Edgewater, New Jersey Mayor Slams Door on Perceived "Threat," And Leaves His Secretary to Fend for Herself

If you don't know who James Freeman is, perhaps you should. On the one hand, he's among a growing group of people known as 1st Amendment Auditors, but on the other hand, he is also a champion of policing the police and holding our elected officials and public servants accountable.

Regardless of what anyone feels about 1st Amendment auditors in general, with some people finding their antics to be antagonistic, what they accomplish, besides getting multiple hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube, are the exposition of countless glaring examples of our government running amok. What never ceases to amaze me during these encounters, which I have viewed countless hours of, is the common lack of understanding of our most basic of Constitutional rights.

With often times razor sharp precision, these auditors expose how common it is, and how easy it can be, to have our civil rights blatantly and unabashedly denied if We the People do not understand our rights.

In a recent video, posted by James Freeman, they entered a public building, which is within their rights to do, lawfully, and set about "auditing" the facility. What was most interesting to me about the video was the reaction of the Edgewater mayor, Michael J. McPartland, when James Freeman encountered him at his office.

Granted, there may have been some question about whether the area that James Freeman and his group that was with him on that day were in a "public hallway" accessible to the general public, it is clear that they were "buzzed in," and did not immediately pose any perceived threat to anyone before being "cleared" to enter the areas that they were in.

Which includes the mayor's office.

When James Freeman approached the office, the mayor was inside at his desk, and immediately panic alarms went off. I will grant you, being the mayor and considering sometimes people are up to doing nefarious things, maybe some of his "panic" was warranted.

However, he's the mayor. He is representative of the people. He is an elected official who enjoys his position directly by the will of the people.

Beyond that, James Freeman did not present himself as any threat, simply saying, "Hey, how you doing, mayor?" 

He immediately got up and said, "I don't know you," and proceeded to shut and lock his door. 

I mean, rather than greet a citizen, assess the situation, and perhaps even engage in a conversation, the mayor instead chose to isolate himself in his office. The question of course is, why did he do that? He felt threatened, of course. 

But wait a minute. If the mayor felt that James Freeman posed a threat, why did he lock himself in his office and leave his secretary, Nancy, to fend for herself? I think that's the story here more than the actions of James Freeman, whether or not he was supposed to be there, or whether or not he actually posed any threat.

Wouldn't his very first order of business be to protect at least his office staff?

Instead, the mayor decided to leave the "threat" to his secretary to handle on her own with the only support from the mayor coming from behind a closed, locked door, shouting commands to her. Meanwhile, you can also hear the mayor quite distraught, inside his office calling for the police to come.

Again, if this is such a dire situation in his mind, why would the mayor decide to protect himself and leave his secretary to deal with the issue? While I can understand fear, to me the acts of the mayor were cowardly—and frankly unbecoming of a mayor.

One can certainly question what James Freeman and others in his camp do, and perhaps even sometimes the way they choose to do it. But the bottom line is that in doing these audits, they also expose things that I think are important for the general public to understand.

In this particular case what was exposed was a mayor who believes he is above the people who elected him, and certainly more important than his secretary. Her safety was of no concern whatsoever for the mayor.

It has to be a terrible embarrassment for him, and that seems apparent considering in a follow up live stream James Freeman posted, the mayor has made privacy complaints regarding the video and is trying to have the video taken down.

It won't be taken down, but of course the mayor is embarrassed. And he should be, frankly. How can the people trust him to make the right decisions if the city is ever faced with a situation that calls for swift, decisive action in the interest of the people and not just himself?

If the mayor is ever called to answer questions about his actions, I'd be very interested to know what his explanation will be.

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© 2024 Jim Bauer