http://www.southbergenite.com/NC/0/1971.html

People driving along Park Avenue near Borough Hall two weeks ago were greeted by a sign held up by the sunroof of a parked car. The sign advertised a protest of the Rutherford Police Department to be held on Sunday, Nov. 8, in Lincoln Park across from the station.

The protest was organized by John Grappone, a lifetime Rutherford resident and current student at Felician College. Grappone says that on Oct. 23 he was verbally abused and threatened by an off-duty officer.

John Grappone’s highly publicized police protest was basically rained out last week. Police cars regularly circled Lincoln Park as about half a dozen people gathered in the gazebo for the protest organized by Grappone, who claims an off-duty Rutherford officer verbally abused him on Oct. 23.

Grappone said he pulled up to the intersection at the corner of Donaldson and Mortimer avenues and stopped his car. In front of him, blocking his way was an on-duty police officer in his vehicle and an off-duty officer talking to him. Grappone says he flashed his high beams to let them know he was trying to pass. The two officers moved out of the way, Grappone drove by and, as he did, he said he heard the off-duty officer yell a threat at him.

A heated verbal dispute between Grappone and the off-duty officer ensued, he said. Finally, the on-duty officer told the other to leave and pulled Grappone over for a traffic stop, said Grappone. Grappone said he went right to the police station to file a complaint against the off-duty officer. At the station, he claims he was told that by filing the report he would be issued a summons for failing to yield at a pedestrian crossing, a ticket that the on-duty officer didn’t issue him at the scene.

The South Bergenite filed an Open Public Records Act request with the department, but was informed that all internal affairs complaints are kept confidential by the decision of the state attorney general. Police Director John Thompson said the final decision, or “disposition,” is public information, but records of the investigation aren’t publicly available and even the officer investigated is kept off limits. He acknowledged that a complaint had been received and that an investigation had begun, but said no further information could be released. Even Grappone wouldn’t be able to get a copy of the report he filed, according to Thompson. The attorney general’s rules also conceal the name of the complainant, which could be a resident but could just as easily be someone else within a police department.

Grappone, who placed his cell phone number in an advertisement placed in this newspaper, said he received numerous calls from people who supported him but who wouldn’t attend the protest. He’s heard similar stories from Felician students and other residents.

“If this didn’t happen to me I wouldn’t be spending money on an ad to organize a protest,” he said. “I want to get it out there that this happened.”

Only about six people ended up showing up for the protest, which got moved to the park’s gazebo because of rain. Nevertheless, police cars regularly made the rounds around the park all the while.

“People are scared to do this,” he said. “They know nothing’s going to happen because of the blue wall of silence.”

There are four different dispositions that result from an internal affairs investigation, according to Thompson. The complaint can be sustained, which means there was evidence to prove it happened; not sustained, which means the investigation failed to yield sufficient evidence to prove or disprove; exonerated, which means the alleged actions did occur but it was determined the officer was justified; or unfounded, which means it was determined they didn’t occur.

According to records obtained by the New Jersey Libertarian Party’s Open Government Task Force, the Rutherford Police Department had 65 internal affairs complaints in 2004 through 2006. The only town in Bergen County with a higher number of total complaints during that time period was Fort Lee, which had 127, though Englewood, Elmwood Park, Fair Lawn and Lodi had comparable numbers in the double digits. Of those 65 complaints, 31 were sustained and resulted in some form of internal discipline. Eight were not sustained, two were exonerated and 15 were unfounded.

Interesting. I happen to live in Fort Lee and recently issued a complaint… though not officially. It’d be interesting to see why they nearly doubled the complaints of second highest. Perhaps due to the George Washington Bridge dumping out into the town? Should be compared to Weekhawken’s complaints. Do the number of complaints scale with the traffic density? Or with the number of official incidents? Or do they have bigger attitudes like the average NYPD officer? My experiences with the FLPD haven’t been the most pleasant. My recent adventures will be posted at a later time but more generally… I’ve received parking tickets for parking where the curb is yellow yet completely unnecessarily so. Street parking is tight enough as it is yet 1.5 or 2 car lengths of curb are technically unusable even though there would be no significant different in ability to view around corners due to a car parked their. Yet I’ve seen just the other day a FLPD officer drive by and ignore a cab driver who was pushing another cab car with his. I’m not saying he should have reacted so long as they were being safe… but if the ideology is to subvert risky situations… a car being pushed around corners by another through town appears far more dangerous then a parked car. Yet let us remember the ease at which a ticket is rendered. They even have a specialized machine to do it for them on thermal paper. Great revenue stream. Why tax when you can use thuggery? At least it’s not as bad as Michigan. I think.

