I usually appreciate the fact that Hoboken 411 will publish letters that the local papers will not sometimes publish. In fact I have been the recipient of that when the owner of H411 published my political poems that were not within the standards of the Hoboken Reporter's Guidelines (i.e. no poems). The letter the anonymous writer tried to send in is false and a distortion. The Hoboken Reporter rejected the letter due to the fact that one of their writers Tim Carol was at the meeting and well as myself and know that there was no call from vigilantism from Dawn Zimmer.In fact it was Acting Chief Robert Lisa that brought up community policing which is nothing like vigilantism. From what I know of the Acting Chief he seems like a stand up guy and in no way would he endorse citizens taking the law into their own hands. On the contrary, it was stressed that the citizens should be the eyes and ears of the police but that they should call and wait for the police to arrive and let them do their job when they see something suspicious. The meeting was highly informational and I was impressed that some of the top brass in the police department were willing to listen to citizens concerns and have a plan of action.
And yes, Dawn did call for a community Garden but the theory is that if you clean up the area, it might deter the wrong crowd from hanging out there. For those who have been paying attention "The Broken Window Theory" was a tenet of the Guilliani Administration's policing and in my opinion helped cleanup NYC. And besides what is wrong with cleaning up a blighted area? Seems like a good idea to me.
Here is the beginning of the bogus letter that was published on H411:
"I sent the following letter to the editor of the local paper; I asked that it remain anonymous. But I just got a call from the editor saying that they won’t publish my letter unless I agree to have my name (and possibly address) credited for the comments - despite dozens of other anonymous letters published. I obviously fear retaliation and was silenced by this sudden reversal of policy. It’s as if the paper is silencing any dissent against Dawn Zimmer; it just doesn’t seem right that they do that.”
Here’s the letter that got rejected:
“It’s always a concern when violent crime invades a community. It is especially concerning when our government leaders seem desperate and suggest the public form vigilante groups to police the streets. But that is exactly what Dawn Zimmer recommended - along with creating a community garden - when she attended Wednesday’s Crime Prevention Meeting."
Read the rest of the untrue letter on Hoboken411:
http://hoboken411.com/archives/16184
Here’s the letter that got rejected:
“It’s always a concern when violent crime invades a community. It is especially concerning when our government leaders seem desperate and suggest the public form vigilante groups to police the streets. But that is exactly what Dawn Zimmer recommended - along with creating a community garden - when she attended Wednesday’s Crime Prevention Meeting."
Read the rest of the untrue letter on Hoboken411:
http://hoboken411.com/archives/16184
Signed,
Concerned 4th Ward Citizen”
Concerned 4th Ward Citizen”
CONCLUSION: This letter is nothing more than a fabrication most likely by one of the local political hacks . The writer of this letter isn't remaining anonymous because he/she is afraid of retaliation, rather does not want to reveal which political camp from which the negative and falsified attack is coming from. I challenge the anonymous writer to name the police officers in attendance. He /she can't because they were not there. I was.
PS- I left two emails with Hoboken 411 and even tried to comment to rebut this story but my comments were filtered and I received no timely reply from Hoboken 411.
Here is the original story I covered for the 4th Ward Community Police meeting I attended:
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