Posts Tagged ‘Hudson County’
Stuck in the mud, somewhere in the swamps of Jersey
It says pretty much all you need to know about corruption in my beloved home state of New Jersey, that in an article outlining the recent history of crooked pols in the Garden State, the New York Times’s writer just couldn’t muster the column inches to even mention Bob Janiszewski or Sharpe James. I mean, these guys are hardcore slimeballs, and they still got left on the cutting-room floor. Incredible.
The most important part of this story comes in the quote from a Jersey City resident:
Many New Jersey residents are less impressed. In interviews around the state, several simply shrugged at the latest indictments, the third, fourth, or fifth wave in their lives.
“I don’t know if I wasn’t surprised because it’s New Jersey or because it’s politicians,” said Cynthia Rose, 30, a makeup artist who lives in Jersey City. “I hate to be so jaded,” she added.
“I hate to be so jaded” . . . but we are! My first reaction to the news of the huge corruption sweep in New Jersey last week was “I wonder how many of our guys they got.” (Our guys being Hudson County officials. We didn’t do too bad in this one!) Think about that, though. News broke of 44 people getting nicked in a years-long investigation involving bribery, money-laundering, and organ trafficking, and I immediately treated it the same way I treat the NFL draft: I wonder how many of our guys they got. (Our guys, in that analogy, being Boston College football players.)
All of this is to say, a sad number of New Jerseyans, myself included, are simply inured to graft. It’s a cliche to say that corruption is a way of life in politics in New Jersey, but it’s all I know. I hate to say I expect it; but at the very least, when some elected official gets busted for throwing a patronage job to a wildly unqualified crony or accepting a bribe in exchange for fast-tracking a development project, it’s not a surprise. Isn’t that horrible?