CURFEW CHALLENGED
Trenton modifies curfew, former council candidate threatens to take it to court »
TRENTON » Unsatisfied with the easing of the capital city curfew, Algernon Ward threatened to take Mayor Reed Gusciora to court if he doesn’t abolish a lockdown that has been in place for the last two months.
The former North Ward council candidate called Gusciora’s reasons for imposing the curfew “dubious” in the first place and questioned the constitutionality of the continued restriction of Trentonians’ movement throughout the city.
Ward said he’ll consider filing a “class-action lawsuit” on behalf of Trentonians asking a court to strike down the mayor’s order, unless something is done to immediately ameliorate the lockdown.
“The mayor has to change his heart on this. He can’t solve society’s problems with a nightstick,” Ward told The Trentonian in an interview Monday.
Ward’s pronouncement came the same day that the mayor’s office announced it was easing the 7 p.m. curfew to 10 p.m “until further notice.”
The 7 p.m. curfew was part of a “regional” curfew with Lawrence, Ewing, and Hamilton townships, following a second weekend of peaceful protests following the death of George Floyd, including one outside City Hall demanding an end to police brutality.
The townships have since rescinded the curfew, leaving Trenton alone in enforcing it.
The administration said it changed the curfew in part after receiving input from community stakeholders concerned with how the curfew hampers businesses, a city spokesman said.
Trenton restaurants offering drive-thru or takeout are being allowed to operate until 11 p.m. under the relaxed restrictions, Gusciora said.
This is the third time Gusciora has changed up the curfew since first implementing it following a weekend in which three people were killed in a series of shootings on Palm Sunday.
Gusciora pledged to completely do away with the curfew in the coming weeks as state officials proceed with the phased reopening of the Garden State amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“We’re going to be lifting the curfew before he can walk into a lawyer’s office,” Gusciora said when told of Ward’s threat.
He refused to provide a specific date for abolishing the lockdown.
That did not sway Ward, who wouldn’t rule out organizing peaceful protests and demanding “amnesty” for hundreds of people issued curfew violations since the curfew went into effect in April 6.
“I can walk into a lawyer’s office tomorrow, so there’s no need for him to continue his curfew,” Ward told The Trentonian. “We need to come to Jesus.”
Despite statistics touted by the administration suggesting a sharp decline in crime after curfew hours, Ward said he doesn’t believe the lockdown is an effective crime-fighting tool and urged the mayor to reconsider his position.
He was unmoved by the mayor’s office move to loosen the curfew to 10 p.m. following a wave of looting and rioting the engulfed the capital city May 31, in response to the death of Floyd, a Minneapolis man who died after a police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
The violence broke out after two days of mostly peaceful protesting, resulting in damage to dozens of downtown businesses.
More peaceful protests were staged this weekend, making Ward feel secure the worst is behind the capital city.
Still on Lock
Despite that, Trenton remains one of the few cities in New Jersey — and the only municipality in Mercer County — still under a strict curfew.
Hamilton Mayor Jeff Martin confirmed he and neighboring suburbs Lawrence and Ewing rescinded the “regional” lockdown following days with little police activity.
Martin relied on advice of law enforcement officials before doing away with the lockdown.
“I was comfortable imposing it for the two nights,” he said. “But I didn’t want to impose more than what was absolutely necessary.”
Gusciora has remained unmoved by what he dismissed as the belly-aching of a few, saying he believes his curfew enjoys wide support from Trentonians who credit it with making neighborhoods feel safer and quieter.
“We had a unique situation,” Gusciora said, referring to mass quarantine of officers suspected of being exposed to the coronavirus, including TPD Director Sheilah Coley.
The police department has since returned to full staffing, TPD spokesman Jason Kmiec said.
“We already tried reduction of and the de-funding of the police. That was when Chris Christie cut our aid. I don’t think we did too well in those years,” Gusciora said, referring to historic bloodshed in 2013, two years after more than 100 officers were laid off due to the budget crunch.
While Gusicora refuses to back down, Trenton’s newly revised curfew is now less stringent than one under Newark Mayor Ras Baraka.
