MICHAEL O. ALLEN

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Living and dying on these Jersey streets

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IRVINGTON, N.J. — Dolores Timmons watched as the woman who lived across the street paced the sidewalk for a good half hour under a scorching August heat, back and forth across the length of her front yard as if encased by invisible walls. They lived in similar brick and wood-frame homes here on a busy working-class block of 18th Avenue off the Garden State Parkway, but they had never spoken.

Another neighbor told Mrs. Timmons that the woman, Shalga Hightower, was mourning her 20-year-old daughter, one of three college students who had been shot dead in a Newark schoolyard a few days earlier. Mrs. Timmons walked across the street to introduce herself and offer condolences, bringing her grandson, Gary Farrar Jr., who was just a year older and also in college, studying graphic design at Rutgers.
Soon the two women struck up a neighborly acquaintanceship, making small talk when they ran into each other or waving from their stoops.
Mrs. Timmons, 64, had lived on the block for 24 years, and she occupied the first floor of her two-family house; upstairs were Gary and his parents, Gary Sr., a landscaper, and Betty Farrar, a nurse. Ms. Hightower, 47, a home-health aide supervisor, moved there last June with her three children; Iofemi, the oldest, was about to enter Delaware State University when she was killed.

Iofemi Hightower and Gary Farrar Jr., lived on the same street. Hightower was to enroll in Delaware State – oldest of three children.Shot and killed August, 2007 by strangers while chilling in a schoolyard with friends. Farrar, an only child, graduated from Rutgers. Shot and killed April 20, 2008 – in a driveby on his street (by a stranger) while walking friends to their car.

As the months passed, Mrs. Timmons noticed how Ms. Hightower would often wear a memorial T-shirt stamped with her daughter’s picture.
“When Iofemi died, I remember thinking how fortunate I was that my grandson was in college, away from these crazy streets out here,” Mrs. Timmons said on Monday. “But then he graduated and came back home and now he’s dead, too.”

For the families who live on this hilly stretch of 18th Avenue between Grove Street and Eastern Parkway, where Irvington juts into Newark, Ms. Hightower’s killing last summer — six suspects have been arrested — brought the violence that surrounds them frighteningly close. Losing Mr. Farrar barely nine months later —just four months after he had graduated from Rutgers and returned home — was something beyond.

* * *

“We made our sacrifices and just raised our son the best way that we could,” Mr. Farrar said on Monday.

Iofemi Hightower worked for Continental Airlines in Newark and planned to study business at Delaware State. Mr. Farrar had a degree in graphic design from Rutgers and was a waiter in Montclair as he pursued a job in his field. They were, by all accounts, exceptions — “good kids who stayed out of trouble and had hopes and dreams for the future,” as Mrs. Timmons put it.

Mr. Farrar, she said, recently bought a navy three-button suit to wear on job interviews. Now, she said, his parents plan to bury him in it.

Read The New York Times for the rest of this heartbreaking story

April 22, 2008
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IN TEANECK, A CALL FOR RACIAL HARMONY; Over 100 Gather in Peacefull Rally Against Injustice

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By Laurie C. Merrill and Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writers | Sunday, May 3, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | A03

Saying the time is right to work for racial harmony, a score of civic and religious leaders told a rally of some 100 people in Teaneck on Saturday that the Rodney King beating case underscores the injustice and prejudice that permeate society.

“We are at a very dangerous point in our society. The schism between the races is greater than ever before,” said Franklin Wilks, a lawyer for the Bergen County chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

“In the absence of faith in our legal system, there is nothing left by anarchy,” Wilks added.

In apparent preparation for the afternoon rally at Teaneck’s Municipal Complex, police had barricaded the doors of police headquarters with plywood. But the mood of the interracial crowd was conciliatory, and when the rally ended, participants departed quietly.

Across New Jersey, streets were calm Saturday afternoon, and in Manhattan, the Rev. Al Sharpton led a peaceful march of about 1,000 people. There was no repeat of the violence that flared briefly in Jersey City and Newark on Friday, responses to the acquittal in Los Angeles of four white policemen who beat King and were videotaped doing so.

Several speakers bemoaned the poor attendance especially by teenagers at the NAACP rally held to speak out against injustice.

“Injustice has corrupted us all,” said Wendy Dunlap, 16, of Hackensack, a member of the NAACP Youth Board. “All of us must work to end it, especially young people.”

And many speakers, including several Teaneck council candidates, spoke of other social issues, stressing the need to improve conditions in cities, obliterate the drug trade, improve education, and increase employment.

The ghost of Phillip C. Pannell was invoked. The youth was fatally shot two years ago by white Police Officer Gary Spath, who was acquitted of reckless manslaughter in February. Pannell’s parents, Thelma and Phillip, spoke at the rally.

Thelma Pannell said she had predicted that the four officers would be acquitted, as Spath had been. And Phillip D. Pannell said: “I’m mad as hell. . . . There is no justice in this country for the people of color.”

