Half a year in jail for stopping a guy damaging a car? That is stupid.

And what actually happened? One account says police suddenly arrived on scene and threw him to the ground, while the cops say they asked him repeatedly to leave. Ridiculous, if you ask me. ". . .investigation of the couple's argument . . ."?

A Job For The Courts To Handle

Let's see, it's 2:00AM Saturday morning and there's a domestic dispute in progress...

Do I:

1. Call the mayor?

2. Call the police?

Hmm.

I may be wrong, but the mayor's story doesn't seem to hold water.

Hopefully the legal system will get to the bottom of this.

Wait, don't the police work for the Mayor????

Mayor May Not

Originally posted by loam
Wait, don't the police work for the Mayor????

I'm not familiar with the laws of New Jersey, but I don't believe the mayor is legally empowered to interfere with a peace officer performing his duty.

Aside from that, however, the story sounds fishy to me.

I imagine as more details emerge, the picture will become clearer.

Let's bear in mind that the Mayor and his wife had just emerged from a bar, while the police officers involved were on duty.

Hey, could go either way.

Just sayin'.

The cops do work for the mayor, but indirectly. They work for the chief of police, who works for the mayor - I think.

The mayor of Jersey City has said good things about his city's cops in the past, and I don't recall any specific tension making it into the news, so I don't think this is a case of bad blood. (If the mayor had been overly critical of the police force in the press, one could reasonably assign a retaliatory motive on the part of the police in this recent incident)

They've got pretty bad crime in Jersey City, and just based on a quick search, it appears to be rising. Despite that, the mayor has stood by the cops and the chief of police, and commended them on the progress that they've made in fighting gangs.

Could it be that the mayor was drunk? Quite possible. I've never known a man to leave a bar sober at 2am, but it was a family joint, so he could have been there for reasons other than getting smashed.

The cops probably gave him attitude, and he threw it back in their faces ("You work for me!" or some such) - a little pissing contest out in the parking lot. Cops don't like it when you do that - it steams them up somethin' fierce. The good ones internalize it. The bad ones take it out on your hide and lie, using the power of their authority to get away with it.

C*O*P*S

Hey, don't get me wrong, maybe the cops did rough up the Mayor...

Cops roughed up the Mayor...

Cops roughed up the Mayor...

Cops roughed up the Mayor...

Um, am I the only one who thinks that's just a little odd on its face?

The cops decided out of the blue to rough up the Mayor at 2AM in the parking lot of the bar the Mayor just came out of and went to "help" a feuding couple?

Sorry. Maybe that's how it went down, but I need a little more to work with here.

The cops aren't talking and the Mayor is.

I think it would be prudent to consider the evidence available from both sides of this before coming to any conclusions.

There were witnesses. I imagine they were interviewed separately.

There's more to this than just the Mayor's story.




[edit on 6/19/2006 by Majic]

Well, Jersey City is pretty big - there's a good chance that there are cops on their payroll who can't accurately identify the mayor in a line-up - nevermind in a bar parking lot at 2am.

In small cities, everyone knows the mayor. He might as well be Ronald McDonald. But if you combine a big city with a relatively low-profile mayor, it's not outside the realm of possibility that the cops didn't know who they were dealing with until it was too late.

Some guys have class, and they won't throw their weight around ("Don't you know who I am? I'm the Mayor b****!"). In that case, the cops roughing up the mayor is no stranger than the cops roughing up a random person. They certainly do that often enough, in Jersey and everywhere else.

But you're absolutely right, Majic, there were witnesses, and there should be more about this story in the media, give it a day or two. I'm betting the Chief of Police makes a statement Monday morning, something like "This was a regrettable incident, and we're investigating it thoroughly. The officers in question have been put on leave until the matter is resolved." Something short and vague like that.

You people have major reading and map comprehension skill problems.
Deny Ignorance, ie, don't flap your traps about stuff you are completely clueless about.

Carefully read, observe facts and don't think your opinion is so valuable that you have to post only to appear to be jumping up and down screaming "hee-haw hee-haw hee-haw" if you can catch my drift.

The town where the mayor of Jersey City was arrested and the towns that other police arrived from are no less than 200 miles from Jersey City. The mayor of Jersey City was not arrested in Jersey City and has no authority in the towns of Bradley Beach, Neptune, or Avon.

The Mayor of Jersey City is just another civilian when he is leaving his sisters bar in another town.
Had he been in Jersey City for this incident then this would not have happened.

Even if he wasn't the mayor, this is still pretty bad. Could you image getting thrown the the ground and then maced, just because the cops are a bit confused?

Admittedly, this happens all the time, but still . . .

And a mayor should have mroe sense than to provoke cops, at least if that's what happened. So he walked out of the bar, talked some guy off of a car, and then the police arrived and arrested him? What's all that stuff about an investigation then? Was the guy jumping on the hood a cop?

Hey Legalizer, care to post a map that shows them in relation to each other? Or do you prefer just to insult people for making an honest mistake?

watch_the_rocks
According to the article, the mayor came out of the bar and saw a young man jumping up and down on the hood of a woman's car. The mayor talked him down, and then the cops showed up and started hassling the woman. The mayor tried to intervene, and got 'copped' for his efforts.

Originally posted by WyrdeOne
Or do you prefer just to insult people for making an honest mistake?

I'm assuming that's a rehtorical question. The answer is quite obvious.

Way to go, "DENYING" ignorance, Legalizer. Your example of perfection is one I could live without.