NJ politician receives death threat by arrow (Listen)
If you're a politician, you expect to take a verbal hit at some point in your career. But you probably don't expect that come attached to an arrow.
In a medieval gesture, someone recently pinned an arrow featuring the message "You're a coward. You're dead," to a window screen at the home of former West Deptford mayor Ray Chintall. Also left on Chintall's lawn was one of his township committee campaign signs spray painted to display a swastika and the phrase "You R dead."
Former Morris County Prosecutor Robert Bianchi called in this morning to discuss his take on the story.
"The level of toleration that the citizens have for their elected officials has always been amazing to me," Bianchi said. "Many times the lack of integrity and these crazy situations like this demonstrate the reason why the taxpayer money in this state is completely awry. They can't agree on anything, they're constantly at each other's throats, there's no more integrity with how they're supposed to act."
According to Bianchi, this act of "reckless conduct" is the reason good people don't want to get into politics.
"Now I don't mean that every politician is going to shoot an arrow into someone's house, but in many cases they do that in a political sense."
During our discussion I pointed out that the public often expects a quick turnaround CSI-like investigation when a crime occurs. According to Bianchi, however, a case like this may not receive a high level of forensic analysis because it's a low-level case, rather than a homicide.
Bianchi said if he was prosecutor on this case though, he would be "all over it," as the event is "chilling to the political process" and worrisome for Chantill's family.
What do you think? Share your thoughts by commenting or tweeting at @nj1015 and @BillSpadea.
Bill Spadea is host of the Chasing News TV program. He periodically fills in for NJ 101.5 show hosts, and you can daily hear his opinion about all things New Jersey here, on SnapChat, or by tweeting @BillSpadea.
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