Many at the hourlong rally sounded a similar theme: Remove President Bush. Said local NAACP President Robert Robinson, “We need to change George Bush from the White House to the poor house.”

Those who gathered under the bright sun came for different reasons. Some have attended the rallies that had been held almost weekly since Pannell was killed. Others came to express outrage over the King verdict.

William Johnson, 27, of Englewood said the Los Angeles police officers guilt was never in doubt. “What better proof do you need than that videotape?” he asked.

“I think the verdict in Los Angeles was as unjust as the verdict for Gary Spath,” said Eva Michael, 38, of Teaneck. “I believe it’s a much bigger issue than these two court cases. It’s the whole issue that is going on in the country. We have a racist society.”

Former Teaneck Mayor Bernard Brooks, 56, said that at least Teaneck faces its problems.

“I think if you look at towns like Teaneck, Teaneck tries,” Brooks said. “I’m not suggesting that Teaneck is a perfect place, but it tries. Look at this crowd. You’ve got all kinds of people here. Right after the Pannell thing, you had all kinds of people trying to get together and do things. But even then, there are still divisions.”

In Jersey City, streets were quiet and merchants said business was slower than they expected a week before Mother’s Day.

“It’s nice and calm and peaceful,” said Jay Kang, owner of Jay Discount Jewelry on Journal Square, who late Friday afternoon was locked inside his shop with dozens of customers as youths looted several stores.

Record Staff Writer Neil Reisner contributed to this article.

Caption: PHOTO – An interracial crowd rallying outside the Teaneck Municipal Complex on Saturday in protest of the Rodney King verdict. – STEVE AUCHARD / THE RECORD

ID: 17376152 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)

May 3, 1992
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AFTER-SCHOOL FRAY LEADS TO 7 ARRESTS; SOME FORMER STUDENTS INVOLVED

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, January 10, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | NEWS | Page B03

A fight involving a handful of current and former Ridgefield Park High School students broke out as a crowd of about 100 students walked home from the school, police said.

Police arrested seven people, including three students, during the fight Wednesday at about 2:30 p.m. at Overpeck Avenue and Union Place, about one-fourth mile west of the high school, Police Chief Walter Grossman said.

The dispute continued that evening in Little Ferry, where one of those arrested in the afternoon filed a simple assault charge against another who was involved in the after-school fight, Little Ferry police said. Little Ferry sends its high school students to Ridgefield Park.

“It’s all individuals who knew each other,” Grossman said. “Some were former students, and somehow or the other we don’t know how it happened they wound up at that intersection at that time.”

“There was a lot of pushing and shoving, some punching, that type of thing,” Grossman added, but he said it was unclear who fought with whom, or why. “That’s the big question. We don’t know if it’s from the past, when they knew each other.”

Charged with disorderly conduct were two 16-year-old boys who are high school students, one from Ridgefield Park, the other from Little Ferry; Lionel Quarales of Ridgefield Park, who was the third student; Horatio Hemmings of Englewood, Lawrence Pfaff of Hackensack, and Christopher Kaplan of Little Ferry, all 18-year-olds; and Amir Hakim-Davoud, 23, of Little Ferry. Hakim-Davoud and Pfaff also were charged with resisting arrest.

“They were all at one point fighting with each other,” Grossman said. “Right now, I couldn’t tell you who was fighting whom. Our officers got there just in time to pull them apart.”

No one was injured.

Later that night, the juveniles were released to the custody of their parents and the adults were released on their own recognizance pending a court date later in the month, the chief said.

“We’ll look into it further to determine why this thing happened,” Grossman said. “Occasionally, we’ve had kids have a little argument here and there, but not with the kind of number that we had here. And, of course, some of the kids were from out of town, which is dangerous.”

Little Ferry Police Capt. Dennis Hofmann said officers responded to a report of a crowd and a disturbance on Main Street at about 8:40 p.m. The crowd had thinned out by the time police arived, but Quarales, alleging that he had been hit with a pipe or a stick, signed a complaint of simple assault against Hemmings, Hofmann said.

ID: 17365615 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)

January 10, 1992
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POLICE TAUGHT ABOUT ABUSE LAW

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, November 14, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | NEWS | Page B01

A police officer responds to a call about a woman’s screams. He arrives at the home where the screams were heard and is confronted by a man who tells the officer to leave. Nothing is amiss, says the man.

Should the officer break down the door or walk away?

Under the state’s Domestic Violence Prevention Act, which took effect Tuesday, the officer may decide to enter the home. Under the old law, he could not.

More than 150 officers from Bergen County were briefed Wednesday at a workshop on provisions of the new law, which places a burden on police to make arrests in domestic violence situations if they see injury or other evidence of battery.

