Agenda & Docket For Trenton City Council Meeting Tuesday May 21st, 2013

Trenton City Council Members

The meeting starts at 5:30pm sharp.

Trenton City Council Agenda & Docket for Tuesday May 21st, 2013.

Know Your ABC's

Trenton City Council

Trenton City Council acts as Trenton's Alcohol Beverage Control Board, they are having a meeting Wednesday night to address certain bars that have been labeled 'trouble bars.' The agenda is below for your review. The sticker shock program will also be addressed, I may live-stream this meeting, please check back Wednesday.

ABC Agenda for 05-15-2013

Coverage of Hostage Situation In South Trenton NJ With Video of Shaheed Morris Reporting On Scene

Well, lately I have been in a rut, I all but abandoned covering news stories and investigating and opting instead to just perform community service covering City Council meetings and concentrating on school. I have had my nose in books studying Journalism and forgot about the adrenaline of being on the scene covering a story, I basically have just kind of been in a 'blah' type of mood for several month's.

Then a positive friend (my definition of a positive friend is one who doesn't call me asking if I want to go out for a drink or otherwise distracting me from the positive path I am desperately trying to put myself on, so as to avoid future mental breakdowns) Shaheed Morris who I met and worked with on Eric Jackson's 2010 mayoral campaign and who is also a Journalism student at Thomas Edison State College called me and asked if I would help him cover the story. He is going into video news correspondence while I am going into print media, so his theory was to collaborate and gain experience together and thats exactly what we did.

As we arrived on scene near 250 Grand St. I immediately felt the adrenaline rush and started calling my sources, we found that the deceased African-American woman named Carmelita Stevens, 44, and her five children just moved here to Trenton NJ from Florida only five months ago and that the murderer/hostage taker was just released from jail a few days ago.

Quick sidebar while working my sources I was also told that a man in West Trenton fatally shot himself in the head right in front of two police officers yesterday, thankfully he did not attempt to take the two officers with him. "It's been a hectic and emotionally draining couple of days for us (TPD) both officers are off on mandatory stress leave," the confidential police source relayed. Couple of days? Life as a police officer in the City of Trenton NJ has been hard for a long time, in my opinion.

Back to the hostage scene: We found Chief of Staff SGT Adrian Mendez and Director Ralph Rivera working the scene, they must have some really good shoes because I saw them as I was walking the several block radius everywhere. I didn't bother asking for a comment, I already knew the reply I would get and understand why they can't comment.

At the Skelton Library/Learning Center at 943 S. Broad St. we found hot food, cots, and other refreshments for those evacuated from their homes, we also found Business Administrator Sam Hutchinson who looked sleep deprived as did other City personnel. The BA relayed that they are doing what they can for those displaced and the Church across the street was offering help with overflow if needed. He reported that a food truck is on scene and two porta potties are on the way.

An estimated 500-people were out and about surrounding the radius of police activity, many had outlandish stories like "He cut off one of the kids arms and threw it out at the police and the child bled to death" and "two bodies were already taken from the house" << none of which was substantiated by my very reliable law enforcement sources. The New Jersey State Police is heading the investigation although the FBI is on scene assisting in negotiations, reports of food being delivered by police to the hostages were substantiated.

The current Indicted Occupant of the Mayor's office was nowhere to be found.

You can look forward to Shaheed Morris and I collaborating more often in the future and thank you Shaheed for 'lighting that fire' inside of me again.

Check back for more updates as they come in.

Edited: 05/11/2013 10:56pm

Making A Difference, Together; Not Just A Campaign Slogan

Eric Jackson

Last night I attended the official announcement ceremony for Eric Jackson's mayoral candidacy and as always was impressed with Mr. Jackson's message, a message far different from Mayor Mack's campaign promise of "getting more Black's into City Hall," a sentiment At-Large Councilwoman Kathy McBride also echoed. Anyone who doesn't think that statement is bias and prejudice and just plain wrong.... needs a reality check.

I have always said that the best part about living in Trenton is that you can take a bus for $1.70 and figuratively take a trip around the world if you bother to speak and hold a conversation with the people sitting next to you. We live in a very diverse community and literally represent what the United States is all about; coming from afar, being different but living together, free, as one race, the human race. Our City has the opportunity to become one that other cities model themselves after and aspire to become more like, if and only if we can work together to bring this City back from the brink.

Unlike Mack, Jackson is well aware that the future of Trenton doesn't rest on one person's shoulders rather, it rests on us all. 'United we stand, divided we fall' is not just a pledge, it's the truth! And Jackson's campaign slogan 'Making A Difference, Together' is not just a slogan; it is the answer. Jackson won't be communicating with his Police Director (hopefully he keeps Director Rivera) through a door by passing notes under it. Jackson will not suppress the voices of those who wish to be heard and offer an opinion. Jackson recognises that Trenton's greatest asset is it's citizens.

A unified approach is the only approach, any other strategy will have the same outcome as the Mack administration's. We the people, want a seat at the table, we the people have something to offer and we the people....will not be ignored. 

I know all too well how it feels to be treated different based on the color of your skin, my growing up in a predominantly African-American Wilbur Section can be compared to an African-American kid growing up in a predominately White Suburb. I absolutely deplore the feeling, so much so that at the age of 17 I formed a hip-hop group with City resident DJ Juice named 'Equality,' our concept was a White rapper and Black DJ making music that preached racial harmony and that we could move mountains together or climb over them divided. 

