Belleville, NJ: How Our Tax Money Is Wasted in the Municipal Court System

Belleville, NJ:
How Our Tax Money Is Wasted in the Municipal Court System

An experience with the municipal court system in Belleville New Jersey shows how time and tax money is wasted, and how a town mistreats its senior citizens

 

My father had always kept his car parked on the street in front of his house in Belleville, NJ. Not in front of anyone else's house, mind you. His second car was kept in the garage. When I visited recently I noticed the old car in front of the house was gone. I asked him what happened to it, and being 82 years old, he said to me, “They towed it away, they said I donated it." Of course, this is not what happened. Among some papers on his desk I found a parking ticket that read "abandoned motor vehicle."

I called the chief of police who said neighbors had complained that the car was parked in front of the house (his house, not theirs, I remind you. I guess some people have nothing better to do than look out their windows and get into other people's business). Then he said, "Well, the town has an ordinance that says a car can't be parked in the same spot for 48 hours." So I guess the cops in Belleville have too much time on their hands, being that they spent their time writing parking tickets to senior citizens. No wonder property taxes are so high in New Jersey. Too many cops doing nothing.

The chief said he was sent written warnings, about not moving the car. Well that isn't true. They sent nothing, because I went through my father's mail every day, and they never sent any warnings. Then the chief said, just go to court, and they'll dismiss the ticket. (Okay...but then why did you write it in the first place?)

So I went to the impound lot and had the car hauled away for $300, which I had to give to the impound lot owners, for their towing fee. The car was still running, but since my mother wasn't driving anymore, there was no need for my father to keep and maintain two cars. Then I scheduled a court date to contest the $260 abandoned motor vehicle ticket.

So I go to the municipal court in Belleville and meet with the prosecutor, who gives me a silly song and dance about how he can't recommend dismissing the ticket, blah, blah, blah. Nevermind that my father lived in Belleville, his entire life as a law abiding citizen, and paid thousands of dollars in property taxes during the past 50 years. Nevermind that there was no written warnings about the car, and nevermind that he's 82 and probably didn't comprehend that there was some obscure ordinance about not leaving a car in the same spot for longer than 48 hours. (By the way, there were no marks on the tires when I found it at the impound lot, so the cops had no proof that the car was parked there for a certain amount of time).

Finally I stood up and said to the wormy prosecutor, "Forget it, I'm just going to pay the ticket and go to the media with my story, about how Belleville treats their senior citizens." Of course, now the prosecutor says, "Don't do that, we'll call the cop and try to reach a settlement."

So we go in front of the municipal court judge, a guy named Zinna, to ask for a new date, and this judge rambles on about nonsense...where's your father, I don't know if we can do this, blah, blah, blah. This from a guy, like all municipal court judges in New Jersey, has his own private law practice but moonlights on the side as a judge in order to get into the state pension system and milk the taxpayers for money. Finally he relents and we have a new court date, three weeks later.

So I go to court on the new date - and there's a new prosecutor! I start to explain the situation, and after fifteen seconds he cuts me off with "I'm just going to ask the judge to dismiss this." He hustles into the courtroom, I follow him, and he asks the judge to dismiss the ticket. I see that it's the same judge, Zinna, from three weeks prior, the one who grumbled and groaned about setting a new date for a conference. Zinna says, "This is a minor issue. Case dismissed."

Wouldn't it have made more sense just to dismiss the ticket the first time? Wouldn't have made more sense for the cops to ask my father if there was anyone helping with things, and could you give them this warning letter about the car parked in front of the house? No. Instead these fools waste my time and tax money with their silly shenanigans. Political nonsense. Right wingers rage about too much government at the federal level, when the reality is there's too much government at the local level. Anyone who writes a parking ticket to senior citizen for a car parked in front of his own house ought to be ashamed of himself. All the problems in the world, and this is what cops, prosecutors, and judges are spending their time and our tax money on? It's a disgrace.

The South would not have voted for Christie anyway

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie may have taken a hit in his popularity recently because of the so-called Bridgegate scandal, but it's unlikely it would have any effect on a future presidential run.

