Councilwoman Gloria Taylor spoke at length about the alleged demotion or forced retirement of Lt. Ken Reid and said he was "the third African-American in three years' time to be brought up on charges."
"Things like this have made good cities explode," Taylor said before insisting on a vote that night for an investigation.
After many exchanges with Corporation Counsel David Minchello about limits on disclosing personnel matters, Taylor sought a probe of the "procedures and culture" of the Police Division.
Her push for a vote followed public comments from several supporters including Reid's niece Yasmin Griffin, who called him "a public hero" and former Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs, for whom Reid served as a bodyguard, Reid's pastor, Eric Billups, told the council, "We will not allow you to do this to Kenny Reid." Activist Salaam Ismial said the council should "hold a public hearing immediately."
The group had held a rally earlier in the evening and supporters had also spoken out at the March 7 council meeting. Although many mentioned his alleged pending punishment, no one has stated the charges that led to it.
Taylor said she was out of town when she heard about Reid's situation and received an email from Minchello advising not to say anything about it. She claimed Police Director Carl Riley had told her the matter might lead to prosecution, but when she got back to Plainfield she was told differently.
"I'm having a problem. Is that really true or is it back in the hands of Plainfield," she said.
Riley was present but did not speak. Minchello said making details public would violate Reid's own rights, as well as those of any other officers involved.
Taylor invoked the 1967 riots and said her late husband, Mayor Richard L. Taylor, had hired many black police and firefighters.
"Is there some move to move people out?" she asked. "We have marched and marched, and we will march again."
Council President Cory Storch asked Minchello to describe the process regarding charges. Minchello said a hearing officer reviews the charges and if they are sustained, an officer has the right to appeal to the Civil Service Commission and further to the Appellate Division. He said the process does not involve the council or mayor, but is a state matter.
"What should the council do?" Storch asked.
"Allow the process to go forward," Minchello said.
Taylor continued speaking for some time, saying "I'm concerned about the culture of the Police Division" and "something's wrong in the Police Division" before making a motion to investigate the division. Since all council business had been concluded, it had to be introduced as a new item and the form of the resolution had to be stated, including the name of an outside investigator and amount of money to be expended.
The council unanimously passed a general resolution and agreed to hold a special meeting to fill in the details. Reid's supporters applauded vigorously and the publisher of a New Brunswick Latino newspaper passed out copies of one with a cover photo of a rally outside Municipal Court and a headline, "Tears for Lt. Reid!"
--Bernice
What about the other officers? Why doesnt Kenny Reid stand up for the other Officers he got in trouble with? They got suspended for six months without pay! DOES Kenny think he is above the law,and chooses to use his race as aneeded excuse to get out of his wrong doing?
ReplyDeleteIf I remember MIKE GILLIAM GOT DEMOTED AND HE DID NOT HAVE A RALLY OR USE THE RACE CARD TO SITE A RIOT IN TOWN
ReplyDeleteNo He did not. He allowed the process to go through and was Vindicated.
DeleteSo, as you see the system does work. Let Lt. Reid go to the process and if the police department got it wrong, then he too will be Vindicated.
DeleteOfficer Reid is guilty and his friends and family have said so! So he needs to take his punishment like his fellow officers did or retire. If was the PUBLIC SAFETY DIRECTOR he would be giving out more punishment for what he did! He has used up his nine lives and it is time for him to retire
ReplyDeleteAmen ! Nuff said! His time has come...he needs to move on and retire. Make way for new....go on and retire Mr. Reid....
DeleteThis I ubelievable. There is a process for discipline and appeals. Listen to your corporation counsel and let the process proxeed on its own. City Council has no business becoming involved in matters of this nature.
ReplyDeleteWho do you call to investigate the City Council?
ReplyDeleteGood Lord Councilwoman Taylor can never just focus on the topic - everything has to illicit some sort of bizarre exaggeration and meaningless sound bite. Take these two for example:
ReplyDelete"Things like this have made good cities explode," - Things like what? Public safety management following a process? Or a city council getting involved in the wrong way and at the wrong time?
"We have marched and marched, and we will march again." - I would love to see you March - you barely make it to council meetings, not sure how you would find the time to march. And who would you be marching against? This has the tone of race bating but the mayor, city administrator, public safety director and the majority of the police force are African American - so who is he focus of this March you are threatening?
How about you let the proper authorities do their job, have them present the information to the council in private and then make a decision - grand standing and making nonsense comments is pointless. And asking for an investigation (that you won't remember or follow-up on) is a waste of money - since you won't understand the report any way.
To those on the governing body interested in being paid for activism, go apply for a job with George Soros and Moveon.org -- this matter is not one over which the governing body has jurisdiction and, to have the tax payers pick up the tab for this investigation, is ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteContrary to what many on the this Council believe, tax payer money is not intended to bank-roll legal defense funds for constituents. Direct your efforts on this matter to the PBA, State Attorney General or an appropriate state agency legally equipped to deal with these matters.
