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.

'Mayhem,' 'chaos' and other fictions

The Record's old headquarters on River Street in Hackensack.

The Record and other media are giving Governor Christie a lot of credit for stepping up and pressing President Obama for aid after Superstorm Sandy devastated the shore and other parts of New Jersey.

This week, he's been all over the front page, blasting House Speaker John Boner and other Republicans for delaying a vote on a $60-billion relief package for the Northeast.

But it looks like property taxes will be going up in many communities anyway (A-1 today and on Friday, and A-10 editorial Friday).

So, will the media now take Christie to task for breaking his original campaign promise to lower taxes, and criticize him for how little he has done to encourage money-saving consolidation or cap the salaries of police chiefs?

Newsroom mayhem

On Friday, readers stared dumfounded at the Page 1 text, graphic and photo package screaming "traffic mayhem" at a "normally quiet corner" in Fairview.

What corner in sleepy Fairveiw isn't "quiet"? 

Do three relatively minor incidents involving a truck "blocking traffic," a rolling car injuring the driver and a four-car fender bender really deserve to be on the front page?

A Fairview police SUV was involved in the accident, but none of the three police officers on the scene could describe what happened.

Waitress gives tip

Luckily, Point Diner waitress Maggie Martin had nothing to do, saw everything and gave extensive information to the reporters and photographer who hyped this story to the max, even selling it to former New York Times veteran Marty Gottlieb, the editor who put this nonsense on A-1. 

Talk about a slow news day, and the substitution of traffic mishaps  and downed utility poles for legitimate municipal news.

Recall last May, when Gottlieb and the local assignment editors, Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza, reported "chaos" and "havoc" in Hackensack after the conviction of former Police Chief Ken Zisa.

But nothing could be farther from the truth. 

Christie hits jackpot

Friday's A-4 reported Christie has already collected $2 million in second-term campaign cash from all those wealthy supporters grateful for hundreds of millions in business tax breaks and continued low income-tax rates on millionaires.

Bullshit pulpit

The cowardly Steve Rothman has a retrospective of his 25 years in elected office on Friday's Opinion page (A-11).

Rothman is the ex-congressman from Fair Lawn who ran from a reelection fight against Rep. Scott Garrett, R-Wantage, then lost to Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-Paterson, in November.

Rothman's selfish bid to prolong his own career ensured another term for Garrett, an arch-conservative.

He mentions he served two terms as mayor of Englewood and helped set it on "its path to renewal."

Tell that to all of the parents whose children are still attending segregated schools in the wealthy community, which counts Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg as a resident. 

An A-11 photo of Rothman posing in front of the Capitol shows him with a Volkswagen. Should he or any Jew be buying a German car?  

Suicide watch

Many pedestrians appear to be suicidal or have a death wish, but Road Warrior John Cichowski doesn't seem to think they should be ticketed for jaywalking (L-1 on Friday).

This stance is in keeping with earlier columns denouncing traffic cameras and quoting all those lead-footed drivers who delight in running red lights, endangering others.

Copping out

A long story about Hackensack's civilian police director, who will be appointed later this month, doesn't say how much he will be paid or whether that will be less than the $200,000-plus Zisa made (L-1 0n Friday).

Another donut-fetching police chief is retiring, this one after 28 years on the Tenafly force (L-3 on Friday).

Police Chief Michael Bruno was paid $189, 361 in 2012, more than Christie made as governor.  

Stir-fried curries

In Friday's Better Living, Staff Writer Elisa Ung brings us her lukewarm, 2-star appraisal of another mediocre restaurant, an Indo-Chinese place in Edgewater called Chinese Mirch.

What does "mirch" mean? I don't think she says.  

Today's paper

Official excuses fill the front-page story on why no police officers in Bergen or Passaic counties carry a Taser or other device that could disable a criminal suspect with an electric charge (A-1).

The story also again mischaracterizes the actions of Malik Williams, 19, of Garfield, who was killed by officers in December 2011.

The second paragraph says he "allegedly rushed" officers with a claw hammer and handsaw, even though the prosecutor said Williams "advanced toward" the cops.

Dogged reporting 

On Sykes' and Sforza's Local front today, a dog who allegedly "saved" a Tenafly home from burning to the ground gets bigger play than the swearing in of the first Korean-American on the Ridgefield Borough Council (L-1). 

That's in keeping with the anti-South Korea policy of Travel Editor Jill Schensul, a dog lover and vegetarian who has never forgiven Koreans for eating dogs in their native country.  

On L-3 today, a caption with a photo showing two stores in Lodi doesn't explain what "smashed into" means, even though there is room for more words.

Neither store appears to be damaged.
 

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."

  
 

'Coattails'? What about Christie's fat ass?

The New Jersey entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel on Monday, a light-traffic day.

You'd think The Record's editors would be exhausted from covering the presidential campaign, but you'd be wrong judging from the Page 1 column that kicks off hyping the 2013 gubernatorial election in New Jersey.

Just three weeks after President Obama's decisive victory over the greedy Republicans, "new polls showed that Governor Christie could be poised for a landslide re-election victory," Columnist Charles Stile reports.

But that's "if the race were held this week." What nonsense. Why put that kind of poll on Page 1, Editor Marty Gottlieb? 

This is another piece that makes Stile sound as if he gave up journalism in favor of going on the governor's payroll.

