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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
An Open Government Forum was held in Hunterdon County on Thursday. Three of the four panelists are NJLP members. The forum was reported on by Lehigh Valley Live:
Open-records advocate John Paff estimates 80 percent of governing bodies in New Jersey knowingly or unknowingly fail to follow portions of the Open Public Meetings Act.
"I don’t think the system works very well," Paff said, a Libertarian from Somerset County who has waged numerous open records fights. "We're it. We're the enforcement."
Paff was one of four panelists taking part in an open government meeting Thursday at the Historic Hunterdon County Court House in Flemington.
Read the full story on the Lehigh Valley Live Website.
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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Police Accountability Project
In a May 23, 2011 letter, the chairman of the New Jersey Libertarian Party's Police Accountability Project asked Egg Harbor Township (Atlantic County) Mayor James McCullough to review and update the police department's on-line internal affairs reporting form.
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- Written by: Alex Pugliese
- Category: Selected Blogs
In every war that the U.S. has fought in, from the Korean conflict to today, these wars were never declared by the institution called Congress. They were declared, instead, by the presidency, both in Democratic and Republican hands. Under Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, the power to declare war is the sole responsibility of Congress and no other. Yet, as with most issues, Congress has been diverting more and more power to the executive branch. Even the War Powers Act of 1973 allows for the President to commit troops to battle provided that Congress is notified 60 to 90 days of deployment. This act is nothing more than a poor and faulty attempt at compromise. The question of whether it is the president or Congress that has the power to declare war has never been decided by the Federal Courts, let alone the U.S. Supreme Court.
If I had the standing, I would challenge the authority of the executive not only to wage war, but to also commit troops overseas. I would file the papers in court if I were allowed to do so. I am surprised that a member of Congress, who would have more of a standing than I, has never filed with the courts on such an important issue such as war, peace, life and death. It is high time that the question be answered once and for all. Can one person decide to send young men and women to face gun fire? Or is that the duty of 535 persons? Can the executive commit troops to battle? Or is that the right of the legislative? These and other questions must be resolved and must be answered for the sake of the future and the sake of the American people.
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project
At the request of the NJ Libertarian Party's Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project, Brick Township has moved to repeal their illegal loitering ordinance. The Brick Patch quotes the Project's Chairman:
"The ordinances are clearly unenforceable, and they confuse people - including the police," Paff said, explaining that a person mistakenly arrested or ticketed for loitering could turn and sue the township. "The laws against loitering were so often abused or misunderstood. It used to be just too easy to pick on certain groups."
Read article at The Brick Patch.
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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Police Accountability Project
Libertarians demand that cops live under the same laws as the rest of us
| Contact: Jay Edgar Office: 732-962-NJLP Cell: 848-525-0578 |
For Immediate Release |
Tennent, NJ, May 18, 2011: Prompted by recent Star Ledger articles regarding police officers' habitual failure to enforce drunk driving laws against State Trooper Sheila McKaig, the New Jersey Libertarian Party (NJLP) has formally petitioned the New Jersey Attorney General to take corrective action.
On May 16, 2011, the NJLP State Board unanimously voted to send a "petition for rulemaking" to Attorney General Paula Dow asking for "some rules that genuinely and substantially address the problem of police showing favoritism to fellow officers. A copy of the petition, which was submitted to Dow on May 17, 2011, is on-line at http://njlp.org/uploads/petitionToAG.pdf.
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
The public comment portion of a Mount Laurel Board of Education meeting (the date of the meeting is not known) is below.
The comments are from students and parents praising and supporting certain teachers. By sliding the timer to 6:15, viewers will witness the board's determination that since the speakers are all making similar comments, future speakers will be ejected from the meeting unless the topics of their comments are "different" than what the board has already heard.
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
On April 15, 2011, Hunterdon County Sheriff Corporal Sandra Ford delivered a writ of execution to the Wells Fargo Bank at 74 Church Street, Flemington and levied on Hunterdon's County's bank accounts. The levy amount, $93,265.37, represented legal fees that the County owes to the South Jersey law firm Friedman & Doherty, LLC of West Berlin.
The County was ordered to pay the $93,265.37 by Superior Court Assignment Judge Yolanda Ciccone's February 7, 2011 order that arose out of a class action lawsuit captioned James Gensch et al v. Mary H. Melfi, Hunterdon County Clerk et al, Docket No. HNT-L-307-07.
Gensch's lawsuit was a class action, filed on May 8, 2007, challenging the 25 cents per page charged by the self service copier machines located in the deeds and mortgages recording room. Gensch alleged that the 25 cents per page was too high and that the County was legally allowed to only collect its actual cost per copy, which Gensch estimated to be 7 cents.
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
I am sometimes asked how I word my OPRA requests to public bodies that I wish to audit for compliance with the Open Public Meetings Act's closed session requirements.
I use the following form of request, since it is informs me of a) how current the body is on making its closed session minutes publicly disclosable, b) the level of detail contained in the body's closed session minutes, c) how closely the topics that the body resolved to discuss in closed session correspond to the topics that the body actually discussed in closed session, and d) the extent to which the body's closed session minutes are "reasonably comprehensible" as required by law.
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Police Accountability Project
Last weekend Camden cops brazenly fired off 33 rounds in an effort to kill a dog. Stray bullets struck several nearby cars and houses. The story was covered by several newspapers including The Courier Post.
The New Jersey Libertarian Party have previously noted the level of police misconduct in Camden here and have held a loitering law protest in Camden.
