In Englewood, racial injustice is everywhere

When I saw this man standing with a sandwich board on Route 18 and Tices Lane in East Brunswick last Friday, I wondered about just how bad the state economy is under Governor Christie, who is seeking a second term.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

Anyone familiar with Englewood's segregated schools or its two-sides-of-the-tracks shopping district must be doing a double take after reading the lead paragraph of today's Page 1 centerpiece:

"Gerald Marion has spent his career fighting fires, not racial injustice," The Record reports under a big photo of Englewood's African-American fire chief.

You can't be black and live in Englewood, and not fight racial injustice. The city was founded in 1899, but Marion is only its second black fire chief.

Marion is calling on Englewood to boycott businesses in Florida as a protest over that state's "stand-your-ground law," which the judge in the George Zimmerman trial included in her jury instructions.

Jury system

But the verdict clearing Zimmerman in the slaying of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager, should inspire more than a boycott of Florida businesses or attempts to strike down "stand-your-ground" laws.

Like the O.J. Simpson trial many years ago, the verdict calls into question the viability of the entire jury system.

Judging from some of the stupid comments from the women who found Zimmerman not guilty, maybe a minimum I.Q. should be required for jury service.

Copy desk I.Q.

And judging from the awful headlines over the Marion story and another A-1 story, no minimum I.Q. is necessary to work on The Record's copy and news desks or to hold the six-figure job of production editor.

The main headline -- "Chief calls out city" -- gives readers absolutely no clue the story is related to the Florida trial and not-guilty verdict.

The headline fails miserably, because all the clues are below the fold.

Another bad head

The other big headline on Page 1 -- "Lying for a free lunch?" -- is equally confusing, because the alleged liars did so to get lunch not for themselves, but for their children in school.

They can't think much of their kids, if the free lunches are anything like the tasteless food served at Hackensack High School (A-1 and A-5).

John J. Fahy

After reading about the stellar legal career of John J. Fahy of Rutherford, readers are wondering what The Record's editors and reporters missed to explain why he killed himself with a single shot to the head on Wednesday (A-1 and A-8).

And the fatal shooting wasn't "along" Route 17. It was on a sidewalk next to or near the road.

Utility poles

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes runs another story about the 65-foot PSE&G utility poles that were installed in Ridgewood (L-1).

That's three days in a row.

Of course, readers know that Sykes has a special place in her heart for utility poles, judging from all of the photos she has used, documenting damage to them from out-of-control cars and trucks, in place of legitimate news.