Newark’s Superhero

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Another Murder in Newark

Booker is in California

Newark recorded its 65th violent killing so far this year, the 11th in less than a month, yesterday afternoon when a 28 year old Irvington man was shot and killed at the 200 block of Hobson Street, according to a report in The Star Ledger.

There were 26 people killed in the Newark riots of 1967.

Mayor Cory Booker is on a fundraising trip to California that will culminate with a dinner co-hosted by Jason Bourne and Batman.

The New Jersey media was up Governor Christie’s keister to his lap band when he went to Disney World during the December 2010 snow storm.  How come they are giving Booker a pass for abandoning his city during this outbreak of violent deaths?

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Booker’s Hecklers Disrupt Lonegan’s Newark Press Conference

Lonegan and his Newark supporters allege Booker paid hecklers

GOP nominee for U.S. Senate Steve Lonegan went to Newark yesterday afternoon to underscore Democratic nominee Cory Booker’s hypocrisy and failure.

A group of perhaps a dozen Booker supporters made sure Lonegan wasn’t heard by the press, no matter how hard the reporters present struggled to hear what the former Bogota mayor had to say.

Lonegan called a press conference at 130 Court Street in Newark, a home that Booker bought for $175,000 in November of 2009 and left in a state of disrepair until he sold it to Newark Now, a non-profit Booker founded, in March of this year for $1.00  The Record reported last weekend that the home has been a neighborhood nuisance since Booker bought it.   The New York Post reported yesterday that squatters living in the home caused a fire last year.

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Booker Insists T-Bone Is Real, Says He Put Drug Dealers Up In His House While Mayor

In an interview with NJTV’s On The Record with Michael Aron aired yesterday, Democratic U.S. Senate nominee, Newark Mayor Cory Booker, insisted that T-Bone is a real person and not a composite or archetype as has been previously reported.

The mayor said the Newark police told him there are currently five people in the city using the alias “T-Bone.”  He went on to say that he, as an attorney prior to entering public office, “and after I became mayor”  would hold meetings with drug dealers, “100’s of guys involved in the narcotics trade,” in his house, ” even putting them up with me.”

The Booker interview can be viewed here.  Aron starts the T-Bone questioning at the 9:15 mark.  Booker talks about his meetings and his hospitality for drug dealers, while mayor, at the 11:29 mark.

Booker said he was dealing with non-violent drug dealers.  Aron did not ask him how he knew they were non-violent drug dealers.

When MMM first reported the T-Bone controversy, we asked, Did Booker Fabricate A Drug Dealer Or Did He Harbor A Fugitive?  Last week, I argued that Booker’s “story telling” to make a point or to inspire action was not a big deal and was politically insignificant.

However, if Booker is telling the truth in his stories, as he insists he is, it is a big deal.  It seems to me that Booker is confessing to his own crimes of harboring fugitives and maybe even aiding and abetting.

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Government for the “servants” by the “servants”

Happy Labor Day.

Today we can celebrate that “government of the people, for the people and by the people” has perished from this State.

It has been replaced by government of, for and by the government workers’ unions, bureaucrats protected by civil “service” laws and contracts, and the politicians, protected by gerrymandering and incumbency, who have abdicated the most fundamental functions of government to said unions and bureaucrats. The so called public “servants.”

There have been eight people killed violently in Newark, either by shooting or stabbing, in the last seven days.

If this was a partisan political post, I’d be slamming Newark Mayor Cory Booker for the rise in crime in his city over the last over the last three years.

But that would be disingenuous.  Violent crime in Newark declined from 2006, when Booker was elected mayor through November of 2010 when he laid off the 167 city police officers that had been hired since he became mayor.

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Did Booker Fabricate A Drug Dealer Or Did He Harbor A Fugitive?

Says T-Bone “could be my Dad”

Cory Booker used to tell at story of T-Bone, a Newark drug dealer, who once threatened his life and later asked him for help avoiding arrest and prison.  Booker told the story “millions of times” on the stump in Newark, at colleges and at fundraisers where the moving tale separated donors from their money.

