It's time to demand more from the police

This Dunkin' Donuts in Geneva, N.Y., looks exactly like the one on Passaic Street, near the tracks, in Hackensack.

The Record's editors continue to wring their hands over the attempted luring of children, with a Page 1 story today and the lead on Friday's Local news section.

They did the same recently over gun violence in Paterson and a string of burglaries that were getting uncomfortably close to Publisher Stephen A. Borg's $3.65 million mansion in Tenafly.

But none of these stories discussed the effectiveness of the police. 

Are the cops -- especially all those small-town police chiefs -- letting us down?

These chiefs often make north of $200,000 a year. What do they do besides draw up the schedule of runs to Dunkin' Donuts?

Christie loves donuts, chiefs

The Record has praised Governor Christie for capping the salaries of school superintendents, but no editor has questioned why he didn't do the same with police chiefs, including nearly 70 in Bergen County alone.

The reason for the editorial free ride may lie in the incompetence of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her minions, including Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza.

Sykes and Sforza have ordered their reporters to stake out police departments and prosecutor's offices, waiting for press releases.

In small departments, the chief often is the only one who gives out information on crime.

A newsroom so dependent on handouts can't afford to come down hard on the police for not doing their job protecting residents.

New news reality

In the Page 1 story today, luring cases are called "part of [the] new reality."

The same can be said of declining municipal news coverage in The Record, which is relying more and more on covering crime and less and less on what the police and town officials are or are not doing.

Today's Local front carries a story on Englewood merchants complaining about gas-line work disrupting their business (L-1) -- the third story about that city this week.

Where are similar stories about Hackensack's downtown and finances?

Missing the story

Today's Englewood story carries a clunky headline, attributing complaints to inanimate "stores." This would have fit:

Merchants bitch

about utility work

The story also ignores Englewood's longtime reputation for horrendous downtown traffic congestion, aggravated by the Police Department's refusal to carve out turn lanes on Dean Street at Palisade Avenue.

Installing turn lanes there would lead to the removal of several parking meters, but Englewood's well-known financial problems prevent that.

Wealthy wage war

Today's major Page 1 story -- "Leading the money race" -- puts to rest any doubt that wealthy Republicans, including donors to Christie and Mitt Romney, are waging a war against the rest of us, especially the middle class.

The nation's economy is struggling, as President Obama has stated so persuasively, because of the unbridled greed of the wealthy, who would rather keep more of their profits and spend much less on creating jobs and paying benefits.

Christie and jobless

Is it any wonder New Jersey's jobless rate remained above 9 percent for the 40th consecutive month (A-1 and A-18 on Friday), while the Christies made about $118,000 more in 2011 than the year before (A-3 on Friday)?

Or that Romney -- who makes $20 million a year from investments -- is promising to cut taxes on capital gains and other investment income for wealthy people like himself?

Flawed food writing

Bob Probert is one of (201) magazine's uninformed food writers whose work has appeared in The Record in recent months.

In today's Starters piece on a Lebanese restaurant called La'Mezza (BL-1), he says incorrectly a complimentary starter includes "baked pita chips called zaatar."

Za'atar is a Middle Eastern thyme mixture that can be served on fresh or baked bread or sprinkled on tomatoes, eggs, roast chicken and other food.

No admittance to 'rowdy'

In Friday's Better Living tabloid, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung wasted a quarter of her 3-star appraisal of Zana D discussing the owner's career and changes in the decor of the restaurant he bought.

So there wasn't any room to tell readers whether free-range chicken, antibiotic-free meat or low-mercury fish is served by the pricey Tenafly dining spot (BL-18 and 19).

Does a restaurant that apparently cuts corners on naturally raised or grown food even deserve an "Excellent" rating?


However, the clueless Ung made sure to advise readers the restaurant is "less appropriate for" a "rowdy gathering, particularly of younger people, who may feel out of place in the older crowd" (data box, BL-18).

You could describe the majority of readers as an "older crowd." Isn't that discriminatory?

Is advice on what a fine-dining restaurant "would be good for" or "less appropriate for" even necessary? 

Use the room to tell restaurant goers what really matters: Is the food free of such harmful additives as growth hormones and animal by-products?