Gottheimer Complains about Stolen Cars
PORT NEWARK – A rise in car thefts in New Jersey and across the nation of late has gotten a lot of attention. It’s easy to see why.
Not only is it jarring to have your car vanish – many times overnight – authorities say that the drivers of stolen vehicles often commit other violent crimes.
Another possibility is that the car – either intact or chopped into parts – is swiftly on a boat to west Africa.
That makes the crime the province of any number of federal agencies – Homeland Security, the FBI and ICE.
And it also brought Rep. Josh Gottheimer to the shores of the Port Newark Channel this morning to talk about the problem, or more specifically, what’s not being done. Gottheimer was joined by Michael Dillon, the police chief in Allendale, and Bergen County Sheriff Anthony Cureton.
None of the officials represent the city of Newark, but that wasn’t the point.
Port Newark is figuratively the head of the snake, Gottheimer said.
“Thousands of vehicles are being illegally exported through our tristate area ports, and there has been a spike in violent carjacking in North Jersey,” according to a statement from the congressman’s office.
Gottheimer said the feds have to do a better job policing what goes through the port and gets on container ships.
The congressman said he has asked the DHS many times to get involved, but, so far, nothing has happened.
The DHS has not yet responded to a question about Gottheimer’s point.
The midterm election is less than a week away and Republicans in New Jersey and elsewhere are using rising crime as a campaign issue.
In this specific case, however, party politics doesn’t seem to be the issue.
When it was suggested to Gottheimer that it seems odd that a Democratic administration is ignoring a Democratic congressman, he said it would be odd as well if it were ignoring a Republican congressman.
Gottheimer said that only the feds can investigate the leaders of car theft enterprises.
The congressman is not the only official thinking about car thefts.
Mindful of the 14,000 or so cars stolen so far this year in New Jersey, Rep. Mikie Sherrill joined local and state officials in Madison last month to talk about a federal bill to provide local agencies money and equipment to combat car thefts. Also discussed was pending state legislature to toughen penalties for juveniles involved in stealing cars. All these measures are bipartisan.
The Democrat Congresscritters Gottheimer (CD-5) and Mikie Sherrill (CD-11) can only “think” about car thefts. They are doing nothing but their usual blathering about it. If the DHS won’t get involved in the car thefts issue, start making waves about cutting DHS funding by 50% since they aren’t doing their jobs. Watch how fast they react to the car thefts problem.
Same goes for the FBI. If they don’t want to get involved, or are dragging their feet, start the process to de-fund the FBI and de-funding the DHS.
Liberals complain about car thefts, yet they do nothing.
NJ takes enough of my tax money to retain more police and retain aggressive prosecutors to enforce the law. Legislation can be passed to establish stronger penalties for car theft, with mandatory jail sentences.
Stop always going to Washington for a hand out, stop complaining as if it is the federal government’s fault for NJ car thefts, stop passing the buck.
NJ Legislators need to do their jobs.
This is a crime issue, not a federal port inspection issue. If the leaders of both parties would acknowledge the fact that crime is through the roof then maybe something would be done.
Their failed open border and economic policies are flooding NJ with career criminals, putting pressure on impoverished youths, and encouraging criminal activity with the revolving door of the criminal justice system. We are on pace to see 17k car thefts in 2022 alone and they are selling “reform” as racial equity instead of being honest with us. The truth is the prisons are full, the court system can’t process the growing volume of cases, and law enforcement can’t get enough recruits in the pipeline to do the job.
This is not an accident. It is by design. Keep in mind, these are the same people who say “the average NJ citizen” is unjustified in the defense of their own life through the use of firearms but a repeat violent offender should be given a 10th chance to turn his life around.
This is not a federal issue, it is a leadership issue. We must make our voices heard on November 8th by voting for an independent candidate who lives in the trenches with the rest of us. Both The Democrats and Republicans HAVE TO GO.
Together, We Stand as the Party of New Jersey.
NJ-5, Vote Ferrigno For Freedom this November 8th.
Josh sounds a lot like Biden, blaming everybody else. This is a NJ issue. Murphy and the Dems emptied the jails and instituted bail and sentencing reforms that leave criminals laughing all the way to their next carjacking. How about some serious jail time for car thieves, adult or juvenile. Murphy and the Dem legislature take their cues from the ACLU, the NAACP and every other left-wing group that will come out of the woodwork. They have placed the criminals ahead of the law-abiding public. Despicable.
This article is absolutely hysterical and I nominate it for the Journalistic Joke of the month award. Yet another so called “Journalist” i.e. mouthpiece for the Democratic Party, FAILs to even hint that since King Murphy has signed the Bail “Reform” Laws in 2021, car thefts and MANY other crimes have skyrocketed throughout the State. WHY??? Because the Democrat way to handle those have served notice on society is to set in place a revolving door with ZERO Bail for crimes like auto theft. DUH!!! Does the “Journo” here question the Dem Pol & his Keystone Cops about being PROACTIVE by keeping carjackers & theives OFF THE STREETS rather than try to solve the problem at the BACK end when the ever increasing stolen cars show up on the docks??!!!?? You couldn’t write a better comedy sketch. Maybe those crafty Dems can set up a security detail in Wesr Africa to reposess the stolen cars as they come off the vote. Yeah Gottheimer deserves Re-Election just on this one issue alone!! Oh, and just got my gas bill. 43% INCREASE. Thanks Gottheimer for backing Bidens relentless attacks on the fossil fuel industry. Happy winter voters!!