News
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Police Accountability Project
On October 10, 2012, the City of Union City (Hudson County) agreed to pay $80,000 to a man who sued members of the Union City Police Department for allegedly assaulting him after taking him into custody for violating the City's curfew ordinance.
In his suit, Diego Diaz, through his mother, Maria Lopez, said that at 3:43 a.m. on February 6, 2010, while he was 15 years old, he was taken into custody by Union City Police for violating the municipal juvenile curfew ordinance. He claimed that while in custody, he "engaged in a verbal altercation with Officer Corey Corbo which resulted in Corbo assaulting him. He also claimed that Officer David Chasmer assisted Corbo in the assault.
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- Written by: Walter M. Luers, Esq.
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
by Linda Baum / edited by Walter Luers, esq.
New Jersey Foundation For Open Government
August 2013
New Jersey’s Open Public Records Act (OPRA), effective in July 2002, is one of the best tools the public has to obtain information about what government is doing.
OPRA requests must be in writing. While many governmental entities have a specific form for this purpose, you are not required to use it. In fact, legally you can send an email request, with the description of the records you are seeking in the body of the email itself. Importantly, the email must clearly state “OPRA request” in the email. Also, you should include your name, address, phone number and email address so the records custodian may contact you. (There is no legal requirement to identify yourself when making an OPRA request – the OPRA law allows you to submit a request anonymously.)
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
09/07/13 Update: The case has been scheduled for a hearing before Hon. Mary C. Jacobson, A.J.S.C. in Trenton on Wednesday, October 30, 2013 at 11 a.m. The signed Order to Show Cause is on-line here.
When you see a police car protecting a construction site on a public roadway, the taxpayers are probably not paying that officer's salary. Instead, the construction or utility company pays the police agency for the officer's salary and for use of the police car and the agency in turn pays the salary over to the officer. This is known as "extra-duty" and can be a lucrative source of income for local police officers.
I requested to know the amount of "extra-duty" pay a particular Ewing Township (Mercer County) police officer received during 2012, but the Township denied my request. The Township's position is that "payment for voluntary, off-duty work paid by a third party does not involve the expenditure of public funds" and is not a public record.
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- Written by: Mark Richards
- Category: Letters to Editor
Originally published at Suburban Trends newspaper
Dear Editor:
Libertarians are evidently getting under the skin of some folks, a sign that the philosophy of individual liberty and small limited government is growing!
On the one hand we have our bully of a governor, Mr. Christie saying libertarianism is dangerous in his attacks on Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky. We then have a local letter writer giving a completely distorted view of what he thinks Libertarians believe in.
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- Written by: Alex Pugliese
- Category: Selected Blogs
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie recently stated in an interview that there is a strand of libertarianism that is in both the Democratic and Republican parties that he finds repugnant and “dangerous” when it comes to foreign and domestic policy. In the same interview, he attacked libertarian politicians like Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) and others both personally and professionally.
On foreign affairs, Mr. Christie believes that it is justified to have U.S, troops stationed in 140 countries for the sole purpose of sending them into battle in wars and conflicts that are not in U.S. interests. He further believes that it is the duty of the U.S. to be the world’s policeman. Mr. Christie agrees with Neo-Conservatives like William Kristol and Charles Krauthammer that the U.S. must follow the foreign policy of Woodrow Wilson to make the world safe for democracy no matter where. Libertarians believe the opposite. They are of the belief that wars should only occur when a nation is attacked or threatened. Furthermore, while they believe that all nations of the world should be free and prosperous, they are the well wishers of their own nation. They also believe that the U.S. should stay out of the affairs of other nations both internally and externally.
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Police Accountability Project
On August 6, 2013, an Administrative Law Judge will conduct a confidential settlement conference regarding a police discipline matter captioned In the Matter of Jon Andrews, OAL Docket No. 08542-2013 or Civil Service 2013-3466).
Andrews, a Lavallette Police sergeant has appealed a 20 day suspension for "conduct unbecoming a public employee" and "other sufficient cause" that was imposed by way of a Final Notice of Disciplinary Action issued on May 31, 2013. According to the police, Andrews was "suspended without pay" by way of a written notice issued by Police Chief Colin Grant on August 22, 2012. The notice accused Andrews of being "involved in sending and receiving text messages and pictures of a lewd, lascivious and/or inappropriate nature during working hours to a fellow member of the Lavallette Police Department with remarks as to another Department member." He was also charged with claiming three hours of overtime for attending a court session that he did not in fact attend.
