The Ruins of Trenton

Groups of Trenton residents and friends converged on the Trenton Marriott Hotel Friday afternoon to protest the continued failures of the Douglas H. Palmer administration in tending to the city's ills, as the Trenton executive entertained mayors from around the nation today at a conference in Trenton this weekend.

Residents from all over the city rallied to tell Mayor Palmer that they need him in Trenton to help address the city's problems, and not around the nation, and certainly not in his Hunterdon County home.

News media on hand for a 1:30 press conference at the hotel caught wind of the protect and were on hand to interview protesters and take pictures of the group, who came from all races and economic backgrounds.


Trenton residents said it was good to see a multi-colored coalition of people coming together to address all of their issues, finding common ground in their displeasure over the handling of the city's affairs by Mayor Palmer.

Of course there were Palmer supporters at the rally, from the Trenton police who threatened a quick arrest to anyone stepping foot on hotel property, to a local newspaper columnist who has already started spouting racist barbs at the Palmer detractors.

One Ewing resident and Trentonian columnist was quick to resort to venom aimed at the ethnic makeup of the group, calling the protesters a bunch of white complainers who didn't actually care for the welfare of Trenton's poor black residents.

"Most of them were white and disgruntled people who bitched and moaned about city conditions that they really don't care about," the columnist said, in an e-mail provided to Trenton Makes. "Most of them could not care less about black unemployment, urban education, gangs, guns, violence, etc."

"Most of them don't like having a black mayor, Hispanic police director, etc," he added. "Some of them relied on information from a lame source to send me an e-mail."

While the columnist's comments would seem odd for any normal journalist, the Trentonian employee is a noted supporter of the status quo in Trenton and frequently puts spin and slant into many of his objective reporting stories favoring Mayor Palmer.

His subjective columns are the usual site for even more ridiculous pro-Palmer blather.