A local election very nearly without end failed to bring the two combatants together as friends, as all the ugliness of a fraught and extended but supposedly civil cycle reared again in a most uncivil fashion at a park in Paterson.

This from the Paterson Times:

Former councilman William McKoy held the annual Jamaica Day Festival at Eastside Park over the weekend. He was displeased to see his political rival, councilman Alex Mendez, who defeated him to win the 3^rd Ward council seat, at the event on Sunday evening.

McKoy is seen in a brief video confronting Mendez.

“You are unwelcome here!” McKoy, a former five-term councilman, tells Mendez. McKoy is seen flailing his hands and getting ever closer to Mendez’s face.

These two have waged one of the most draining local contests in local memory, punctuated by Mendez’s indictment, redo elections, recounts, and ultimately Mendez’s win over McKoy.

The rancorous, cathartic and bitter Paterson contest contained every dimension of drama except closure, by the looks of McKoy’s arm flailing confrontation with the councilman, who appears in a Paterson Times video – evidently hopeful of a peaceful episode – with a Jamaican flag in hand.

Scorned by McKoy, Mendez is positioned now to take another crack at Mayor Andre Sayegh, who’s running for reelection next year. Sayegh defeated Mendez in 2018 to land the Paterson mayoralty. Mendez had given up is at-large seat to run for mayor, and resurfaced as a 2020 ward candidate intent on ousting the longtime incumbent. In time for his reelection effort, McKoy – himself a failed 2018 candidate for mayor – McKoy made peace with Sayegh in an effort to stave off the resurgent Mendez.

It didn’t work.

Mendez’s flareup with McKoy occurred on the heels of the latest episode in their ongoing local rivalry. Late last month, the councilman held a press conference to celebrate the dismissal of the election challenge filed by McKoy.