Mayor Mack held a press conference today. The main news out of the session was the announcement by the Mayor that his nominee Carleton Badger had withdrawn his name from consideration as Director of Housing and Economic Development.
Good.
What was not good – in fact what was outrageous – was the intimidation of Trentonian editor Paul Mickle by an armed city detective when he attempted to ask the Mayor a couple of tough questions, which is his job. This is the second occasion in two days of the mayoral use of the Police Department inside City Hall to assist the Mayor and silence critics. Those are two occasions too many.
Mayor Mack was, by this report, evasive when asked whether this police presence for “routine disagreements” was going to become commonplace. That was not good.
The Mayor and Public Safety Director Williams need to address this very troubling development. Our Police should not be used to silence critics nor to protect the agenda of any elected official.
This Mayor is accountable to the people, if he dosen’t like those terms he should resign.