Tim Alexander Says He Wants To Work From Inside To Get Things Done
BY DANIEL WINNER | Front Runner New Jersey Correspondent
WHITESBORO — Civil rights attorney Tim Alexander had a profound experience with racism while working with law enforcement, and it made him want to change the system from the inside.
Alexander, who spent more than two decades in law enforcement before becoming an attorney, spoke to South Jersey activist Steven Young and U.S. Senate candidate Lawrence Hamm at the Janet’s Society of Love Black History Month program at the Martin Luther King Jr. Center in Cape May County on Sunday, Feb. 18.
While attending his father’s funeral years ago in Newark, Alexander, who is running for the Democratic Party nomination for the House of Representatives seat against Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew, was racially profiled and accosted by three police officers, prompting a dramatic change in his life and career.
With the encouragement of his grandfather, Alexander decided to join law enforcement, aware that it was only from within the system that he could revise the status quo and modify the relationship between agencies and communities.
“But that’s not the story I want you to focus on,” said Alexander after sharing this incident. “It’s what happens next.”
He continued his story, “In the midst of all that, I was really dismayed at being a police officer. I was really upset about it and I didn’t want to do it anymore. I never wanted to do it from the beginning. It was my grandfather who said,
“‘Listen! You should protest about this. You can join organizations; you can really fight! But if you want to make change, become a police officer, get inside, and make a change from within.’
“That was the end of the conversation, because I was 18 or 19 at the time and said, ‘I’m not doing that stuff.’ It bore me down with the idea that we make change from within. That’s how you fight the system: by changing the rules of the system.
This is the second time in his political career that Alexander has run for Congress against Van Drew. After winning the party’s nomination in 2022, he received 39.6% of votes for the general election, losing to Van Drew who racked up 59.3%.
But this time around, Alexander is confident that things will change when he becomes representative for New Jersey’s 2nd Congressional District, but the votes must be in his favor.
To bolster his chances and to make himself better known to the general public, Alexander spoke with attendees at the Janet’s Society of Love Black History Month program,
“I had 27 years in law enforcement when I retired as captain of detectives at the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office,” Alexander said. “In the midst of that time, I was assigned to write policy for the organization. One day, I was sitting at my desk and I changed the way we did policy. I followed the community. I followed other police officers. I wanted to hear input on proposed policies. I was making the change from within.
“So fast forward, all these years, I retire. I walked in and said, ‘Hey, I’m gonna retire. I had enough.’ She looked up at me and said, ‘Okay, well then what are you gonna do?’ I’m like, ‘What do you mean? I’m retired!’ She says, ‘No, you gotta get a job.’
“So I retired on Friday from the Prosecutor’s Office. The following Monday, I reported to the Assistant District Attorney for the City of Philadelphia. I was prosecutor for the city of Philadelphia for a while, 3½ years.
“I enjoyed what I did, but I gotta tell you, I didn’t like the way we handled sentencing. I complained a little bit and I complained a little bit more. It was a system that was put in place. They had all kinds of studies done. They thought it was the fairest system and I didn’t like that.
“So I was talking to members of the defense bar about it, and one of them said, ‘You don’t belong here. You should be in civil rights.” It was a light bulb moment for me. Two weeks later, I was defending civil rights for the city of Philadelphia. It dawned on me there that I had the ability to help people. And you say, ‘You were defending the city. How are you helping people?’ I was helping people because I was inside and I had all this knowledge of being a victim of civil rights abuse, being a police officer, and understanding policy. So when I had a case in front of me, I knew if we needed to settle that case, we did it immediately. We didn’t drag people through a long process. It was a great job; the most rewarding job I had in my career.
“Unfortunately, it didn’t pay very well and my wife said, “How long are you gonna do this before you start making money?” So from there, I went on the other side and that is how I ended up being a civil rights attorney today. The reason I’m running for office is because you got to get inside.”
Hamm took some time to endorse Alexander during his own speech, saying, “I want it to be known that Larry Hamm endorses Tim Alexander to be the Congressman for the Congressional District Number 2. Because that’s what we got to do, right? We got to support each other.
“We should not, in the 21st century, be having any elections for Federal Office, be it for Congress, be it for the U.S. Senate, and there’s not a Black candidate in the race,” Hamm continued to rouse the crowd. “There must be a Black candidate. Because if we don’t have people in the race, our issues are not going to be discussed. It doesn’t matter whether he has the most money, or the biggest campaign organization. It doesn’t matter what the poll said. He’s from us. He’s for us. We should vote for Tim Alexander.”
“Politicians are elected to office for public service, but too often, as in NJ-2, they only seem to serve themselves,” reads a quotation on the Democratic candidate’s official website. “I will never turn a deaf ear to my constituents and will always be accessible to those who need it most.”
To learn more about Tim Alexander and his political campaign at www.timalexanderforcongress.com.
Other candidates running for U.S. House New Jersey District 2 include Carolyn Rush, Brandon Saffold, and Joe Salerno. The Democratic primary for New Jersey is currently scheduled for June 4, 2024.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Daniel Winner has a double major in Religious Studies and Japanese from Penn State University and has traveled internationally to the Far East on several occasions. His insights on Buddhism and Asian culture give a unique view of historical and modern trends. He will be serving as a contributor for Front Runner New Jersey.
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