By now you probably know that on Thursday, July 23, 2009, approximately 200 FBI and IRS-Criminal Investigations special agents arrested 44 persons in conjunction with a massive public corruption and money laundering investigation in New Jersey.
Among those arrested in the public corruption investigation were the mayors of Ridgefield, NJ (population about 11,000), Secaucus, NJ (population about 15,500), and Hoboken, NJ (population about 40,750), the deputy mayor of Jersey City, NJ (population about 241,000), and two New Jersey state legislators.
Arrests on the investigation’s money-laundering side include several rabbis in New York and New Jersey.
The easy-to-read material can be found in several news articles prepared and released by the Wall Street Journal (Jersey Mayors Stung in Graft Probe) and the Associated Press (3 NJ mayors, lawmakers arrested in corruption case).
More detailed reporting is available in a series of The Star Ledger‘s articles under the banner headline Corruption in New Jersey: Summer of ’09.
The “Just the facts, ma’am” information can be found in the July 23, 2009, press release issued by the US Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey. The press release provides copies of the criminal complaints against every individual charged in both the public corruption and money laundering schemes.
Some of the analysis and comment most relevant to any state, county, and city in the nation was contained in the Christian Science Monitor article titled With arrests, New Jersey stakes claim as corruption capital. How, according to the newspaper, does an area become known as a “corruption capital?”
- Indifference and acceptance by citizens. ” ‘It could never have survived or gone as deep without a wink or a nod from the voters,’ says Mr. [Larry] Sabato, a professor at the University of Virginia and an author of two books on public corruption. ‘They have not punished the people they should have punished.’ “
- Warnings by honest citizens go unheeded by officials. “At a press conference, [Acting US Attorney Ralph]Marra said efforts by solid citizens to clean up the state had been met by derision. ‘They get shouted down,’ he said.”
- Allowing public officials to hold multiple public offices. “But, he [Sabato] says, the state is also at fault for allowing public officials to hold multiple public offices at the same time. ‘You can be a state assemblyman, a mayor, and freeholder [comparable to a county commissioner] all at once,’ he explains. ‘It gives them multiple salaries but it leads to corruption.’ “
- Local prosecuting attorneys do not do their job. According to Bennett Gershman, a former New York special state prosecutor investigating corruption, “In a sense government officials feel they have a green light. They have no prosecutor hanging over their shoulder, and I would say that is not a minimal factor but an important factor.”
- Lack of political competition. “In certain geographic parts, there is one party rule,” says Randy Mastro who grew up in New Jersey and is now at the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in New York. “When that is the case you have more potential for corruption because the criminal types know who they have to bribe.”
Now ask yourself this: Which of these five conditions exist in Coeur d’Alene and Kootenai County?
I bet people in these towns knew this was going on but for years just kept their mouths shut because they were afraid of ridicule and personal repercussions. (“Just be quiet, Gladys, someone else will take care of it, it’s not our place to get in the middle of this.”)
Comment by mary — July 25, 2009 @ 9:17 am
Mary,
Certainly that was part of it; Sabato as much as said so in in #1. I’m going to either ask the Hayden library to get Sabato’s books on public corruption or I’m going to email and ask him if his research explains why citizens are indifferent and willing to accept corruption.
But as Acting USA Marra said, efforts by solid citizens to clean up the state had been met by derision. “They get shouted down,” he said. It sounds as if people who asked questions and wouldn’t accept the party-line answers were ridiculed and treat rudely by those on the take.
Comment by Bill — July 25, 2009 @ 9:30 am
“They get shouted down,” he said. It sounds as if people who asked questions and wouldn’t accept the party-line answers were ridiculed and treat rudely…”
He’s describing our town!
Comment by mary — July 25, 2009 @ 12:00 pm
All five of these conditions describe the whole state of Idaho.
The people we vote out never go away, they are effectively placed in other roles. For instance,
Katie Brodie is now our Northern Idaho Field Representative and works for the Governor. What do you think she does?
Comment by Stebbijo — July 25, 2009 @ 12:48 pm
Associated Press reporters Larry Neumeister and Beth DeFalco said, “Voters might wonder how Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano, no grizzled politician but a 32-year-old lawyer with a promising political career, could be accused of taking $25,000 in bribes after watching so many politicians follow the same road to jail.” Then they went on to answer the question in their article headlined NJ mayor’s arrest puts spotlight on historic city.
To get the answer, they contacted Stanley Renshon, a psychoanalyst and City University of New York political science professor. Renshon said it’s really not that surprising. “Politics has a lot of temptation because it has to do with power. People are attracted to the power. Ambition is like a loose cannon — it can be dangerous,”
Their article went on to quote arrested Mayor Cammarano’s remarks he made to a cooperating witness when he referred to corrupt public officials in Hoboken. Cammarano said, “There’s the people who were with us, and that’s you guys. There’s the people who climbed on board in the runoff. They can get in line. And then there are the people who were against us the whole way. They get ground … they get ground into powder.”
That remark could have been made by some of our public officials in Coeur d’Alene.
Comment by Bill — July 25, 2009 @ 8:13 pm