Madness

“[Nineteen year-old Cagney] Roberts was shot to death April 9 in the area of Saint Joes and Girard avenues. Two other men were wounded. The Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office said today that shooting remains under investigation and no arrests have been made.

“Roberts did not belong to the Galilee congregation, nor did most of the hundreds of attendees of the service, [Reverend John] Harris said. The reverend wanted Roberts to have a funeral and wanted attendees who did not regularly attend church to have an opportunity hear a sermon, he said.

“‘When I got to the sermon,’ Harris said. ‘Shots rang out.'”

An unselfish act of charity and inclusiveness was paid back in madness and violence that makes no sense yesterday, at Trenton’s Galilee Baptist Church.  In a city that’s become genuinely hard to shock – sadly becoming accustomed to this kind of random violence on street corners, city roads, stores, gas stations and private homes – the shooting that marred a funeral yesterday and sent several people to the emergency room (thankfully there were no deaths) did just that. Shock and dismay flooded around Trenton yesterday.

Much of the shock came from the fact that a sacred (and, before yesterday, what was considered a safe) place was violated. And dismay, from the sad realization that to have thought that any place in a town so plagued with a senseless and endless cycle of violence, retribution and revenge as ours might be still sacred and safe is probably a fool’s hope.

So finally, perhaps, we may come to see that if no place in this town is safe, then we can have no doubt that this is a situation that calls on all of us to respond to make things better. If no place can truly provide Sanctuary, then we can no longer shrink from the obligation to struggle to restore that in our city, to give Mutual Aid.

Days like yesterday show that what Benjamin Franklin said at the outset of another life-and-death struggle – and that certainly is what is out on the streets of Trenton today, a life-and-death struggle – is still true for Citizens today: “We must all hang together, or assuredly we will all hang separately.”

The Trenton Police Department responded splendidly yesterday, it has to be said. Two of the department’s valuable and few patrol units were stationed in the church parking lot, so they were able to react quickly after gunfire broke out. They immediately detained and arrested a driver leaving the scene, who was found to be in possession of a loaded weapon With that quick arrest, investigators got a good head-start in searching for what is alleged to be additional shooters.

The police did a great job in their initial response, so it is sad to say that the city’s political leadership failed in theirs.

There is an ongoing leadership vacuum in Trenton that is a madness of its own. Although, to their credit, Acting Mayor George Muschal and several Council members and candidates either went to Fuld Hospital or made statements of support for the victims, their families, and all the mourners who attended Cagney Roberts’ funeral, on the whole yesterday represented a major failure of our so-called “leaders.”

How did they fail? What should they have done? The best narrative of that is from Darren “Freedom” Green, one of Trenton’s true citizen leaders, who was at the church for the funeral. Here are his words, as posted last night on Facebook, and used with permission:

Let me illustrate how important LEADERSHIP IS. TODAY a small population of Trentonians showed that they have NO morals and anything is possible, they opened fire inside of a church. Now, what should happen now? Don’t people have questions….wouldn’t U like to have an update on all that transpired today…..wouldn’t U like to know what we as a community are going to do with this CRISIS we are in?

Lets examine what should be occurring. The Acting Mayor should have a press conference with the Pol Director and all of his Adm. We as a community should be updated on what occurred today at Galilee. We should be updated on all events, injuries and arrests. We should be updated on where they are at in the investigation, of course without jeopardizing the investigation. Next, the ENTIRE COMMUNITY should be challenged to look at where we are. We are and have been in a CRISIS and we need to work with our Mayor and elected officials to “POLICE” our city. The police officers CANNOT do this alone and we have to communicate and work with them. Now, guess what will happen……NOTHING. Yet, guess what message is sent when NOTHING is said or done, how about that TODAY is the NORM. That its ok for people to violate churches, families, and communities. That its ok to have NO regard or respect for HUMAN LIFE. Ill repeat this again and again PROBLEMS don’t solve themselves, LEADERSHIP, the PEOPLE, and the POLICE must work together to solve them. This next election is either the life or death of our future.

The Baby who was with me today said do me a favor Free, I asked what….he said DONT go back out today. I promised him I wouldn’t. He makes me check in from the house phone…..Love Him.

I can’t find fault with anything that Mr. Green says. Police Director Rivera was on the scene at Galilee Church yesterday as he briefed the media. But yesterday was so shocking and so violent, and so shattering of remaining any illusions that we are making progress in reducing last year’s unprecedented pace of murder and other violence, that the occasion did demand an address to citizens by the Acting Mayor and Council leadership, an address that did not occur. With that failure to do so, Mr. Green feels our leadership sent a message yesterday that, as tragic and shocking as yesterday was, is not as extraordinary as we feel it is, but part of a new normal.

Instead, the Acting Mayor and Acting Council are engaged in a feud of their own, a feud that has proceeded to the point where Acting Mayor Muschal has filed suit against his Council colleagues, a suit that demands that, among other things, requests Judge Mary Jacobson to rule, in the words of the mayor’s brief that “there is no substantive difference between a successor mayor appointed by the City Council and a successor mayor elected by popular vote.” The Acting Mayor wants, among other things, the court to validate his assertion of power regrading personnel moves such as the ones he took last week against the city’s Law and Fire Directors.

It is profoundly sad and unfortunate that things have gotten to this point. It is conceivable that Mr. Muschal may win a narrow ruling that could affirm his formal authority, while doing nothing to earn the political capital  from his Council colleagues and from citizens to back whatever initiatives that may be desirable and possible to take before his regency ends.

I have come to firmly believe that the role of Mr. Muschal should be exactly opposite to the path he has chosen to take. He has acted, and is seeking to act, in ways that intend to make major personnel and policy changes, and leave them as done deeds for his successor in July. His actual ability to do any of this may be very limited after last week’s events, but this does seem to be his intent.

What I think he should be doing is to be more of a calm and steady hand after the chaos of the last four years. In the aftermath of blatant incompetence and criminal corruption, he should quietly and calmly set an example of honesty, integrity and simple (but vastly important) basic competence. As well, he should prominently and quickly come forward in times such as yesterday, to inform the city, reassure its people and express resolve. The very sort of thing that Mr. Green called for last night.

And, for damn sure, he should drop that stupid lawsuit. Today.

Instead, Mr. Muschal and what passes for city leadership are in a pissing match while the city is torn up. Madness.

As I mentioned above, the city is in a leadership vacuum, from the top down. But, like Darren Green, I think that yesterday’s horror shows that we must demand more from our city’s Leaders than what they are giving us. We are a crucial part of this solution. We have to lead our leaders and drag them into action and engagement.

The best way we have before us right now is to select the best possible city leaders we can in next month’s elections, and give them a proper mandate to take the kind of meaningful action that needs to be taken.

A Mayor selected by seven Council members can not possibly have such a mandate.

A Mayor and Council elected by only a quarter of registered voters can not have such a mandate.

It’s hard to see how problems of the sort that plague this city can be solved if only a handful of the people care to take the most basic essential action to engage in seeking solutions;  that is, Vote.

There is a direct line between the poor civic engagement we have demonstrated in this city, to the kind of leadership we have settled for over the last decades as a result of this poor engagement, to the totally inadequate actions taken by this leadership that contribute to sustaining the environment that produces what we saw happen yesterday at Galilee Church. And that will happen again if we don’t work to change things.

Freedom’s right. This next election is a matter of the life or death for this city’s future.

But only if we can put this Madness behind us.