After Action Report - Solo Freeping in a small town called Haledon, NJ

I arrived in Haledon, NJ at 12:00pm and made two signs. The first:-
NJ Peace Action
Hates America
You love communism and so does Jane
freerepublic.com

and the second sign read as:-
NJ Peace Action
Your friends at code pink
already admitted they love communism
Why don't you!!
freerepublic.com

I checked the parade route and how many people were from the NJ Peace Action group. The parade was to march down 5 blocks make a right turn for two block and then march another five blocks, make a right turn and march two more blocks. There were only two adults with two kids from NJ P.A. I find it disgusting that they would put themselves into a parade where they have no business being in.

I went over to a police officer and told him that I was there to only protest NJ.P.A. and that I support the policemen and fireman etc. He said you can stand anywhere on the route. I stayed near the beginning of the route. When the "left" read my signs they were surprised that I said they were communists. I decided to follow them as they marched. I walked on the sidewalk as they were marched in the street. A few people looked at my signs and didn't know what to make of it. I explained who the NJ Peace Action group was, a communist organization and that they didn't belong in the parade. Two people agreed. A police officer on a bicycle asked me to keep my distance from the "leftists", he didn't want any trouble. I said okay.

As I made the first right turn a gentleman approached me and asked what was I doing. He was from the museum that was sponsoring the parade and was afraid I was going to cause trouble. "It was just a small parade". I told him why I was there and that all I was doing was protesting the NJ Peace Action group. He wasn't listening. The same officer on the bicycle came by and saw that this man was talking to me and told me that he didn't want any trouble, that I made my point with some people already and would I please leave. I said okay and then left.

I believe that whoever read my signs and heard my explanations was troubled about a possibility that they were unknowingly "mostly" lending support to a front group whose foundation was firmly linked to supported and financed by a communist organization.

Indeed, a troubling question to a trusting hardworking person who has no way (yet) of getting background information as to what's being dished up to them... LOL

Civil and Constitutional rights were violated in Haledon. Seems the whole town is messed up.

Haledon police chief is stepping down

Thursday, July 1, 2004

HALEDON - Police Chief Harold Engold Jr. is leaving his post, effective today, citing personal reasons and discounting the effects of 18 months of rifts in the ranks and lawsuits against him by both his sergeants.

Last autumn, at the instigation of Mayor Ken Pengitore and Councilman Ayman Mamkej, Engold brought disciplinary charges against Sgt. James Len and testified against him at a disciplinary hearing. The council later dismissed the charges.

In May, Engold was named in a discrimination lawsuit that Len, who is homosexual, brought against the Police Department and borough officials. In June, Mohamed Abaza, the department's other sergeant, sued Engold and others on charges of discrimination based on his religion and ethnicity.

Engold, 51, declined to comment on the suits Wednesday. But he said infighting within the department played no part in his decision to retire. "I would have left some time ago if that were the case," he said.

He said he is leaving for personal reasons. With teaching degrees in health, physical education, and criminal justice, Engold said he plans to look for work as an adjunct community college professor and school gym teacher. He will spend time in Florida, helping to care for his 103-year-old grandmother. He may retire there eventually.

Engold and the Borough Council are still working out details of his departure. But he said Wednesday that he would go on vacation beginning today and then go on terminal leave in mid-August, using up accrued sick, personal, and compensatory days. His retirement becomes official Dec. 31. Engold has not filed for his pension, said Matt Golden, a spokesman for the state Treasury Department. Benefits will be based on his $83,756 annual salary.

He will still be on the payroll until the end of the year because of the accumulated time. Engold plans to appoint Lt. Robert Franco as the officer in charge until Pengitore and the council decide how to fill the position. Pengitore said he could promote Franco or Louis Mercuro, the department's other lieutenant, or bring in an outsider.

Pengitore said he was considering naming an outside officer to restore order to a department "in turmoil" that is characterized by "a lack of leadership" and a "lack of respect for authority" by members of the force.

"There are options, of course, to promote from within," Pengitore said. "You'd always like to do that, of course, because it gives people incentives to be professional and to do a good job. But with all the nonsense that's going on and the lack of cohesiveness among the ranks, sometimes you think about the other options."