The tax payers are tired of funding personal agenda witch hunt investigations. Enough of spending OUR hard-earned tax dollars!
Councilwoman Taylor doesn't care what this costs and how it's done because she lives off the fat of the land and doesn't pay a dime in taxes -- why should she care.
ReplyDeleteI would love to use Taylor's mouth to heat my home during the winter and save money on my heating bill -- it's a shame, all that good hot air going to waste.
Ouch! But you make an excellent point...she needs to stop. .
DeleteWhite people will never understand systematic racism towards black people.(It is not your fault)You just will never understand. You don't understand how it feels to be followed around a store by store security,to be denied housing in certain neighborhoods, to be ignored in a restaurant like you are invisible, to go into high-ends stores and not be taken seriously,do you know what it feels like to tell your black sons if the police stop you, don't reach for your cell or license to fast because you will be shot dead. I can go on and on.White people you don't have a clue, but it is not your fault, how would you know, it does not happen to you. Having said that, please stop trying to dismiss racism because you don't see it, feel it, or experience it. Gloria Taylor was on point last night, absolutely brilliant. The Mayor, Public Safty Director, and City Administrator does Not really care about justice, they only care about themselves and eating.If you have never been discriminated against or experienced extreme racism shut up and stop saying people are playing the race card Most things in this country, state, city, city hall are about race. Lee Evans
ReplyDeleteGloria Taylor's latest Facebook post calls for people to be more ethnocentric. The definition of ethnocentric is "the belief in the inherent superiority of one's own ethnic group or culture.". In other words, racist. I promise not to judge anyone by their skin, so please do the same. Being black doesn't make a person wrong but it also doesn't make a person right.
DeleteIts naive of Lee Evans to say that white people don't experience racism. Every white person in Plainfield (all 8% of the population) deal with racism on a daily basis. Black on white racism is rampant in Plainfield.
DeleteIf you don't believe it just go to a city council meeting and watch the tyrant Gloria Taylor make speeches and take note of how Tracy Brown and Diane Toliver nod in agreement with her as she bashes white people and latinos and say's things about "people that don't look like me".
She says many racist comments and no one challenges her - Plainfield's Trump!
UHM PARDON ME BUT ISN'T THE MAYOR CITY ADMINISTRATOR AND PUBLIC SAFETY DIRECTOR BLACK SO HOW IS THIS RACIST
DeleteThe 3 police Taylor mentioned were 1) running plates and charged by the Prosecutor’s office because that’s against state law, 2) arrested in another county for selling illegal bitcoin mining equipment and offering to run a license for money, and 3) Lt. Reid (not charged, but facing discipline), who we’ll all remember was promoted due to a trick by Sharon to promote 7 others before him in order to get to him – since he’d scored so poorly on the test. We all know this. We also know that Sharon’s “bodyguards” ran her errands, like picking up her drycleaning on duty – some HERO!
ReplyDeleteCouncil showed no spine in their non-agenda vote last night, and they should each be ashamed of themselves. Taxpayers’ money will be spent on this investigation into nothing. And Gloria’s talk of targeting black cops leading to white cops beating up black citizens is race-baiting bigotry at its ugliest. 5 people spoke about this, and 3 of those weren’t even from Plainfield! If Reid was such a fine community police officer, where was his community? Only in the vacant heads of Reid, his 5 ridiculous supporters and a Council with no concern for what the actual community wants.
Bottom line, we want the Police Division to continue cleaning up from the previous administration’s dirty work of hiring bad cops who do bad things and should be purged. 2 others from the Sharon days were stealing from Plainfield citizens by falsifying time sheets. Does the Council propose that they also were unfairly targeted? Does the Council deny that violent crime in our city is on a down swing? Is Gloria Fishy Taylor still upset that the Police Division advised against her god-loving vote to renew a liquor license to a go-go bar in a residential neighborhood? Who is she, or any of these Council members, speaking for? Certainly not anyone I know.
And please stop bringing up the embarrassing photo-op meeting between Mayor Sharon and gang members at IHOP. This city was a joke when our mayor, apparently through “hero” Reid, ate pancakes and shared hugs with thugs. But no one’s laughing anymore.
Race-baiting and innuendo are what Taylor does best.
DeleteYou are kind in calling it a go-go bar. Gloria, Diane, Bridget, and Vera voted to give a liquor license to a strip club.
DeleteThe ad shows a YOUNG woman with the top of her half hanging out, and the bottom barely covered with the tag -
Want to Xpress yourself? Come to Plainfield (gives the address).
If it walks like a duck....
It's a strip club - thanks Gloria, Bridget and Diane.
And Gloria has a problem with the police dept. HA!
The club is already closed after being open a few weeks. I suspect owner wanted license renewed so he can sell it for a pretty penny to anyone wanting to develop in neighborhood, as what development can occur with such a club at the corner.
DeleteKENNY IS A HERO
ReplyDeleteHE WAS ON SALLY JESSIE RAPHAEL
Haha! Hysterical!
