News
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
Judge to hear request for Brigantine records
Open Public Records advocate John Paff's complaint against Brigantine is expected to be heard in state Superior Court in December, Paff said Wednesday.
In his suit, Paff seeks records related to the "investigative report and a municipal settlement agreement" involving former Police Chief Jim Frugoli.
Paff, a state Libertarian Party official from Somerset County who has sued multiple municipalities over public records, had sought information about the city investigation conducted in March by the law firm of Archer and Greiner.
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project
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Activists Joe Denise, Jay Edgar, Julian Heicklen, John Paff, and Nena Carroll loiter next to a "No Loitering" sign while protesting the abuse of Loitering Laws in Camden. |
On election day several libertarian activists visited the city of Camden to protest the police use of the state loitering with intent laws.
The NJ Libertarian Party's battle against loitering laws started some time ago. In 1979 the state enacted a uniform code of criminal conduct. Prior to 1979 much criminal law in NJ consisted of a patchwork of municipal regulations. The 1979 law was intended to have uniformity in law across the state. The 1970 Uniform Code of Conduct specifically excluded loitering as a valid offense. In 1982 in the case of State V. Crawley the courts found that local loitering ordinances are indeed invalid. So sometime in 2007 we formed a committee to identify invalid local loitering and nuisance laws and to have them overturned.
Mostly due to the hard work of the chairman of the Preempted Ordinance Project, John Paff, we have had loitering ordinances overturned in 32 towns. Most often we accomplish this with a simple letter to the township attorney noting the illegality of their ordinance. (they can be read about at http://njlp.org/loitering)
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Selected Blogs
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Marjorie Cohn blogs at http://www.marjoriecohn.com. She is the immediate past president of the National Lawyers Guild and a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law. She is the author of Rules of Disengagement, and the editor of The United States and Torture. |
In their Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert effectively demonstrated how the media hypes fear. They brought out Kareem Abdul Jabbar to show that not all Muslims are terrorists. A couple of musical numbers dealt with the wars we are fighting. But neither Stewart nor Colbert mentioned Iraq or Afghanistan and how those wars are allowed to continue by the hyping of fear.
Like his predecessor, President Obama also hypes fear - by connecting his war in Afghanistan to keeping us safe, even though CIA director Leon Panetta recently admitted that only 50 to 100 al Qaeda fighters are there. Hoping to put the unpopular Iraq war behind him, Obama declared combat operations over, although 50,000 U.S. troops and some 100,000 mercenaries remain.
Tragically, both wars have largely disappeared from the national discourse. On October 22, Wikileaks released nearly 400,000 previously classified U.S. military documents about the Iraq war. They contain startling evidence of more than 1,300 incidents of torture, rape, abuse and murder by Iraqi security forces while the U.S. government looked the other way. During this time the Bush administration issued a “fragmentary order” called “Frago 242” not to investigate detainee abuse unless coalition troops were directly involved. U.S. authorities failed to investigate hundreds of reports of torture, rape, abuse and murder by Iraqi soldiers and police. Manfred Nowak, the United Nation’s Special Rapporteur on Torture, called on Obama to order a complete investigation of U.S. forces’ involvement in human rights abuses.
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
On August 3, 2010, I sent an open letter to Brigantine Mayor Philip J. Guenther and the City Council seeking access to a settlement agreement that a member of the city's police administration reached with the City and an employee who accused him of sexual harassment. My letter is on-line here.
Since the City did not respond to my letter, I filed suit against Brigantine on September 14, 2010. The suit seeks access to the settlement agreement under three legal theories: a) the Open Public records Act (OPRA), b) the common law right of access, and c) the Local Fiscal Affairs Law. I am being represented by Richard Gutman, Esq. of Montclair.
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- Written by: Wes Benedict
- Category: Latest News
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 29, 2010
Contact: Wes Benedict, Executive Director
E-mail:
Phone: 202-333-0008 ext. 222
WASHINGTON - In Colorado, Indiana, Illinois, and Maryland, Democrats have spent money on mailers and other printed items to inform voters about Libertarian candidates.
Libertarian Party (LP) Executive Director Wes Benedict said, "We're pleased to see Democrats spending their own money to promote Libertarian candidates. We hope Republicans will start doing the same thing soon."
- Details
- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project
New Jersey Libertarian Party
http://njlp.org -- E-mail:
MEDIA ADVISORY
Contact: Party Chair, Jay Edgar at (848)525-0578
CAMDEN: On Tuesday, November 2, 2010, at 2 p.m., members of the New Jersey Libertarian Party will assemble at the Walter Rand Transportation Center in Camden to urge citizens to oppose New Jersey’s drug and prostitution “loitering” laws.
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- Written by: Mark Hinkle
- Category: Latest News
Libertarian Chair: Time to Re-Legalize Immigration
WASHINGTON - Amid controversy over U.S. immigration policy, Libertarian Party Chair Mark Hinkle says the proper way to end illegal immigration is to re-legalize immigration. Hinkle released the following statement today:
"In debate after debate, Democratic and Republican politicians have decried the problem of illegal immigration, called for more border security and employer sanctions, and eagerly searched for evidence that their rivals employed undocumented help. The Obama administration proudly touts the fact that it is deporting more undocumented aliens than George W. Bush, while many of the families they support remain stranded in the United States, and most of whom were guilty of nothing more than the inability to satisfy a nightmarish bureaucracy.