Many people in the South are unlikely to vote for a politician of Italian descent, let alone one from New Jersey.

The Tea Party has much strength in the South, partly because of southern resentment toward the federal government. The resentment began with the beginning of the United States in the 1700's and continued after the Civil War and into the 20th century. Even today, residents in southern states still fly the Confederate flag, insisting that it is part of their "southern pride."

Many whites in the rural South - and even in the urban south - still regard the Civil War as an act of "Northern Aggression." You don't even have to travel far. The south begins at the Maryland border. One can tell by the sudden appearance on the radio of country western music. Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas are the states that comprise today's South.

Regional animosity toward the North from Southern states can be viewed through recent events. After Hurricane Katrina members of Congress from all parts of the country rushed to assist New Orleans and other areas in the south that were affected. But when Hurricane Sandy destroyed parts of New Jersey and New York City, republicans in Congress, many from southern states, withheld financial assistance for weeks, saying they wanted to make sure money only went to those who were "deserving" of it. Even then, many representatives from the South voted against providing financial help to New Jersey.

The South's hostility is strange considering that southern states take in more federal aid than they put in. They take more than other parts of the country, due to rural poverty and the location of a number of large military bases in the south. Federal aid that is provided from taxes paid by many Northern residents and citizens on the West Coast, we will add.

So Chris Christie doesn't have to worry much about Bridgegate if he wants to make a run as the Republican Party’s presidential candidate in 2016. Between the South's dislike of the North, and many Americans' suspicion of Italians, he wouldn't have had much of a chance anyway.

I only hope the Tea Party's sway in the South doesn't continue. The old saying was "Save your Confederate money, the South will rise again." We're all in for a world of trouble if that really ever does happen again.

A Super Bowl with the most pressure: Minnesota Vikings vs. Buffalo Bills

The Vikings and the Bills both have 0-4 Super Bowl records. What would happen if they met in the title game?

Losing a championship game - especially your fourth Super Bowl - can be pretty awful, but at least New England Patriots fans can take some solace in the fact their team has also won three Super Bowls. The Denver Broncos have two wins, somewhat making up for their four losses. However, the Bills and the Vikings don't have any victories to go along with their four defeats. Buffalo lost all four of their Super Bowls in consecutive years. Yikes.

So what would be a pressure-packed Super Bowl in 2013? Minnesota versus Buffalo. One would be the first team in NFL history to lose five Super Bowls. What's worse, the loser still would not have any wins in the big game. People would be talking about it for two weeks prior to Super Sunday. Television ratings for the game might go even higher than this past year.

For fans of the Bills and Vikings, the stress of this game would be immense, probably more so than for the players. I would not be surprised if many of the players weren't even aware of their franchise's history, and wouldn't know much about the significance of the game until after it was over.

But fans know. Players and coaches come and go, but fans remain. A fifth Super Bowl loss without a win for the Vikings or Bills might finally send some of us looking for something else to do with our Sundays in the fall.

Close all Puppy Mills!

