HOBOKEN — Hoboken political activist Lane Bajardi, one of the few vocal opponents of Mayor Dawn Zimmer, has filed a counter complaint against a blogger who had accused him the week before of allegedly snatching his camera at a school board election forum on April 12. Bajardi had been arrested by police after the complaint was filed.
Both the complaint and counter complaint follow years of simmering internet exchanges and posts involving pro- and anti-Zimmer activists, some targeted at Bajardi because of his alleged words and actions, some not.
Two weeks ago, police arrested Bajardi after he was accused of allegedly assaulting and grabbing the camera of blogger Roman Brice, who posts as “Smarty Jones” and the “Hoboken Horse” and writes a blog called Mile Square View. According to another publication’s report based on witnessing the event, Brice started taking photos of Bajardi, there was an exchange of words, and things got heated near the steps in the building where the forum was taking place. The account said that neither man actually fell to the ground, and did not confirm who may have pushed whom.
The official charge against Bajardi from the first report was robbery, but it has since been downgraded to a disorderly persons offense. Police noted that the arrest was based largely on the alleged victim’s testimony, with minimal investigation, and would have to be heard in court. The victim said the incident occurred in front of several witnesses.
Bajardi is said to be a strong supporter of Zimmer’s political foe, Councilwoman Beth Mason. Recently, he has been more and more of a target of his political opponents’ ire, and a picture of Bajardi’s head was put onto a graphic on another blog deriding him, GrafixAvenger.blogspot.com, recently.
That blog is not written by Brice. However, there is some prior history between the two men since Brice has expressed opinions on Bajardi’s actions in the past. Last November, he posted a blog entry of his own saying of Bajardi, “You have become completely tactless, obnoxious, overbearing and rude in your personal attacks on the acting mayor in the City Council and it’s absolutely disgraceful.”
This past Thursday, Bajardi went to the police station and made a counter-complaint against Brice. The complaint was for alleged simple assault in the same school board incident. Like the first complaint, it was based solely on the filer’s account.
The police report notes, “Bajardi is now alleging that Mr. Brice struck him with both hands in his
chest area causing him to lose his balance, fall into the auditorium seating and sustain injury to his left hip. Additionally, Mr. Bajardi stated that he has been [allegedly] harassed by Mr. Brice since October of 2009. Mr. Bajardi said that specifically, his integrity, credibility and family have been called into question by Mr. Brice and that as a result, has caused him annoyance and cause for alarm. He also said that the initial incident was a culmination of this [alleged] harassment which was escalated by Mr. Brice to [alleged] assault.”
Police said they prepared a summons regarding charges of simple assault and harassment against Brice.
Again, charges against both parties were made based solely on both parties’ testimony.
It should be noted that many of the internet complaints against and about Hoboken political activists are left on various internet message boards under pseudonyms, although many people have expressed theories on who has been using which pseudonym. Some of those complaints have become severe, attacking the political players’ appearances and personal life.
For more on this story, see this weekend’s Hoboken Reporter or click prior links below.