Fraternal Order of Police endorses Jim Florio for Governor

I'm Rick Whale, and I'm a detective of a brilliant cashier police department, and I'm the state secretary of the Third World War. Look with a K on the end of it, or just see it. Why are you for Florian? Well, the state lodge, hold its abordinate lodges, and the results of that poll were overwhelmingly in favor of Congressman Florian. Why? Well, there was no in-depth reasoning when the poll was taken, but my personal reasons are for one, nationally we're pushing for a national bill of rights for police officers. We don't even have a state bill of rights in New Jersey. Congressman Florian was the only Congressman from New Jersey that had endorsed the National Legislation. The corner is the law and order, right? Well, that's possibly true, but the FOP has decided that Florian was the best thing for the police officers in our organization to stick with. Isn't it true, though, that Corridor has a tougher stand on crime than Florian? I don't necessarily see it that way.

Like I said, the tough stand on crime is good, but we need somebody that's for the benefits of police officers also. Florian's stand on crime is tough, too. Okay, thank you very much. It was in politics, it's what kind of man he is. He's a smart man, he's a tough man, he's a man who knows the difference between talking tough and being tough. He's a man who doesn't have to be educated about the needs and the worries of law enforcement, people. He talks to us all the time. He doesn't have to convince us that he's on the right side. We already know. The paternal order police is a group that doesn't lend its name or support lightly. We don't like to be used and we don't like to make mistakes. When we stand here today and stand up for Jim Florian, we know that we are doing what's

right. We know we are helping a man who is governor. We will be right on the side of the police as well as the people of this state. He is a man who wants to save our children from the dangers of drugs and save our cops from the murderous drug dealers. I'm proud to be here today and I'm proud to introduce you to the next governor of the state of New Jersey, Jim Florian. Thank you very much to Vince and to the state organization that is represented here today the New Jersey paternal order police. This is not only a beautiful day, it is one of the more significant days in my campaign because this endorsement represents a lot, ladies and gentlemen. And to be here with these law enforcement officers is extremely significant and important

to my campaign. I'm pleased to be associated with the organization and this association that goes back some 25 years as a young lawyer just having passed the bar. One of my first pleasurable duties was to assume the responsibility of representing Garden State Lodge number one of the FOP and I represented them and came to know the needs of law enforcement officials at that point and have been able to know those needs and to respond to those needs straight on through for the last 20 to 25 years. This one I learned about the needs of the men and the women who form that thin blue line that separates society from the forces of criminality. That's when I've been able to ensure that my record on law enforcement was always a record

that stood on the side of these people and I want to thank them for the endorsement that I know that they do not give lightly. The endorsement of this organization is extremely important, likewise to express my appreciation for them taking the time out to stand here with me and to show their support for my record of leadership in the area of law enforcement. And I don't take lightly their views because these are people who each and every day put their lives on the line to protect us and our children in a world that seems to be more and more becoming dangerously out of control. This isn't the first time in this campaign that I've stood with the police, but I'm particularly pleased to have this organization.

One of the things that I think is almost fundamental to everybody in drugs that is facing us in this state. I saw the report not too long ago that said that we in New Jersey have had a 9 percent increase in violent crime in the last reporting period. I was directly associated with drugs and therefore if you want to talk about safety you better talk about drugs and usually I do that when I'm with a group of law enforcement officials. I will talk about my 9-point program to protect our children but today I'd like to say something a bit different. What I'm going to talk about is this campaign, I'm going to stir about a week and a half ago, Jim Carter said in a speech before the county prosecutors that quote, Jim Floreo's attitude is the permissive attitude of the 1970s.

I don't know what the hell that means except that I guess what it means that the same people who try to sneakily question my patriotism not too long ago by suggesting that somehow I was not a good American are now trying to suggest that I'm weak when protecting our children from drug pushers and criminals using buzzwords and innuendo guided by the masters of negativism, the Roger stones and the Roger ails as of the world. It's clear that my opponents campaign is one that believes in nothing will say anything and distorts everything. These are people who have done it before.

