In five police shootings, was fatal force really necessary?

In January 2013, a bank sold a 4,000-square-foot former branch and retail store, above, to allow for the expansion of Simple Simon's, a deli and liquor store on Essex Street, near Prospect Avenue, in Hackensack, below. But the expansion hasn't taken place, and the site remains an eyesore at a heavily trafficked intersection near Hackensack University Medical Center.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The fatal Hackensack police shooting of a man who came at an officer -- allegedly armed with "a very large knife" -- is the fifth such incident in Bergen County, not the third, as The Record reports today. 

In reporting the death on Thursday afternoon of Raymond Peralta Lantigua, a Page 1 story recalls that on May 29, Kevin K. Allen, 36, "was shot as he waved a knife at Lyndhurst officers" (A-1).

"On May 21, Elvin Diaz, 24, was shot as he advanced on officers with what was described as a kitchen cleaver," the story continues, without mentioning on the front page that Hackensack police were involved in that case, too. 

And the Woodland Park daily has neglected to tell readers these three fatal shootings recall two others where the suspects carried knives or tools.

All minorities

All the men killed by police were black or Hispanic.

In November 2012, Rickey L. McFadden, 47, was shot by three officers after he allegedly robbed a CVS in Leonia at knife-point.

And in December 2011, Malik Williams, 29, of Garfield fled police custody, and was fatally shot when two officers found him in a nearby garage, armed with "tools."

With 70 uncoordinated, home-rule police departments in Bergen County, is it any wonder officers don't have a non-fatal method of dealing with cases like these -- three and a half years after Williams' death?

Why isn't Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli providing leadership, either by training local officers or purchasing non-lethal weapons for them from the money confiscated from criminals?

Bad head

Today's Page 1 story carries a clunky headline, using "dead" instead of the active "dies."

"Hackensack man dead

after being shot by cop"

And the editor or copy editor who wrote the headline could have mentioned the suspect had a knife in the main or drop headline, but instead, told readers Thursday's shooting was "blocks" away from the May 21 Hackensack police shooting.

Letter to editor

Noting what a mess Governor Christie has made in New Jersey and how much time he spends on the campaign trail, Robert Van Assen of Wayne writes in a letter to the editor today:

"Just imagine all the problems that he could cause in this country if he had 49 additional states over which he was in charge. The problems would be endless" (A-18).

Yet, The Record continues to publish the GOP bully's attacks on everyone from President Obama to Hillary Clinton to teachers and college administrators, as if anyone in the Garden State is paying any attention to what he is saying in Iowa, New Hampshire and other states (A-1).

Local news

I can't wait to see the art that will transform a "wood-panel fence" put up around the rubble from the April fire that destroyed a restaurant, Choripan Rodizio, and the apartments above it on Main Street in Hackensack (L-1).

On L-3, an editor or copy editor wrote another dull photo over line:

"HULA DANCING NEVER GETS OLD IN RIDGEWOOD"

I've lived in Bergen County a long time, and didn't know Ridgewood is associated with hula or any other kind of dancing, as the over line suggests.

What's clearer is that the 81-year-old man show in the photo is delighted at the sight of Ashley Spicer, a bikini-clad woman in her 20s.

Dessert fanatic

In her rave review of 17 Summer Restaurant in Lodi, Staff Writer Elisa Ung says, "No one should leave without trying the ... olive oil cake sandwiched with pistachio cream" (BL-18).

No one? How about people watching their weight and cholesterol? How about diabetics?

Seafood lovers find only octopus on the menu, according to her review, and no salads.

Something is rotten in Hackensack

New Jersey drivers, who spent 45 minutes crawling into the Holland Tunnel during the Friday afternoon rush hour in Manhattan, see the light at the end of the tunnel.

In the nearly seven months since a Superior Court jury convicted former Hackensack Police Chief Ken "I Am The Law" Zisa of official misconduct, The Record has virtually ignored everything else that is rotten in city government.

Now, the new Hackensack reporter, Hannan Adely, has teamed up with investigative bulldog Jeff Pillets to expose city zoning board attorney Richard Malagiere and land-use lawyer Carmine Alampi, owners of a house cited for crowding and other illegal conditions (A-1 Friday, L-1 Thursday). 

Hackensack residents still are waiting for the Woodland Park daily to question the continued contract with City Attorney Joseph Zisa, the chief's cousin, who has recused himself from defending any of the many suits filed against Ken Zisa.

The city had to hire an outside attorney, costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in extra legal fees.

More corrections

Friday's Page A-2 listed three corrections -- only a partial acknowledgement of all the errors that are getting past head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes, Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza and Production Editor Liz Houlton, supervisor of the inept copy desk.

Readers likely won't see a correction published for the inaccurate headline on Friday's error-filled Road Warrior column.