Booker stopped telling the story after  The Star Ledger questioned its veracity in 2007, even though Booker insisted T-Bone is both “1000 percent real” and an archetype.

The National Review has revived the story.

Our friends at #BookerFail found a video of Booker telling the tale, which is posted above.

Either Booker made up T-Bone, or he confessed on video to harboring a fugitive.

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Don’t let up on demanding fiscal accountability in cities

Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon called for fiscal accountability in Newark this week.  You wouldn’t have known that unless you read The Star Ledger.   The Asbury Park Press, the newspaper/pay site that covers O’Scanlon’s Monmouth County district missed it.

At issue is the $24 million in state aid that Newark is “due” this year, after the state taxpayers kicked in $32 million to Newark’s budget last year, in the face of blatant waste on the part of Mayor Cory Booker and the city council.

Booker squandered $3.7 million in legal and consulting fees in a fight with the New Jersey Devils hockey team over revenue sharing.  Booker lost the fight, which even The Star Ledger says was a waste and should have been settled, and vowed to spend more—O’Scanlon says $1 million more, The Ledger says $100 thousand more—in appealing the ruling that favored The Devils.  As the ruling stands, Newark owes the Devils $600 thousand.

Newark’s city council is disgrace.  A “gaggle of blowhards,” Ledger editor Tom Moran calls them, who “awards itself the highest salaries in the state, along with a free car.”   Newark’s city council is paid six times more than Jersey City’s city council, according to Moran.  $3.45 million in salaries paid to the Newark city council in 2011.

Also at issue is that the overpaid council has yet to pass their budget that was due in February.  Yet, they want the $24 million from Jersey taxpayers.

According to The Ledger, O’Scanlon said, 

“Cory Booker is fighting an expensive personal vendetta with one hand while he has the other hand out expecting state aid”

and

“As the ranking Republican member of the Assembly Budget Committee, I cannot, in good conscience, imagine handing Newark another $24 million when the mayor is continuing to rack up legal fees and costs for litigation that could have been settled months ago,” O’Scanlon said. “The state should not be in the habit of bailing out towns and cities that are unwilling to help themselves.”

Moran, The Ledger’s editorial page editor, responded to O’Scanlon’s rebuke of Booker, with a racially charged column under his own byline, From a perch in the suburbs, a cheap shot at cities.

As if $24 million, or $32 million, or $3.7 million or $3.45 million is cheap.

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Governor Chris Christie Reaffirms Commitment to Reform in Newark Public Schools

Trenton, NJ – In a visit to Ann Street School this morning, Governor Chris Christie engaged in a conversation with students and members of Newark’s education community, reaffirmed his commitment to bringing fundamental reform to Newark Public Schools and underscored the importance of community involvement in reform efforts and the process of selecting a new superintendent.

“It has been 15 years since the State of New Jersey took over public schools in Newark with the hope of transforming the district and ending its failure of so many of our children. But a decade and a half later, with the exception of a few bright spots of progress, we have yet to achieve our goals of providing a quality education to every child.  The work of changing Newark’s education system did not begin the day I came into office, but I believe we have brought this issue into sharper focus in this Administration with our education reform efforts and partnership with the City and community at large,” said Governor Christie.  “As we endeavor to change the status quo, cooperation at every level – the State, the City’s leadership, Education Task Force, School Advisory Board and the whole community – will be critical to replicate the bright spots and successful models in this school district, and improve the public schools across this city. In partnership, I believe we will finally accomplish meaningful change and reform for the children of this city, and in areas across the state where opportunity is not being delivered.”