They think they can run the same type of cookie cutter campaign that they run everywhere around the country that they ran in 1988 in the presidential election, a different state, a different year, a different election, it doesn't make any difference to them. Their respect for the voters is so low that it will just keep on hauling out the same code words, the same use of symbols over substance, the same tired charges. Well, I've got news for Jim quarter, not this year, not this election and not Jim Floreo. We're not going to let them get away with that. I'm damn proud of my election, accumulate my record, accumulated over a 20 year period in protecting our children from the scourge of drugs and helping our law enforcement officials fight crime.

I'm proud of the fact that I wrote the career criminals law that is so very important in targeting our resources to focus in on the relatively small number of bad actors who cause a disproportionately large amount of them. But my teammates in the battle against crime, for eternal order of police. Since Jim quarter brought it up, let me say a word about the 1970s, it was a tough time to be sure, it was a time of polarization in our society, it was hard trying to balance the forces that were beating down on our society or our families or our children. I know, because I raised three kids in the 1970s and I'm proud of how they weathered that very difficult time. For five years, it was an appropriate effort to balance toughness on drugs with giving

young people a second chance, to build past overwhelmingly, and I voted for them. If that makes me permissive, by the way, it also makes assemblymen Tom Kane, because she not only voted for it, she introduced it in the general assembly. Makes Barry Parker, who then was the speaker of the general assembly, permissive because he voted for it too. Have to wonder if they're going to be outgunned in a firefight that they may become involved with, with drug dealers. I want to ban those weapons and do it now. I support the legislation that Senator Graves has introduced and that's been passed by the State Senate.

The bill is now stalled in the assembly. I've called upon the assembly leaders to move the bill. I don't think it's sufficiently appropriate to wait till I become the governor to get that bill passed. I want it passed now. Tom Kane should have it on his desk to sign immediately to take those weapons out of the hands of drug dealers. And by the way, that's just not my opinion. That's the opinion of our Republican appointed State Attorney General. That's the opinion of the head of the state police. That's the opinion of the 21 county prosecutors. And that's the opinion of Governor Tom Kane as well. Jim Quater doesn't agree with that. He's so far out of the mainstream of New Jersey law enforcement thinking that he refuses to join with me in advocating the passage of that legislation.

I've offered to co-sign a letter with Jim Quater directed to the assembly speaker and to the appropriate assembly leaders to get that bill passed by these refused. As a gentleman, let me just conclude by saying that this election is going to be about speaking up and speaking out. It's going to be about vision, values, and leadership. It's going to be about caring enough to doing what's right and caring enough to find out about those things, so you get it right before you open your mouth. On the tough issues of drug and crime, the people of this state aren't looking for candidates to outmatch each other. They're not looking for hyperbole and clever phrases, but they want his answers.

I've proposed a vigorous plan. I'm pleased that this organization, an organization of respected statewide law enforcement officials accepts my candidacy, accepts my record, and is willing to work with me in the next number of years to try to make sure that New Jersey is a good place for all of us and particularly for our children to grow and prosper. I would accept the endorsement that's been provided to me. I thank this organization and say that as governor, I'm looking forward to working with all of the people of this state towards that end. Thank you very, very much. Through the obvious, just to a casual traveler to Atlantic City, that the city is in need of a lot of help.

For current difficulties inside, I think the state which said in motion, yes, the senior initiative has a greater responsibility to start thinking through how it can play a role in a cooperative way with the local governmental entities in the city and in the county and some of the other different agencies who are down there as to what form that takes. I'm not prepared to give you a specific at this point, but its fairly obvious status quo is not working very well. Would you leave the door open to a state take over? By this premature, I think it's premature, I think what has to be done is to assess the nature of the problems with some of the brief specificity. What is said is that after all this period of time, that the city is in need of so much assistance, that you can just see it walking around, and I think there's a need for someone to focus on what it is that can be done in a cooperative way with the state to county as well as the city, and all of the agencies, there's a multitude of agencies that all have

a piece of the responsibility for dealing with what's going on there. So I guess what I would sign on to is the status quo is not acceptable, and there's going to have at least a movement in some other direction. But your opponent is ruled out of takeover, you will not rule out of state takeover. What I've said is that there's a need for evaluation as to how to deal with the obvious problems that exist in the United States, housing, transportation, crime, and so on. There's a need for that evaluation, and that's what it is that you should be able to take over. Congressman Gerald McCann was quoted this morning as referring to Jim Porter as a slave master in his efforts to recruit Glenn Cunningham up in Jersey City to his campaign. Are you offended by that remark? I don't know what the remark means, I'm not familiar with what it is, it was the context. You haven't seen the story or you haven't heard, all right, well, I happen to have it here. Front page of the Hudson Dispatch, the s'moring, have to read it for you. Go ahead, you take a look.

