As a refugee from New Jersey I think I now understand what Cubans refugees feel when they look to their former home and see what Marxism has done to it. In the most recent outrage some peaceful protesters gathered outside a public hearing to distribute flyers urging New Jersey governor Corzine not to raise tolls on the roads were arrested and detained illegally, on the Governor’s orders:

Apparently, no one told the police in Middle Township, NJ, that freedom of speech is a constitutional right.

On Saturday, Jan. 19, police arrested two men who had leaflets and signs protesting Gov. Jon Corzine’s plan to drastically increase tolls. The setting was the town’s high school where Corzine was scheduled to appear at a town meeting to make his case for raising tolls.

Before the governor arrived, some 10 toll increase opponents began distributing flyers and displaying signs that read “No toll hikes.” Among those were former Bogota, NJ, Mayor Steven Lonegan and Seth Grossman, an attorney.

Lonegan and Grossman told “Land Line Now” that when they got to the sidewalk near the school, they were confronted by a dozen or more police officers.

“I was surrounded by seven officers,” said Lonegan. “They told me the governor did not want me to hand out flyers.”

Lonegan said he was told it was a “private” meeting.

With more than a dozen years experience as a public official, Lonegan explained to the officers it was actually a “public” meeting, paid for by taxpayers. Lonegan told them it was his right to pass out flyers protesting the toll increases.

“They cuffed me and put me in the patrol car,” he said.

Grossman was also arrested. Both were detained for about an hour after being charged with trespassing.

A retired superior court judge who witnessed the arrests said it was “very scary.” Various media sources quoted him as saying it reminded him of movies he’d seen about Russia and Germany.

“My run-in with freedom of speech in New Jersey was a chilling, oppressive experience,” said Lonegan.

Star Ledger columnist Paul Mulshine, who wants a federal probe of the incident, has evidence that the governor ordered the removal:

Lonegan said that at a hearing at Morris County College last week a “cop named Harvey told us we had to move 200 feet away, behind a wall. He was a nice guy. I said, ‘Harvey who told you that?’ He said, ‘The governor’s staff.’ I told him to tell the governor’s staff that Steve Lonegan’s staff said we’re not moving.”

That, of course, was his perfect right as an American citizen. But Saturday when a Middle Township cop told Lonegan to leave the premises and he did not, he was arrested. The arrest came, said Porreca, after a school administrator appeared and told the dissenters that they could not hand out leaflets or even videotape the proceedings because they were on private property. Among those chased from the area was “a gray-haired lady about 75” who was handing out sheets that she apparently had printed up on her own, said Porreca.

I haven’t been able to get that lady’s name yet. And I don’t know the name of the guy who ordered her to stop handing out leaflets. But I do know that there should be a federal civil rights investigation into the incident.

I asked Corzine’s press representative, Lilo Stainton, whether the governor is going to have the attorney general look into the case. Stainton said that Corzine has not requested a probe but that the attorney general might want to initiate one on her own. A spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office declined comment.

If Porreca is to be believed — and he’s a very credible witness — the local officials discussed the situation with someone who appeared to be connected to the governor’s staff before the arrest. Stainton wouldn’t reveal who in the administration coordinated with local officials. She referred me to Middle Township police, who didn’t return my call.

Corzine has been denying knowledge of the incident, but hasn’t called for an investigation of despite the fact that the rights of the protesters were clearly violated. The Mayor of the township where this happened says Corzine’s people ordered the arrest, the chief of police says no. Here’s video tape of the incident:

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Clearly Steve Lonegan, who is incidentally thought by many to be preparing to throw his hat in the ring against Corzine in 09, committed no crime. He was arrested for trespass but since he was on public school property this is clearly bogus. Voice of Reason says it best:

Word is that Lonegan and his co-dissident were arrested for “defiant trespass”. The New Jersey Statute for Defiant Trespass states, in relevant part, as follows:

2C:18-3. Unlicensed entry of structures; defiant trespasser; peering into dwelling places; defenses
b. Defiant trespasser. A person commits a petty disorderly persons offense if, knowing that he is not licensed or privileged to do so, he enters or remains in any place as to which notice against trespass is given by:
(1) Actual communication to the actor; or
(2) Posting in a manner prescribed by law or reasonably likely to come to the attention of intruders; or
(3) Fencing or other enclosure manifestly designed to exclude intruders.
d. Defenses. It is an affirmative defense to prosecution under this section that:
(2) The structure was at the time open to members of the public and the actor complied with all lawful conditions imposed on access to or remaining in the structure; or

The Town Hall Meeting was obviously open to the public, so the question remains, did Lonegan comply with all lawful conditions imposed on access?

I would submit that holding a sign protesting a government action is protected constitutional speech. Therefore, prohibiting that sign is not a lawful condition imposed on access. Not only should all charges against Lonegan et al. be dismissed, but he should hire a civil rights lawyer to sue the pants off of the local police department and, if discovered there was a gubernatorial role in the arrest, the Governor himself.

Michelle Malkin is reporting that the charges against Lonegan have been dropped but only after there was a public outcry, making the story all the scarier.

But Corzine’s fascism isn’t the only outrageous story to come out of my once great home state. The State Supreme court has overturned the conviction of a man who shot, dismembered and then boiled the head of his girlfriend on grounds which only a liberal could understand:

NEWARK, N.J.—A man who admitted dismembering his girlfriend and cooking her head in a pot had his murder conviction overturned Monday by the New Jersey Supreme Court.

Trial errors cast doubt on the fairness of the jury’s verdict against George Jenewicz for the gruesome 1998 murder of Eunice Gillens, the state’s highest court ruled in a 5-2 decision.

Jenewicz had been living with Gillens in South River and testified at his 2002 trial that he shot her in self-defense following a fight and dismembered her in a panic. He said he put her head in a pot to boil away her features.

Prosecutors at the trial described Jenewicz as a remorseless killer who shot the 42-year-old woman in the heart at point-blank range, then dragged her body to his basement and used an ax and a hammer to sever her head and arms.

Jenewicz, now 54, asserted on appeal that the trial judge improperly barred testimony from two proposed defense witnesses, including Gillens’ mother, and that the prosecution disparaged and improperly cross-examined a defense expert.

He wanted Gillens’ mother to testify that her daughter had said she chased Jenewicz with a shotgun, and one occasion had kicked him down a staircase because he had tied her up.

An appellate court rejected his arguments, but the Supreme Court majority accepted them, ruling in an unsigned opinion that the cumulative effect “prejudiced the fairness of defendant’s trial and, therefore, casts doubt on the propriety of the jury verdict that was the product of that trial.”

The opinion noted, however, “that the state presented powerful evidence to undermine defendant’s self defense claim.”

So let me get this straight. The New Jersey supreme court is claiming that a man who dismembered his old lady, after prior cases of abuse, is having his rights violated by not being allowed to make the victim’s mother come and testify to the fact that she defended herself from him during previous instances of abuse.

The testimony wouldn’t have changed the verdict, because it would involve the mother of a dead woman saying “Well, one time he tried to tie her up for lord knows what and she kicked his ass for it” which only bolsters the prosecution’s point that this was a man who was abusive. The court’s ruling is that this poor old woman will be made to sit in court room while the smirking bastard that killed her daughter has a bottom feeder harangue her.

I know that there’s no real comparison between Cuba and Jersey. But sometimes when I see a Cuban blogger with a wistful post about old Havana I feel like I understand their sense of loss more and more with every passing year.