had actually followed the prosecutor's directive.
As the journalists moved between floors asking about the training, something unexpected began happening. Officers started appearing from nowhere, materializing on each floor faster than the elevator could carry them.
The Hallway Confrontation
By the eighth floor, what started as simple questions about training compliance had escalated into something far more serious. Fourteen officers surrounded the journalists in the courthouse hallway, with one sergeant getting so close that uncomfortable questions were asked about his intentions.
The officers wanted them gone. They cited court orders prohibiting filming in the building and made threats of arrest if the journalists didn't leave immediately. The irony was impossible to ignore: officers who hadn't bothered to watch mandatory First Amendment training were now violating First Amendment rights.
Then a lieutenant arrived who changed everything.
When Leadership Actually Leads
Unlike the other officers, this lieutenant demonstrated the intelligence and professionalism the training video presumably taught. He immediately recognized what his subordinates had missed and gave them an impromptu lesson in how to properly handle journalists exercising constitutional rights.
The lieutenant's intervention prevented what could have become a significant civil rights violation, but it raised disturbing questions about the gap between policy and practice in Hudson County law enforcement.
The Press Conference Approaches
With a major journalism event scheduled for the next evening and a press conference planned for 1:30 PM, the journalists confirmed they would return to test whether officers had finally watched their required training. The deadline had passed, but clearly the education had not taken place.
What happens when they return with cameras rolling and questions about why a simple training requirement became a fourteen-officer confrontation remains to be seen.
The full confrontation footage reveals exactly how close this came to arrest and what the lieutenant said to defuse the situation.
