NJ will hand out 7,100 'bleeding kits' to state's houses of worship as attacks mount
The New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness wants houses of worship to be prepared for the worst. So it's providing the state's more than 6,400 churches, synagogues, mosques and other religious sites with "bleeding control kits" in case of a shooting, stabbing or another attack.
The kits contain emergency medical supplies including a tourniquet, pressure bandage, gauze and chest seals to assist victims prior to the arrival of first responders.
The distribution is not a response to any specific threat, according to the Homeland Security office, which announced the initiative last week. Rather, it's aimed at improving "active shooter incident survival," the office said in a March 11 news release.
The state said it will provide at least one kit to every New Jersey house of worship with a plan of distributing about 7,100 in all.
Events of recent years have highlighted the need for such preparation: Over the past two years, New Jersey has witnessed the attempted firebombing of a Bloomfield synagogue, a bear spray attack on concert-goers at a church gathering in Asbury Park and the shooting death of an imam outside a Newark mosque in January.
"We cannot afford to wait for a cataclysmic incident at a house of worship," Homeland Security spokeswoman Maria Prato said. "That type of strategy costs lives. The premise of NJOHSP’s Bleeding Control Kit distribution program is about being proactive versus reactive."
She cited the deadly 2019 gun battle in Jersey City, in which two shooters attacked a kosher deli. Six people, including a police officer and the suspects, were killed in the rampage.
"While we are fortunate that we have had no mass shooting incidents at the state’s houses of worship, if we look back at December 2019, two individuals fatally shot a dedicated 15-year veteran of the Jersey City Police Department, and three civilians in an attack," Prato said. "This attack was rooted in antisemitism and anti-law enforcement sentiment. We’ve also seen direct and recent attacks by extremists on houses of worship where there were no reported fatalities."
From 2018 to 2022, domestic extremists and homegrown violent extremists carried out 16 attacks on "soft targets" nationwide, including houses of worship, resulting in 60 deaths and 66 injuries, according to the state.
Preliminary data released recently by the state Attorney General's Office this month showed a record number of reported bias incidents in New Jersey in recent years, with the Black, Jewish and Hispanic community among the most frequently targeted. Reports of antisemitism climbed by 22% last year. Anti-Muslim incidents almost doubled from 61 to 107 incidents.
More: NJ sets record for bias incidents, with Blacks, Jews and Hispanics the frequent targets
"We commend the New Jersey Department of Homeland Security and Preparedness for being proactive and taking additional measures to support houses of worship in today's threat environment," said Richard Priem, CEO of the Community Security Service, which trains and runs a volunteer security force that guards Jewish institutions around the country.
"We have seen an unprecedented uptick in antisemitic incidents since the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, including those that directly affected synagogues in our network," he said. "Although our priority remains to work with law enforcement on preventing serious incidents from materializing, increasing our institutions' preparedness for active threat situations with these medical kits is an important and welcome step as well."
Indy Samra, a member of the Homeland Security Office's Interfaith Advisory Council Executive Committee, helped coordinate a distribution and training session for the bleeding kits last week at the Guru Nanak Mission, a Sikh congregation in Oakland.
"This is our new normal," said Samra, who works with the state's Sikh and Hindu communities. "These kits give our houses of worship a chance to safeguard our communities. I think it's important to let people know we are not trying to train doctors. It just allows the congregation to buy time because EMS may not be cleared to come into the building immediately if there's a mass shooting."
New Jersey has the fourth largest Jewish population in the country at 609,000 people, the fourth largest Muslim population, at 300,000, and the second largest Hindu population with 278,600 worshippers. About two-thirds of adults in New Jersey said they were Christians of various denominations, according to a 2017 Pew Research Center Study.
Deena Yellin covers religion for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to her work covering how the spiritual intersects with our daily lives, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: yellin@northjersey.com
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ giving 'bleeding kits' to houses of worship as attacks mount
