Editors mock black teen's death

The overpaid Garfield police chief, at left on phone, gets word that a suspect ran out of an unlocked police station door and three officers could not catch him.

On The Record's front-page today, four big photos showing a black suspect fleeing the Garfield police station focus on a comedic Keystone Kops chase -- not the confrontation with officers who shot him dead.

The story and photos take up most of Page 1, but the text is so poorly edited, there are several major flaws -- typical of the assignment desk under Editor Deirdre Sykes and the news copy desk under Editor Liz Houlton.

Sykes and Houlton continue to make Editor Marty Gottlieb look bad as the ex-Timesman completes his second month at the Woodland Park daily.

The use of "TALE OF THE TAPE" -- a sports term -- in a kicker over the main headline seems inappropriate over a story about the controversial shooting of Malik Williams, 19. The phrase mocks the victim.

Why not just use the phrase "COPS' VIDEO TAPE" or something similar?

'Unspecified tools'

Three months and 10 days after the fatal police shooting, The Record continues to report Williams "allegedly had armed himself with unspecified tools" on Dec. 10, 2011 (A-1). 

But on the continuation page (A-6), the paper quotes the two "use of force" reports it obtained from police recently, alleging Williams attacked an officer with a "blunt object" and a "knife/cutting object."

That conflicts badly with "unspecified tools" on the front page. Where are Houlton and her copy editors? Are they so in awe of Sykes, they ignore such glaring conflicts in a story?

Who owns garage?

Also on A-6, a large photo of the detached garage behind a Dahnert Park Lane home is shown. The caption says Williams was shot "near" the garage. The graphic just under the photo says he was shot "in" the garage.

The laziness and incompetency of Sykes and her minions have been exposed by coverage of the Williams shooting.

In the past 100 days -- instead of looking for witnesses to the shooting or interviewing the owner of the garage on what he or she might have seen -- the paper merely regurgitated bare-bones press releases from Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli as he tried mightily to cover the asses of all of the police officers involved.

Breaking weather news

On the front of Local today, Sykes delivers the breathless news that we've had our "warmest winter ever" -- which anyone who watches TV news already knows.

Former Hackensack reporter Monsy Alvarado is back with a ridiculous story on "two tragedies" in Palisades Park -- the unintended suicide of a priest who fell asleep while smoking and the "beheading" of a statue at another church in the borough.

Death and vandalism

How can the desperate Sykes have the nerve to compare the untimely demise of the Rev. James F. Reilly to vandalism, especially when the paper appears to have no intention of using his meaningless death to illustrate the dangers of smoking. 

Sykes continues to nibble around the edges of Hackensack for local news, but there is nothing from the county seat itself.

Developer had sole

On L-6, a local obituary on land developer and footwear inventor Eli Cohen, formerly of Paramus, fails to note that his shock-absorbing running shoes had only limited commercial success.

In a bid to capitalize on the Nike name, Cohen named them "Nebbishy."

Highway businesses

On L-7, the first Business page, a story on businesses filling "retail space" in Parmaus, doesn't explain the 24 Hour Fitness health club opened in a building that once housed a multiplex movie theater, not a big-box store.

The story does tell readers a second New York-based Fairway Market is expected to open in June on Route 46 in Woodland Park -- in a former Pathmark.

The paper's commercial real estate coverage continues to virtually ignore struggling downtowns in Hackensack, Teaneck and Englewood.