If the council chooses to hire a retired police officer, it would likely create a civilian police director position because accepting a sworn position would mean forfeiting pension benefits.

In keeping with family tradition, Engold served 28 years in the department, the past 18 months as chief. His grandfather, Paul Engold, was a Haledon policeman for 37 years and served as chief for the last five before retiring in 1966. His father, Harold Engold Sr., was a special police officer in Haledon. While cleaning out his grandmother's home, Harold Engold Jr. found photos of his grandfather during his days as a motorcycle officer astride an Indian bike.

When Harold Engold first started, officers making motor vehicle stops had to call the state police to run license plate numbers and check for outstanding warrants. Now patrol cars are equipped with mobile data terminals.

Councilman Domenick Stampone, who has known Engold since he was a boy, called him "the face of the Haledon Police Department" and said he was sorry to see him go.

"I think that someone like Harold Engold, who has devoted his entire career to one department, should be remembered with honor for his service, despite whatever difficulties he's encountered during his time as chief," Stampone said.

"Let's be perfectly frank, it's not been a fun place to work for the last year and a half. ... What little cohesiveness there is left is the result of his commanding the respect of the other officers."

Haledon councilman pleads guilty in move to speed appeal

Thursday, June 10, 2004

A Haledon councilman pleaded guilty to drunken driving in municipal court Wednesday, but he said he will appeal the case in state court.

Councilman Ayman Mamkej, 40, told the court he was driving while intoxicated in Haledon on Nov. 6, when he was arrested and charged with driving under the influence and refusing to take two Breathalyzer tests.

Michael Baldassare, his attorney, said outside court that Mamkej pleaded guilty to hasten a Superior Court appeal of Judge George A. Cluff Jr.'s decision on the attorney's pretrial motions to have the case dismissed.

"We thought that this was the best way to expeditiously restore his reputation and to show the arrest for what it was, which was retaliation," Baldassare said.

He said he will file an appeal immediately.

Mamkej maintains that Sgt. James Len, the Haledon police officer who arrested him, did so to get back at him for instigating disciplinary charges against him.

Len had been charged with disciplinary violations stemming from an incident last August when he was allegedly outside the borough for four hours while on patrol duty. The Borough Council dismissed charges against Len in March.

Len has since sued Mamkej, the borough, the Police Department and Mayor Ken Pengitore for discriminating against him, including bringing the disciplinary charges, because he is homosexual. In May, Haledon Mayor Ken Pengitore sued Len and the Borough Council for its decision to dismiss the charges against the officer.

Len, dressed in uniform, sat next to Bloomingdale municipal Prosecutor Richard Kopleton while Mamkej entered his plea. The trial was held in Bloomingdale's municipal court to avoid a conflict of interest in Haledon.

Cluff sentenced Mamkej to the minimum penalty - $610 in fines and a 180-day suspension of his driver's license. He then issued a stay of the sentence pending appeal, meaning it will not go into effect until the case is resolved at a higher court or if Mamkej fails to file an appeal within 20 days.

Cluff ruled in pretrial hearings that Len was justified in stopping and arresting Mamkej for driving under the influence of alcohol. But the judge said he believed the testimony from two officers that there was animosity between the sergeant and councilman. He said Wednesday that an appeal of his rulings in the case is appropriate.

"There are certainly some issues that perhaps deserve the attention of Superior Court," Cluff said.

Mamkej embraced the judge's comments.

"Clearly the record shows that there are some serious appellate issues, indicated by the judge as well as my attorney, and therefore that is why we opted to put in a conditional plea of guilty in order to expedite the matter to Superior Court because of the seriousness of the appellate issues," he said.

Mamkej was convicted of drunken driving in 1986 and of refusing to submit to chemical testing during a motor vehicle stop in 1984, Motor Vehicle Commission records show.

May 27, 2004
Gay officer in Haledon sues town officials
A Haledon police officer filed suit in state Superior Court on Wednesday against the borough, the Police Department, the mayor, and a councilman, charging they failed to promote him and created a hostile work environment after learning ...

May 27, 2004
Gay cop is suing boroughofficials
A Haledon police officer filed suit in state Superior Court in Paterson on Wednesday against the borough, the Police Department, the mayor and a councilman, charging they failed to promote him and created a hostile work environment afte ...