The column reports road deaths in New Jersey increased in 2011, "more than any state except California," but the headline says the Garden State is "near top of list for road fatalities." 

Road Warrior boo-boos

A concerned reader points out numerous errors in the headline and the text, including the following:

CORRECT FACTS -- Correct headline should have read "N.J. at Top of List for Increased Number of Road Fatalities."  N.J. was NOT near the top, but was at the top (tied with California) of the list of states for the increased number (71) of road fatalities from 2010 to 2011, which was the basis for the Road Warrior headline.

The headline is even more misleading since NJ is nowhere near the top for rate of fatalities or for overall number of road fatalities, where 21 states, including 8 with 1,000 - 3,100 fatalities, had more than NJ's 627 deaths for 2011.

2. Misleading false statement -  "If you suspected your Jersey commute became more hazardous in 2011 -- even more life threatening than in all the other states ... your suspicions were confirmed ... by Washington, D.C., bean counters [NHTSA]."

CORRECT FACTS --  While the increase in road fatalities from 2010 to 2011 was tied for the most in any state, NHTSA continually reports every year that NJ is one of the safest states based on fatality rates per vehicle miles traveled and per 100,000 citizens. 

3. False fact - "California [road death] losses climbed to 2,720 [in 2011]"

CORRECT FACTS -- Number of road deaths in California climbed to 2,791 in 2011 from 2,720 in 2010.

4. Misleading false statement and fact -- "Deaths of 'under the influence' driving victims rose almost 38% to 142 in 2011."

CORRECT FACTS --  As per NJ State Police report, it was intoxicated drivers that were involved in fatal crashes that rose almost 38% to 142 in 2011.  All of these intoxicated drivers did NOT die.  Only 104 intoxicated drivers, who had a blood-alcohol level higher than the legal limit of 0.08%, died.  Deaths of all 'under the influence' driving victims, including  drivers, passengers, bicyclists and pedestrians, rose to 187.

Of course, the copy desk wrote the incorrect headline, but the Road Warrior -- Staff Writer John Cichowski -- is responsible for all of the other errors in the column, which appears three times a week.

Cichowski can't accomplish the basic reportorial task of using statistics accurately.

He also cops out of his role as a journalist to question "aggressive enforcement" of traffic laws, citing readers' e-mails that raise doubts about the effectiveness of state, county and local police.

Less news, more photos

Sykes and Sforza couldn't come up with enough news to fill the Local section on Friday, so they relied on those trusty photos of non-fatal accidents (L-1 and L-2).

You have to give points to Staff Photographer Tariq Zehawi for getting to the accident scene on Route 95 in Leonia in time to capture first responders removing one of the injured on a board (L-1).

Record loves Christie

Friday's editorial on Governor Christie's weight contains not a single negative concerning his effectiveness as governor -- this despite the lagging state economy, the worse unemployment rate in 30 years, mounting debt and a host of other problems (A-22).

"There are people who say you couldn't be president because you're so heavy," Barbara Walters said during an interview with the state's fattest and worst governor.

"I mean, that's ridiculous. I don't know what the basis for that is," Christie replied.

What is truly ridiculous is the question, without reference to the obesity epidemic and what Christie as chief executive has done to fight it.

And why didn't Walters ask the GOP bully how much he weighs? 

Ung weighs in 

Legal Sea Foods, Rosa Mexicano and other upscale restaurants have been operating at North Jersey shopping centers for years, but looking for an angle, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung conveniently ignores that in Friday's appraisal of BRIO Tuscan Grille at Willowbrook Mall.

"Entrees start at $11.95 and go all the way up to $28.45 for a filet mignon -- that is a far cry from the food court," she wrote.

What nonsense. Most food courts serve fast food or other greasy fare. Is that really a valid comparison?

Feeding the obesity epidemic, Ung also sampled four artery clogging desserts, even though most diners don't have the room for them.

Reluctant prosecutor

At the bottom of Page 1 today, Prosecutor John Molinelli says Leonia and Palisades Park police were justified in firing 16 bullets and killing robbery suspect Rickey McFadden, 47, a mentally ill Leonia man, on Nov. 25.

Molinelli said, "The officers didn't shoot until McFadden ran toward them wielding a 12-inch serrated knife and yelling, 'I'm going to kill you!'"

The story doesn't explain why the prosecutor needed nearly three weeks to stage a press conference and display the knife to the media.

The family's lawyer says 17 shots were fired, and one of the witnesses called police and described the weapon as a "butter knife."

Serving confusion

Houlton's clueless copy desk misfires again with a photo caption that accompanies the local obituary for Warren Britcher, formerly of Paramus (L-6).

Britcher is shown serving President Dwight Eisenhower and first lady Mamie Eisenhower in the 1950s, but what is that in the huge metal bowl in the photo? 

The caption leaves readers guessing.

 

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."