Lack of mall security gives Paramus nightmares

A new CVS on the ground floor of a luxury apartment building in downtown Englewood, above, replaced two failed food markets. The drugstore and a soon-to-open bagel store, below, are among signs of renewal along Palisade Avenue, but many shuttered storefronts remain. On Saturday night, New Orleans rhythm-and-blues singer Aaron Neville performed at bergenPAC on North Van Brunt Street. The hall looked only half full.

The Record of Woodland Park has largely ignored the struggles of main streets in Englewood, Teaneck, Hackensack and other communities in favor of lavishly promotional coverage of new retailers at North Jersey malls.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

When an armed man or men invade a mall, school or movie theater -- setting off panic -- what good are drills and a massive police response after shots are fired?

That's the question The Record should be asking Paramus Police Chief Kenneth Ehrenberg and the Australian owners of Garden State Plaza, the state's biggest shopping center.

Instead, Editor Marty Gottlieb leads today's front page with Ehrenberg's elaborate justification for why police were relegated to performing mall clean-up duties the night of Nov. 4 and early Nov. 5.

That's when Richard Shoop, 20, of Teaneck fired six random shots before fatally shooting himself in the head.

'Shooting' or suicide?

The Record continues to use the words "shooting" and "shooter," even though Shoop fired into the ceiling, an elevator door and a sign or signs, and hurt no one but himself.

A photo caption on Page 1 today uses a weird verb to describe a police assault team outside the mall:

"Police aligning at Westfield Garden State Plaza on Nov. 4" [italics added]. 

What is that copy editor smoking?

The Paramus police chief calls Shoop's invasion a "nightmare scenario come true."

But the potential nightmare remains for shoppers, because Garden State Plaza has numerous entrances and not a single metal detector or any other security measure I am aware of with the exception of cameras.

Biased reporting

Also on Page 1 today, a column on the big campaign war chest that radical Republican Rep. Scott Garrett of Wantage will use in the next election only serves to remind readers of how little coverage The Record gave to his last Democratic challenger (A-1).

Redistricting shoved the Tea Party crackpot down the throats of Bergen County residents, including 80 percent of Teaneck and all of Bergenfield, Fair Lawn, Hackensack and Paramus.

The only Hackensack news in Local today is the arrest of an illegal immigrant on charges of stabbing another man (L-3).

A shuttered restaurant on Englewood's Palisade Avenue. The storefront where Victoria's Secret operated for many years also remains vacant.

Choking response

In Better Living, Food Editor Esther Davidowitz invites readers to choke on the wordy first paragraph of her Ridgewood bartender profile (BL-1).

The story is the latest in an occasional series called BEHIND THE KITCHEN DOOR.

Too bad that door didn't open to reveal someone who could edit her long-winded prose.