Passaic, NJ – Even with looming federal corruption charges, many Passaic residents appear to be turning a blind eye to the allegations against Mayor Samuel Rivera.
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Ask most people on the street what they think of Rivera’s most recent arrest and they’ll give you myriad answers, all supportive of their embattled mayor.
Some members of Passaic’s second largest ethnic group — the Jewish community — are rallying around the mayor.
“The mayor has always been a friend to us, and he hasn’t been convicted and I believe you’re innocent until proven guilty,” said David B. Kaplan, founder of the local branch of the Jewish ambulance service, Hatzolah.
“In Hebrew, we have a saying ‘dan lekaf zechus’ which means to judge someone favorably and that’s what I’ll do,” he said.
Former Mayor Margie Semler said many residents do not want to criticize the mayor for fear that he may retaliate against them.
“A lot of people are talking about it privately, but they are scared to come out into the public and say so,” she said. “The feeling is, let the government do what they are doing. The public outcry isn’t going to do anything because it doesn’t matter. He’ll do what he wants.” [heraldnews]
Not bitter. Just fed up with voting every yarmulka who runs, no matter how much better we’d all be doing if we voted for the best candidates, not the frummest.
Not that the previous poster is bitter…
maybe the feeling is that with such wonderful councilmen representing us we’d better help the office holders who actually lift a finger to help us.
3 out of 4 council members are shomer shabbos and a fourth was hand picked by one of the three but once again cars were being towed off the streets because yiddin forgot to leave shul early enough for alternate side parking. Same thing every year, also on tisha ba’av.
Here is the typical routine in Passaic: Stree cleaner comes down the street 10 minutes BEFORE you need to move your car, so the front of your house does not get swept. At 1 minute after the start of alternate side, they tow your car. You lose half a day’s pay and $150.00 of which about a 1/4 goes to the city. The rest goes to the towing company that was heavily involved in the scandal that sent a previous mayor to jail.
Our concil people can’t manage to do anything about this because they are busy voting themselves raises and life-time medical care, except for the one who is too busy double-dipping as a state assemblyman and running his PR mechine.