May 13, 2004
Judge sides with cop in arrest
A Haledon police sergeant had sufficient cause to pull over a borough councilman and arrest him for driving under the influence, a judge ruled Wednesday.

March 22, 2004
Charges for officer dismissed
HALEDON - The Borough Council has dismissed disciplinary charges against a police officer.

March 20, 2004
Charges against officer dropped
The Borough Council has dismissed disciplinary charges against a police officer accused of neglecting his duty.

March 19, 2004
Official going to trial in DWI case
The attorney for a Haledon councilman charged with drunken driving failed to prevent the case from going to trial Thursday but succeeded in getting the personnel file of the arresting police officer admitted into evidence.

Past lauded at parade

Monday, September 6, 2004

As the 13th annual Labor Day Parade pushed off from the Botto House on Sunday, marchers crossed paths with longtime residents; union organizers, who could recite the house's history; and borough newcomers, who knew something happened there but couldn't say what.

Once the residence of mill worker Pietro Botto and his wife, Maria, the house is now home to the American Labor Museum and a national landmark for its role in the 1913 Paterson silk strike. A photograph outside the house shows thousands of silk mill workers gathered for a rally as they called for an eight-hour day, safer working conditions and an end to child labor.

Gray skies and cool temperatures kept this year's parade small. About 10 floats rolled by with union members atop, at least one singing labor solidarity songs. Residents gathered at the ends of their driveways to watch while children grabbed for candy firefighters threw from their trucks.

Sharon Natusch, visiting from her new home in Toms River, grew up in Haledon hearing stories of the strike from her grandfather. Others at the parade remembered themselves what work was like before unions.

"I remember going to work when there was no pensions, no health (benefits), no unemployment insurance," said Stan Aslanian, 79, president emeritus of the New York-New Jersey Lithographers and Photoengravers Union. "Labor, with all its warts, has done a lot of good."

Some marchers carried anti-Bush and anti-war posters and banners left over from last Sunday's march in New York City. Members of Central New Jersey Coalition for Peace and Justice held signs that read "Bring the troops home now!" and "We the people say No to the Bush agenda."

"We think this is a disaster for working people," said Gavrielle Gemma, 55, of Keansburg. "So many things are being cut because of the war. The administration is cutting overtime (pay), raising Medicare premiums, threatening Social Security."

But some parade-watchers, both union members and those lacking basic benefits, struggled to describe Labor Day's significance.

Aida Ramos, 44, watched the parade from the sidewalk outside her house. She thinks it's small and needs more music. Blanca Rivera, a school bus driver who gets minimum wage but no health benefits, sat with her and agreed: Labor Day doesn't mean that much any more.

"This is Labor Day, but nobody works that day," laughed Ramos. "It doesn't make sense."

Pietro and Maria Botto House Long weekend, yes, but also a time to honor workers

Monday, September 6, 2004

For some, it's three days off work and a time for barbecues - the unofficial end of summer.

But to a few hundred people marching in a Labor Day parade Sunday, this weekend is a time to consider the plight of the nation's workers and unions.

The 13th annual parade to celebrate immigrant workers, sponsored by the American Labor Museum/Botto House National Landmark, kicked off in Haledon as people lined the streets to watch and cheer. The procession wound through the borough and ended at the Great Falls Festival in Paterson.

Political speeches made before the parade and talk among those participating focused on the economy and what it is doing to manual laborers and their families. They spoke about the new federal law on overtime, the outsourcing of jobs overseas, and how the minimum wage is far too low to support families.

"I'm really worried that if things don't turn around soon, unions will be destroyed and workers that are already being exploited will be even more so," said Bob Mitchell, a printer's union member from Frankfort who has marched in this parade for several years. "We have to change things politically, that's the only way."

The Botto House is the natural spot for staging the parade. During the 1913 Paterson Silk Strike, more than 20,000 millworkers met there. Although the specific origin of Labor Day is not clear, many believe a local man played a large part in the holiday.

Peter McGuire is credited with being the first to suggest a day to honor workers during an 1882 meeting of the Central Labor Union of New York City. But some say Matthew Maguire, a Paterson machinist and alderman and a member of the Central Labor Union, organized the first Labor Day parade that year as a combination protest march and a celebration of working people. It took place in New York City, with more than 30,000 workers participating.

