Posted on 01/19/2008 11:23:48 PM PST by Coleus
Steve Lonegan, the former mayor of Bogota and an outspoken critic of tax and immigration policies, was arrested Saturday afternoon outside a South Jersey high school while protesting Governor Corzine's toll-hike plan. Lonegan said in a telephone interview that he was handcuffed while handing out pamphlets a few minutes before the 2 p.m. start of Corzine's town meeting in Cape May County. Corzine is holding the public events in each of the state's 21 counties to try to sell his financial proposal.
Middle Township police declined to comment on the incident. But Lonegan, a Republican who ran in his party's gubernatorial primary in 2005, said he was held by local police for an hour and charged with defiant trespassing. He said he plans to fight the charge. "I am proud of getting arrested for standing up for the taxpayers in New Jersey," said Lonegan, who is executive director of an advocacy group called Americans for Prosperity New Jersey. "I will do it at every other meeting he has because nobody is going to stop me from handing out literature and nobody's going to take away my first amendment rights."
A Corzine spokeswoman said the governor was unaware of what took place just before his appearance. "The governor's office had nothing to do with any arrest at the town hall today and the governor is eager to discuss his proposal to stabilize the state's finances with all members of the public, in all 21 counties," said press secretary Lilo Stainton. Paul Porreca, a retired Superior Court judge who served in Cape May County and is a member of Lonegan's group, said he witnessed a verbal altercation between Lonegan, police and a school board administrator over the right of protesters to display placards outside the Middle Township High School. The unidentified administrator claimed the site was not public property and that school board policy prohibited protesting, Porreca said.
Police arrested Lonegan when he refused to get rid of his sign or clear off the property, Porreca said. The former judge said he picked up Lonegan and anti-tax radio personality Seth Grossman, who also was arrested Saturday, at the police station. They are scheduled for a Jan. 30 court date in Middle Township. "I think it was outrageous," Porreca said. "It was a clear abuse of our constitutional rights, our right to assembly, the people's right to free speech. They were intimidated and, though they were not physically abused, certainly their sensibilities were abused."
Lonegan is no stranger to controversy and headlines. He has been a vocal critic of Corzine's spending plans, not only questioning the toll hike but also blasting the governor's proposal to revamp the state's school funding formula. He crisscrossed the state in an RV this fall urging the defeat of three ballot questions on open space, stem cell research and property tax reform that he claimed were an attempt to fleece taxpayers. Taxpayers are at their "breaking point," he said at the time. Before that, he made headlines when he tried to get McDonald's to remove a Spanish-language billboard in Bogota and attempted to have English designated the town's official language. He was rebuffed both times.
He also hired two undocumented immigrants to assemble political signs for his taxpayer group at a house he owns, then accused Bogota police of racial profiling when they detained the workers for questioning. The Middle Township event was the fourth stop in a statewide tour by Corzine, who hopes to generate as much as $40 billion by significantly raising tolls and then borrowing against the revenue to pay off state debt and finance transportation improvements. Lonegan said he plans to continue protesting outside the town meetings. The next one is scheduled for Jan. 28 at Voorhees Middle School in Camden County.
Steven Lonegan said he and another protestor were arrested Saturday during a protest outside a public meeting where Gov. Corzine is promoting his toll increase plan. Lonegan said he was outside the Middle Township High School in Cape May County with other toll plan opponents, handing out pamphlets, when they were confronted by police. "The police officer said the governor doesn't want you handing out literature," said Lonegan, executive director of the New Jersey chapter of Americans for Prosperity. Lonegan said he did not think that Corzine was responsible for his arrest.
"We were told that this was private property," Lonegan said. "This was an all-out attack on freedom of speech." After being handcuffed and taken to police headquarters, Lonegan said he and a supporter, radio personality Seth Grossman, were issued a summons for defiant trespass. They were given a Jan. 31 date for Municipal Court and released. Lonegan, in a telephone interview, said he had attended the three prior Corzine events in Bergen, Essex and Morris counties, and had met with no trouble. Hundreds of people have attended each of the four meetings.
"The governor's office had absolutely nothing to do with this," Corzine spokeswoman Lilo Stainton said. "The governor has obviously been eager to hear from all members of the public and will continue to do so."
Middle Township police had no immediate comment. A retired state judge and Lonegan supporter, Paul Porreca, said he witnessed the arrests. "It gave me a terrible feeling to think that we were confronted with armed force to prevent us from speaking against the governor's plan," Porreca said.
