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| Dead trees remind visitors to Sandy Hook of the devastation Superstorm Sandy caused at the Jersey shore in late October 2012. |
By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR
The Record today continues to play catch-up to the slaying of a 12-year-old Paterson girl, especially the link between police layoffs and escalating gun violence in the Silk City.
Already tired of the story, Editor Martin Gottlieb demoted the follow-up to the front of Local today, and used a dramatic photo of the girl's grieving mother on Page 1, where the initial account appeared on Monday.
Police layoffs
Readers have to dig deep to learn "Paterson's Police Department has not recovered from a layoff of 125 police officers in 2011" (L-2).
But in a masterful job of selective reporting and editing, the story ignores the cause of the layoffs -- Governor Christie's deep cuts in state aid to New Jersey's poorest cities.
The blood of Genesis Rincon, who was shot in the head on Saturday evening while riding on her scooter, is on Christie's hands, whether The Record wants to acknowledge it or not.
The real victims
And, really, police officers aren't the only ones affected by the layoffs.
It is residents of the impoverished 4th Ward, where Genesis lived and died, and other parts of Paterson who are the real victims of the GOP bully's mean-spirited treatment of the poor, women and anyone else who isn't wealthy and white.
Today's L-1 story on continuing community outrage over the slaying is another example of the police coming out in force after the crime, but doing little to prevent it.
Typos 'R' Us
Typos, misspelled names and other errors continue to plague the paper under six-figure Production Editor Liz Houlton, who seems to be napping at her computer or out shopping for a new dress most of the time.
The Record's style is to upper case "Police Department" when referring to a specific one, such as in "Paterson's Police Department," not "Paterson's police department" (L-2).
In an L-1 headline today, it should be upper case "Chief Zisa," not "chief Zisa."
The name game
On A-2 today, the editors correct a misspelled surname in an A-1 story on Saturday. Last Saturday's A-2 also corrected a misspelled name.
A-2 on July 3 corrected the misspelling of the first names of a couple featured in the previous Sunday's Real Estate section, as well as the complete omission of a councilman's name in a story on Teaneck's reorganization meeting.
A-2 on June 30 noted "Tyler Marshuetz of Mendham was "incorrectly identified in a photo Saturday on Page S-1," but doesn't identify him further.
Finally, A-2 on June 26 noted a caption on L-3 a day earlier "misidentified a woman participating in a ceremony at Haledon School."
Hackensack news
Today, The Record reports Hackensack's insurance company has settled a federal lawsuit filed by former Police Chief Ken Zisa (L-1).
The last paragraph notes Zisa was convicted in 2012 of official misconduct and insurance fraud for improperly removing his former girlfriend from the scene of a car accident and later filing a false $11,000 insurance claim (L-2).
But the story errs in saying Zisa, sentenced to five years in prison, is under house arrest "while his attorney prepares an appeal."
That appeal -- of the conviction and sentence -- likely was filed weeks after the judge imposed the prison term in September 2012.
You can blame an agonizingly slow appeals process, which favors corrupt officials like Zisa, who remains free so long after he was sentenced to prison.
The paper also continues to report the city has spent "at least $8 million on legal defense and settlements" for litigation related to the former chief, but never says how much of that was paid by insurers.
Want the Zisas back?
Today's Zisa story should remind Hackensack residents of the many years they lived under the yoke of a family that practiced nepotism and cronyism in the best New Jersey tradition.
After he left office, Jack Zisa, who was mayor for 16 years, reaped tens of thousands of dollars in fees as the city's insurance consultant.
I don't pretend to know the identity of all the cousins, uncles or other Zisa relatives who had city jobs, but do know there were many, including cousin Joseph C. Zisa Jr., who was the last city attorney and before that a municipal judge.
I also don't know whether a Zisa relative was the one who didn't bill the Board of Education for a city police officer posted in the high school, but do know the city lost $1 million as a result.
The new City Council hired a chief financial officer to put the city's affairs in order, and he has been praised, even by critics, for the job he did on the city budget and on starting to clean up the fiscal disarray of the past.
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