Like muggers waiting in an alley with aluminum baseball bats, Plainfield Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs and Assemblyman Jerry Green attacked mayoral candidate Adrian Mapp at a hastily called news conference Tuesday afternoon, trying to argue for an over-rosy view of crime in Plainfield.
The Courier (see here) and the Ledger (see here) both covered the media event, with comment by Mapp.
Keeping Robinson-Briggs on a short leash, Assemblyman Green inserted himself into what should have been merely a local event.
While Robinson-Briggs claims violent crime is down, she omitted mentioning a shooting over the holiday weekend that left a man with life-threatening wounds. Instead, Director Martin Hellwig goes to great lengths in today's Courier (see here) to point out that a 17-year-old who smashed several windshields after a fight with his ex-girlfriend is being sought.
This is the kind of twisting of Plainfield's crime situation that has voters so upset. Who knows whether figures cited by Hellwig are reliable, since he appears to give out only information that paints the Robinson-Briggs administration in a favorable light?
It appears from the news conference that Robinson-Briggs may have abandoned her laughable and unsupportable claim that violent crime is down 'by 300 percent' (an impossibility which, politely, neither the Courier nor the Ledger refer to).
Mapp focuses on crimes that affect more residents more directly -- home invasions (like the one Maria reports today -- see here), burglaries and car breakins and thefts -- and makes a simple claim:
"The people of Plainfield need to feel safe from burglaries and property crimes, too. It's appalling to have a mayor who calls a press conference to dispute numbers that were put out by the uniform crime statistics."The Mayor may get another chance to talk about crime tonight -- in response to questions at the candidate forum (6:30 PM, Plainfield Public Library).
- Courier: "Mayoral race grows heated as officials spar over crime stats"
- Ledger: "Plainfield candidates spar over crime rate"
- Courier: "Suspect in vandalism spree sought"
- Maria's Blog: "Crime Update: House break-in"
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4 comments:
Why no link to the letter to the editor in the Courier regarding Jerry Green's anti-Mapp campaign?
That shooting happened in Elmwood Gardens late Monday night/Tuesday a.m. The man is in serious condition. We wondered why there is no mention of it in the paper, since it was so serious! The mayor is trying to hide from all the shootings in the housing development. How many other shots fired calls is she and Hellwig hiding??? Are they not telling the news paper about this shooting? This is somebody's brother, somebody's father, somebody's son!
Just remember, she reported the murder rate is down 300%.
Do we really want, or need, a mayor who cannot even get a web site up for her own campaign? This points to the lack of leadership and vision for the city. It is unconsciounable.
And, how can she let a statistic like murder down 300% be published. How can she allow herself to be manipulated by all this. I believe she is smarter than she is allowing herself to be, and most certainly JG is allowing her to be. Sad situation, but we don't need this type of person to run our city.
Wikipedia: Made famous by Mark Twain. There are 3 types of lies - "Lies, damned lies and statistics"
The statement refers to the persuasuve power of numbers, the use of statistics to bolster weak arguments and the tendency of people to disparage statistics that do not support their positions.
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