Karma: Anarchist Receives Bill From Mayor to Fund Police OT

An 18-year-old anarchist in New Jersey got a lesson in “civics” along with a bill for the police overtime pay. Emily Gil is a lot better at organizing Black Lives Matter rallies than following laws. She felt that because she’s “special,” she was entitled to a virtual meeting with city officials to plan her riot properly. They said no, so she skipped that step. Now she needs to come up with $2,500.00 in cold, hard non-virtual currency.

A big bill for a small protest

Mayor Mario M. Kranjac was not happy to hear that Ms. Gil was upset with the “affordable housing” situation in his town. He was particularly offended when she misinformed the public by telling them that he “voted against affordable housing.” The mayor insists, “Everyone is welcome in Englewood Cliffs.” That doesn’t mean everything is free. That includes extra police protection. If you plan a potentially disruptive Black Lives Matter event, expect a bill from the city for the added expenses.

The last thing Emily Gil expected to find in her mailbox is a bill for $2,499.26 representing “police overtime caused by your protest.” She accused the mayor of shirking his responsibility, saying he “dodged affordable housing requirements for 40-plus years.” That’s “unacceptable,” she declared. Now she’s shirking her own responsibility and dodging the charges she incurred.

The letter that came with the bill explained that “because she did not meet with city officials before holding the protest, they had to scramble to find police to work overtime for the event.” They let her have her event, they made sure nobody was injured, and held up their part of the bargain. Now they expect the young anarchist to hold up her end.

Gil didn’t want to meet in person

Ms. Gil considers herself special. Everyone else needs to go downtown to get the proper permissions arranged before holding a protest event, but not her. She wanted to do it by phone now she has a bill to pay. Emily explains that “she did not want to meet in person over coronavirus concerns.” When “her offer for a virtual meeting with officials was rejected,” she decided that she would go ahead without coordinating her plans with the city. Instead of going downtown as directed, she kept calling. “City officials stopped responding to her communications.” They know when to stop beating a dead horse.

Despite her efforts to promote the rally on social media, “only 30 or 40 people joined.” They didn’t set a single thing on fire either. According to Ms. Gill, their protest “was peaceful and caused no disturbances.” They even “picked up their trash.” The police are thankful they didn’t litter but that doesn’t buy the donuts. The mayor won’t talk to her since he made his position clear, so she went whining to the police chief about the bill.

The top cop in Englewood Cliffs, Chief William Henkelman responded but Emily doesn’t want to hear what he had to say. He mentioned that he had no problem stopping into the mayor’s office. He “complained to the mayor of the additional staffing needed and extensive preparation.” Because of her poor planning, city officials “had to scramble to find police to work overtime for the event.” Since they were forced to do it, they sent her a bill. They don’t have to discuss it. They have lawyers for that.