Does a suspect's 'butter knife' justify 17 shots?

The Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan. Mass-transit reporting continues to lag in The Record, especially in the Road Warrior column by John Cichowski.

More than two weeks after a mentally ill Leonia man was shot dead by police, The Record today reports on clashing descriptions of the suspect's weapon from two witnesses who called 911.

One described a "long knife," but the second person told a dispatcher on Nov. 25 he was following a man with a "butter knife."

Police video and audio tapes were released last week and reported on A-1, so it's unclear why the Woodland Park daily is just mentioning this significant conflict or why the story isn't on the front page.

And head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes hasn't asked any of her reporters for a story on whether police were justified in killing a suspect with a knife, if there are other, non-lethal ways available to make an arrest.

Open wound

Today's story says three officers fired "more than a dozen shots" at Rickey McFadden, 47, of Leonia, but the family's lawyer was quoted last week saying the cops fired at the black robbery suspect 17 times (L-1).

The new development in the McFadden case comes a day after a Page 1 story discussed the "healing process" in the year since another black suspect, Malik Williams, 19, was killed by Garfield police on Dec. 10, 2011.

For some weird reason, Editor Marty Gottlieb ran a moving Carmine Galasso photo of Williams' mother holding an urn containing his ashes on Monday's A-4 instead of with the story on A-1. 

I guess Gottlieb didn't want to generate too much sympathy over the killing of a suspect who allegedly "rushed at" officers "with a claw hammer and a metal handsaw." 

And the story was edited so poorly by Sykes or one of her minions that nothing new appears on the front page -- it's all background information.

Even more remarkable, there is no mention of the McFadden case in the Williams story, despite all of the obvious parallels. 

A nod to Hackensack

Hackensack made front-page news, but not for holding the line on property taxes.

Detective Thomas Aletta and Capt. Danilo Garcia, were acquitted by a Superior Court judge of conspiracy and official misconduct charges for allegedly helping Ken Zisa, the police chief at the time, cover up a 2004 investigation (A-1 and L-1).

Here comes the judge

The lead Page 1 story today is another poorly edited account, this one of the two men Governor Christie is nominating to the state Supreme Court.

The name of nominee Robert M. Hanna, president of the Board of Public Utilities, doesn't appear in the text of the story on A-1, which is devoted completely to Superior Court Judge David Bauman, who was born in Japan to a Japanese mother.

Last time, Christie tried nominating a Korean-American and a gay black man, but both were rejected. 

More Jewish news

At the bottom of A-1 is another example of The Record assigning a reporter to a story in which he or she has a vested interest.

Readers are familiar with all those stories about Cuba and Cuban-Americans written by two Castro-hating Cuban exiles, Liz Llorente and Miguel Perez, who are no longer with the paper.

In recent years, Staff Writer Deena Yellin has been reporting on the Orthodox Jewish community she belongs to -- without disclosing her loyalties.

Today, in a front-page story on community-based therapy for the disabled, an Orthodox Jewish high school in Teaneck is mentioned in the third paragraph. 

A photo of the Jewish students appears inside on A-6, along with more information about the school's program. 

Apparently, no black or Hispanic students are mentioned in the story.    

In an effort to publish a photo of every gee-whiz, non-fatal rollover accident in Bergen and Passaic counties, Sykes today runs an L-3 photo of a Jeep Grand Cherokee that doesn't look so grand. 

Giant miscalculation

A concerned reader sent this comment to management about the Road Warrior's Sunday column on finding a parking space at the mall:

"Road Warrior offered his best-liked reader's tip of 'Bring a giant with you' just in case there is a parking dispute between drivers who block you, disabled or otherwise, from leaving a parking spot so that your giant friend can step out of your car and shout, as he reported, '[Fee-fi-fo-fum!] Move the damn cars -- now!'

"Besides the Road Warrior's best tip being  impractical, here's some common-sense advice for everyone that could have been reported.  Pull out a cell phone, working or not working, and calmly tell any driver blocking your exit that you will be calling the police on 911. You'd be surprised how quickly they let you exit your parking space as you seem to begin dialing 911. 

"No need to worry if the offending driver has or is a bigger giant than your giant friend, or has more road rage than your giant, or how you are going to waste more of your time and go back and shop, as the Road Warrior suggested, while waiting for the offending driver to leave.

"I will not comment on the many bad opinions and stories offered by the Road Warrior from readers about how to find parking spots.  If readers want to waste driving time, their lives, and money based on bad advice, which is less effective and contrary to transportation experts, so be it."