City religious leaders back John Day for Police Director
TRENTON >> The city’s Concerned Pastors group wants John Day to become Trenton’s next police director.
About 20 community activists and members of the faith-based community gathered outside Battle Monument on Wednesday to lobby Mayor Reed Gusciora to pick the retired State Police trooper from the crop of candidates who have applied for the job.
“This city is in grave need of a new identity, great need of having a reason to lift our head in pride and say, ‘This is the capital of the state of New Jersey. We’re hopeful that John Day will be the choice,” said Pastor John Harris Jr. of Galilee Baptist Church, the president of the Concerned Pastors of Trenton.
Eight months into his first term, Mayor Gusciora is still without a permanent police leader.
Council earlier this month confirmed Lt. Chris Doyle, the acting police director, to serve for another three months while the search continues.
Day, who spent time leading the crime suppression and street gang units of the State Police, rose to the rank of lieutenant in nearly 27 years on the force, according to a copy of his resume obtained by The Trentonian.
Day, who did not immediately respond to a phone call seeking comment, was not present at the presser.
And religious leaders acknowledged they were independently pushing for him because they’re convinced he has the chops to lead the 285-member police force.
Advocating on behalf of a swath of the pastoral community and residents he says support Day, Harris said he’s known the ex-trooper for more than three decades, and he’s “always been the same person.”
“He’s already our choice,” Harris said. “We’re already trying to promote him. We tried another and City Council denied her, and now we’re going to try John Day.”
Harris was alluding to the bid to get Carol Russell, a former Trenton cop who retired with the rank of sergeant after 20 years on the force, confirmed as the city’s first AfricanAmerican woman to lead TPD.
Many people, including former colleagues, attended council meetings to express their support for Russell, but this was the first time anyone from the coalition of religious leaders acknowledged playing a behind-the-scenes role in trying to get her on.
“We don’t need this to be a black city. We don’t need it to be a white city. We don’t want it to be a Spanish city,” Harris said. “We want it to be the capital city of New Jersey. We want to see a newness here, and this is our beginning.”
The mayor was forced to reboot the search, enlisting a regional search committee composed of city leaders to help find a permanent police director after his appointment of Russell failed miserably.
She was tapped to succeed the supplanted Pedro Medina.
But the mayor’s pick almost immediately incited division between the administration and the legislative body, with South Ward councilman George Muschal skipping out on the mayor’s State of the City address in protest of Russell getting the nod.
Russell faced criticism over her lack of executive experience and college degree, as city leaders called her appointment a “political football” and refused to confirm her.
In the end, Gusciora pulled the plug on Russell a day after the council declined to hold advice and consent on her, insisting she never received an approval waiver from the state Department
of Community Affairs.
Russell’s departure followed weeks of speculation about her status.
The Trentonian, citing high-level city sources, reported Russell had decided to resign amid the pressurepacked atmosphere, only to un-resign a day later when news spread that she turned in her keys.
The mayor denied the newspaper reports, calling them “fake news.”
But council president Kathy McBride held a news conference backing the Trentonian report about Russell’s resignation and accusing the mayor of turning the ensuing debacle over Russell’s appointment into a “sideshow.”
The sideshow turned ugly days later, when the mayor’s chief of staff Yoshi Manale was caught on body camera admitting he hoped a Trentonian reporter was behind an alleged burglary of his office.
Manale implied to cops that the newspaper had a motive to bust into his office, where he stored confidential papers related to Russell’s employment that the chief of staff claimed were of “informational value” to reporters.
The cops determined no break-in occurred.
Harris blamed council members for souring people on Russell and hoped it wouldn’t take the same approach with Day.
“They don’t care what the city thinks. They think that they’re the voice. They can’t make all the decisions without the consideration of what the people want,” he said. “They are not god.”
John Taylor, the pastor at the capital city’s Friendship Baptist Church, threw his full support behind Day, and attempted to head off any attacks against the ex-trooper.
“Just for the critics, we know he had a little run in at Maxine’s years ago,” Harris said. “We represent thousands of people. It’s a small group here, but there’s a whole lot of [us] generated around John Day being the next director of the police department. We’re calling on the mayor and on city council. … We are putting some skin in the game. It’s one thing to stay in the back behind closed doors and say who you support. It’s something else to step on the front lines.”
Day, who is black, was involved in what he has described as a “racist” encounter with Trenton cops outside Maxine’s nightclub in 2000, telling the New York Times he felt like he “was in Selma, Alabama.”
He was off-duty when he was arrested by TPD officers who said he disobeyed an order to move his vehicle.
Day was suspended from the State Police for 30 days and unsuccessfully sued the city over his arrest.
He claimed officers tried to defame him by telling state police investigators they believed he was intoxicated when he was pulled from his vehicle, roughed up and handcuffed after he claimed he offered the cops help with controlling a rowdy crowd.
Day’s arrest drew attention from civil rights activist Al Sharpton, who held a news conference over his treatment.
Harris said he believes Day is an “honest man. Perfect? Notice I didn’t pick that word.”
“If you’re going to disqualify him for that [the arrest], why haven’t you disqualified Trump for all the mess he’s done,” Harris said. “If you stir dirt, let’s stir some dirt. I just told you I don’t know anybody who doesn’t have some dirt on them from somewhere.”
Harris said it’s not just the religious community that wants Day to get the job.
“I have ears. I listen to other people talking about it,” he said. “He’s got connections. A lot of the people at the police department respect him and revere him. It’s not just a handful of people.”
City resident Cameron Hunt, a military vet and former president of the Trenton Council of Civic Associations, said he likes Day because he’s a Trentonian.
Day currently lives in Eastampton, according to his resume.
“He comes from us. He was made with us. And he lived with us,” he said. “So he knows this city. On behalf of the little people, we’re supporting this selection.”
Al Page, a community activist who said he was one of Day’s fraternity brothers, felt that “nobody in the city of Trenton can bring what he brings.”
Jonette Smart, the president of the local chapter of the NAACP, attending the news conference in her personal capacity, said she believed the pros on Day, who attracted much fanfare during his high school football-playing days in Trenton, outweigh any cons.
He has a college degree, a bachelor’s in criminal justice from Grambling State University in Louisiana, qualifications outlined by the administration as part of the rebooted recruitment that ended last month.
“We need to show our young people, our children, that they can come up and be something,” Smart said. “Give a model to look at.”
She believes Day has more “stock” with fellow cops and citizens than Russell.
“He’s aware of the current nuances and struggles,” she said. “I know that’s not an issue for him.”
At the end of the day, the ex-trooper’s admirers realize Gusciora has the final call.
The mayor, who did not respond to a request for comment, said in a previous interview the city was still conducting interviews to whittle down the 40 applicants.
He said Day was “in the mix.” But a council member, speaking privately this week about the ongoing search, claimed Day had already been axed from consideration.
Smart and religious leaders hoped that isn’t true.
“Why do we always have to reach outside of Trenton?” Harris asked. “Do we not have good product here? We have good people here. At least give him a chance.”
“We have a sign on the bridge if you’re coming from Morrisville or you’re leaving Trenton,” Taylor said. “It says, ‘Trenton makes and the world takes.’ Let’s start getting some people from Trenton to make that sign true. If not, cut the lights.”