‘Just Pulled a Gun on Me’: Road-Raging Jewish Cop Accuses City of Anti-Semitism for Indicting Him for Pepper-Spraying and Arresting Black Man on False Charges
It took four years and a scathing federal investigation, but a New Jersey cop who pepper-sprayed a Black man, then falsified documents to justify the abuse, has been indicted by the state on five felony counts that could send him to prison for decades if convicted.
Trenton Police Detective Aaron Bernstein, a 24-year veteran of the law enforcement agency, was indicted last week by a grand jury for pepper-spraying the 27-year-old Black man in May 2022.
The 51-year-old cop is facing one charge of aggravated assault, one count of perjury, one count of possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and two counts of official misconduct – the latter two charges that come with a mandatory minimum sentence under state law.
But while there have been many New Jersey cops indicted on official misconduct over the years, most are not sentenced to prison because prosecutors usually offer them deals allowing them to plead to charges without mandatory minimum sentences, according to a 2020 ProPublica investigation.
Also, Bernstein’s lawyers are claiming the only reason his client was indicted was that he is Jewish.
“I find it extremely ironic that out of the dozens of allegations of inappropriate conduct in the report, that the only one criminally charged is an officer who has sued the police department for antisemitic behavior,” his attorney, Robin Lord, told NJ.com.
Bernstein filed his lawsuit against the Trenton Police Department in July 2024, alleging that on “December 12, 2022, Plaintiff arrived to work and discovered a dancing Santa Claus decoration holding a handmade sign which read ‘F_ck Jews’ with a red circle crossing out the Star of David on his desk.”
Bernstein’s claim of being singled out of a cesspool of dirty cops is reminiscent of another New Jersey cop, Paterson police officer Spencer Finch, who has a pending lawsuit claiming he was fired and arrested for beating a Black man on video solely because he is Caucasian.
Like the Trenton Police Department, the Paterson Police Department has a long history of racial profiling and abuse against Black people. And cops rarely are held accountable.
Bernstein is also accused of threatening to kill a Muslim woman at gunpoint during a road rage incident while he was off duty, according to a pending lawsuit.
Federal Investigation
Not much information has been publicized regarding the pepper spraying of the Black man that led to charges against Bernstein except that it took place in 2022.
Bernstein charged the Black man with obstructing and resisting arrest, and it remained under the radar for more than two years until it was exposed by the federal investigation in November 2024, which was when Trenton police claimed they first learned of the incident.
Bernstein was suspended without pay 12 days later in December 2024.
But Bernstein is hardly the only Trenton cop accused in the year-long investigation of violating citizens’ rights, but he appears to be the only one indicted because of the report.
We find that Trenton police officers, particularly those in specialized enforcement units, conduct illegal pedestrian stops and searches, and unlawfully prolong traffic stops. They arrest people without a legal basis. They are quick to escalate situations through their aggressive tactics and refusal to answer people’s legitimate questions. Officers use unreasonable force against people who are not threatening them, including spraying them with pepper spray.
The 2024 federal investigative report also points out that the city of Trenton has paid out more than $7 million in three years since 2021. The report does not mention Bernstein by name but lists a multitude of instances where Trenton cops abused the rights of Black citizens.
We also found instances where TPD officers unlawfully arrest pedestrians. For example, in one incident, officers in the Violent Crimes Unit followed a young Black man after seeing him outside the back of a store in black clothing at 10 AM. The officers followed the man, grabbed him, and placed him under arrest.
After the arrest, one of the officers said to the other, “I don’t know what he had.” The officer added, “Maybe he didn’t have anything. I don’t know what he was doing.” Without any objectively reasonable basis to suspect the young man committed a crime, the officers should not even have stopped him, much less arrested him.
Officers also arrested five more Black men for filming the young man’s arrest from across the street, even though the men did not interfere with officers during the arrest. Filming police officers like this during the course of their duties is protected by the First Amendment.
Road Rage Incident
Bernstein is at least the third Trenton cop to be indicted in recent years.
In 2023, Trenton police officer Nicholas Piotrowski was charged with official misconduct for pepper-spraying a 64-year-old man named Joseph Ahr Sr. in 2020, which led to his death, but the charge against the cop was dismissed last year.
In 2024, Trenton police officer Rudy Lopez was charged with 11 counts, including three counts of official misconduct, tampering with public records, and possession of marijuana with the intent to sell, in a case that remains pending.
Meanwhile, Bernstein was not charged or disciplined for a 2023 off-duty road rage incident where he punched the car window, kicked the door and pointed a gun at a Muslim woman named Manal Hassan while yelling profanities, accusing her of cutting him off, which he claimed forced him to strike her from behind.
According to the claim:
While Ms. Hassan was providing her location to the 9-1-1 operator, Defendant Bernstein arrived at the driver’s side of Ms. Hassan’s vehicle with his weapon was drawn and pointed at Ms. Hassan.
Ms. Hassan informed the 9-1-1 operator, “This guy just pulled a gun on me…”
Defendant Bernstein was not in police uniform. Defendant Bernstein did not display a badge or any other identification of himself as a police officer.
With a firearm pointed at Ms. Hassan, Defendant Bernstein proceeded to yell at Ms. Hassan, at least twice demanding that she exit her vehicle.
Defendant Bernstein used obscenities and screamed, “I’m going to f— you up” with the firearm pointed at Ms. Hassan.
“I don’t know how the actions can be determined to be lawful, even if he were on duty,” said Jeremy Klausner, Hassan’s attorney in the pending lawsuit that accuses the Trenton Police Department of threatening to kill her, then covering it up because she is Arabic.
“Defendants denied Ms. Hassan full and equal treatment under the laws of the United States when Defendant Bernstein pointed a firearm at Ms. Hassan solely because she is of Arabic ethnicity,” the claim states.
However, Bernstein once again claimed to be the victim, filing a countersuit against the Trenton Police Department in that case, accusing his superiors of “failure to train Aaron Bernstein.”