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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Latest News
BY LUKE FUNK
MYFOXNY.COM - Auditors say the New Jersey Turnpike Authority wasted $43 million on unneeded perks and bonuses. In one case, an employee with a base salary of $73,469 earned $321,985 when all payouts and bonuses were included.
The audit says that toll dollars From the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway were spent on items ranging from an employee bowling league to employee bonuses for working on birthdays and holidays.
It took place as tolls were being increased.
The biggest expense uncovered in the audit was $30 million in unjustified bonuses to employees and management in 2008 and 2009 without consideration of performance.
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Latest News
In January of 2009 the police were called to Brian Aitken's parents house in Mount Laurel over a family dispute. The police found guns in Brian Aitken's car and arrested him for not having a permit to possess these guns. At the time of the arrest, the guns were unloaded and locked in the trunk of the car.
When Brian moved from Colorado to New Jersey he properly checked his guns in with the TSA. He called the New Jersey State Police and asked if he needed to register the guns. He was told that he did not need to register them.
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project
At the Libertarian Party's request, the Township of Edgewater Park (Burlington County) repealed its "Disorderly Conduct" code. While not strictly a loitering code, the Disorderly Conduct code sought to prohibit conduct such as "us[ing] offensive words in a public place which are inherently likely to provoke an immediate violent reaction."
The original ordinance, repeal ordinance and the LP's letter to the Mayor and Council are on-line at http://ogtf.lpcnj.org/2010279Pw//EPPreempt.pdf
- Details
- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
I would like to commend the Borough of Hightstown (Mercer County) on the transparent manner in which it recently filled a vacant seat on its municipal council.
One member of the Borough Council, a Republican, resigned. According to the Municipal Vacancy Law, N.J.S.A. 40A:16-1, et seq., the local Republican Committee submitted the names of three nominees to the Borough Council. The Council was then obliged to select one of those nominees to serve the remainder of the vacated term.
- Details
- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project
As a result of a request from the NJ Libertarian Party Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project the township of Franklin (Sussex County) has repealed their loitering ordinance. Copies of the correspondence can be see here.
Washington Township (Warren County) has also announced that they will repeal their loitering ordinance. Lehigh Valley Live has covered it here.
A full listing of the success of the Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project is posted here.
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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Latest News
The CATO institute released a report today, The Budgetary Impact of Ending Drug Prohibition. According to the report, drug prohibition has cost New Jersey state and local governments $832 million in 2008. $183 million of this is for marijuana prohibition alone.
The NJ Libertarian Party State Board urges Governor Christie to immediately commute the sentences of prisoners whose only offense involved consensual acts between adults. At a time where the NJ State Budget must be cut, we cannot afford to imprison people who have harmed no one.
- Details
- Written by: Wes Benedict
- Category: Selected Blogs
WASHINGTON - In response to the recent Republican "Pledge to America," Libertarian Party executive director Wes Benedict released the following statement:
Instead of a "Pledge to America," the Republicans should have written an "Apology to America." It should have gone something like this:
"We're sorry, America. Sorry we grew the federal government budget from $1.7 trillion to over $3 trillion. Sorry we added $5 trillion to the federal debt. Sorry we doubled the size of the Department of Education. Sorry we started two incredibly costly foreign wars. Sorry we supported the absurd and costly TARP bailouts. Sorry we created a huge and costly new Medicare entitlement. Sorry we did nothing to end the costly and destructive War on Drugs. Sorry we did nothing to reform the federal government's near-prohibition on immigration. But hey, at least we helped you by shifting a lot of your tax burden onto your children and grandchildren."
Subcategories
NJ Libertarian Blog
Imported from NJ Libertarian News from the published feed
Videos
This is a page of various videos that we have either created or found interesting. Be sure to check out and follow our YouTube page.
Open Government Advocacy Project
The Open Government Advocacy Project is a committee of the NJ Libertarian Party. Its goal is to ensure transparency and accountability at all levels of government. Articles posted here are a subset of the work of the committee. For more information visit the Open Government Advocacy Project blog.
If you would like to demand accountability and ensure that your local governing body or school board adheres to the Open Public Records Act we can help you request information from them. Contact John Paff, the project chair here.
Insight New Jersey
NJ government is huge and complex. Private industry is shrinking while the size and cost of government bureacracy continues to grow. The articles posted here provide a guide of the NJ State Government and can be used by citizens and candidates for office to evaluate what departments can be reduced drastically in size.
We'll start with just some of the departments and provide a breakdown on what they do (or purport to do), how many employees they have and how big their budget is.
Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project
The New Jersey Libertarian Party's Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project (“the Project”) seeks to get New Jersey municipalities to repeal loitering ordinances that should have been -- but were not -- repealed when the New Jersey Code of Criminal Justice was enacted in 1979. The Project has successfully had loitering ordinances repealed in over 30 towns. For a summary listing of all the towns see Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project page.
Police Accountability Project
The Police Accountability Project is a committee of the NJ Libertarian Party. Its goal is to search out cases of police misconduct, file former Internal Affairs (IA) complaints when appropriate, and to publicize violations of rules and laws by the police. There may be other stories posted on the NJLP Police Internal Affairs Complaint Blog page.
If you would like to help or know of a case we should be looking at, contact the committee at
Legislative Affairs Committee
The Legislative Affairs Committee was created to allow a select core of Volunteers to take action on legislation and policies which directly affects the people of New Jersey.
[INTRO VIDEO - HOSTED ON NJLP STATE YOUTUBE AND EMBEDED HERE]
Staff
Legislative Director and Committee Chair
Volunteers: