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“Everything was fine until the recess,” one witness who attended the Board of Chosen Freeholders meeting Wednesday night told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
At that point, about 15 or so protestors pushed toward the prosecutor, the witness said.
“This is not the time and the place,” Molinelli told them.
But they kept coming, with several shouting at once.
“You a sucker!” one yelled.
Detectives immediately surrounded the prosecutor and brought him out the front door of One Bergen County Plaza.
Uniformed officers diected the tiny crowd to leave. They began chanting Malik Williams’ name as they left, several witnesses told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
YOU READ BOTH HERE FIRST:
Suspect had claw hammer, saw, prosecutor says in step-by-step of Garfield police shooting
Malik Williams advanced on two police officers with a claw hammer and saw, cursing them and not stopping, when they shot him dead last December in a Garfield garage where he’d been hiding, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli revealed in a blow-by-blow account this afternoon after a county grand jury cleared both. READ MORE….
Bergen County grand jury clears officers in Garfield shooting
A Bergen County grand jury cleared two officers — one from Garfield and the other with the Bergen County Police Department K9 squad — in connection with the shooting death of a Garfield suspect who fled city headquarters and holed up in a garage last December, CLIFFVIEW PILOT has learned. READ MORE….
The protestors included the mother of Malik Williams, 19, who fled police custody last December, holed up in a private garage and then was shot when he advanced toward two officers with a claw hammer in one hand and a metal saw in the other, according to a report issued by Molinelli earlier in the day. Shirley Williams “went to confront the prosecutor and he literally ran in the other direction,” Richard Rivera, who organized the protest and recorded the proceedings on his cellphone, told CLIFFVIEW PILOT Monday night. “I guess the 60 police officers in the room we’re(sic) not enough security for him.”
Freeholder John Mitchell later reconvened the meeting, saying the discussion would have to be continued at a later date.
“I apologize to all attendees/ I assure you we are going to look to reschedule as quickly as possible,” he said. “Circumstances got out of control tonight. I apologize to the public, but I think all of you here saw what occurred.”
Members of the
Bergen County Law Enforcement Consolidation Task Force didn’t attend the meeting, called to examine and discuss varying studies of how Bergen County should be policed.
However, County Executive Kathleen Donovan attended and said the task force put a great deal of work into a study and subsequent report, despite criticism by detractors.
Donovan also insisted that the freeholders cannot put a referendum question on the ballot — something they’ve pledged to do — without her authorization.
The blue-ribbon panel that Donovan created rejected a series of recommendations for consolidating the Bergen County Police Department within the sheriff’s office, saying that it would give the elected sheriff too much unchecked power.
It instead suggested eliminating or restructuring smaller units in each agency and urged municipalities to join the county emergency dispatch service out of Mahwah.
The findings run counter to recommendations by a consultant hired to suggest ways of making countywide law enforcement more efficient.
“Bergen County’s system of law enforcement works and works well,” the task force concluded in a 35-page report released in April. “This underscored our decision to avoid recommending changes that provide limited or short-term savings and risked creating roadblocks to, or gaps in, security.”
The biggest difference from the recommendations of a $623,000 study by New York-based Guidepost Solutions is the panel’s opposition to consolidating responsibilities of the Bergen County Police Department under the auspices of the sheriff.
“Much has changed” since Guidepost recommended that the BCPD cut back on patrolling and consider consolidating many services within the sheriff’s department, the task force wrote.
“There exists pending legislation on pension and benefit reforms, municipalities are experiencing an increased level of retirements, and the state mandated 2% caps on municipal spending and taxes posed replacement and manpower challenges.
“Informal discussions” with various law enforcement professionals “reflect that the BCPD is being relied upon as a force multiplier and mutal aid responder…. Therefore, the task force considers a significant reduction in force … ill-advised at this time.”
Reasons for shifting services from the BCPD to the sheriff’s office “are not well-supported,” the panel concluded.
Nowhere does the Guidepost study address additional costs for training officers, transferring vehicles and supplies, renovating offices and “perhaps most importantly, legal fees related to the resolution of contract issues,” the report says.
In fact, it says, county police are also exempted from FICA but wouldn’t be if they were absorbed into the sheriff’s office: That could mean an extra $568,000 the county would have to cough up for Social Security payments the first year.
Bumping rights would also come into play, leaving an agency with “junior members being pushed out at the bottom” and a staff “that is disproportionately made up of senior members, whose normal transitions based on retirement and promotion are artificially delyaed or hastened.”
The panel had much deeper concerns, however, which it said also weren’t addressed by Guidepost.
For one thing, it questioned “whether having an elected official in charge of what will arguably become the largest law enforcement agency in the county is advisable.”
The proposals put forth in the Guidepost study would collect “all county law enforcement and specialized functions, in addition to house security, foreclosures, process service, all correction functions and the administration of the jail under one person: the Sheriff,” the task force said. “Since the Sheriff is a constitutional officer, other branches of government would be limited in their ability to provide checks and balances.
“Given the constitutional requirement that the Sheriff must stand for election every three years, continuity of law enforcement decisions within this newly expanded Sheriff’s Office could shift dramatically,” the panel added.
The task force did urge county police, the sheriff’s office and the prosecutor’s office to immediately freeze all hiring and promotions until they can reduce staff.
It also said they should all take a harder line in negotiating fringe benefits in public employee contracts, and can better combine functions under fewer supervisors, among other recommendations. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THE TASK FORCE’S FINDINGS
Task force members met with several law enforcement officers and officials “outside of meeting and off the record,” the report says. “They are increasingly concerned about reductions in force for budgetary reasons.”
Donovan created the committee last year to study Guidepost’s proposal to reconfigure law enforcement by virtually gutting the county police department and placing the bulk of its operations under the county sheriff.
Meanwhile, battles raged between her and Bergen County Sheriff Michael Saudino over the necessity of the county police department.
Although the Guidepost study emphasized consolidating and possibly eliminating the BCPD, the department has entered into agreements with towns eager to cut costs by having it handle their public safety responsibilities.
NOTE: CLIFFVIEW PILOT is keeping a promise not to identify the officers, who both have families, as per editorial policy.]
Activist in Garfield shooting gets court order for Bergen prosecutor to defend withholding names in police-force cases
Friday, 08 June 2012 10:02 Jerry DeMarco
YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: An activist representing a Garfield man killed while resisting arrest has obtained a judge’s order that the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office explain in court why it won’t provide the names of recent subjects of police force, excluding juveniles.
Urgent message from Garfield PBA Local #46
Tuesday, 22 May 2012 21:24 Jerry DeMarcoA POLICE UNION WRITES: In response to a recent newspaper article, we must clarify a misunderstanding. It has been questioned why Sgt. Jose A. Brito was permitted to work outside of his assigned administrative duty following the tragic events of Dec. 10, 2011.
Garfield teen wasn’t shot in back, prosecutor says
Thursday, 08 March 2012 15:46 Jerry DeMarcoYOU READ IT HERE FIRST: Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli took the unusual step this afternoon of announcing that a man killed in a police shooting wasn’t shot in the back, and that one bullet wound, not two, was found.
Because a grand jury investigation into the shooting is under way – as is required under state law – Molinelli said he had to be extremely circumspect.
Prosecutor warned activist against trespassing prior to arrests
Friday, 20 January 2012 16:12 Jerry DeMarcoEXCLUSIVE: Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said he warned a community activist demanding answers in the shooting death of a Garfield teen in writing that he risked arrest if he came to county offices unannounced and refused to leave — which is what happened earlier today. CLIFFVIEW PILOT has obtained a copy of the warning letter sent by the prosecutor:
Prosecutor: Escaped inmate armed with tools when police shot him
Sunday, 11 December 2011 16:39 Jerry DeMarcoYOU READ IT HERE FIRST: Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli this afternoon confirmed a CLIFFVIEW PILOT report from last night that 19-year-old Malik Williams of Garfield was hiding in a garage after escaping from police custody and charged two officers with tools from inside when they shot him dead late yesterday afternoon.
Escaped prisoner shot dead by police
Saturday, 10 December 2011 18:18 Jerry DeMarcoONLY ON CLIFFVIEW PILOT: A 19-year-old escaped prisoner, was shot dead by police as he swung a pair of tools at them in a Garfield garage where he had barricaded himself, a law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the incident told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. Several sources in Garfield identified him as Malik Williams. “He was being processed for a domestic incident when he escaped,” another law enforcement official told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
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