In the last Trenton mayoral election in 2010 I met other candidates beside Mack that treated me different (gave me that look....you know the look) like John Harmon who was seated next to me at the Eric B & Rakim concert with Senator Shirley Turner. As soon as he saw me he gave me the look, the 'this White boy must be a cop' look, I know that look all too well, on the streets of Trenton a White boy like me is either a cop or drug buyer, we are stereotyped too in case you didn't know. Mr. Harmon made me so uncomfortable that I waited until after he left Senator Turner's side to approach her and thank her for saving the concert the NJSP wanted to shut down. I can name others as well as council candidates but I think you get my point. BTW Jim Golden was John Harmon's campaign manager.

When my good friend Andrew Bobbitt introduced me to Eric Jackson at a Church Fundraiser in 2009 I knew from the moment I shook his hand that he was the one, he was going to be the one to take the helm from Palmer and lead Trenton into a better future. From the way that he embraced me I could instantly tell that there wasn't a bias bone in his body, he didn't see me as 'some White boy,' he saw me as a human being that cared deeply -as he does- for my community and the direction it was heading. I worked on his campaign in all sorts of ways, even performing Spoken Word at one of his fundraisers and I rarely perform my poetry. I was also one of the campaign workers chosen to count votes and we all know how that ended; three votes shy of a run-off election with Mack which Jackson would have won.

So now we know what happens when we don't register to vote or worse, are registered to vote but don't. We have learned that unlike a Presidential Election where the electorate vote trumps popular vote.....here in Trenton....the popular vote is the law of the land and absolutely every single vote is crucial....just an FYI. Many human beings have given their lives in the name of suffrage rights yet some people reading this post are Googling the word 'suffrage' right now. WAKE UP! Register to vote and actually vote! Your vote counts!

As I have said before and I will say again - the third battle for Trenton has begun, it started right under our noses and we citizens have become soldiers - And the most valuable weapon in your arsenal is not the cannon's used in the first two Battles of Trenton or even the element of surprise and trickery, no, your most powerful weapon in the battle to save Trenton in today's day and age is your power to vote. I will work on Eric Jackson's campaign a second time with faith that my fellow Trentonians, my brothers and sisters at arms, won't get it wrong twice in a row. 

Peace Trenton   

Tired of Council Meetings? So Am I, Here's an Alternative to Thursday's Meeting

See You There!

Peace Trenton.

Special City Council Meeting Agenda For Your Review

Trenton City Council Members

Agenda 4-30-2013 Special Meeting - Vacancy Law

Video of Trenton Police Tackling Me After Helping a Woman Who Was Being Beaten

Below is the long awaited video depicting the unjust end of an incident that occurred on May 2nd, 2010 in the Chambersburg section of Trenton. Three years later I have finally been given permission to introduce this video to the public domain. After being violently tackled, falsely arrested and detained and maliciously prosecuted after stopping my car to help a woman being beaten by her ex (a Trenton Water Works employee named Jose Cotto who is also a convicted felon who served time for illegal possession of a gun), the fake charges against me were dropped in the Interest of Justice and I filed a lawsuit.

As I have stated time and time again, I was tackled by police on May 2nd while waiting to give my personal information to a police officer. The officers corresponding police reports state that I "fell on my own accord while backing away from them to avoid arrest" although I was never charged with resisting arrest. They claimed that they didn't touch me or facilitate my fall in any way.

You may need to play the video on a big screen or enhance it in order to see it crisp and clear (I am the guy in the yellow shirt) but even in this rough version you can see me clearly throw my hands in the air (which is a universal sign of surrender) while backing away to prolong the impact of the impending tackle yelling "I'm a witness" "I'm a witness" two times before being tackled like I was the guy with the football.

 I have only been given permission to release the video and not the police reports. There is a Confidentiality Order imposed by the federal judge in this case and I intend to respect that order.

The outside lawyers the City of Trenton has hired (the same ones they hired to defend them against the OPRA lawsuit Jim Carlucci and myself brought against the City and won) are defending the officers actions and in my opinion this is why Trenton needs more in-house lawyers.

I am not going to file an Open Public Records Act request for the law firms legal bills thus far, I will wait until after the disposition of this case to do so, as to not appear to be a bully, but if your curiosity compels you to file your own OPRA request via the Trenton City Clerk's office regarding their legal bills than... so be it.

Please feel free to leave your comments on this matter and if you are able to enhance (not alter) the video because you are a wiz at that type of thing feel free to send me the video. nemesisraps@yahoo.com

If you are one of the people on this video witnessing this incident please contact me or my attorney Patrick Whalen whose contact information is to the right of this post.

There is a lot more to this case that I cannot reveal yet but I will as soon as the judge allows it, stay tuned.


Good Samaritan Federal Civil Rights Complaint (1) by Robert Chilson

News Report of Good Samaritan Arrest Page 1

News Report of Good Samaritan Arrest Page 2 by Robert Chilson

Eric Jackson's First Campaign Volunteer Meeting Set For April 22nd.

Eric Jackson

To all who are interested in volunteering to help in any capacity on Eric Jackson's Mayoral Campaign: A meeting is being held Monday April 22nd at the Calvary Missionary Baptist Church 735 East State Ave between 6-7pm.

See You There.

Peace Trenton.