And She Wonders Why Governor Christie Doesn't Return Her Calls??

Trenton At-Large Councilwoman Kathy McBride held her promised press conference yesterday on Laurel Place, a short distance from her home in the West Ward where an incident rattled her, several of her neighbors and several children, including some of her own.

Ms. McBride used the conference, as expected to issue a call to Governor Chris Christie to “deputize” law enforcement officers from around the region to come to Trenton in order to fight a crime problem that has clearly gotten out of hand in the capital city. McBride was extremely vague about her proposal. She didn’t suggest any numbers of “deputies,” when they should show up, how they would be deployed, what their chain of command would be (reporting to Trenton’s police director? the County Sheriff? the State Police? The Attorney General? ), or how this surge would be paid for. Despite being a Councilwoman for nearly three years, she displayed a complete failure to provide any details of her proposal. It was strictly an unfocused, yet passionate, call for help – just about any help that he’d care to provide, it sounds like, she wasn’t very particular – from the Governor.

It’s clear that we have a major problem with crime in this City. But before Trenton expects any significant assistance from outside, Ms. McBride’s press conference provides fresh evidence that we need to first clean up our own act.

Ms. McBride shared her podium and the conference with a neighbor of hers, Ozzia Tift. According to his and McBride’s accounts, Tift became aware of a man at the park on Laurel Place who claimed to have a gun. Tift warned the neighbors, confronted the  man and got involved in a struggle to disarm him. Shots were fired, one grazing Tift. The gun was taken away from the suspect. No one was seriously hurt.

What follows this narrative in the Trentonian’s account by Brian Dzenis is bizarre. “Tift said one of the bullets had grazed his arm, but said he was fine and did not look to receive medical attention. It’s unclear what became of the gun or the suspect, Tift said he couldn’t remember what happened after he allegedly disarmed the suspect and did not recall relaying his tale to police.” [Emphasis mine – KM]

Does this strike you as odd? The man who, by his own account disarmed a man can’t remember what happened afterward, and as the main witness  doesn’t remember talking to the police? Really?

No gun was found at the scene, neither any bullet casings. One man taken to hospital who first press accounts had been reported as shot had actually been beaten instead. This man, described as “not cooperating with police,” owns a vehicle all of whose windows had been smashed in, with the same baseball bat belonging to him that may have also been used to beat him up.

Curious.

Something happened on Laurel Place on Sunday night. That much is clear. Not much else is.

In such circumstances, had something like that happened on my block, near my house, my first response after making sure that my family was safe would be to make sure that every person there gave full and complete details to the police. If this was an incident between two or more people that violently escalated and boiled over to involve innocent by-standers, then the first task should be to find out what the hell actually happened.

That should have been Ms. McBride’s focus on Sunday night, and yesterday: finding out what happened and who was responsible; tracking them down and solving that crime, with the assistance of everyone on the block who saw and heard something, people who may have have known or been able to identify any of the suspects.

But if she mentioned that at all in her press conference, neither the Trentonian’s article nor Erin Duffy’s article in the Times made note of it. McBride also neglected to say anything about that in a video made Sunday night and posted to YouTube.

The only subject McBride wants to talk about is getting more “deputies” from around the state on to Trenton streets.  She wants to have the Governor take care of things. She is very adamant about that.

“‘I will get his attention one way or another,’ she said[, speaking of Governor Christie]. ‘These are just the first steps. If I have to camp out on the Statehouse steps with all the Mothers Against Violence, all the Fathers and Men United, all the different organizations in Trenton, if that’s what needs to be done, we’ll do it.'”

Spoken like the community activist she used to be, and not the Councilwoman she is.

I would not expect Governor Christie to respond to any of Ms. McBride’s appeals, or answer any calls from Trenton for additional aid, until Ms. McBride and the City can demonstrate that they are responsible citizens as well as competent local sworn public servants. Based on this incident, McBride and the City still fail at this.

Before we call on the state to do anything for us, we have to demonstrate that we are doing everything we can. That first means citizens and neighbors have to cooperate with police officers by giving full and complete statements that help to identify and apprehend suspects.

It also means that public officials such as Ms. McBride need to engage with the public safety situation in this town well before it reaches their own block.

As mentioned yesterday, there were in the last two weeks at least three unambiguously violent incidents – one a murder – mere blocks from Ms. McBride’s residence that did not merit any attention from her, let alone appeals to the Governor and threats to camp out on the Statehouse steps.

Ms. McBride has for the last three years served as one of the three members of this City Council who have consistently and dependably defended most of the actions of the Administration, including all those which have weakened the Police Department. It is hard now for any of us who live in Trenton, let alone the Governor, to take her seriously now.

Some of her colleagues get this. The Councilwoman’s fellow At-Large rep and current Council President Phyllis Holly-Ward was described in the Times today as understanding “that McBride and others were concerned about the children present during the incident, but questioned why the crime committed outside McBride’s door deserved more attention than other city shootings. ‘I do understand things that happen with children are upsetting, but we also have to be mindful that if we’re calling on the governor to do everything for us, we have to ask, “What are we here for?”‘ she said.” [Emphasis mine – KM]

Indeed. What is Kathy McBride here for, if this is the best she can do?