After 10 months I’ve finally been issued hand gun purchaser permits. I submitted the paperwork on February 5th.  Generally they are supposed to issue them within a month or so. What was the delay?

1. They sat on my application. After a month or two I called the Fort Lee Police Department as to the status of the application. Two letters were to be sent out to people who need to respond to a few questions and write out why they think I should have a gun. Those letters, as ridiculous as they are, had not been sent. They claimed they had sent them but when they arrived less then a week later their postage date was after the call.
2. The letters arrive to the expected recipients. Both were filled out and returned.  One recipient who responded with something to the effect “Because it’s his 2nd Amendment protected right.” to the “Why” question had their letter rejected. The reason wasn’t acceptable. The letter was sent again but it took longer to arrive then it should have.
3. When the letter was returned nothing was heard back for some time. When contacted requesting the status of the application I was told the other letter never was received. I was told in the last conversation that both had been received. Since the person who they claimed not to have the response from had moved I had to give them an updated address and the letter was resent. It was filled out and returned and I never heard back. Note that I was explicitly told I would be contacted as soon as they received the paperwork.
4. I called them recently and the person in the records department tried to tell me that if I hadn’t been contacted it wasn’t ready. I requested transfer to the officer who handles things and he was unavailable. After leaving a message I waited a few days to hear back. I get the call today and he tells me that it’s ready for pick up.

Good thing I can take my business elsewhere…

I found this out about two weeks about but had forgotten to post about it.

After getting xyz to resubmit a letter of recommendation to the Fort Lee police department so I may get permission to exersize my natural right to self defense which is reinforced in the government calling itself the United States of America’s 2nd Amendment. Two weeks ago I called again after not hearing a word since the letter was sent. I was told that the other person who I had put down had not yet sent back the recommendation letter. I know his is a lie for two reasons. First is that I lived with the person at the time and know they had sent it out months ago. Second, the officer who handles this told me over the phone that he had received the letter when I called in April.

And yet some people wonder why anyone would not go through the system who weren’t criminals. Reminds me of immigration. The general public has no idea how corrupt and inefficient the system is and has no interest in finding out before passing judgement. The government bureaucrats are not there to serve nor protect you. They are there to leech and abuse.

I never updated the blog about my Firearms Permit out of sheer laziness. I wasn’t too busy or distracted–I just wasn’t interested in recapping the story into text form after I talked bile’s ear off about it last Wednesday. If there was a way to do voice posts (idea!), I would have opted in that direction. At any rate, in case there was anyone on the edge of their seat over it, the thrilling conclusion of: You have the right to bear arms. Period.

I left work early last Wednesday and headed over to the Nutley Police Department where I ended up waiting in the “lobby” before I was admitted entry to the Detectives’ Offices upstairs. There was a woman in the lobby with me, pacing and showing 8×11 black and white photos of what looked like a fallen tree to a police officer and dispatcher. She kept saying that she wasn’t able to move her car because of the tree. She spoke in broken English. I couldn’t tell what her first language was. The police officer, a hard-looking older woman, asked her if she called the police when this happened. She said yes, waved the photos back and forth, and impatiently said the cops told her they would eventually get to her but had other things to do that day. At that point, the police officer buzzed me through the main door, and I walked up to the second floor.

I had to ring a bell because the door was locked. An older man opened the door and let me in. I gave him my first name, and he said, “Oh yes, your permit. Just take a seat.” I watched him open the file cabinet and go through some papers. This was the same man that took my prints and chatted with me on the phone the week prior. He came back over after a few minutes to tell me the laminating machine was warming up and that I owed them roughly $70. When I told him I paid in September, he never questioned me and was shocked it had taken this long to get my papers together. He fingerprinted my permit and brought me to the sink, instructed me on the proper way of washing away ink (scrub with liquid soap and only use water when the ink is completely gone; the soap loses its effectiveness when mixed with water). When I finished I walked over to the laminating machine. I asked him for his name, shook his hand and thanked him for being so incredibly helpful and informative every time I called. Dennis gave me that, I’m just doing my job look and smiled. After explaining to me exactly how I should go about purchasing a firearm, we talked about gun laws again and how ineffective most police officers can be about the subject.

He agreed that bile being charged $56 twice for applying in North Arlington and shortly after moving to Fort Lee was garbage. He started telling me a story about how he received an application a while back from a guy that answered “yes” pertaining to him having a record. The explanation? The kid was in the town park after curfew when he was in high school. The same applicant also explained that he had charges brought up on him for assault with a weapon. Dennis said when he saw that, he had to dig up what the charge was. After investigating old records, he discovered that this guy was charged with firing a potato gun with his younger brother 10 years ago. When he brought this information to the Chief of Police, Dennis said he asked if they were really going to get in the way of this person’s right to defend themselves because of a childhood prank? He shook his head and said, “It’s ridiculous.” He never told me if the applicant ever received his permit.