Puppy Mill Resources | Best Friends Animal Society

15 Things You Can Do to Help Stop Puppy Mills

• Adopt your next pet. You may have your heart set on a puppy or a particular breed, but please don't support puppy mills by buying pets online or in stores. We guarantee that the perfect pet is waiting for you at one of the thousands of shelters or rescue groups across the country - and they're not hard to find. First, visit your local shelter. If you don't find the right pet there, visit www.petfinder.com. You can also find a dog of a particular breed by contacting a breed-rescue organization. To find breed rescue groups, do a search online: Go to www.google.com (or another search engine), enter a city or state, the name of the breed you are looking for, and the word "rescue."
• Don't buy a puppy online or from a pet store. If you buy a puppy online or from a pet store, you are most likely supporting the puppy mill industry because these are the two ways that puppy millers sell millions of dogs each year. If you intend to buy a puppy, do your homework and read "How to Be Sure Your Next Dog Isn't from a Puppy Mill."
• Take action against pet stores that sell dogs supplied by puppy mills. Ask pet stores to consider switching to a humane business model, one that promotes adopting instead of selling puppies from breeders. (Click here for a list of stores that have paved the way.) If the store chooses not to change, you can hold peaceful rallies to help educate the public and change store policy. To learn how, download the action kit called "How to Organize a Peaceful Pet Store Demonstration."
• Support legislation that regulates and reduces breeding of animals. To help change your city, county and state laws, sign up to receive alerts from Best Friends' Voices for No More Homeless Pets. We make it quick and easy for you to support laws in your area that fight puppy mills. Go to yourvoice.bestfriends.org to sign up.
• Become an expert on the subject. Get familiar with how the puppy mill industry works by looking through Best Friends' resource library. You can watch breeder video footage, read USDA documents, and learn how to research pet stores in your community. Click here to start learning.
• Know the existing laws. Many states have laws that regulate breeders and/or retail pet sellers. To find out how your state stacks up, click here.animallaw.info/articles/ovuspuppymilltable.htm
• Ask government officials to pass stricter laws for pet stores and dog breeders. Write or call your city, county, state and federal officials and ask them to take these issues seriously. Read "How to Write a Letter to Legislators and Newspapers About Puppy Mills" to help compose a message and contact the right people. Keep your call, letter or email brief, respectful and to the point. You may not receive a response, but know that these communications are counted and can really influence legislators.
• Speak out in your community. Write letters to the editors of newspapers about puppy mills and breeders who keep their animals in unacceptable conditions. Note how many ads for dogs, puppies, kittens and other animals there are in the paper's classified section, while shelters overflow with unwanted pets.
• Donate to Best Friends' puppy mill initiatives. Your donation will be used to fight puppy mills and to give former puppy mill dogs a chance to have what all dogs deserve: safety, good care, happiness and love from a family of their own.
• Elect animal-friendly candidates. Before any election (local, state or federal), ask candidates if they would support laws regulating commercial breeders and what they would do about puppy mills in the community.
• Report bad puppy stores. If you have bought a puppy from a store and the puppy is sick, read "What to Do If You've Bought a Sick Puppy."
• Infiltrate the ads. In your newspaper's classifieds section, you've seen the numerous ads that sell puppies. To plant the idea of adopting instead, place classified ads promoting your local shelter or breed rescue group via Petfinder.com.
• Raise awareness and/or donations. Host an awareness-raising or fundraising event in your community. To educate the public about puppy mills and/or raise awareness and funding for local rescue groups, organize a walk, conduct a bake sale or set up a table at local events and hand out information.
• Spread the word. Educate your friends, family and coworkers - especially those looking to obtain a pet - about the cruelty of puppy mills and the joys of pet adoption. Share adoption websites, such as Petfinder.com, and breed rescue websites with people who are looking for purebred dogs.
• Don't give up. The fight against puppy mills and bad breeders has been going on for decades. Things won't change overnight, but we are making progress and each little change helps. If you educate just one person about the horrors of puppy mills or convince just one person to adopt rather than buy a pet, you've made a difference.

Here's where to find $6 billion to fund unemployment benefits

Republicans in Congress are willing to fund extended unemployment benefits if Democrats agree to cut around $6 billion from other parts of the budget to pay for it.

Fair enough.

Here's an idea: Take the approximately $3 billion in aid given to Israel, the approximately $2 billion given to Egypt, and another $1 billion given to various other countries for who knows what, and pay for unemployment benefits that way.

This way American citizens are getting their own money back.

Still, it has to be pointed out that cutting foreign aid will hurt American workers, since some of the funds aren’t given directly to other governments, but to American companies that produce weapons or other products that are then sent to these countries. Less foreign aid means fewer jobs for Americans.

So unfortunately, as members of Congress refuse to admit in public, and as many Americans are too dumb to figure out, there's no easy way of the budget mess. Fixing things will require both cutting spending and raising taxes - neither of which anyone, Congress or the public, wants to do.

Hey CNN: change the name of "Crossfire" to "The Most Boring People in America"

I don't sit and watch TV news. I might have it on in the background if I'm doing something.  I never have talk shows on as background though, nor do I sit and watch them. Or listen to talk radio. To hear pundits and regular folks ramble on about various conspiracies is annoying. Plus I've got better things to do with my time.