Corzine has promised public meetings in all 21 counties to sell his plan, which would increase tolls on some of the nation's busiest highways for decades to come to get billions of dollars to pay state debt and fund transportation work. To reduce the $32 billion debt by half and fund transportation projects for 75 years, the governor is proposing to increase tolls 50 percent in 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2022. Those increases would include inflation adjustments, and after 2022 tolls would increase every four years until 2085 to reflect inflation. The state's three toll roads, the Garden State Parkway, the New Jersey Turnpike, and the Atlantic City Expressway, carried 748 million vehicles in 2006.
New stem cell labs now in question, After defeat of more funding, Corzine weighs options
New stem cell labs now in question
Politicians should never ignore voters' wishes
New Jersey Voters Defeat Stem Cell Measure
New Jersey Voters Reject $450 Million for Embryonic Stem Cell Research
(New Jersey) Voters reject stem cell spending by wide margin
New Jersey Forces Pharmacists to Dispense Abortifacient Drugs Regardless of Conscience
Stem cell research divides even those it would help (Strong views as voters face $450M question)
New Jersey bill would raise taxes to fund embryo-destruction
I think it’s long past timne to give it up. New Jersey is gone, and these Nazi tactics fit right in with what the people there have shamelessly elected. The place is fast becoming a gulag and it may be time to build a fence between New Jersey and America - - to keep those voters THERE.
Political prisoner!!
Freeeeeee Steve Lonagan!
he spoke recently at an AFP event in Phoenix. A great man with a compelling life story!
I wish him the best against Corzcrime!
Jose and Carlos are panhandlers. They panhandle in different areas of
town.
Carlos panhandles just as long as Jose but only collects 2 to 3 dollars
every day. Jose brings home a suitcase FULL of $10 bills, drives a
Mercedes, lives in a mortgage free house and has a lot of money to spend.
Carlos says to Jose “I work just as long and hard as you do but how do you
bring home a suitcase full of $10 bills every day?”.
Jose says, ... “Look at your sign, what does it say”? Carlos sign reads
‘I have no work, a wife and 6 kids to support’.”
Carlos says... “So what does your sign say”?
Jose shows Carlos his sign. It reads: “I only need another $10.00 to move
back to Mexico”.
INCREASINGLY, the need for the Second Amendment and the reason the Founding Fathers placed it in the Bill of Rights is being illustrated.
ALSO, we are increasingly witnessing the great error created when a fomral police establishemnt was created to replace a citizen’s militia to preserve law and order.
The police, courts and thugs who run the state are all three heads of the same Hydra.
What happened to Corzine’s plan to sell of the highways (likely to foreign buyers)?
Did he “get the message”?
Sorry:
“sell of” >> “sell off”
Isn’t New Jesey the state where a man was fined $150.00, this week,for calling a black man a nigger?
It was a poor choice of words no doubt but offensive is protected under the 1st amendment to the U.S.Constitution.
Of course under the American Stalin, HRC, we can expect a vast expansion of such suppression of the 1st amendment.
Total Nazis, they arrested a blind man exercising First Amendment Rights on public property. In NJ, there has been several NJ Supreme Court cases regarding activities on school grounds during hours that the schools are not in session. First Amendment Rights have been upheld in every single case in NJ that I can think of, even the right to smoke cigarettes and have spontaneous prayer meetings. Unless the Middle Township PD is going to argue that Lonegan was conducting a dangerous physical activity, like skateboarding, that the school district is not insured for on the property insurance, the town is going to lose this, and lose BIG.
That school board policy is also in direct violation of several standing NJ Supreme Court rulings. The school district is going to get sued, and sued BIG by Lonegan, if he wants to push his case.
http://www.middletownship.com/
Contact Governor Corzine
http://www.state.nj.us/governor/govmail.html
Middle Township Police Dept.
Mission Statement
The men and women of the Middle Township Police Department in partnership with the community are committed to enhancing the quality of life and fostering a sense of security in the community. We hold ourselves to the highest standards of performance and ethics while affording dignity and respect to every individual.
MIDDLE TOWNSHIP POLICE
“To Serve and Protect”
Joseph Evangelista, Police Chief
31 Mechanic Street
Cape May Court House, NJ 08210
Phone: (609) 465-8700
Seth Grossman, former Atlantic City Councilman, WIBG Talk Show host was with him too. Also arrested. They have a court date on Jan. 31.
Hey Cal,
There’s no date on that link? I see the time.
:) The date is right before the time. Same sentence.
How come only abortion advocates are allowed to protest in public?
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