Despite the "without pay" provision of Chief Grant's notice, the Borough Council, at a September 5, 2012 special meeting, "voted to extend the paid medical leave of Sgt. John Andrews until a disciplinary hearing can be held by the police department." (See, Ocean Star, September 7, 2012 "Council Votes to Extend Officer's Paid Medical Leave.")
Andrews' appeal and Grant's August 22, 2012 notice are on-line here. Andrews is being represented by Anthony Pope, Esq. of Newark. The Borough is being represented by Eric Bernstein, Esq. of Warren.
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project
As a result of a request from the NJLP Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project, the Manville Borough Council has agreed to repeal their Morality Ordinance at their upcoming meeting on August 12th1. This ordinance covers loitering, being drunk, fighting, cursing, trespassing, lewdness, public nudity, annoying a school teacher, cursing at a police officer, and other things. The Manville News covers the story here.
Local laws like this in New Jersey are invalid because the 1978 criminal code preempts local ordinances like this. The 1978 criminal code specifically excluded several acts that were at one time illegal, including loitering, public drunkenness, and some consensual sexual acts.
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- Written by: Justin Raimondo
- Category: Latest News
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By Justin Raimondo. This article originally appeared at antiwar.com and is republished here by permisssion. |
Asked about the national debate unleashed by the Snowden revelations, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie declared war on libertarians:
“As a former prosecutor who was appointed by President George W. Bush on Sept. 10, 2001, I just want us to be really cautious, because this strain of libertarianism that’s going through both parties right now and making big headlines, I think, is a very dangerous thought.”
Asked if he was referring to Senator Rand Paul, Christie said he is “one of them," and went on to sneer:
“You can name any one of them that’s engaged in this. These esoteric, intellectual debates – I want them to come to New Jersey and sit across from the widows and the orphans and have that conversation. And they won’t, because that’s a much tougher conversation to have.”
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- Written by: Joe Siano
- Category: Latest News
The 2013 Farm Bill needs to be reconciled between the Senate version and the House version. Let’s think about this. The Farm Bill incentivizes farmers to be unproductive in order to drive up food prices. This was instituted during the New Deal in the 1930’s.Thirty years later the Foods Stamps program was passed into law as part of President Johnson’s Great Society agenda. Presumably this was to help lower income people afford the food that the federal price supports had made so costly.
Did anyone in Washington, DC ever notice that the goal of capitalist, free market system is to create innovative methods of production and distribution so as to make so as to make goods more affordable and accessible to the masses? Occam’s Razor demands that farm price supports be lifted so that an abundance of affordable food can be provided to a hungry world.
I wonder who’s paying for all this anyway?
As a perplexed Ricky Riccardo might lament, “Lucy, you have some ‘splainen to do”.
Has anyone other than me ever noticed the ever declining prices of flat screen TVs, computers, smart phones, tablets and such?
Perhaps it’s time we had a TV Bill, and a Computer Bill and a Smart Phone Bill? Are you listening, Washington?
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- Written by: radiofriendly
- Category: Latest News
It’s been just over a month since the NSA’s dragnet surveillance program was leaked to the public. Tomorrow, Congress is voting on an amendment that would block funding for NSA programs that collect the call records of innocent Americans.
A win tomorrow may start a chain reaction – but it won’t happen unless we speak up. We have one day to convince Congress to act.
Congressional Switchboard Number: (202) 224-3121
A critical vote is happening tomorrow, July 24th, on the Defense Appropriations Bill in the House of Representatives. The bill gives taxpayer money to fund defense programs, including NSA surveillance.
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
Following is my July 15, 2013 letter to the asking it to a) adopt my more precise and informative form of closed session resolution and b) to stop discussing general policy matters in closed session. Unfortunately, violations such as these are common among local governments.
