Assemblyman Gerry Scharfenberger, PhD, today said that the national talk of defunding or dismantling our country’s police forces is “sheer lunacy.”
“The murder of George Floyd was a sickening display of excessive force by a police officer. That officer has rightly been fired and charged with Second Degree Murder and Manslaughter,” said Scharfenberger.“However, the calls by many in the media and some elected officials to “abolish and defund police departments” is frankly, sheer lunacy.”
Police officers, emergency management personnel and firefighters sprang to action Thursday afternoon to rescue a pet dog that had fallen through the ice of a partly frozen pond in Howell Township. A resident of the Villages development called 911 around 1:30 p.m. and reported that her nine-year-old Golden Retriever, “Duke,” was struggling in the frigid water… Read the rest of this entry »
OLD BRIDGE — Police are asking for the public’s help in identifying a man they say attempted to lure two kids into his car with snacks and fidget spinners at the Quick Check in the Laurence Harbor section of the township Thursday. The man approached the kids inside the store on Cliffwood Avenue, police said on… Read the rest of this entry »
TRENTON — Police across New Jersey will be cracking down on seat belt violations starting Monday, likely handing out more than 20,000 tickets over the next two weeks. Part of a national campaign known as “Click It or Ticket,” New Jersey law enforcement agencies will adopt a “zero tolerance” policy for motorists and passengers not wearing… Read the rest of this entry »
The concept of municipal consolidation/shared services is referred to by some as the panacea for high property taxes. Others claim that consolidation/shared services is a pipe dream and not worth pursuing because no single service will solve our property tax problem. Both sides of this argument are wrong. No one act or reform will slash our taxes – short of major increases in other taxes. To argue that we shouldn’t pursue such reforms because they won’t save “enough” is to argue against doing anything to cut costs. On the contrary, the answer is we must do EVERYTHING.
Merging of municipalities is a heavy lift. People have nostalgic attachments to their town names and pride in their community identity. And if things don’t go as well as planned, there’s no going back. That leaves shared services as the sweet spot – much easier to attain than wholesale municipal mergers and can generate 60 to 80% of the savings.
We must then hone in on the areas where we can get the greatest amount of savings. Things like public works and administration sound like good targets but those areas have already, frequently, been cut to the bone. One area in many municipalities that is ripe for restructuring: police.
The Borough of Union Beach is joining Middletown Township in showing their support of all law enforcement personnel by light their town blue between now and January 1st.
MMM has received an advanced copy of the following statement that the Borough will release on Tuesday:
“Black Lives Matter” has become a popular protest slogan, from Union Square to the Mall of America. Today, after the unprovoked shooting of two NYPD officers sitting in their patrol car in Brooklyn over the weekend, one woman started a protest movement of her own closer to home.
Amanda Bolvito, a married 24 year-old waitress with 2 small children, went to office depot, bought about $19 worth of supplies, and emblazoned a sign with the message “Blue Lives Matter.”
She took her sign to the corner of Route 27 and Main Street, outside of the Metuchen Borough Hall and Police Station. First spotted at around noon and interviewed at 1:30 pm, she reported being there since around 11 this morning. She plans to be out there until “[she] can’t take the cold.”
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani accused President Barack Obama and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio of creating what he called propaganda that led to Saturday’s shooting death of two NYPD officers. On “Fox News Sunday,” the former presidential candidate blamed the two, as well as others who have protested against police brutality in… Read the rest of this entry »
A petition calling for the resignation of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on MoveOn.org has received over 52,000 signatures, a response to the murder of NYPD officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu. The petition, created by a group know only as “The people of NYC,” reads: With the recent news surrounding the NYPD and… Read the rest of this entry »
The killing of two New York City police officers in an ambush attack this weekend prompted New Jersey’s largest police union to issue a warning today, urging its members to “take extra caution and use increased safety in the coming weeks.” The advisory from the state’s Police Benevolent Association comes a day after a 28-year-old man… Read the rest of this entry »
OLD BRIDGE — Police are asking for the public’s help in identifying a man they say attempted to lure two kids into his car with snacks and fidget spinners at the Quick Check in the Laurence Harbor section of the township Thursday. The man approached the kids inside the store on Cliffwood Avenue, police said on… 
The concept of municipal consolidation/shared services is referred to by some as the panacea for high property taxes. Others claim that consolidation/shared services is a pipe dream and not worth pursuing because no single service will solve our property tax problem. Both sides of this argument are wrong. No one act or reform will slash our taxes – short of major increases in other taxes. To argue that we shouldn’t pursue such reforms because they won’t save “enough” is to argue against doing anything to cut costs. On the contrary, the answer is we must do EVERYTHING.
