Weekly Address 7/9/16: Standing Together to Stop the Violence

WASHINGTON, DC — In this week's address, Vice President Joe Biden commemorated the lives of the five police officers who were killed and the seven people who were wounded in Dallas. The police officers were providing safety to those who were peacefully marching against racial injustices in the criminal justice system – and the shocking images of the lives lost in St. Paul and Baton Rouge. Echoing the remarks of Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings and Police Chief David Brown, the Vice President called on the American people to act with unity and to stop the violence. He emphasized that it is the responsibility of everyone to speak out against disparities within the criminal justice system, just as much as it is the responsibility of everyone to stand up for the police who protect us every day. Because together, we as a nation will persevere and overcome.

The New Politics of Racism in Suburban New Jersey, Pt. 4 : Middletown's Borg Mentality

Crossed posted from The Purcell Chronicles

By Rev. Jim Purcell, MPS, CPSP1 (Ret.)

Strictly in theory, the Middletown Township Committee has to vote as a body on things like who will be named to what position, if a body will be created or disbanded as an advisory group or any other kind of group affiliated with the municipal government, among other things.

In reality, though, GOP committee people do not express individual leadership skills and vote as a small herd. It is less the Round Table, so to speak, than it is the Borg, of Star Trek: The Next Generation fame.

I have already been asked why I do not include discussion of the democracy and 'one-member-one-vote' nature of the committee more heavily when discussing the governing body and its decisions relative to the controversy about the abolishment of the Middletown Human Rights Commission. This is because such 'democracy' by the committee is in theory and ceremony only. The real power behind such votes are not even the mayor, past or present, associated with the town through the course of time, but the Republican Machine that has controlled the community for the past 40 years.

In fairness, members of the Republican Party in Middletown Township who serve on the governing body do have opportunities in office to express their ideas, from what I can tell after years of covering the town. However, these expressions are more private at first, certainly not 'off the cuff' ever or without prior consultation with the town GOP's Political Machine. GOP office holders in Middletown row their oars in the same direction and no one plays as an individual in the political game -- and benefits from that organization.

Yet, this is not how a government organized under the Government of the United States is supposed to operate -- doing things the way they are done in Middletown laughs in the face of the American system of rule within its own borders, in my opinion.

Well, the core with this, of course, is that no political party is supposed to run any town or community in the United States of America -- yes, their candidates/officer-holders do but the darn political party is supposed to have nothing to say. This is where Middletown takes a 'hard right turn into crazy.' The idea that the electorate votes and sends cardboard cut-outs instead of bona fide representatives of the people's will to a governing body, which then gives license to any measure brought by the town's GOP Political Machine, which is led by several attorneys that are paid by the township for various services, is ridiculous and goes on every single day in Middletown.

This is not the first place I have stated that the leadership of the Middletown Republicans have historically been involved with overseeing governmental borrowing for his Newark law firm for several decades now. This must be legal, or else law enforcement would have been involved in this years ago, but it nonetheless smells as bad as Johnny On The Spot after a day at the circus.

The Middletown Committee is not, historically, a group of independent-minded people looking to do local government as much as they are a collection of the hopeful and ambitious seeking to be helped in careers and futures by the Middletown GOP, which is the most influential community politically in the county -- and one of the most influential in the state. In addition, so many state legislators and officials hail from Middletown it seems being closely aligned to the Middletown GOP can often lead to advancement in the ranks of politics or professions (particularly law or engineering).

Where does all this arrive where it involves bias? Not just of race but certainly that too. Its collected excesses have made Middletown one of the last all-White gated communities in New Jersey, if not the Industrial North East, intent on not allowing diversity or thoughts other than those in the 'group speak' of a small ring of influential, anonymous attorneys who are the real force behind the community's governance; not the committee people -- not the elected representatives of the people.

However, Middletown stoics, intent on never giving sway to the laws that govern the rest of the land, or the diversity that is so present nearly everywhere else in the Garden State, cannot win forever and, one fine day, this government will have to join the rest of the world.

Does all this make the elected and non-elected politicians of Middletown racist? Well, after much consideration, the community is 93 percent White -- and that is the proof in the pudding, isn't it? If race were not one of the single-most important issues to the powers that be there, how would the town have otherwise acquired a Native American population that is many times over the number of residents in town....

Continue reading

-----------

Rev. Purcell was licensed to preach at Stelton Baptist Church, in Edison, NJ, in 2007. He is a graduate of the New York Theological Seminary, in New York City, and Capital Health's Clinical Pastoral Education Program, in Trenton, New Jersey. Rev. Purcell is the former Editor and Publisher of the late Courier newspaper, in Middletown, New Jersey (1998-2009); and is a former correspondent for The Star-Ledger, Jersey Journal and North Jersey Newspapers, among others. During his tenure in the U.S. Army, Rev. Purcell earned the rank of Sergeant and served as an Intelligence Analyst and Infantry Squad Leader, respectively, in Airborne and non-Airborne assignments. 


Read Rev. Purcell's other articles in his series on the Politics In Racism on his blog, "The Purcell Chronicles":

The New Politics of Racism in Suburban New Jersey, Pt. 1: Preface
The New Politics of Racism in Suburban New Jersey, Pt. 2: Middletown and the facts
The New Politics of Racism in Suburban New Jersey, Pt. 3: The Dismemberment of the Middletown Human Rights Committee

Policer Officer Files Bias Complaint Against MiddletownChief and Range Master

This past Tuesday, June 7th, word started spreading that Middletown Policer Officer Darrin Simon, an African-American, had filed in state Superior Court last month against Middletown, Middletown Police Chief Robert Oches and range master James Griffin, a law suit claiming racial bias.

The law suit claims that over a period of time Officer Simon had been on the receiving end of various racial slurs and being called “boy” and “coon” by range master Griffin and that Chief Oches may have attempted to to cover the incidents up.

Both the Asbury Park Press and Red Bank Green both have stories online about the filed complaint and should be read for more details.

What the two articles have failed to mention however and was not generally known at the moment, but has come to my attention since, is that another law suit related to this case has been filed on the behalf of Officer Simon by the Greater Long Branch chapter of the NAACP.

More later....