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- Written by: Alex Pugliese
- Category: Selected Blogs
For over 40 years, this nation has spent $40 Billion a year to fight a war that is not winnable. This war is not against a hostile or enemy nation, nor is it against an enemy organization such as Al-Qaeda. This war is none other than the war on drugs. It is a war on the American populace itself; it is war that breeds law enforcement corruption; it is a war that breeds violence in the street of every metropolitan city; it is war that makes criminality and criminal conduct sound appealing; it is war where profits are earned in the black market; and it treats those who abuse and use drugs like criminals and the dreads of society at large.
A War on the American Populace: There are individuals whom believe that the war on drugs targets only those who are considered “Kingpins” and members of organized crime. This may be true in some aspects, but it is not the whole picture. Often times, innocent civilians and regular folks are targeted. These people may or may not use drugs, but acting on tips from informants and others, police officers use their S.W.A.T teams to break into homes without a search warrant and search the dwelling. This has happened in states like Louisiana, Georgia, Florida and elsewhere. If the person is arrested, he or she is subject to asset forfeiture laws, child authorities are notified, his or her children are seized and the person’s life is turned into a living nightmare.
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- Written by: Brian Irving
- Category: Latest News
The race for the Libertarian Presidential nomination must not be about personalities, not about radicals and reformers, but rather about principles -- the basic, core principles all libertarians believe in
by Brian Irving
(libertarian)
Saturday, April 16, 2011
HICKORY, N.C. (April 16) -- R. Lee Wrights, a longtime libertarian writer and activist, announced today at the N.C. Libertarian Party State Convention that he will be seeking the Libertarian nomination for President of the United States. Here is his statement:
'I'm returning to the place where this campaign began -- ten years ago. North Carolina is where I was born, where I grew up and where I became involved in the Libertarian Party and the libertarian movement. It's here in North Carolina that the seed for this campaign was planted and nourished.
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Police Accountability Project
Today, I wrote the following letter, which should be self explanatory, to Ocean County Prosecutor Marlene Lynch Ford. The exhibits referred to in the letter are on-line here: http://ogtf.lpcnj.org/2010105pJ//b10418HolmesExhibits.pdf
John Paff
Somerset, New Jersey
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April 18, 2011
Marlene Lynch Ford, Esq.
Ocean County Prosecutor's Office
119 Hooper Ave
Toms River, NJ, 08754 (via E-mail toThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. )RE: State v. Holmes
Ind. No. 10-06-01190-ADear Prosecutor Ford:
Karl de Vries's August 27, 2010 Star Ledger article ("Hillside cop receives 3 years probation in domestic shooting") reported that Hillside police detective James Holmes was sentenced to three years probation for "shooting his stepson during a domestic dispute in his Toms River home." A copy of that article is attached as Exhibit Page 1.
After reading that article, I endeavored to learn whether Officer Holmes was, in accordance with N.J.S.A. 2C:51-2, a) required to forfeit his position as a Hillside police officer and b) disallowed from holding public office or employment in the future.
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Latest News
The Appellate Division of the Superior Court issued a decision today on April 7, 2011, in State v. Bradley, which can be found on-line at http://www.judiciary.state.nj.us/opinions/a0430-09.pdf
The decision is significant, in that it lays down a categorical rule that no pro se (i.e. a litigant proceeding without an attorney) complainant is permitted to appeal from a municipal court’s dismissal of his or her complaint for want of probable cause no matter how erroneous the probable cause determination. Further, given the text of Court Rule 3:23-9(d), even if the pro se complainant, after dismissal, were to hire an attorney to perfect the appeal, the county prosecutor could simply refuse to give “assent” to the attorney being a "prosecuting attorney" thus defeating the appeal.
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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Police Accountability Project
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- Written by: Wes Benedict
- Category: Latest News
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 5, 2011
Contact: Wes Benedict, Executive Director
E-mail:
Phone: 202-333-0008 ext. 222
Libertarians say Paul Ryan is worse than Bill Clinton
WASHINGTON - In response to House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan's new budget proposal, Libertarian Party Chair Mark Hinkle issued the following statement today:
"Americans hoping to get real about our national debt just got sucker-punched by Republican Paul Ryan.
"Republicans want to spend $40 trillion over ten years. That averages a staggering $4 trillion per year. As recently as 2000, federal spending was only about $1.8 trillion.
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Latest News
BY MURRAY SABRIN
Murray Sabrin is professor of finance at Ramapo College and was the Libertarian Party nominee for governor in 1997 and a GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2000 and 2008.
IT WAS REPORTED last week that General Electric paid no federal income taxes in 2010. Should we be angry that one of the world’s largest corporations paid no federal income tax while middle income and upper income Americans pay federal, state and in some cases city income taxes?
Americans also pay Social Security and Medicare taxes, state unemployment and disability taxes, sales taxes and property taxes, and a host of utility and other taxes. In short, Americans pay taxes to all levels of government in order to receive a number of benefits from the “public sector.”
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- Written by: Alex Pugliese
- Category: Selected Blogs
On K Street in Washington, D.C., there are many offices that are occupied by special interest groups. Everyday, those offices send a lobbyist for the purposes of attempting to make some members of Capital Hill and The White House to support their causes and their endeavors. About 95% of the time, what these lobbyists request is tax monies to fund their projects as well as lobby for other spending legislation and monetary support. It is these special interest groups and their political supporters whom are an impediment to reducing the size and scope of government, and an impediment to reducing this nation’s $14 Trillion dollar and counting national debt.