not to say what happened was justified in this case or if this even occurred, but i have seen many of drug deals done on newark ave in the downtown area.. mostly done by the old pickup routine and drop off the person about 50 yards down the road... i can't say i saw drugs or money exchanged but picking someone up and driving a short distance and letting the person out usually raises a red flag.

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Moes Deli ?

Not that I want to blame the victims here, but the women probably should never have let the police search their car or their persons. If you can bring yourself to sit through the bad acting, you might want to check out this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqMjMPlXzdA

Yea, mettulj!!,

Bodega's, bodega's, bosmhaegas.

I am so sick and tired of the bodegas and the foot traffic, the ugly yellow store front signs. The gangs with the white or black t-shirts and blue jeans, who LOVE to hang out there. But it seem's they have changed the dress code and have decided to have "TAG DAYS" where they wear regular clothes on certain particular days.

Then the language they use. They are so loud.

That's why I'll take a couple of the kids in the area (Always of course with parental permission) to the park on a nice day if possible. Then I'll treat them to Dunkin Donuts, so they don't have to see this depressing sight,

OR,

I'll invite them to my makeshift playground in my back yard.
The one in this area was shamefully turned into a parking lot.

I'll even take them trick or treating in the HP area so they can see things from a different perspective.

The parents, you say hello to everyone with a smile and it puts them at ease show some kindness give them a hug if possible if I've gotten to know them some.

Kindness does wonders.

The other four:

*Jaywalking: If a person is walking down the sidewalk in Jersey City, drivers must assume that this person can and will bolt across the street at any point, for no apparent reason. Slamming on your brakes, honking and screaming at the idiot is met with blank stares. Hitting the idiot results in lawsuit against you the driver even if you weren't ticketed.

*Litter: Never, ever admonish someone for throwing trash on the street in broad daylight. This makes you either a racist ("You only saying that 'cause I'm black/white/asian/indian") or ignorant ("DO YOU KNOW HOW I AM?"). I really love the appeal to "Paying taxes" when someone justifies throwing an entire bag of mcdonalds' trash out of their car window.

*Jitney Buses: Covered here on JCList a lot, but these things are a nightmare. I don't care if they are cheap, they suck.

*Informal "Industries"; Forget about dope dealing. I am talking about people who rebuild transmissions in front of your place and pour the used transmission fluid on your trees killing them. Not just once but several times. THen there's the guys who swap merchandise from a large semi into their vans to distriubute hither and yon. Or the bodega that sells exactly no food but has more foot traffic than Macys.

Mathias

you called the cops about a break in and they beat you up?
i must have good luck, when I call the cops they are pretty polite and are willing to help

Thank you all for your responses.

For information's sake, Salmonella, I am not white myself and I don't live in a white neighborhood, and indeed live "across town", which I think was part of the point of the story. I think the cops would not have been so interested in a white woman driving in a nice car if she hadn't been in a black neighborhood, letting a black man out of her car.

I agree there may be more to this story than I witnessed in the 45 minutes from the time they pulled her over in front of my window, until they left, but there also seemed to be an obvious subtext which was demonstrated by the police officer's final comments. And the officers standing around while these young women and their belongings were searched seemed more amused than intent or concerned about possible danger.

And yes, there's always more going on than there appears to be, and people are always guiltier than they seem to be...until it happens to you.

As far as the ticketing goes, I heard the police officer say one was for double parking. When he informed the young woman about one of the others she exclaimed "But I made a legal turn". I didn't catch what the third one was for, but she said to someone on the phone that they were suspending her license. Whether that happened there or at some other date in the future is unclear to me--the point seemed the same.

I, for one, am not into cop bashing. I grew up and lived until recently in New York, and current events notwithstanding, have never had any negative incidents with police officers or witnessed anything negative personally involving any. This is notable to me, as I saw police officers every day in my neighborhoods, wherever I lived, whether on foot or in patrol cars, and for the last 7 years lived two blocks away from a police precinct. I have to say that in general, given the scope of the work they have to do, and the diversity of the neighborhoods they police, I have a high level of respect for the NYPD.

Here's the thing--in the few months I've lived in JC, I have never seen any police on the street just having a look around the neighborhood, or driving by just to check things out, but the 2 or 3 times I have seen the police, there has been something negative, such as this incident, involved. I won't even mention the other incidents here. To my mind, this speaks to something beyond a lack of resources or need for sensitivity training, etc., but of a general attitude that will allow for a continued adversarial relationship with police officers, especially in troubled areas, and crimes continuing to be committed in areas where police don't appear to care about treating the residents respectfully.

I just wrote all of this to get some of your thoughts, which I have done, and I thank you for.

Salmonella sorry,

BEEN THERE, DONE THAT.
AND...IMO,

IN THE NAME OF JUSTICE FOR ALL...
SOME CYCLES NEED TO BE BROKEN. SOME PEOPLE NEED MORE HELP THAN OTHER'S LIKE THERAPY, TO CLOSE THE UNJUSTIFIABLE GAP, A HEALING.

I DO ALL I CAN ON MY SIDE OF TOWN, HELP THE CHILDREN, TAKE THEM TO THE PARK WITH PARENTAL PERMISSION, TALK TO THEM. TALK TO THE PARENTS. PROVIDE ALL INFORMATION ON ON PROGRAMS, AND THE HELP THAT IS OUT THERE AND AVAILABLE.

BUT IT'S NOT ENOUGH.

MORE PROGRAMS ARE NEEDED THAT WILL HELP EVERYONE AND ANYBODY THAT ARE IN NEED.

BUFFY AND BRAD ALREADY GET THE HELP THEY NEED.

RIGHT, WHAT ABOUT THE OTHERS?

WHERE IS THE HELP FOR THEM?? WHO CARES?????

NO ONE.

AND THAT'S THE SAD PART.

I SEE IT EVERY DAY

NOT EVEN OPRAH AND P. DIDDY CARE.
OR ANGELINA AND BRAD FOR THAT MATTER.

How dare those cops harrass and search a white woman in a white neighborhood. Who do they think they are, they should be doing that stuff across town in the black neighborhoods and messing with the black people and leave Buffy and Brad alone, they are entitled to do a few lines and smoke a few bones if they want, they work for a living. This is an outrage, you should bring this up at your next community meeting.

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I've seen this many times myself -- I think it means that somewhere in this city there is someone, maybe in a gang house who is listening to a police scanner and then this person puts the word out via cell phone walkie talkies or something as to where JC police are getting dispatched to. I would like to know more about how this works - I know it happens -- as I've said I've seen it many times.

It's a sad situation.

The REAL QOL issues seem to be totally ignored and with temporary bandaids placed.

You'll see the police just drive by and ignore the loiterers, some times they will tell them all to leave and then the loiterer's just come right back, the drug dealer's, the prostitutes, the loud car's with foul languge lyrics being played , young adults and adults smoking weed, public drinking and all of this with small children playing near by at times.

When residents call they dissapear because they somehow seem to know that the "Po-Po's" coming.

I know that the police are doing all they can but they keep giving out the excuse that there's just too much paper work.

With the onslaught of more condominiums and developement there ought to be more and better trained police.

IMO yes, maybe there is more to the original post then meets the eye.

It's infuriating to see that control is the issue of the day in some areas but they can't control the REAL issues in other's.

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I disagree with that line of reasoning. I called the Jersey City police because my home was being broken in to. When they arrived they beat the living shit out of me for no other reason than the fact I was the first person they saw.

Cops do things because they can and because they get away with it 99.9% of the time.

by the way, I'm not anti-cop. My dad was a cop in Paterson NJ.

Do tell what are the other four?

Double parking should be punishable by summary execution. It is one of five things that make life miserable in JC.

It seems our finest were cracking down on double parkers yesterday on Jersey Ave. I heard the electronic air horn a couple of times outside my building so I looked out the window.

A woman who graciously picks up and drops off laundry for folks in the neighborhood was dropping off laundry across the street and she had 1/2 parked her car in a parking space.

She hears the police horn, goes back to her car to move it, the cop hits the horn again and starts saying "let's go, let's go". Before she is even sitting in her car, he hits the horn again and yells. As she is shifting it into drive, he hits the horn again and yells.

I am the first person to say the the police have a very tough job that none of us in law enforcement can ever understand. I am also the first person to step up and defend them when they are insulted accused of negligence when all the facts aren't present.

However, there is something called an officer's discretion. Go ahead and hit the horn once and move on. Or even wait for the car to move. But don't sit there hitting the horn constantly and actually create more of a disturbance. Did the overly zealous officer realize that some people will become more nervous, tend to make more mistakes and be more apt to have an accident if he keeps hitting the horn? I guess not.


And BTW, you won't always get arrested for having a suspended license. I know. A friend was pulled over for an expired registration (oops misssed it by a day) and having a suspended licencse (which he was unaware of). The car was towed and he was not arrested. This comes down to that thing I referred to as discretion.

And a final note, an officer can choose to arrest you for any violation at all. ANY. But most offenses don't warrant such action and are not worth the paperwork.

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+1 I'm sure there is a lot of information missing in this story.

I don't think JCPD has a problem going after double parked cars. I've see them constantly warning people on Grove to move their cars and I've never seen them write a ticket.

