the nation's top law enforcement officer says the justice department is staying Vigilant in the face of potential hatefield violence and threats us attorney general Merrick Garland today visited New Jersey's us attorney laying out priorities to combat the impact of the Middle East conflict here at home including the rise of threats against Jewish Muslim and Arab communities across the state and how state and local law enforcement are partnering to protect the safety of everyone in New Jersey Ted Goldberg reports no person and no community in this country should have to live in fear of hate fueled violence fulfilling that promise motivates us every single day that was the message from us attorney general Merrick Garland today speaking to reporters before meeting with New Jersey Law Enforcement leaders in Newark AG Merrick Garland touched on a few topics including the ongoing hostage exchanges between Israel and Hamas over the past several days days over 40 hostages who were kidnapped by Hamas on October 7th been released among them is Abigail Idan a four-year-old American we welcome Abigail's return and we hope to see The Return of more hostages in the days to come Garland says the Department of Justice has seen a spike in threats and hate speech since Hamas invaded Israel in October all of us have also seen a sharp increase in the volume and frequency of threats against Jewish Muslim and Arab communities across our country since October 7th there is understandable fear in communities across the country the justice department is remaining Vigilant in the face of the potential threats of hate field violence and of terrorism we are closely monitoring the impact that the conflict in the Middle East may have in inspiring foreign terrorist organizations homegrown violent extremists and domestic violent extremists both here in the United States and abroad Garland spoke alongside Philip Selinger the US attorney for the District of New Jersey they touted antiviolence programs coordinated between national and local law enforcement these programs are focused on building intelligence and resource sharing between federal state and local law enforcement to go after the most significant drivers of violent crime including gun violence just one example of what that looks like in practice in March of this year the office brought charges against 10 members and Associates of a Jersey City gang for drug trafficking that prosecution was part of the Jersey City violent crime initiative Statewide and in most of our major cities violent crime went down materially from 2022 to 2021 and again this year the Attorney General also spoke about fenel and highlighted Federal efforts to stop its spread around New Jersey two months ago this office charged an individual accused of selling fentanyl that caused the death of four people in New Jersey the investigations that led to those charges brought together the resources of the justice department Homeland Security investigations the North Brunswick Police Department and the Franklin Township Police Department Garland called fenel the deadliest drug threat America has ever faced just one of several issues concerning the Department of Justice and law enforcement Statewide in Newark I'm Ted Goldberg I'm Ted Goldberg NJ Spotlight News [Music] [Music]