Posted on 07/20/2004 9:26:08 AM PDT by Coleus
Standoff in Passaic: Home stormed over code violations
| Tuesday, July 20, 2004 |
PASSAIC - A crackdown on city housing violations escalated into a standoff Monday when a homeowner refused to cooperate, prompting authorities to call in a SWAT team, one that broke down a door and shot her with non-lethal weapons.
Code enforcement officials arrived about noon, wanting to talk about, among other things, broken windows and a deteriorating porch - violations written three months ago, said Community Development Director Donald Van Rensalier.
It just so happened that 109 Quincy St. was smack in the middle of an area targeted in Operation Clean Sweep, one of the mayor's initiatives to rid the city of substandard housing. They knocked on the door of the crumbling 2½-story wood frame also to check out complaints that power had been shut off and the house operated on a generator, something authorities consider a hazard.
That's when things started to go awry. The woman inside started hammering shut the doors and barricading windows.
"We heard a motor running and she wouldn't let us in," Van Rensalier said. "We called the cops to help us out."
In turn, police enlisted the Passaic County Sheriff's Department Emergency Response Team, who arrived in a truck sporting its motto, "We Make House Calls," and decked out in riot gear.
"I guess someone overreacted and called the SWAT team," Mayor Samuel Rivera said. "To have an ambulance and the crisis team from St. Mary's [Hospital] was enough. This person here is harmless."
After making no headway, Sheriff Jerry Speziale, Police Chief Stanley Jarensky, and Rivera grabbed Rick Figueroa off the street, a mailman whose route was stymied when police cordoned off that stretch between Hamilton and Columbia avenues. Authorities had him knock on the door to try to coax out the resident, a woman they kept calling "Mrs. Martin," though her identity has not been established.
Records list Michael Martin as the property owner.
When those tactics failed, armed officers stormed the back door. Glass shattered, a result of the woman breaking a second-floor window, Speziale said. Once they entered, she threw hammers and nails at them, authorities said. An officer fired one beanbag round. Paramedics clad in riot helmets helped carry her out to a waiting ambulance as utility workers shut off power and electricity. Both accounts in the two-family building are in good standing, said PSE&G spokeswoman Jennifer Connell.
"We had a situation where we actually had to protect her from herself," Speziale said. "She was very out of character."
The woman, who neighbors said has become something of an urban legend because children believe her house is haunted, was taken to St. Mary's Hospital.
"As far as I'm concerned, everything was done in an appropriate fashion," said Passaic County First Assistant Prosecutor Bruno Mongiardo. "They used a minimal amount of force."
Meantime, onlookers clustered behind crime scene tape, shaking their heads and wondering what all the fuss was about.
"We all know her on the block," said Eric Garcia, a Quincy Street resident. "She's always locked up in there and she doesn't want to come out.
E-mail: camachoa@northjersey.com
America is nothing close to the land of the free any more.
Lawyer time.
"We Make House Calls,"
Speaks for itself.
The brown shirts at their best.
Slow day at the office? They don't have some real crime fighting to do?
Why should pot-smokers and parking-ticket scofflaws have all the fun?
SWAT teams for everyone! Hardly anyone will die.
About time these scofflaw impoverished old ladies who can't afford to maintain their houses got what they deserve!
Whew! As long as they didn't search her backpack it's all ok!
JBT Bump
What's next--a SERT team response because some old lady owns an unreasonable number of cats?
Isn't that cute, they have a military style name to compliment their military style tactics.
Hate to say it, but someone needs to call the ACLU.
We're the Government, we're here to help.
Second Amendment bump.
"America is nothing close to the land of the free any more.."
Laz,
Being an unfortunate citizen in the state of NJ, I must insist that you do not confuse NJ with America.
I feel like I am in America when I drive 45 minutes and cross the border into PA.
As for NJ, I am waiting for Trenton to implode and for all the scum that "governs" there to wash away down the Delaware.
True enough.
Strange world, isn't it?
Edited for sarcasm.
Edited for sarcasm.
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