I encourage readers to submit Open Public Records Act (OPRA) requests to their own town councils and/or school boards. Simply request "the resolutions, as required by N.J.S.A. 10:4-13, authorizing the three most recent closed or executive sessions held by [name of governing body]." If you receive resolutions that, like Winslow's, describe the closed session topics broadly and vaguely, you may want to modify the form of resolution I sent to Winslow for your town and/or school board and encourage them to adopt it.
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- Written by: Mark Lagerkvist
- Category: Police Accountability Project
O
riginally published at newjersey.watchdog.org - republished under agreement.
Joe Derrico – the disabled New Jersey cop turned roughhousing repo man on reality TV – took a hard punch today from the state Police and Firemen’s Retirement System.
The PFRS board of trustees stripped Derrico of his $69,703 a year tax-free disability pension and declared him fit to return to work for the Hamilton Township police. The action was sparked by an investigative report by New Jersey Watchdog and NBC 4 New York two months ago.
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- Written by: Mark Richards
- Category: Letters to Editor
Originally published at Suburban Trends newspaper
Dear Editor:
In the July 3rd Suburban Trends, Holly Ennist Stewart in her "My Word" column starts off by talking about the erosion of the civil liberties since 9/11 (no argument from me on that score, although the war on individual liberty started long before 9/11). From that point on, Holly’s article seems to go downhill (in a leftward direction very fast). Growth of government interference in our lives is actually the fault of the business community according to Holly, not the politicians who enact unconstitutional laws and the bureaucrats who enforce them. Did it ever occur to Holly that businesses wouldn’t have lobbyists were it not for all the unconstitutional regulations they have to deal with?
Free-market capitalism isn’t the problem; rather it’s the lack of it! As to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, what Holly doesn’t understand is that the federal government has no constitutional authority to determine state and local elections laws and policies. I have several of those pocket-sized editions of the Constitution courtesy of groups as divergent as the ACLU, the Libertarians Cato Institute, former Congressman Ron Paul, and the John Birch Society. Not one of those copies of the Constitution shows any federal power granted over local election laws. The powers of the federal government are supposed to be, as James Madison said, "few and defined."
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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
A judge has ordered that a report on a Egg Harbor Township police officer found asleep at the wheel at a light in Northfield be made public.
John Paff, Chair of the NJ Libertarian Party Open Government Advocacy Project, tried to obtain the report in 2011 however Northfield refused to release the report. He filed suit to have the report released.
Subcategories
NJ Libertarian Blog
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This is a page of various videos that we have either created or found interesting. Be sure to check out and follow our YouTube page.
Open Government Advocacy Project
The Open Government Advocacy Project is a committee of the NJ Libertarian Party. Its goal is to ensure transparency and accountability at all levels of government. Articles posted here are a subset of the work of the committee. For more information visit the Open Government Advocacy Project blog.
If you would like to demand accountability and ensure that your local governing body or school board adheres to the Open Public Records Act we can help you request information from them. Contact John Paff, the project chair here.
Insight New Jersey
NJ government is huge and complex. Private industry is shrinking while the size and cost of government bureacracy continues to grow. The articles posted here provide a guide of the NJ State Government and can be used by citizens and candidates for office to evaluate what departments can be reduced drastically in size.
We'll start with just some of the departments and provide a breakdown on what they do (or purport to do), how many employees they have and how big their budget is.
Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project
The New Jersey Libertarian Party's Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project (“the Project”) seeks to get New Jersey municipalities to repeal loitering ordinances that should have been -- but were not -- repealed when the New Jersey Code of Criminal Justice was enacted in 1979. The Project has successfully had loitering ordinances repealed in over 30 towns. For a summary listing of all the towns see Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project page.
Police Accountability Project
The Police Accountability Project is a committee of the NJ Libertarian Party. Its goal is to search out cases of police misconduct, file former Internal Affairs (IA) complaints when appropriate, and to publicize violations of rules and laws by the police. There may be other stories posted on the NJLP Police Internal Affairs Complaint Blog page.
If you would like to help or know of a case we should be looking at, contact the committee at
Legislative Affairs Committee
The Legislative Affairs Committee was created to allow a select core of Volunteers to take action on legislation and policies which directly affects the people of New Jersey.
[INTRO VIDEO - HOSTED ON NJLP STATE YOUTUBE AND EMBEDED HERE]
Staff
Legislative Director and Committee Chair
Volunteers: