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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Policy News
On Monday a bill to decriminalize possession of up to 15 grams of marijuana unanimously passed a NJ Assembly Committee. Among those to testify was Mick Erickson, our Libertarian Candidate for Congress in the 10th district.
From our friends at the Marijuana Policy Project:
In exciting news, a New Jersey Assembly Committee voted 7-0 yesterday to approve Assembly Bill 1465, a bill that would reduce penalties for marijuana possession. The full Assembly will vote on this sensible bill on Thursday.
Please click here to contact your assemblymembers in support of this proposal today!
Assembly Bill 1465 would make possession of one-half ounce, or 15 grams, of marijuana a summary offense similar to a parking ticket. Currently, those caught with small amounts of marijuana face up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Police Accountability Project
Thanks to CATO's Police Misconduct Reporting Project for pointing me to this story.
A former Jersey City man who accused a police officer of excessive force in 2005 is set to receive $185,000 in a legal settlement that the City Council is scheduled to approve this week.
Samy Gattas sued the city, the Police Department, Police Chief Tom Comey, and several officers in federal court, accusing them of violating his civil rights during a 2005 incident in which he was handcuffed and charged with a disorderly persons offense after a verbal dispute with a police officer.
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
I recently submitted an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request for two months worth of Upper Freehold Township Committee meeting minutes as both an effort to learn what is going on in my town and to test my town's adherence to the OPRA law. As a result of my request and findings I wrote a letter to the Township pointing out deficiencies and recommending changes to their process. I've uploaded copies of my correspondence and the responses to http://njlp.org/uploads/UFTOPRARequest.pdf.
I found the township to be deficient in three main areas.
Tardy and Incomplete Responses To OPRA Request
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
The Borough of Englewood Cliffs (Bergen County) wishes for me to pay up to $339.79 for the audio recording of a December 8, 2010 Borough Council meeting. The Borough posits that the meeting was recorded on audio tape and that since the Borough now uses CD technology, it needs to use a private vendor, at $135 per hour, to duplicate the 2.5 hour meeting recording.
My OPRA request, the Borough's response and my reply to that response are on-line here.
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project
On May 8th, Allentown Borough enacted a loitering ordinance.
It shall be unlawful for any person under the age of 18 years to loiter, idle, wander, stroll or play in or upon or to remaining in or upon the public streets, highways, roads, alleys, parks, playgrounds, public places and public buildings, places of amusement and entertainment, church parking lots, places of business carried on for profit to which the public is invited, vacant lots or other public places, either on foot or in any vehicle within the confines of the Borough on every day of the week, provided that the provisions of this section shall not apply to a minor when accompanied by his parent, guardian or other adult person having custody, care and control of the minor, or in the event the minor is upon an emergency errant or legitimate business directed or consented to by his parent, guardian or other adult person having care and custody of the minor.
The New Jersey Libertarian Party opposes such laws on the grounds that they violate a citizen's right to peacefully assemble. In addition, in the state of NJ, such laws have been deemed illegal by the courts.
I've sent a letter to the Borough Council pointing out the illegality of their ordinance. The letter was also sent to the Borough Attorney.
In the event that Allentown Borough does not repeal this law, I wll personally assist anyone charged with this in fighting this violation of the civil liberties of our youth.
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- Written by: Eric Hafner
- Category: Latest News
UPDATE: John Paff wrote a letter to the Presiding Judge of the Monmouth County Municipal Courts concerning this matter.
A municipal Judge in Middletown Township, NJ (Monmouth County) is renting his law office from the Municipal Prosecutor - a conflict of interest that means any case they have ever handled is now questionable. This story reeks of New Jersey political corruption and cronyism.
While facing a prosecution in Middletown Township Municipal Court relating to my usage of Medical Marijuana (that my doctor in California recommends I use in the treatment of my serious illness - but that's a separate issue entirely) I have become aware of some facts regarding the operation of the court that draws into serious question whether or not any defendant can receive a fair trial in Middletown Township.
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- Written by: Alex Pugliese
- Category: Selected Blogs
The recent stories regarding Anna Gristina and Catherine Scalia have once again brought up the issue of prostitution in the Empire State to the forefront. These women feel that they have done nothing wrong and they also feel that they have a right to engage in this activity, regardless of what others may think. While I personally find the thought of any adult man or woman selling his or her body for the purposes of sex disgusting and abominable, I also feel that these women should not be prosecuted and that the practice of prostitution should be decriminalized.
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
Is it at least an appearance of impropriety for a Township administrator to have his home's roof replaced by the same contractor who was awarded a construction contract by the Township? My letter to Fairfield Township (Cumberland County) Mayor Michael Sharp and the Township Committee, which is referenced in the article below, is on-line at http://ogtf.lpcnj.org/2012/2012130Yr//Fairfield.pdf
Letter raises possible accusations of 'impropriety' against former Fairfield Township administrator Joe Veight
Published: Tuesday, May 08, 2012By Jason Laday/The News of Cumberland
FAIRFIELD TWP. — A statewide watchdog group on Tuesday released a letter to the township committee regarding what it describes as possible impropriety on part of former Fairfield administrator and clerk Joe Veight.
Written by John Paff, of the New Jersey Libertarian Party’s Open Government Advocacy Project, the letter states that Veight had contracted a local firm for repairs at his Upper Deerfield home a month before that same company was awarded a $14,052 contract with the township.
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
After receiving my notice of an intended lawsuit, the Downe Township (Cumberland County) Committee passed a May 7, 2012 resolution promising to make draft copies of both its public meeting minutes and the nonexempt portions of its nonpublic (closed or executive) meeting minutes publicly available "the sooner to occur of thirty (30) days after a meeting or prior to the next scheduled meeting, whichever occurs first." My threatened lawsuit, Committee resolution and cover letters are on-line here.
Downe Township is a rural township of about 1,700 inhabitants that borders the Delaware Bay. Some towns, due to their small size, claim that they don't have the staff or resources to keep their minutes up to date. The fact that Downe is able to promise to make both its open and closed minutes publicly available prior to the next meeting challenges the "we're too small" excuse.
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- Written by: Alex Pugliese
- Category: Selected Blogs
There was once a time in America when we all praised the open mind. That we praised hearing open, honest and thoughtful debate on all sides of an argument; that we looked at all information, data and evidence; that we listened and read openly what people had said and wrote; that we would test our hypothesis over and over again always with the open mind and the come to our own conclusions.
Since the late 1960s and early 70s, most Americans have abandoned all that considering it all passé. They replaced it with their own prejudices, ideology and their own beliefs. In short, since that time, there has been a deliberate closing of the American mind.
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
I have threatened to sue the Clinton Township (Hunterdon County) Board of Education for violating the Open Public Meetings Act in a way that is new to me - by passing a verbal, closed session motion/resolution during a public meeting that differs substantially from the version of the motion/resolution that is recorded in the meeting's minutes.
By comparing the audio of the Board's meetings with the written minutes, I have found several examples where the Board passed a simple motion, in the nature of "I move that we go into executive session," but then recorded a much more verbose version of the motion in the meeting minutes. One of the main purposes of N.J.S.A. 10:4-13, which requires that public body pass a resolution in public before going into executive or closed session, is to inform the members of the public in attendance of nature of the matters that the body is going to privately discuss. For a public body to simply say that it's going into executive session and then include the details of what topics were privately discussed in the meeting's minutes--which won't be publicly available until weeks later--works against that purpose.
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Police Accountability Project
Thanks to CATO's Police Misconduct Reporting Project for pointing me to this story.
A Passaic County police officer sent a 12-year-old girl explicit photos of himself in uniform and tried to set up a sexual encounter with her, days after meeting the girl while assisting her family in an unrelated police matter, authorities said today. Woodland Park Police Officer Steven Vigorito Jr. pleaded not guilty in Superior Court in Paterson to charges ranging from attempted aggravated sexual assault to luring and enticing a child
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- Written by: David Schneck
- Category: Student Rights
When in the course of national affairs, it becomes necessary for one generation to dissolve the political and financial bondage which have connected it with others, and to assume among the powers of our republic, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitles it. A decent respect to the opinions of society requires that it should declare the causes which impels it to generational divorce.
We hold this truth to be self-evident, that the rights of people all generations are equal, that we, as young people, are entitled to inherit the same free and opportunity-filled country that the generation currently in power inherited.
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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Police Accountability Project
In April of 2011, Bogota officer Regina Tasca called for backup assistance in taking a mentally disturbed man to the hospital. Two Ridgefield Park police officers arrived and immediately rushed in to the scene and started beating on the victim. Officer Tasca attempted to intervene.
Neither of the Ridgefield Park officers have been punished.
Tasca described what we see on the videotape: "The Ridgefield Park officer automatically charges and takes him down to the ground. I was quite shocked. As he's doing that, another Ridgefield Park officer flies to the scene in his car, jumps out and starts punching him in the head."
On the tape you can hear Tara, the mother, and Kyle, her son, screaming, "Why are you punching him?" and "Stop punching me!"
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Police Accountability Project
In exchange for his guilty plea and forfeiture of the $56,000 seized, the State agreed to recommend a non-custodial probationary sentence.
- New Jersey Appellate Division decision, in State v. Al H. Aly, Docket No. A-5249-09T4, decided 04/12/2012
Under New Jersey Law, forfeited cash does not go to the general fund. Rather, "all money seized . . . shall become the property of the entity funding the prosecuting agency involved" and the prosecuting agency "shall divide the . . . money seized . . . with any other entity where the other entity's law enforcement agency participated in the surveillance, investigation, arrest or prosecution resulting in the forfeiture." N.J.S.A. 2C:64-6. (full text at http://ogtf.lpcnj.org/2012/2012103Ok//2C64.pdf)
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- Written by: Mark Hinkle
- Category: Latest News
Press Release
For Immediate Release
Monday, April 16, 2012
WASHINGTON -- In light of tomorrow's personal income tax filing deadline, Libertarian National Chair, Mark Hinkle, released the following statement:
“While everyone needs revenue, only criminals and politicians insist that they have to get it through violence. The criminals, however, do not pretend they're doing it in order to serve the public, and taxes make politicians public masters rather than public servants.
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
For the first time in my experience, the Atlantic County Prosecutor has taken a position on an Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA) issue. In a March 27, 2012 letter, Chief Assistant Prosecutor Diane M. Ruberton advised that the Absecon Board of Education would have violated the OPMA if it had voted "through an exchange of e-mails to amend the budget to appropriate money for an increase in high school tuition." But, Ruberton opined that since "no vote was ever taken and the matter was scheduled to be addressed at a public meeting, . . . no violation of the Open Public Meeting Act ever actually occurred." Ruberton's letter is on-line here and the complainant's letter to the prosecutor's office is on-line here.
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
On Friday, April 20, 2012, at 9 a.m., Essex County Superior Court Judge Rachel N. Davidson will conduct an Order to Show Cause hearing in the case of John Paff v. Community Educational Centers, Inc., Docket No. ESX-L-1658-12. This case presents an issue of first impression in New Jersey--whether taxpayers lose their right to access government records when the government "contracts out" a traditional governmental function--in this case correctional services--to a private entity.
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- Written by: R. Lee Wrights
- Category: Latest News
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R. Lee Wrights, 53, a libertarian writer and political activist, is seeking the presidential nomination because he believes the Libertarian message in 2012 must be a loud, clear and unequivocal call to stop all war. |
BURNET, Texas (April 14) – America has always had an “illegal immigration” problem. Just ask any Native American. During a conversation with a Cherokee chief several years ago I asked him, “What did the native tribes call America before the white settlers came here?” He looked me straight in the eyes and solemnly replied, “Ours.”
This immigration debate is a classic example of why libertarians must become better communicators. Libertarians and others advocating immigration law reform talk about “open borders.” Conservatives, on the other hand, insist America must have “secure borders.” Both sides use these terms as if they were mutually exclusive. They’re not. They’re opposite sides of the same coin. It’s possible to have borders that are both open and secure.
The problem is that the term “open borders” is not specific enough to convey to a listener what we actually mean. When some people hear the words “open borders” they immediately envision an invading army marching across our borders unchallenged. On the other hand, when others (particularly libertarians) hear open borders, all that it means is accessibility for peaceful people to come and go.