Last week, Baraka took steps toward re-opening the Gateway City, loosening the curfew from 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Restrictions in the capital city have been relaxed and reinforced since Gusciora first put Trenton on lockdown April 6, following a weekend in which three people were slain.
The mayor announced at a news conference that all residents and businesses, including gas stations and grocery stores, were required to shut their doors by 8 p.m. or risk being fined $2,000 and permanently shuttered for the duration of the public health crisis.
He said he was forced to act after people ignored a stay-at-home order rolled out March 21.
The Trenton curfew appeared to go beyond Gov. Phil Murphy’s edict, leading one city lawmaker to question whether was Gusciora was skirting the state’s Executive Order 108, nullifying additional restrictions imposed by municipalities to deal with the COVID-19 crisis.
The executive order stated “it shall be unlawful for any municipality or other subdivision or any other governmental agency of this State to adopt any rule or regulation or to enforce any such rule or regulation that may be at variance with any such order.”
Murphy weighed in at his daily news briefing April 8, suggesting Gusciora’s curfew was nothing more than a “recommendation,” stressing his orders superseded other elected officials’ mandates.
“There’s one set of executive orders,” Murphy said, “that hold, that matter, that overarch all others, and they’re ours. We have to have one state . ... I think, as it turns out, most of these are recommendations as opposed to hard-and-fast executive orders. There’s no question which executive order has primacy, and that will stay that way.”
Quickly switching gears, Gusciora clarified his mandate was being imposed under a “mob action” ordinance on the books since the 1968 assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr and was unrelated to Murphy’s stay-athome order, dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.
The mayor said the curfew was reviewed by the Office of Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, which concurred officials were allowed to impose the lockdown to curtail a wave of street violence.
City police have handed out hundreds of curfew violations in the two months Gusciora’s edict has been in place, and Coley pointed to a more than 50 percent reduction in crime for the hours after 8 p.m. during the first three weeks of the lockdown.
Curfew Criticized
Since then, the curfew has become a political peccadillo, with critics suggesting it has done little to stem the tide of gunplay sweeping the streets.
Ward and others opposed to the continuing lockdown pointed to a rash of sensational crimes — many taking place outside of lockdown hours.
Last week, the capital city experienced its 15th murder of the year, when 37-year-old Donate Barnes was gunned down on Oakland Street a week after being released from a state corrections facility.
A day later, a 12-year-old girl underwent emergency surgery to remove a portion of her intestine after she was shot in the stomach while playing with her 7-year-old sister at Roberto Clemente Park around 9 a.m.
At a news conference, officials decried the senseless violence, which drew comparisons to March 2006 case of Tajahnique Lee, who was riding her bike through the Wilson-Haverstick housing project when she was struck in the face by a stray bullet.
“I’ve had all I can stand. My heart is aching . ... I can’t bear this,” Trenton council president Kathy McBride said.
The shooting of the 12-year-old was a tipping point in the city’s ongoing struggle with the violence, with Coley saying that if “two young girls can’t galvanize this community, then we have no hope and nothing else will.”
Two more people were shot hours after officials gathered at City Hall for a peace rally, cops said.
Gusciora continued to defend the curfew’s effectiveness in combating violence while acknowledging he didn’t have updated stats to back his claims.
“Nothing is 100 percent foolproof,” he said.
Ward said he could turn to an organization like the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey if he moves forward with a legal strike.
A representative from the civil rights group did not respond to an email seeking comment on whether it was monitoring the situation in the capital city.
Ward is not above doing it himself, as evidenced by his sample ballot challenge during the 2018 municipal election.
Ward, a scientist by trade, said he’s not “at all opposed” to Murphy’s order, which was extended through July, with Trenton suffering more than 3,600 cases and 57 deaths, and would follow the health advisory to the “letter.”
But he hoped “wiser angels in our city” prevail on the curfew issue.
“I don’t know anybody in favor of the curfew,” Ward said. “Maybe you have an 80-year-old woman who thinks we may should be in bed by 9 p.m. But there’s no civil unrest. I should have the right for free movement ... You are incarcerating 84,000 people beyond the emergency . ... Its origins are dubious. He had to stretch the law.”