I did watch a few minutes on CNN's "Crossfire."  Whew. Talk about boring. Liberal Van Jones and conservative S.E. Cupp make a few bland points about a topic and then smile at each other. Okay. And the point is...what?  Why anyone in the United States would watch these dullards is beyond me. Except for a person has insomnia. Crossfire would be a cure.

It's no wonder that Crossfire's return was the brilliant idea of one Jeff Zucker, the dope who kept Jay Leno on at 10:00 p.m. for an hour-long variety show, and then had Conan O'Brien doing pretty much the same show at 11:35 for the Tonight Show. Funny how TV executives make a lot of money, and cost the networks they work for billions of dollars, for making these silly decisions. Come on, at least baseball players have a skill!  TV executives don't seem to have any skills.

Do us a favor, CNN.  Just go back to reporting news and keep these ridiculous pundits off of our television screens, and let them do stuff like write their own blogs.

Death, dying, medicare, and obamacare

Funny how people moan and groan about their taxes, government waste, and "entitlement programs" yet no one wants to discuss how to start changing all of it.

Twenty percent of Medicaid dollars go to one percent of the people who use it. Many are the elderly in nursing homes.

Medicare spends 25% of its $551 billion annual budget on medical treatment in a person's last year of life.

One way to save money would be stop spending billions of dollars of machines and drugs that do nothing except prolong our misery when we get older. In the United States we treat our pets more compassionately at the end of their lives than we do our people.

It would be better to have discussions about how we want to die when we're young. If someone wants to be kept alive at the end through machines, fine, it would be their choice. But I'm sure many of us would opt for hospice care. If money was re-directed from hospitals and doctors who charge hundreds of thousands of dollars for tests and medical equipment toward hospice care, not only would billions of dollars be saved in our taxpayer money but people, and their relatives, could be spared the horrific way of dying that now exists for many Americans - plugged into machines in an intensive care unit of a hospital.

If someone is 20 years old, you do everything it takes to save their life. When someone is 90 years old and frail, it would be best to just let nature take its course.

Nothing is going to change though. Most Americans just don't want to talk about it. Others make death and dying into a political or religious issue. If that's the case, then I hope everyone just stops complaining about the national debt and taxes. Because we already know where the money is going and how to change things.

What's wrong with hiring an unemployed person?

I'd like to hear from recruiters and hiring managers about why they won't even consider an application or resume from an unemployed person. It seems as though they don't care about bringing in the person who can best do the job and contribute to their organization. Instead they get hung up on silly things, like the length of unemployment. People can be unemployed for any number of reasons; it isn't automatically a given that they are lazy, not up-to-date on skills, or some sort of "low performer."

The most important question in any job interview is "What is your plan for doing this job effectively?" (Or for a profit, if it's in private industry). Anyone can talk about their past accomplishments. But what does that have to do with how they will perform in their next job? Past performance doesn't necessarily predict future performance.  Which is why length of unemployment should not be a consideration in the hiring process. Besides, does anyone stay in one job forever? Even your best candidates can leave a job - not only someone who is under-employed and looking for a better opportunity. Everyone is always looking for something better!

I'm not sure how hiring managers sleep at night, placing ads that state "only employed" need apply. So enlighten me, recruiters. What am I missing here?

Why do Americans want politicians, not leaders?

These days there's more campaigning than governing going on. It seems like many Americans enjoy the nonstop campaigning and blame-games that all politicians seem to take part in. Maybe that's why reality shows have become popular. I think they're boring - why would I want to watch people argue about everyday stuff that I see myself everyday - but lots of folks just seem to get off on it. Then the majority of us get disgusted because the important things don't get taken care of.

Does the American government even belong to "the people" anymore? Those who have a lot of money to fund their "causes" seem to have most of the control over policy issues.

Politicians in the United States need to become leaders who will serve the public and deal with the tough issues in order to secure our nation's future. We have dilemmas now (energy, health insurance, job creation) because politicians in the past pushed things under the rug for so long. We need leaders, which means those who will be straightforward with people about what will be best and how long things will take to get better. And for us the people, it means making some sacrifices, something Americans haven't been asked to do in a long time.