The Ruins of Trenton

It must be nice for a mayor to have a live-in public relations flack and publicist working at one of two local newspapers.

L.A. Parker at the Trentonian works just in this manner, as evidenced in today's column attacking calls by councilmen Gino Melone and Manny Segura for State Police to join the Trenton Police Department in the streets of New Jersey's capital.

Mr. Parker did make one important point in his piece, although it was tied to a typical Parkeresque appeal made to the emotions of the readership. Yes, it is correct that those who say the maintenance of a police post on Walnut Avenue would have prevented the recent fire-bombing death of a young resident are thinking illogically.

Police could be placed on every corner, street, and in every neighborhood in the city and many crimes would likely be prevented, but criminals would move their activities elsewhere and the especially dedicated criminals would figure out a way around the problem of police posts.

That being said, the hypocrisy of Mayor Palmer and former Police Director Joseph Santiago is appalling, in linking staffing reductions and a dramatic decline in the number of police on the street to budget issues while refusing to entertain getting extra sworn state officers on the street.

Mr. Parker barely touches on that issue, as usual, while playing to the more emotional and less rational emotions of the populace in painting Mr. Melone and Mr. Segura as two out-of-touch politicians who call for state police while failing to understand what is going on in some of the city's neighborhoods.

Coupled with some jabs at the "Best 4 Trenton" slate of councilmen - Milford Bethea, Jim Coston, Mr. Melone and Mr. Segura - all this really amounts to is a simple public relations campaign aimed at tarnishing the images of City Council members who have recently thrown a major wrench into the political plans of Mr. Parker's master, Doug Palmer.