Before I left, he assured me that when I apply for another Purchaser’s Permit, it won’t take that long at all.

The Second Amendment needs more people like Dennis in law enforcement. As much as I was annoyed that it took so long, I’m glad I got a relatively hassle-free experience out of it. And there you have it, another positive police story on the blog. Maybe next time I go back and see Dennis, I’ll ask him if he’s a member of LEAP.

I guess filling out bile’s Firearm Reference Form for the second time inspired me call over to Nutley’s Police Department to inquire about my own ID. It’s been about nine months (Sep 19, my birthday) since I dropped off the paperwork and got fingerprinted. In those nine months I’ve seen bile, bosco, and ramuh get their ID’s and make their purchases. Ridiculous, I know. I suppose I could put a little blame on myself for not being overly persistent or aggressive, but I had little faith in my abilities to make anyone in the police department move any faster than they were currently going.

My experience throughout this process was that police officers and detectives have notably different attitudes about firearm possession. The police officers in my town always sounded “put-off” with any phone call I made–this includes my inquires about when I would be able to come down to process my fingerprints. They changed the times and dates on a weekly basis–to which I found out later were incorrect, thanks many to the detectives (who rolled their eyes when I explained how I was misled). The detectives were more than happy to answer any questions, go over my paperwork for accuracy, and fingerprint me twice (during the first round of printing, the computer froze and my prints were lost). They’re also very open about airing out their disgust of the system. They’ve critiqued the FBI’s ability to review prints in a timely basis and how the NJ Freeholder’s dragged their feet when they should have been verifying my mental background check. I was told that I should receive a phone call relatively soon:

I asked him what the phone call was for. He said, “Um, well, so you can pick up your ID; the nature of this conversation.” He sounded like he was holding back a laugh to avoid embarrassing me.

Being a stickler for following procedure, I had to ask, “But you guys never sent out the reference letters. Aren’t you planning on doing that?”

This time he laughed, “No.”

A little confused and interested, I explained what the procedure was (to my knowledge) and asked him why they weren’t going to bother with the references.

He replied, “We aren’t issuing the reference letters because it’s your Second Amendment right to own a firearm. Plain and simple.” He said that so clearly, as if his intention was to ensure that I never confused that right with anything else anyone would or could have said to me to skew it. For a moment I was speechless, due to half-expecting some run-around, asinine reply. Attempting to regain some ground in the conversation I stammered, “Well, yea. Exactly!” I could have just as easily said, “well duh,” and it would have been the same effect.

Still surprised, I continued the conversation further, “You know, in Fort Lee, they wouldn’t take that for an answer when I filled out the reference letter for my boyfriend. They called me up, told me they didn’t really want my opinion on gun control, and asked me to fill out another form if I was seriously interested about being a reference.”

He laughed, “Well, let’s be reasonable. If I am your worst enemy, are you really going to make me your reference? References don’t mean anything.”

We talked a little about gun politics and how if a criminal wants a gun, they’re going to get it through illegal means anyway, and how all these references and background checks really don’t do much.

It was a pretty refreshing conversation, I’m not going to lie.

It’s totally possible that my file has been sitting on their counter for months, and the only reason I have a pick-up date is because I called in today. Since the detectives have consistently kept positive, down-to-earth attitudes towards me, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt this time and shelf my cynicism… at least until next Wednesday.

My recommendations for those Republican and independent voters of New Jersey.

For Member of the United States Senate: Murray Sabrin

For Delegaes-At-Large To The National Convention: Constitutional Republicans Protecting the Liberty Platform

The delegates which make up that group are: Donna Ward, Fernando Powers, Jammes J. Valencia, Ron Brittin, Stacey Sperbeck, Girard Falzon, Charles G. Ward, Marc Mingle, George Ajjan, and David Wallace

All other positions have only one person running under the Republicans for Responsible Government banner. Most if not all of which are big government Republicans, RINOs.

You can learn more about Dr. Sabrin at MurraySabrin.com and the Constitutional Republicans Protecting the Liberty Platform here.

For those who may not be aware Murray was endorsed by Ron Paul earlier in the campaign.

Sabrin may not be a good libertarian (securing the borders with fences?), he’s not as good as Dr. Paul, but he’s definately better than Dick Zimmer, Joseph Pennacchio and Frank Lautenberg.