Paterson Councilman Michael Jackson confronts cops over parking crackdown

PATERSON — A police crackdown on illegal parking in the 1^st Ward early Wednesday morning escalated into a conflict between the local councilman, Michael Jackson, and the officers at the scene.

Jackson questioned why the officers were towing cars in the middle of the night when Paterson, he said, “is overrun with illegal everything.” The councilman also accused the cops of being condescending toward residents whose cars were being hauled away, asserting they should treat the people with more respect.

Police accounts of the incident said Jackson was being antagonistic toward the officers, directing profanity at the cops and confronting them in an agitated and aggressive manner.

The dispute played out just after midnight at the corner of Clinton and North Fourth streets, near where Jackson lives, after he came home from a Tuesday night council meeting at City Hall.

A Mustang owned by Jackson’s brother — a vehicle the councilman said he himself uses — was among the vehicles that were towed. Toward the end of the encounter, a Ford wagon owned by Jackson was ticketed for an expired registration. Police accounts said the vehicles were ticketed because of their infractions, not their connection to the councilman.

Last October, a Paterson police officer filed criminal charges against Jackson — harassment, disrupting a public meeting, and creating a hazardous condition by using abusive language — over a City Hall incident during a televised council session.

Jackson captured some of the events from Wednesday morning in two video recordings — one that lasted about four minutes and another almost 13 minutes long.

What did police say?

Isa Abbassi, the state-appointed officer in charge under the attorney general's takeover of the Paterson Police Department, said he has not yet completed his review of the incident. But Abbassi also said that from what he has seen so far, there does not appear to be anything inappropriate about the way the officers conducted themselves.

"Those officers were out there doing what I asked them to do,” Abbassi told Paterson Press. “They were doing their job."

Abbassi acknowledged that people may take exception to the crackdown on illegal parking.

"There are ways to express that without a street confrontation,” he said.

Abbassi cited what many in the city describe as the longstanding mindset of "anything goes in Paterson." The chief said that approach will not be accepted under his watch.

"The rules will be enforced by the police,” Abbassi said. “No job is too small; no problem is too petty for our officers to address it."

Abbassi said that on Wednesday morning, well-respected community leaders contacted him about the Jackson videos on social media, expressing their support for the department and its officers.

More from Paterson Press: NJ attorney general suspends liquor license for Paterson councilman’s business

What did Jackson say?

Jackson said he was not surprised that Abbassi was supporting his officers.

“Of course he does. He’s a cop,” the councilman said.

Jackson asserted that the Police Department shouldn’t be spending time on overnight parking crackdowns, especially in a city with high crime. The councilman said overcrowding has left Paterson residents with no place to put their cars, resulting in rampant parking infractions.

“You can just drive around the city towing cars,” he said.

One of Jackson’s Facebook videos shows a woman standing in front of her home, telling a police supervisor she was mistreated by another cop. The woman said she tried to explain to the first officer that she was trying to get her young son home. She said the cop responded impolitely.

“He was like, ‘You can’t park here, you need to move on,’” the woman said.

Neither of Jackson’s videos covered extensive interactions between the car owners and the officers. But there were multiple instances of the councilman chiding the cops for their treatment of citizens.

“You need to have a better attitude when you address the public,” Jackson told one officer.

“If you don’t like your job, go somewhere else,” the councilman said in another instance. “You can’t work in Wayne talking to the public like that. You can’t work in Ridgewood talking to the public like that. You think because you work in Paterson you can talk to anybody the way you want to?”

Several Police Department members said Jackson was the one who inflamed the situation, accusing him of trying to provoke the officers instead of communicating with them. Some officers said Jackson threatened to retaliate against them when he votes on their labor contracts.

Angel Jimenez, president of Paterson Policemen's Benevolent Association Local 1, said the officers dealt with Jackson “in a professional and appropriate manner.”

“They handled it the way they were supposed to handle it,” Jimenez said. “They gave Jackson a lot of leeway.”

Joe Malinconico is editor of Paterson Press. Email: editor@patersonpress.com

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Paterson NJ: City Councilman Michael Jackson confronts cops over parking crackdown