“It’s a very pro-victim law,” said Paul Brickfield, Bergen County first assistant prosecutor. “If you have injuries, the defendant is going to be arrested, even when the victim is opposed to the arrest.”
Under the old law, police could not do anything if the victim declined to file a complaint. The new law, in effect, says police must file criminal and civil complaints against the person suspected of committing the violence, then arrest him or her.

Even as they welcomed the law, several officers Wednesday pointed out ambiguities that they say may hamper enforcement. River Edge Police Lt. Ron Starace, echoing a concern of many in the audience, said the new law appears to address obvious cases but not the gray areas where evidence of domestic violence is not apparent.

“There’s going to come a point in time when somebody is going to have to go inside that house,” Starace said. “The law, as it is now written, says we can’t walk away.”

Among other provisions, the law:

– Permits police to seize weapons at the scene of violence if they determine that they present a risk to the victim;

– Expands the definition of whom domestic violence law covers to include not just family or blood relations but also other people who live in the same household, including same-sex roommates, partners in a homosexual relationship, and people staying with a family though not related by blood;

– Requires a court order to rescind a restraining order, and mandates that police must arrest the person being restrained from the victim if they are found together, even in cases of apparent reconciliation.

In some areas, the law raises constitutional questions, Oakland Police Sgt. Robert Haemmerle said. He cited the provisions on the seizure of weapons and the forcible entry of a residence as two aspects that could pose constitutional problems.

Midland Park Police Chief Thomas Monarque advised officers to err on the side of caution and protect the victim by entering the house and seizing weapons. Monarque is a member of the county domestic violence working group that advises the prosecutor’s office on the issue.

“That’s what I would want my officers to do,” said Monarque. “We are in untried constitutional grounds here, but we also have protections built into the new law.”

The officer is protected under the law for any good-faith action taken to protect a victim in an area where the law mandates an arrest, Brickfield said.

“It’s always an emotional situation,” Brickfield said. “Usually, the victim wants the defendant out of the house, the defendant is surprised police are going to remove him from his home to take him to jail.”

As police officers in the county implement the law, the Prosecutor’s Office will address problems and issues when they develop, he said.

Also participating in the day-long workshop were Lucia Van Wettering, an assistant Bergen County prosecutor who handles domestic abuse cases; Mary Pillarella, team leader of the domestic violence intake unit at the Bergen County Superior Court, Family Court; and Gina Plotino of Alternative to Domestic Violence, a county counseling agency for victims and defendants in domestic violence cases.

Caption: 2 PHOTOS – AL PAGLIONE / THE RECORD 1 – Ridgefield Park policeman Frank Schwarz listening to 2 – Susan Kulik, an assistant Bergen County prosecutor, at a domestic violence workshop.

ID: 17361000 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)

November 14, 1991
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RISE IN WEAPONS USE ALARMS BERGENFIELD

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, November 8, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | 6 Star | NEWS | Page C01

Police and town officials in Bergenfield are concerned about a spate of recent incidents involving groups of teenagers and young adults armed with weapons such as a rifle, knives, baseball bats, and lead pipes.

In the third such incident in recent days, six teenagers from Hackensack who were armed with a baseball bat and lead pipes were arrested early Thursday as they searched for a youth with whom they had fought, police said.

On Monday, police arrested four men and eight juveniles from Englewood who were armed with a .22-caliber rifle, knives, and baseball bats as they drove into Bergenfield to retaliate against borough youths for a fight the previous Monday.

And in the most serious incident, a 20-year-old borough man was hospitalized last Friday after he was beaten and stabbed twice, Police Capt. George Grube said. Six of the eight young people arrested were from Bergenfield.

The incidents appear to be symptoms of a nascent rivalry between Bergenfield youths and some from out of town, similar to the long-standing rivalry among Hackensack, Teaneck, and Englewood youths that often flares into violence, Grube said.

“It’s amazing that we haven’t had any innocent people get hurt,” he said. “But how long can you go on if things continue like this? We’ve been having this problem for about a year and a half. It’s just that it’s escalated now. There’s more weapons. We are finding groups of kids coming from out of town armed.”

Councilman Vernon Cox said: “It’s obvious this is going to have to be something that is not just a Bergenfield solution, but a regional solution. We are going to have to look for cooperation from our adjoining communities that the other kids with the weapons are coming from.”

Anna L. Ramirez, an unsuccessful Republican candidate for a council seat in Tuesday’s election, said that she had not heard of the recent arrests and that a better effort should be made to inform residents of what is happening.

“I don’t think enough of it is being told to residents of Bergenfield for them to want to do anything about it,” she said.

Ramirez said she hopes the new administration coming into office will have a better plan on how to keep youths out of trouble.

Grube said his main concern is for the safety of Bergenfield residents, and he promised that troublemakers coming into Bergenfield would find police waiting for them.

“We have to send a message out that if they are going to come in here with bats and knives and guns that we are going to take steps to put them away,” he said. “We are dealing with individuals that I believe understand only one thing, and that is enforcement. That is what we are going to do.”

ID: 17360518 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)

November 8, 1991
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