NEW JERSEY STATE
POLICEMEN’S BENEVOLENT
ASSOCIATION
EXECUTIVE BOARD
PATRICK COLLIGAN
State President
MARC KOVAR
Executive Vice President
Peter Andreyev 1st Vice President
Michael Pellegrino 2nd Vice President
Mark Aurigemma 3rd Vice President
Eugene Dello 4th Vice President
Richard Kott 5th Vice President
Frederick Ludd 6th Vice President
Luke Sciallo 7th Vice President
Frank P. Cipully 8th Vice President
Ed Carattini, Jr. 9th Vice President
Michael Freeman 10th Vice President
Bryan Flammia 11th Vice President
Robert Ormezzano 12th Vice President
Michael Kaniuk Financial Secretary
Margaret Hammond Recording Secretary
John Monsees Treasurer
Terrance Benson, Sr. Trustee
Rodney Furby Trustee
Charles Schwartz Trustee
Patrick Moran Trustee
Joseph Macones Trustee
Michael Tardio Trustee
Michael Heller Trustee
Keith Curry Sergeant-at-Arms
Christopher Ricciotti Sergeant-at-Arms
John Granahan Sergeant-at-Arms
Andrew Pacucci Sergeant-at-Arms
Joseph Nigro Sergeant-at-Arms
Mark Piercy Sergeant-at-Arms
Christopher Ebert Sergeant-at-Arms
Brian Brownlie Sergeant-at-Arms
Michael Palmentieri Sergeant-at-Arms
Stephen Warren Sergeant-at-Arms
Joseph Sles Sergeant-at-Arms
4
NEW JERSEY COPS
■ DECEMBER 2018
Ladies and gentlemen…
it was a mistake!
I’m not going to pretend we don’t live and work in a blue state. Yes, the gun
laws here are more restrictive than just about anywhere else. No argument
there. But I have to address the anger and venom spewed over the on-duty
magazine capacity bill (S2846/A4304).
I’m all about a good argument and a spirited debate. When I think I’m
right, I’ll go to the mat with just about anybody. But this time, ladies and
gentlemen, you are going insane over a mistake.
Patrick
Yes, people still make mistakes, if you can grasp that concept for just a mo-
Colligan ment. This “ban” and the “taking of our freedoms” resulting from the mag-
azine bill is literally a legislative oversight. And guess what? It’s being fixed.
It was already fixed in the Senate and the vote wasn’t even a squeaker. The
correction to this vast left-wing conspiracy to take our bullets and make us all felons passed
the Senate 30 to zero. That bears repeating, please: 30 TO ZERO!
And who were the primary sponsors of S2846? Senators Steve Sweeney, Loretta Weinberg
and James Beach. Unless they changed their party affiliation, all three are Democrats. The
assembly speaker skipped committee hearings and put A4304 on the floor for an emergency
vote on Dec. 17 – which procedurally, by the way, is no easy task. The primary sponsors are
Democratic Assembly Majority Leader Louis Greenwald and Assemblywoman Carol Mur-
phy.
Yes, it should have been posted before the ban went into effect on Dec. 10. You are all
absolutely right. But it was a mistake, and it is being corrected. The governor is expected to
sign it quickly, despite your belief that he and the attorney general are driving around our
state stealing our weapons.
The very sad commentary that was not lost on me is that we posted an update on Face-
book to keep everybody informed at 3:29 p.m. on Dec. 11. The post was short, but we told
you we had a very fast fix in the works. As I sit and write this article at 5:55 a.m. Sunday
morning, Dec. 16, the post generated 220 comments and 127 shares and was viewed by
28,678 people.
In the meantime, one of our brothers in blue from the Mount Arlington Police Depart-
ment was very seriously injured after getting struck by a car on Dec. 12. Thankfully, he con-
tinues to improve every day, but the initial news was not good. A Facebook post about this
incident garnered a whopping seven comments and 11 shares and was viewed by 3,235
people. We offer continued prayers and well wishes for the sergeant. We all hope he is back
on the job very soon.
Nothing more than a legislative error brought out some pointed hatred, scorn and a
fair amount of vulgarity. But a brother officer was fighting for his life and we barely even
stopped to notice. Call me out all you want. I have thick skin. But you can’t even hit “share”
for a brother in need of a miracle? Did he need blood? Did our brothers and sisters in Mount
Arlington need some assistance?
Only 11 of you took the time to share information about the sergeant, but 220 of you took
a lot of time to write a comment about a mistake. (And very few of you even acknowledged
that a fix was in the works.) We are law enforcement; we have differences of opinion. Guilty
as charged for all of us.
While we watch the country around us become more politically divided by the minute,
can we in New Jersey law enforcement get back to fighting on the same damn side again?
I’m not sure if anybody’s noticed, but this job of ours isn’t getting any easier. A mistake was
made, certainly a BIG mistake. But at the end of the day, it was still a mistake that is getting
fixed.
To understand more about this mistake, read Rob Nixon’s article on page 10 of this issue.
He’s as bewildered as I am.