Well, without my getting involved in what the local politics are in Jersey City, I think it's fairly clear that in this campaign, the whole question of civil rights is going to be a major factor. My record on civil rights is one that is second to none in the Congress of the United States. The rating organizations, the various organizations that track these sex, have put me at the top of the New Jersey delegation, and have put Congressman Porter at the bottom of the congressional delegation in terms of sensitivity to those issues and those votes that we've had to make our views no-no-un. In view of that, would you repudiate a remark by McCann that many find racist? I don't know what the remark was intended to do. The remark is a reference to McCann's black opponent in the Jersey City mayoral race, who lost him, who is being courted by the quarter campaign, now a Democrat Glenn Cunningham, and McCann says the Cunningham will go to the slave master who bids the highest, that's

what he was quoted as saying this morning. Well, I say to the remark that I saw, said something that Jim Corder didn't say I think about the other fellow he had made reference to. So the answer is, I don't know that much about the internal workings of Jersey City politics. If you want to talk about the civil rights record of my opponent, I'm more than happy to talk about that because it leaves something to be desired. Well, once you read that story, might you have more to say on this? I mean, the quarter has already called upon you because of this remark, a remark he says is racist, to remove McCann as your Hudson County chairman. Well, you know, many McCann is not my Hudson County chairman. I don't have a Hudson County chairman, and that what we're doing is going up to talk about the issues in the urban areas. And for someone that now currently is trying to convey his interest in urban areas, to have been voting against each and every major urban initiative in the last ten years in Washington is a particularly strange position for Jim Corder to be coming from. Do you want to take a minute and see whether you think this is really important?

I happen to need that coffee back, unfortunately, but you haven't heard about this this morning? No, I've been in the other end of the state doing some things. But is slave master an acceptable word for anybody to use in political dialogue and public? Well, everyone can use whatever language they want to use. I assume, and I've heard some things in this campaign, questioning my patriotism. I'm as offended about that as I am about anything else. When someone calls me permissive on crime, when I stand here with the law enforcement officials of the state, that's, I think, obscene. When someone doesn't want to speak out and say we should get assault weapons out of the hands of people who are outkilling little children in crossfires, that's truly obscene. But you disassociate yourself from these remarks once you've read them. I will look at whatever it is it was said, and I will be happy to comment on what I think about any aspect of the campaign. Do you intend to talk to Mr. McCampain about this? Oh, my head is intended to talk to him about this.

Do you think that the Floreo campaign with McCampain is accountable for what Jim Floreo says in a thousand? I'm happy to stand for that. We've already seen some of the dirty tricks of the Roger Ailes and the Roger Stones, who are intimately involved in running my opponents' campaigns. So I think, in some respects, what we're talking about is trying to define what I view should be New Jersey's position for the future, and what my opponent believes should be New Jersey's approach to the future. Quarters down in the Camden doing an urban enterprise zone hit today, and he was up in Jersey City doing the same. Do you believe in urban enterprise zones as a good solution to urban problems? Oh, I think real urban enterprise zones can be an answer to some of our problems. But the fact of the matter is, we have not had that in the federal government, and we haven't had it really in the state to any quantifiable result.

I just find it strange that now, at the 11th hour of one's ten-year career, after having opposed each and every major urban initiative under the Reagan guidelines to now come and try to put oneself forward as an urban apostle is kind of strange, particularly in the face of the fact that the mayors of the urban areas are all supporting me because they regard me as having the sensitivity to deal with problems, not right-wing members of the opposition party. Thanks, Carter. Very quickly. Thanks for your time today. You

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