Candidates show cowardice & courage in Perth Amboy crossfire

Police officers found more than 30 spent bullet casings Sunday at the corner of New Street and New Brunswick Avenue in Perth Amboy, where it appears the shoot out and car chase may have begun.

The gunfight was like pouring cold water on Jelmin Caba's new tourism initiative, announced as part of the Councilman's campaign for mayor but there is a greater political impact for the main candidates in the race, incumbent Mayor Wilda Diaz and attorney Joseph B. Vas.

Vas has called out Diaz, who designated herself as police director and subsequently maintained potentially inappropriate relationships with police chiefs and other superior officers.

For example, Diaz appointed the son of a former councilman as her campaign manager at the same time she made him an acting captain in the police department.

Sunday's gunfight seems to have continued as further evidence was collected a few blocks away, but the political skirmish has ricocheted from the executive branch to the legislative.

Vas, who according to polling has a substantial lead in the race for Mayor, called for an emergency meeting of the City Council to address the recent surge in violent crime.

Vas says the threat to innocent people is worth a gamble and coming together for the common good was what Americans did before hyper-partisanship split the nation into red and blue factions.

That big lead may dwindle if Vas is unable to motivate the people to support his gambit, but the candidate said a chance to save one life is more important than his political fortunes. Vas seems to think inspiring hope is something he owes the public, as the price for political credibility.

Police are still investigating three shootings that occurred in as many days during July.

A 20-year-old woman was sexually assaulted at knifepoint outside her home on August 9, and a 41-year-old man was shot dead and crashed his car at Hall Avenue and High Street on August 23.

"These are dangerous times for our community," wrote Council President William Petrick in a letter published last month by the Amboy Guardian. "Only the council stands in the way of Diaz's dangerously corrupt path for Perth Amboy."

Petrick may sound like he agrees with Vas, who has a substantial lead in the race for Mayor and called for an emergency meeting of the City Council to address the recent surge in violent crime.

The Council President turned Vas down flat, relaying the message: "City Council meetings are not to promote his personal political agenda." Apparently they are not for solving crisis-level problems, either.

So while Vas and Diaz battle it out on the main stage, Petrick endorsed fifth-place Caba, who has plans to spruce up sagging wires on telephone poles in addition to promoting tourism in the bullet-plagued community.

Trailing with barely enough support to register in legitimate polls, Caba and two other council members -- Joel Pabon and Fernando Irizarry -- are sitting out the crime wave thanks to Petrick, who could end up with blood on his hands.

Both incompetence and historic precedent against doing anything to actually improve the lives of residents, which has been strictly enforced for the past 12 years, are keeping the Mayor sidelined despite the increase in bloodshed and mayhem.

That leaves Vas, a lawyer with an MBA and experience working in public finance who is waging a campaign for Mayor, as the only person in town talking about actual effort to solve the crime problem.

A source close to Vas says the candidate -- whose father was Mayor from 1990 until Diaz defeated him in 2008 as the economy soured and after state officials forced the city into a property revaluation and local tax hike -- is thinking about appealing directly to the public to support his plea for the council to convene on the issue.

"The Faulkner Act empowers the City Council to provide a check and balance to the Mayor and Department Directors that are charged with the day to day operation of City government," said vas in his letter to Petrick. "Accordingly, I am requesting that the City Council avail itself of this authority and schedule an emergency meeting with the attendance of the Mayor/Police Director and Police Chief and demand an explanation and a plan of action to address this very serious problem."

It is not clear if people will heed his call to action but if they will view it as a political stunt. If they do back up Vas, he may gain some political traction that helps his campaign but a greater result will be the demonstration that democracy is alive and well.

It will also demonstrate that some leaders are bold enough to place in the electorate that same kind of faith they are asking voters to place in them.

For taking that chance in the midst of his competitive campaign for Mayor, Vas deserves to be commended. His idea also has merit and deserves support from every resident who is concerned that a stray bullet could claim the life of someone you care about.