DeleteHEY CITY COUNCIL
ReplyDeleteI THINK I AM NOT SURE BUT THE CITY ATTORNEY IS THE ONE WHO RECOMMENDS DISCIPLINE BUT PLEASE VERIFY THAT.
Unfortunately, Kenny has been allowed to not be held accountable for years. Being a nice guy does make him presentable to the community but does not make him good at his actual job (supervision of others).
ReplyDeleteHe has managed to align himself with political officials for years to get ahead. Now, he is trying to use of those friends to defend his cause without all the facts. Kenny is being very selfish publicly fighting his cause when he has due process through the administrative process and can only hurt the others involved. Maybe he realizes he is going to lose! And to top it off, he has proven yet again to be selfish as he is only fighting for himself and not the ones he supervised that day.
Some of the council would like to blindly defend him because he is a nice guy which is ridiculous. To support him, a couple of council women, not all, have shown up at his rallies and made public speeches. Of course, before speaking, they say they're not speaking as a council person but are speaking as a resident. I didn't know they could take off their the council hat with such ease.
It easy to hide behind religion and friendships, but in the end, Kenny has been failed by his friends who put him positions he was not suitable for.
Thanks Sharon!
To follow someone blindly without knowing both sides of a story is a truly foolish thing to do. Hey Kenny is a super nice guy I'm sure but so was George W. Bush....but we all see how that turned out. Being a nice guy doesn't make you a good leader...I'm sure Jim Jones and Bill Cosby were super nice guys to the people that followed them blindly but me personally I gotta hear both sides of the story before I drink out of the cup Kenny's passing around.
ReplyDeleteI'm not gonna kick Kenny while he's down cause he is doing an excellent job of destroying his own career but what truly scares me are the fools that follow behind this man without finding out what TRULY happened first. And the council members are the biggest fools in the lot for switching roles from being a council member one minute to being a non council Kenny supporter the next. Talk about inappropriate. I guess common sense isn't a requirement to get onto the city council. And not to mention what a phenomenal waste of time and energy this is....how about the council get to working on getting these streets paved.
Well as that great scholar Fred G. Sanford used to say, "You big dummy!!!"
What a mess!!!!
So if someone works in the Plainfield local government and is cited for a work related infraction the city council can work to overturn that disciplinary decision
ReplyDeleteCertain Council members need to understand what their position is. It is not within their powers to become involved in personnel matters.
ReplyDeletePERIOD. AMEN
If Gloria Taylor said he was the third to be bought up on charges, who were the other two, what were the charges and what was the action taken on those charges.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteWell, two city council meetings later and the hot topic still remains Lt. Reid. Not how can we clean up the streets (literally), what can we do to better position ourselves to attract major corporations to come into the city to strengthen our tax base and take the pressure off homeowners and stop raising taxes or even how can we get rid of these dilapidated, burned up, forever abandoned boarded up structures, that are such an ugly eyesore. No, let’s not focus on important stuff like that. Let’s waste our time and tax dollars on hiring an attorney to prove Councilwoman Gloria Taylor’s “Conspiracy Theory”.
According to Taylor, this is some type of pre-planned move by white police officers, to get rid of Lt. Reid. This way, they (the white police) can start to get things back to the way “They used to be”. I know, that sounds crazy and I even felt crazier typing it out.
With so called leaders having this mind set, the City of Plainfield will never move forward. What is even more bizarre is that she has people on the city council backing her up. (This is 2016 / Not 1967) The mayor, police director, city administrator and fire chief are all people of color. Open your eyes Ms. Taylor and please “buy a clue”.
In both meetings that I had the displeasure of attending, it was obviously clear that three essential parts to this conspiracy were absent. The FACTS, THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STORY AND LT. REID. I saw and heard a handful of supporters spewing out half-truths, innuendos and a lot of “I heard that…..” What was really disheartening was the number of pastors that were on the Lt. Reid bandwagon, making outrageous allegations with minimal facts.
As each one came to the microphone, they began by giving their credentials, so we would know “EXACTLY” who they were. Or maybe, just to let the city council know who they were dealing with. Some admitted that they didn’t know all the details, but still spoke of the grave injustice that was being done to Lt. Reid. One pastor originally stated that Lt. Reid was being demoted. Then it changed to demotion and 6 months suspension w/o pay. Then, finally it changed to demotion, 6 month suspension w/o pay and loss of medical benefits. Rather than continue with this nonsense, Lt. Reid should man-up, grab the mic and speak.
THE CITY COUNCIL IS WAY OUT OF LINE ON THIS ONE! This is not what you were elected you for. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE stay in your lane. If Lt. Reid feels that he was wronged, then he and his lawyer (who I know is very competent), will obtain justice through the civil service hearing & appeal process. No need for Chair Woman Gloria Taylor or any other council member wasting taxpayers' time & money. If you have nothing better else to do Chair Woman Taylor, take a ride around this city and take a good look. I'm sure you'll find PLENTY to focus on.
ReplyDelete