The headline is equally ridiculous:

Christie's

coattails

a concern

 for Dems   

It should probably read:

Christie's

fat ass

a concern

for GOP

Because when the Democrats get through exposing the GOP bully's cuts in aid for women's health programs, school meals for low-income children, poor cities and unionized workers, his fat ass will come to symbolize his more-for-me, less-for-you policies.

Let's not forget all of Christie's cronies on the payroll at the Port Authority, which slammed commuters with a 50% toll hike last year.

Guess how much Christie weighs 

Mass hysteria

Page 1 today continues The Record's unprecedented attention to mass transit after a decade or more of car-concentric coverage by the Road Warrior and other transportation reporters (PATH repairs, A-1).

But the post-Superstorm Sandy coverage is in keeping with the editors' policy of highlighting mass transit only when something goes wrong, while ignoring paralyzing rush-hour traffic congestion.

Yup, it's still segregated

At the bottom of Page 1 today, a news story makes rare mention of Englewood's "still-segregated" school district -- an imbalance head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and Deputy Assignment Editor and former Englewood reporter Dan Sforza have been hiding for years.

On the Local front, the Road Warrior sleepwalks through another column based entirely on e-mails from readers (L-1).

Protecting cops

Prosecutor John L. Molinelli and officials from Leonia and Palisades Park are walking in lockstep by refusing to identify the three white police officers who on Sunday shot dead Rickey McFadden, 47, a black robbery suspect (L-1).

What do they have to hide?  

Has The Record learned anything from covering the fatal police shooting of Malik Williams, 19, of Garfield in December 2011 -- another case where Molinelli kept a tight lid on information, including the cops' identity? 

Maybe, Sykes and Sforza should send reporters out to talk to residents, other cops, town officials -- anyone who might know the names of the cops who killed McFadden in Leonia, and print the names. 

That's what newspapers usually do when officials are trying to hide something. Of course, that's not what The Record does, but maybe it's time for Sykes and Sforza to stop waiting for the official news release. 

The only Hackensack news recently has been about residents flooded out of their apartments by Sandy, and today, no city news appears in the paper. 

Related articles

• Does our obese governor hate underfed kids kids?
• Are the obese letting paper, state go to hell?

Paper, prosecutor diss dead man's family

A miscarriage of justice was compounded today by a miscarriage of journalism in The Record's report on the long-delayed grand jury probe into the death of Malik Williams.

Why did the editors allow a major error to appear in a headline and in the first paragraph of the lead, front-page story in The Record today?

This whopper exaggerates the actions of Malik Williams, 19, of Garfield -- making him seem a lot more threatening -- before he was shot and killed by two police officers last Dec. 10.

Both the sub-headline on Page 1 and the first paragraph use the word "charging" to describe Williams before he was hit five times by police bullets, suggesting he was running toward the two officers with a hammer and a 16-inch saw.

Misquoting official

The long sub-headline says, "Prosecutor says teen was charging with hammer, saw."

But Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli's statement never uses that word.

Who is responsible for this screw-up, Editor Marty Gottlieb, head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes, Deputy Assistant Assignment Editor Dan Sforza or Editor Liz Houlton, supervisor of the news copy desk, where the inaccurate sub-headline was written? 

Doesn't the word "charging" justify the actions of the two police officers, who were cleared by a grand jury on Wednesday? 

Web site is wrong, too

The word appears twice in the paper, as well as on NorthJersey.com, without quotation marks, meaning it didn't come from the statement issued by Molinelli, who said Williams "advanced towards" the officers -- a lot different and a lot less menacing than "charging."

In fact, the word "charging" appears  nowhere in Molinelli's statement -- only "advanced towards" and other variations of the word "advanced."

There is a lot more wrong with today's coverage of the Williams case, especially unanswered questions.

Why didn't Molinelli hold a news conference and answer questions from the media? Why did the investigation take more than six months? 

Editors napping again

Why did it take Malik Williams' mother, Shirley, to seek out and try to question the prosecutor at an unrelated meeting on Wednesday? 

Where were the editors and reporters from The Record -- taking their usual midday nap? Why didn't any of them question the prosecutor?

The local-news editors botched the Williams grand jury story, but the Woodland Park daily salvages something with an editorial asking "why two trained officers needed to use deadly force against a hammer and a handsaw" (A-10)?

That is one of the questions the local-news editors should have been asking Molinelli.   


Christie blame game

Also on Page 1 today, the editors continue to humor Governor Christie, who is back to playing his blame game when he doesn't get his way (A-1, A-3 and A-4).

After Christie's "Jersey Comeback" fizzled, because of the state's stumbling economy, the GOP bully is claiming Democrats are holding his income-tax cut hostage.

Hackensack screwed again

Sykes and Sforza had Hackensack reporter Stephanie Akin helping out on the Malik Williams story, so, of course, there is no Hackensack news today -- or anything from Englewood, Teaneck and many other towns.

For the seventh day in a row, Staff Writer John Brennan has a story about the lawsuit against the American Dream entertainment and retail complex, which is eagerly awaited by the state's shopaholics (L-1).

You'd think Brennan, a former sports reporter, is being slipped large quantities of money by the Giants and Jets, who filed the frivolous action.

Buried on L-7 today is a report on a cushy job for another Christie crony, former Bergen County Freeholder Todd Caliguire, a Republican lawyer.