The Christie Administration has taken numerous, proactive steps to ensure that every opportunity for reform and progress is seized and that progress continues in Newark, even while the selection of a new superintendent is underway.  Rochelle Hendricks, who recently served as Acting Commissioner of the Department of Education, has assumed responsibility for the Newark Public Schools during this transition period.  Hendricks is a dedicated, accomplished education professional with the knowledge and background necessary to achieve progress during this interim period.  She is working closely with interim-superintendent Deborah Terrell to ensure that the district’s most pressing challenges are met with solutions as soon as possible.  Both are working closely with the educational and community leadership in Newark to deal with the serious challenges facing the district today, most specifically the budget gap and the shortage of quality schools.

Governor Christie also outlined the process being undertaken by the State, in cooperation with the Newark community, in the selection of a new superintendent for Newark Public Schools:

The next Superintendent of the Newark Public School system will send a strong signal to the community that Governor Christie and the Administration are serious about real reform and real results.  As a result, the process for choosing the next superintendent is built on transparency, community involvement and real input from educators. The selection process, already underway, for finding a qualified, dedicated superintendent has been set out to be broad, thorough and staged to allow for plenty of community input along the way.  

·         The first stage began in January when Acting Commissioner Cerf solicited names of top candidates in conversations with national reform leaders and local community leaders.

·         The second stage was to seek sound input and guidance from members of the community on critical education reform issues, ongoing and emergent challenges that will face the incoming superintendent, and the qualifications demanded of the next superintendent. This began the process of engaging a wide swath of people who live and work in the Newark community:

o    The School Advisory Board, headed by Shavar Jeffries, is the body elected by the people of Newark to represent them in the schools and a critical source of advice and counsel;

o    Mayor Cory Booker, who is providing valuable leadership as an advisor in the process, offering input and guidance into the reform challenges facing Newark schools, and lending his perspective in the superintendent search process;

o    The Education Task Force, a group of Newark community leaders who provide guidance around education policy and consist of leaders from Newark Public Schools, higher education, parents, the non-profit community, and the charter school community;

o    Various educational leaders, including principals, parent representatives and teachers; and

o    Local representatives, including members of the city council and the legislature.

Each one of these groups represents a different part of the City of Newark and its education and civic community. As such, through each stage of the process, they have provided and will continue to provide counsel on the needs of the Newark Public School System and the qualifications necessary for the next superintendent.

·         The final stage of this process, which is now beginning and will continue over the coming weeks, will allow for each of these groups to meet face to face with prospective candidates.

o    Finding the next superintendent of the Newark Public Schools can and must integrate a high level of community involvement and investment in the process. Bringing real change to education in the public schools begins and ends with the community; the community’s input will inform the recommendations ultimately made to Governor Christie for this vitally important decision. 

At that point, after sufficient time has been spent on soliciting community input and feedback, listening and considering all of the insights and recommendations of the aforementioned groups, Governor Christie will meet with each of the final candidates prior to the Education Commissioner’s final selection being made in May, ensuring that the new superintendent is in place by the end of the school year.

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Newark Police Union Leader Chooses Layoffs Over Negotiation, Puts A City At Risk

Newark Fraternal Order of Police President Derrick Hatcher cut off negotiations with Mayor Cory Booker on Monday, forcing 167 police layoffs, according to a reports in the Star Ledger and Bloomberg.com.

Hatcher did not allow his rank and file to vote of the Mayor’s proposals.

Bloomberg quoted union Vice President Walter Melvin blaming the spike in violence in Newark over the Thanksgiving weekend on the impending layoffs:

“The criminal element out there realized this and believed it had already happened,” he said in a telephone interview following Booker’s announcement. “It’s a fallacy to think public safety is not going to be an issue here. Any thinking, logical person can see that.”

That’s right. The police union knowingly chose no sacrifice for its senior members over the jobs of its junior members and over public safety.

This is a perfect example why union membership is inappropriate for government workers.  The union leadership now has more impact on public safety in Newark than the Mayor and the police department leadership does.

Booker is closing a $89 million budget deficit. $9.5 million of the deficit will come from the police layoff.  400 civilian employees are also being laid off in Newark.

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Governor Christie and Mayor Booker On Morning Joe This Morning

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