Old Guard Thuggery Returns

When I first moved to Hoboken I heard about developers who were anxious to push tenants out of their apartments to renovate them and sell them to Yuppies at a significant profit. When people didn’t move suspicious fires occurred. Not only did innocent people lose their belongings and home, but in some cases they were murdered. To date no one has ever been brought to justice, although there were rumors that a mentally challenged Hispanic teen was responsible for doing the dirty work. Many residents spoke of these dastardly acts.

When my friend Dan Tumpson ran for office in 2000 he was been beaten up by thugs who he believed were supporting another slate.

There is also the case of a well-known political actor who was accused of threatening Mayor Zimmer when she ran for council. The same operative also allegedly threatened BOE VP Theresa Minutillo while she was eating with her young daughter. He was then caught red handed on camera removing a Jen Giattino sign from a 6th Ward cleaner shop.

 I believed that at this time these types of actions were a thing of the past. Too many newcomers were moving in, swelling Hoboken’s population and with cellphone cameras everywhere, I didn’t think that this type of bad behavior could continue. As I have written before, I complained about the harassment of multiple individuals at their homes and thought this was how low the Old Guard would go.

Despite Carmelo Garcia’s 20/20 project being hotly debated I thought those days were long gone, but have apparently reappeared by the same type of crew as in the past. Highlighted is the plight of HHA resident Jessica Coco. She like others believes that the 20/20 project is meant to displace low income residents with luxury units. A list of the alleged harassment to her can be found on 2 local blogs, Hudson Mile Square View:

http://www.hobokenhorse.com/2013/08/thuggery-on-record-letter-to-hha.html

and Graphix Avenger:

http://grafixavenger.blogspot.com/2013/08/no-hoboken-police-investigation.html

http://grafixavenger.blogspot.com/2013/08/covering-attempted-illegal-eviction.html

If only half of Jessica’s allegations are accurate, this is a case of monumental harassment and criminal activity. According to the report there is little or no police investigation occurring and if true this is truly disappointing. According to Jessica there are others who are being harassed for opposing 20/20, despite the fact that they deserve their 1st Amendment rights like everyone else.

Now there is a report that another friend of mine Patricia Waiters who also opposes 20/20 has had her tires slashed:

http://www.hobokenhorse.com/2013/08/hoboken-third-slate-chatter-and.html

There are 3 reasons that people oppose 20/20:

1)      The belief that it is designed to eliminate low income individuals.

2)      The worry that it will be densely packed to swell the low income population who mysteriously in large numbers not seen anywhere else in Hudson County vote by mail in 100% unison for the candidate who pays them $40-45 dollars to “campaign”, even though they are rarely if ever seen campaigning.

3)      To steer the contract to a favored developer, who will be chosen not on price or capability but because of who they know. In the past there have been accusations of kickbacks in some of these cases.

As I stated on another Patch blog I will withhold judgment on 20/20 until a proposal is announced, but once again there appears to be vested interests from the Old Guard in Hoboken who have much at stake which makes this a combustible dangerous situation.

A note to my BNR friend Irene:

I use old Guard because it is a mixed group. Beth Mason can be considered to be a Yuppie, while Tim Occhipinti can best be described as a newcomer. Yet, both are Old Guard. BOE member Irene Sobolov is a BNR, but sides with the Reformers. As you can see both sides contain similar demographic elements. You told me that you are an independent and I have no reason to doubt you.