Is the juice loose in Trenton too?

While the sporting world turns its attention to the infamous Mitchell Report and its ramifications on curve balls and home runs to come, a performance enhancement probe continues to unfold here in T-Town, we think.

No we're not speculating on the pharmaceutical regiment undertaken in the Trenton Thunder clubhouse, though The Rocket did briefly fly through last year.

The inquiry we're wondering about is the one being carried out by the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office, where about a dozen Trenton cops and Mercer Sheriff's officers were the target of investigation. The probe began last year with federal authorities examining a fraudulent prescription ring based in Florida, where human growth hormone was said to have been distributed through online orders. The last we heard about the case was this summer when the feds handed the investigation over to JoBo's prosecutor team, and rumors were circulating in law enforcement circles that indictments were imminent. But so far, no new news.
Anybody know what's going on? Give us a call.

You've been shot; what do you do next?

The latest "assault with a bullet" reported by Trenton police continues an interesting trend.

Why does your typical Trenton shooting victim call anyone and everyone EXCEPT THE POLICE?

The young man who was shot this morning in Trenton used his cell phone to call friends, who drove him to the hospital.

Why are shooting victims bypassing the police and ambulance services?

In this case, who knows. In previous cases, many of the city's shooting victims have been in trouble with the law themselves - including having warrants outstanding for their arrest.

Again, we don't know the details of this morning's incident. The victim could have been a random, innocent bystander.

More frequently, though, the shooter knows the victim, and both have been up to no good. It paints a picture of a lawless criminal crossfire that's playing out on Trenton's streets.

Meanwhile, Trenton police have released crime statistics for June. They're up slightly over the same month last year, but still down YTD. Read the full text of the report on our Web site.

The dead dog

OK, so just how important is it that an innocent bystander's pit bull was shot by police on Sunday as police looked for the suspect in the shooting of a Mercer County sheriff's officer?

Extremely important, of course, to Linda Milbourne and her family, the dog's owners.

Not so important, perhaps, to readers and journalists whose immediate reaction is, A COP WAS SHOT! Of course his colleagues are going to swarm the area and find this dangerous, anarchist punk as quickly as possible, to protect the public, their co-workers and themselves from further harm.

If a pit bull jumps out at an on-edge police officer in that situation, it's not shocking that something like this could happen.

So why does it continue to be a story followed in the pages of The Trentonian?

For one thing, a dog, apparently, was shot by police. Yet the spokesman for the Trenton Police Department told the newspaper that no incident report was ever filed about it, something that's supposed to happen anytime a cop shoots a gun outside of target practice.

That's just the start of the questions about this incident. At no point, and in no way, though, should it detract from the real issue of the past few days -- the fact that one of our bravest public servants, an unarmed hero cop trying to help a woman in distress -- was shot close range and is lucky to be alive.

The most important things are wishing him a speedy recovery, getting swift justice for the person responsible, and coming up with solutions that will have us writing about less of this kind of thing in the Trenton area.

Police fighting police

You'd think that the shooting Sunday afternoon of Mercer County Sheriff's Department officer Joshus Hahn might serve as a wakeup call, or a reminder, that the enemy our police officers should be fighting is "out there," not within the walls of the station.

So it was sad at the very least ... and a frightening statement about how this crap might be putting our public safety at risk ... to see open hostility among officers at the scene Sunday, while the punk suspected of shooting the unarmed Hahn in the chest at close range was still at-large.

The tension within the Trenton Police Department boiled over this past week when critics of Police Director Santiago and Mayor Doug Palmer made public a photo of Capt. Paul Messina, a Santiago ally, sleeping while on duty.

Messina, understandably feeling victimized by critics of the administration but ready to serve his suspension, had to endure chants of "Capt. Sleepy, Capt. Sleepy!" as he worked the crime scene of Hahn's shooting yesterday.

Blame Santiago and Palmer for this situation, as a number of disgruntled cops do, or blame the disgruntled cops for poisoning the atmosphere in the department.

Either way, it's up to the top leaders of the city - Palmer and the council - to do something about Santiago, do something about the disgruntled cops if they are acting inappropriately, or do something about all of them!

Let's get the focus back on crime fighting, instead of infighting.

Assault ... with a bullet

It was not quite Orwellian, but certainly using language to put the best possible spin on things.

A press release from the Trenton Police Department today referred to three "aggravated assaults" over the weekend in Trenton.

We were expecting to read about people getting beaten up. But in each of the incidents, the victim was actually shot.

"Assault" sounds like some Trenton folk got into fistfights this weekend. In reality, bad aim was the only thing keeping us from murders #15, #16 and #17.

Is the juice loose in Trenton too?

While the sporting world turns its attention to the infamous Mitchell Report and its ramifications on curve balls and home runs to come, a performance enhancement probe continues to unfold here in T-Town, we think.

No we're not speculating on the pharmaceutical regiment undertaken in the Trenton Thunder clubhouse, though The Rocket did briefly fly through last year.

The inquiry we're wondering about is the one being carried out by the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office, where about a dozen Trenton cops and Mercer Sheriff's officers were the target of investigation. The probe began last year with federal authorities examining a fraudulent prescription ring based in Florida, where human growth hormone was said to have been distributed through online orders. The last we heard about the case was this summer when the feds handed the investigation over to JoBo's prosecutor team, and rumors were circulating in law enforcement circles that indictments were imminent. But so far, no new news.
Anybody know what's going on? Give us a call.

You've been shot; what do you do next?

The latest "assault with a bullet" reported by Trenton police continues an interesting trend.

Why does your typical Trenton shooting victim call anyone and everyone EXCEPT THE POLICE?

The young man who was shot this morning in Trenton used his cell phone to call friends, who drove him to the hospital.

Why are shooting victims bypassing the police and ambulance services?

In this case, who knows. In previous cases, many of the city's shooting victims have been in trouble with the law themselves - including having warrants outstanding for their arrest.

Again, we don't know the details of this morning's incident. The victim could have been a random, innocent bystander.

More frequently, though, the shooter knows the victim, and both have been up to no good. It paints a picture of a lawless criminal crossfire that's playing out on Trenton's streets.

Meanwhile, Trenton police have released crime statistics for June. They're up slightly over the same month last year, but still down YTD. Read the full text of the report on our Web site.

The dead dog

OK, so just how important is it that an innocent bystander's pit bull was shot by police on Sunday as police looked for the suspect in the shooting of a Mercer County sheriff's officer?

Extremely important, of course, to Linda Milbourne and her family, the dog's owners.

Not so important, perhaps, to readers and journalists whose immediate reaction is, A COP WAS SHOT! Of course his colleagues are going to swarm the area and find this dangerous, anarchist punk as quickly as possible, to protect the public, their co-workers and themselves from further harm.

If a pit bull jumps out at an on-edge police officer in that situation, it's not shocking that something like this could happen.

So why does it continue to be a story followed in the pages of The Trentonian?

For one thing, a dog, apparently, was shot by police. Yet the spokesman for the Trenton Police Department told the newspaper that no incident report was ever filed about it, something that's supposed to happen anytime a cop shoots a gun outside of target practice.

That's just the start of the questions about this incident. At no point, and in no way, though, should it detract from the real issue of the past few days -- the fact that one of our bravest public servants, an unarmed hero cop trying to help a woman in distress -- was shot close range and is lucky to be alive.

The most important things are wishing him a speedy recovery, getting swift justice for the person responsible, and coming up with solutions that will have us writing about less of this kind of thing in the Trenton area.

Police fighting police

You'd think that the shooting Sunday afternoon of Mercer County Sheriff's Department officer Joshus Hahn might serve as a wakeup call, or a reminder, that the enemy our police officers should be fighting is "out there," not within the walls of the station.

So it was sad at the very least ... and a frightening statement about how this crap might be putting our public safety at risk ... to see open hostility among officers at the scene Sunday, while the punk suspected of shooting the unarmed Hahn in the chest at close range was still at-large.

The tension within the Trenton Police Department boiled over this past week when critics of Police Director Santiago and Mayor Doug Palmer made public a photo of Capt. Paul Messina, a Santiago ally, sleeping while on duty.

Messina, understandably feeling victimized by critics of the administration but ready to serve his suspension, had to endure chants of "Capt. Sleepy, Capt. Sleepy!" as he worked the crime scene of Hahn's shooting yesterday.

Blame Santiago and Palmer for this situation, as a number of disgruntled cops do, or blame the disgruntled cops for poisoning the atmosphere in the department.

Either way, it's up to the top leaders of the city - Palmer and the council - to do something about Santiago, do something about the disgruntled cops if they are acting inappropriately, or do something about all of them!

Let's get the focus back on crime fighting, instead of infighting.

Assault ... with a bullet

It was not quite Orwellian, but certainly using language to put the best possible spin on things.

A press release from the Trenton Police Department today referred to three "aggravated assaults" over the weekend in Trenton.

We were expecting to read about people getting beaten up. But in each of the incidents, the victim was actually shot.

"Assault" sounds like some Trenton folk got into fistfights this weekend. In reality, bad aim was the only thing keeping us from murders #15, #16 and #17.