Several states subsequently observed the event, and in 1894 President Grover Cleveland signed a bill making Labor Day a national holiday, to be observed the first Monday in September.

"I come to this parade every year," said Tony Caifano of Queens. "The Botto House is so important, it's a landmark for labor in this country. We need to draw attention to what's going on here - we need more jobs, more people need to experience the American dream."

But spectators were more interested in watching the participants than in the reason for the parade. Among those marching were members of several unions, the Passaic County Sheriff Department's marching band, firetrucks, Smokey the Bear, the replica Botto House float, antique cars, and sheriff's officers on horseback.

"I've come outside to watch this since I moved here three years ago," said Marisol Figueroa, who lives down the street from the Botto House with her son and daughter. "The kids just love it - they catch candy and just think the whole thing is great."

By the time the parade found its way to the Great Falls, spectators were starting to enjoy the food, rides, and vendors at the festival there. This year, organizers are expecting to draw more than the 30,000 people who attended the three-day event last Labor Day weekend.

"If we don't get rain, I think we'll bring in about 50,000 people," said James Dykes, chairman of Celebrate Paterson Inc., which organized the event. "We have great entertainment, more vendors and rides, and an international food court."

Once again, a high-wire motorcycle act over the falls will be held from 5 to 9 p.m. today, along with a two-person aerial act on 75-foot poles. Also on hand will be Bud Abbott and Lou Costello impersonators at 4:15 p.m. A fireworks show caps the event at 9 p.m. The festivities close down at 11 p.m.

Exhibit offers food for thought

Tuesday, September 7, 2004

HALEDON - In supermarket aisles nationwide, showy mounds of ripe strawberries, crisp lettuce, and dried dates promise only a lip-smacking future. They say little of their backbreaking past.

Hands pollinated flowers that became the fruit. Backs hunched and knees crouched low to pluck the harvest from the fields.

The hands, the backs, the knees were people.

A new photography exhibit at the American Labor Museum at the Botto House tells the stories of those people, mostly Mexican migrant workers and day laborers in California who over the past decade have organized for employment contracts and better working conditions with the United Farm Workers union.

The exhibit, "Every Worker Is an Organizer," is the work of Berkeley, Calif., photographer David Bacon, who took many of the pictures in Watsonville, Calif., in 1997. The city has been a battleground of the United Farm Workers' drive to unionize the region's 25,000 strawberry pickers.

In one photograph, striking workers talk a replacement worker out of breaking the picket line. Bacon's captions give context to the story of the union's drive to get contracts for farm workers ensuring better wages and sanitary benefits such as Port-O-Johns in the fields.

Another photograph shows Roberto, a 14-year old boy from Oaxaca, Mexico, crouched in a strawberry field with a box of fruit on his shoulder. A baseball cap peeks out from beneath the hood of his sweatshirt, and his face shows the light fuzz of an early mustache. Because the work is so taxing, the average age of a strawberry picker is 20, a caption reads.

"Only a Mexican has the courage to do this work," reads one caption, quoting a date picker who labors in the treetops without a net or safety harnesses. Older lettuce and strawberry pickers often need operations to fuse vertebrae in their lower backs damaged from years spent bent over, another reads.

In honor of Labor Day on Monday, Teaneck resident and lay minister James White brought a Sunday school group from his church in West Harlem, St. Mary's Episcopal Church on West 126th Street. Members of the church regularly participate in demonstrations and housed protesters last week during the Republican National Convention. The church belongs to an advocacy coalition for farm workers in New York State and supports efforts of Metropolitan Opera workers for better pay and benefits, White said.

"We're a very working-class congregation," said White. "We call it Our Lady of the Picket Line.

"We really brought the kids here today to show how the poor were living a hundred years ago," said Sheryl Patterson, 41, a child-care worker from Manhattan.

Museum director Angelica Santomauro taught sisters Tara Patterson, 9, and Syida, 11, the meaning of the word "solidarity" - "It means you stick together," Santomauro said.

"Solidarity forever," the girls shouted from the house's second-floor balcony.

"Our mission is to teach the general public about contributions of working people," said Santomauro.

With this exhibit, that includes contributions to the dinner table.

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