You would think that the one's that are in higher authority would get off their rear's and do SOMETHING about the REAL problems going on. There are places in Jersey City that need more of a police presence. I have been reporting on a certain house on a certain block on possible drug dealing for MONTHS!!! They even brought out the dogs and the dogs sensed something but according to the law?, they can't go into the property. Last night there were about 30 teens/young adults on this block we called about 3 times even the operator said that they had already received several calls on the issue, a car did not come out until the whole fight, because that is what it was about, a fight was completely over, it was about 12:30 am. And the prostitutes are still out there on Ocean and the behind the Beacon possibly with their deseases being spead out all over Jersey City. They really need to be helped one had dried blood on her face it's a sad situation. This city seems to have their prioraties all screwed up. Something very wrong is going on here. I've noticed it going on for several years now, with the police, city officials, elected officials...they seem to say one thing only just to please the public ear and then...something gets amended, or a temporary bandaid is placed on a dilema. But the highrises
continue to sprout up, over on the waterfront along with the tax abatements. Some roads in some areas are still not paved
AND OUR TAXES CONTINUE TO RISE.
So what is the first thing that comes to mind? CORRUPTION & ABUSE OF POWER

While I respect the essential and dangerous job that cops must perform, I also know that, without proper oversight, they can become the problem, rather than the solution.

As I reported in another thread some while ago, I was in a well known local bar, taking photos, hired by the owner to do that. An apparently over-served man approached beligerantly, showing me his badge and wallet identifying him as one of the highest ranking police officials in Jersey City.

I recognized him as someone I'd just seen swapping spit with a woman over in a corner. I had avoided taking photos of that.

He demanded that I show him my identity, threatened to arrest me if I didn't delete all the shots in the digital camera , etc. etc.

He didn't want to hear that we were in a public place (ever wonder why a bar is called a "pub"?). He began making moves to grab the camera. Fortunately, before things got physical, the owner stepped in and calmed him down with the false promise that all the pix would be deleted . . . and the offer of drink on the house.

My point?

An old Jewish proverb says that authority, like a dead fish, rots from the head.

i hate to say this, but there had to be something else going on with this situation for them to search people, their wallets, their cell phones, or their vehicle.

Thank you for posting this. This type of behavior is totally unacceptable.

It really seems that our police force needs some remedial training on morals, decency and community relations.

I believe I may have witnessed the same officers in action this evening on "double-parking patrol" along Jersey Ave. What should have been a friendly, "Please move along, Miss. You're blocking traffic." turned into an aggressive, accusatory confrontation that made me embarrassed to call Jersey City my home.

I'm all for the police reigning in traffic and enforcing qol laws, but they need to remember their place in this world as public servants in a friendly community, not an occupying force in a war zone.

Whoever from the city that may read this, listen up: Teach those boys some manners and respect our rights as American citizens. We are more powerful than you. We will not tolerate this type of behavior.

Was anyone in the car naked?

First of all, I don't know how much of what you say is true ,since you stated that the cops suspended her license, since in New Jersey only a judge or motor vehicle agency can do that. They may have issued her a ticket for having a suspended license ( which in any other place but Hudson County she would have been arrested for) and lastly when the police are conducting an investigation whether you believe it to be just or not , you shouldn't be using a cell phone.

On what grounds were the tickets given, and on what grounds was her license suspended ? Perhaps you can avail yourself as a witness. In todays world no chances are taken.

So... not too far from my front window this evening, I witnessed an example of Jersey City policing. As a new resident, I was quite curious. There were 5 officers, one of them was female. They had apparently pulled over a car full of young women in their 20s, 2 White and 1 Black, and were searching the women one by one, and searching the car. One of the young white women's "crime" (it was her car, a very nice new Mercedes), was in briefly double parking to let a young black man out of her car before proceeding on her way. During the exchange between her and the cops, the young woman told them that the young man was her boyfriend, and she didn't know why they were assuming that just because she let a black man out of her car, that she was engaging in a drug deal. She said she was in college and had a good job, and didn't do drugs. She was very upset and was crying.

After a thorough search of her car (which was packed with music cds, but no drugs), all the women (including invasive frisking--even if it was done by a woman), and all their belongings, including their wallets and cell phones, they wrote the young woman three tickets and suspended her license. One of the tickets was for "double parking" meaning when she stopped briefly to let her boyfriend out, but didn't leave her car. As the cops were leaving, the young woman mentioned something to the officer who wrote the tickets about her parents. He turned as he was getting into the car and asked her if her parents knew she was "banging a black guy". She got very upset walked over to his car, yelled at him and called him racist, and he threatened to lock her up. Finally they all drove away.

I found all of this very distressing, as the police were obviously not interested in doing anything except harassing these young women, and finally devising some justification for pulling them over. They weren't drinking or driving recklessly, and nothing untoward was found in the vehicle. When one of them was finally allowed to answer her cell phone, and it was more than clear they had done nothing illegal, the cop walked over to her and asked her who she was talking to, as though it were his business. I wonder if anyone else has ever witnessed anything like this here, or if this is representative of anyone else's experience.

Thanks