DUI, not possession, more likely to trip up Pa. residents buying legal weed in N.J., authorities say
Updated Feb 24, 2021;
Posted Feb 24, 2021
A man rolls a marijuana joint March 21, 2015, as a large group gathered near the New Jersey Statehouse to show their support for legalizing marijuana, in Trenton. It took years, but legalization has finally happened.AP
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Easton residents of a certain age will regale you with tales of the years the drinking age was 18 in Phillipsburg while it was 21 at home.
They’ll recall crazed occasions crossing the free bridge in search of shots and beers and somehow making it back alive to the more conservative side of the Delaware River.
Charities provide Easton police with kits to save lives in active shooter situations
Updated Jan 27, 2021;
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When the Phillipsburg-based charity Brothers Before Others was told there were tactical medical kits that could be made available to local police officers, Mike Burke thought first about providing them to the town department.
But it already had them, said Burke, who is a retired NYPD officer and the founder and president of the charity that was started in 2014 to provide flowers to the families of every officer in the country killed in the line of duty.
Easton police officer Diego Santiago is a member of the charity, which began as a Facebook group and soon after became a 501C-3 nonprofit. When asked, Santiago made arrangements with Easton police Chief Carl Scalzo for the equipment to go to the department on the west side of the Delaware River, Burke said.
How have Easton public safety personnel done when it comes to COVID infecting the ranks?
Updated Jan 26, 2021;
Posted Jan 26, 2021
The Easton Emergency Squad s full-time staff has been able to avoid getting COVID-19, so far.lehighvalleylive.com file photo
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There is a remarkable statistic when it comes to Easton’s public safety personnel and the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Easton Emergency Squad, which has answered calls throughout the coronavirus’ nearly one-year run, has had none of its 10 full-time employees get sick with the sometimes-devastating disease, according to Bud Shull, the squad’s president.
Four part-time employees tested positive after exposure from other places they work, Shull said. But that didn’t impact anyone else on the squad and just caused scheduling issues, Shull said.
Easton denies allegations in Black cop’s discrimination and retaliation lawsuit
Updated Dec 11, 2020;
Posted Dec 11, 2020
Easton Police Department officer George Lockett Jr., participating here in an anti-bullying event in 2013 at the Boys and Girls Club of Easton, has sued the city alleging discrimination and retaliation.Express-Times file photo
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The city requested a jury trial, much as Lockett’s lawsuit did.
Lockett, who is Black, claimed in his October filing that Lt. Tom Smith, who oversaw the sergeant in Lockett’s patrol squad, faced no discipline after in 2015 making “racial comments online about various Black people, including referring to then-First Lady Michelle Obama as an ‘ugly chimp’ and calling a black Nebraska state senator a ‘scrawny little monkey’.”