In gun debate, should we expect more of the police?

This old Lincoln usually is among a half-dozen or more cars parked in the driveway or in front of 311 Euclid Ave. in Hackensack, a home that neighbors suspect is being used illegally as a rooming house. Their complaints to the city Building Department have been ignored. For the past three days, the car has been parked a half-block away from 311 Euclid.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

When did we stop expecting the police to control crime, especially gun violence?

Today, The Record runs a long Page 1 discussion of failed gun-control efforts in New Jersey (A-1 and A-6), and an AP story on Trenton breaking its record for most homicides in a year (A-4) -- and not a single police chief is quoted in either.

Have we bought into the unspoken argument of gun-rights groups that citizens need to bear arms to protect themselves in the absence of effective law enforcement?

Christie veto

Governor Christie's veto of gun-control bills is another example of how he falls short when compared to leaders in New York and other states on a whole range of issues, including mass transit and a hike in the minimum wage (O-2).

Today's front-page story on the gun debate is one of three process pieces hand-picked by Editor Marty Gottlieb to put readers to sleep.

Silver Spoons

Really, who wants to read a profile of John Mara, the wealthy co-owner of the Giants, who, like Publisher Stephen A. Borg, was born with a silver spoon in his mouth (A-1)?

Who is responsible for the wrong photo in a full-page East Coast Toyota ad (A-10)? A Toyota Camry is shown instead of  "the all-new redesigned 2014 Corolla."

Cops off the hook again

The Road Warrior's statistics-filled column on a speeding and driving drunk crackdown demonstrates once again how the media ignore the lack of enforcement at other times (L-1).

Same goes for a ticket blitz targeting bicyclists, but not speeding drivers, on Route 9W (L-3).

The drought on local obituaries continues today, but head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes made room for more utility pole news (L-2).

More irrelevant coverage

Editors of the Business section kicked back on Friday, scheduling a wire-service piece on the national economy today (B-1), but nothing on the dismal New Jersey economy.

On the Opinion front, Columnist Mike Kelly continues to test readers' patience by comparing the number of people who turned out to hear President Obama last Wednesday and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. a half-century ago.

His first column doing so was a total turn-off. Maybe, he should pay more attention to getting the editors to update his unflattering, "Shit-Eating Grin" column photo (O-1).

Eat this

On the Better Living cover, the fine-dining restaurant reviewer goes slumming at Sonic and other fast-food places to celebrate such crappy fare as "pretzel buns" (BL-1).

As if to balance The Corner Table column from Staff Writer Elisa Ung, section editors run an overlong profile of Pete Napolitano, also known as "Produce Pete," whose family business in Bergenfield closed in 2006 (BL-1). 

What do targets have in common?

Image by dougtone via Flickr

Here is Jerry DeMarco's take on The Record's recent investigations into political and law enforcement officials, including Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa. DeMarco, the former Record editor behind Cliffview Pilot.com, sent it in response to my post Friday, Throwing good money after bad:

"Competition is good for business," someone I highly respect told me recently.

It's also extremely satisfying when you enter a race as a single long-distance runner vs. a squadron of sprinters -- and STILL win. Got the timestamps to prove it, too.

Sure, they get their share of firsts. But shouldn't that be the standard when you have such resources?

I agree with you. But I believe the "understanding" isn't with KZ.

They went after Coniglio, but the feds got him first. Same with Ferriero.

Then came Mordaga -- oh, how they went after the former friend of the family, the "Clint Eastwood" of cops, jokingly known in the old newsroom as "the house dick" (that's a noir-era term for detective, young'uns). But Mike retired & they found no evidence of any wrongdoing. Boy, would I love to be HIS lawyer.

Running out of targets, they had one more crawdad hole left to find that big fish that so long has eluded them, the one that would get them some kind of cred in the industry -- which they don't seem to realize doesn't translate into ad revenue, & matters less to readers than Charlie Sheen leaving "2 1/2 Men."

Molinelli is squeaky clean -- and, boy, can he take a punch: Remember, he survived the cruise fiasco without a scratch (My "pal"? So what about it? Bring what he & his staff do every day & maybe I'll consider buying you lunch). So he wasn't an option.

The only target left was an old stand-by. They had the sources at their fingertips (they love to make phone calls instead of actually talking face-to-face). They even did a rimjob on Bobby Egan, KZ's sworn enemy & a crackpot from the word "go." Still, they couldn't pull the trigger.

So what happens? Molinelli's crew, w/ a little help from his feds, got Zisa first. And when Kenny blurted it out to staff, who immediately got calls? Yep: me.

So what did all the "investigative reporting" produce? The kind of work both Clints -- Taplin & Riley, newshounds who span generations -- would have laughed at. The kind Ritt/ McGarvey/ Cunnigham would've Jackson Pollock-ed with a grease pencil.

They didn't even explain to us how "Charles" begets the nickname "Ken."

So what say we raise a question: What do all these "targets" have in common?

 Eye on The Record says:

It seems most of the targets are Italian-Americans. Is that a coincidence? Do The Record's lazy, incompetent editors go after Italian-Americans? What do you think?

Did you see this in The Record?

 The link below is to a story run by Jerry DeMarco's cliffviewpilot.com on Dec. 24, 2009, but there hasn't been a word in The Record.
 
Police chief apologizes for supporting mobster

Ray of hope for readers?

More than a month after a new shelter opened in Hackensack and centralized services for the homeless, The Record of Woodland Park finally has taken notice.

On the Local section front today, we learn the innovative county shelter on River Street allows the homeless to stay there until they secure permanent housing and to use a number of private agency services that were previously scattered. Does the shelter's placement next to the county jail bother the homeless? The article doesn't say.

All the space devoted to the murderous father, on the front page and in the Local section, only serves to highlight how the former Hackensack daily has failed repeatedly to explore the human impact of the recession before people finally lose it, while obsessively reporting  housing starts, foreclosures and other cold, recessionary data.

At the same time, hundreds of thousands of dollars of staff time has been sucked up by an "investigation" into one man that is close to marking its third anniversary, without a single article published.

With the apparent backing of the Borg family, incompetent editors and hapless reporters -- including the poor woman who is supposed to be covering Hackensack --  have been screwing around for years trying to find something publishable about a single law enforcement official who never even rose to the rank of police chief or country prosecutor, according to talk in the newsroom before I left The Record.

And while this so-called investigation continues, with no end in sight, Publisher Stephen A. Borg, Editors Frank Scandale, Frank Burgos, Deirdre "Laughs A Lot" Sykes and  Tim Nostrand; and a bunch of sub-editors say to the readers in Hackensack and all the other towns that are no longer covered -- all together now -- Up yours!