Local

S E C T I O N L EDUCATION 2 l OBITUARIES 4, 5

Tenafly A Teaneck
appoints a non-profit
Teaneck and
woman hospital
to run the team up to
borough. help save
2 lives in
Haiti.
3

Sat. 02.27.10
More graffiti charges expected
ELIZABETH LARA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER tion, police said. Additional charges
Darren Baskinger, 26, of Haledon is against the Haledon resident are expected
free on $100,000 bail.
By JAMES YOO
STAFF WRITER
CLIFTON — Darren Baskinger, ac-
cused by police of painting prolific graffi-
ti across North Jersey, was arraigned Fri-
day morning in Municipal Court on 18
charges of criminal mischief.
Baskinger, 26, who police believe
spray-painted graffiti on structures from
here to Ohio over 10 years, replied “yes”
each time Municipal Judge Scott Bennon
asked him if he understood the charges.
He turned himself in to Clifton police
Wednesday after an 18-month investiga-
and the investigation into his associates
Suspect in ‘NARK’ tagging
had crew of adults, police say
continues, Detective Capt. Robert Rowan
said. Baskinger formerly lived in Pompton
Lakes, Rowan said.
Baskinger has been charged with plac-
ing the tag NARK on the walls of highway
underpasses, a utility pole and the exteri-
or of buildings throughout Clifton from
July 2007 to December 2009, according to
a reading of the charges by Bennon.
Baskinger allegedly did so several times
on the side of a Piaget Avenue business.
Other locations he allegedly vandalized
included an industrial building on Kuller
Road and a storefront on Van Houten Av-
enue.
The graffiti-related damage in Clifton
amounted to more than $25,500, which
Bennon read aloud from the charges Fri-
day.
Baskinger’s next court appearance is
scheduled for March 17 in Superior Court
in Paterson. He is free on $100,000 bail.
In North Jersey, authorities estimate the
total of his damage at $100,000, Rowan
said.
Clifton police continue to work on the
investigation with the New Jersey Transit
Police, the state police, Wayne police and
other law enforcement agencies, Rowan
said.
Baskinger allegedly ran with a group
called the AIDS Crew, which is an
acronym for “and it don’t stop,” according
to investigators.
The tag NARK was associated with the
crew and has covered bridges, sound bar-
riers, highway signs, Public Service Elec-
tric and Gas Co. property, Verizon prop-
erty, trains, train stations, office buildings
See GRAFFITI Page L-6

‘The fight’s not over’

QUOTES OF
THE WEEK
“It’s pretty to look
at, but we very
quickly get past
the aesthetics.”
— Van Saun County Park
Zoo Director Timothy Gun-
ther, on how workers at the
zoo have little time to admire
the scenery during snow-
storms.

“I’m no actor, but

it was fun. … It
was interesting.
But I wouldn’t
trade it for being a
police officer. This
is a passion that
comes from deep
within you.”
— Passaic County Sheriff
Jerry Speziale, who had a
minor role in “Brooklyn’s
Finest,” a Hollywood cop STAFF PHOTOS BY THOMAS E. FRANKLIN Estina Baker, the president of the Bergen chapter of the NAACP,
drama featuring Richard Robert Robinson, a deacon at Mount Olive Baptist Church in Hackensack, who became a political activist after learning about the oppression
Gere that is due in theaters who said he faced more racism and discrimination when he moved up north of apartheid in South Africa and realizing its shocking similarities to
next week. in the late 1960s than he did living in segregated Virginia. Jim Crow segregation laws in the United States.

“This storm is
going to be like
the World Series
and Super Bowl
for [weather
buffs].”
— Scott Gordon, a
weather hobbyist with North
Jersey Weather Observers,
speaking on the eve of this
week’s snowstorm.

“I don’t
understand why
authorities,
boards and
commissions that
are a part of state
government need
to hire lobbyists Travis Robinson, a 21-year-old college student who be- Pargellan McCall, a teacher and daughter of sharecroppers who saw her parents
to lobby lieves Barack Obama’s presidency should be a call to ac- spend decades trying to pass a literacy test in an effort to vote. Her mother passed
the test at age 42, but her father never did.
government. … It tion for African-Americans to change the way they mo-
bilize as a political constituency.
just doesn’t make
any sense and
Blacks By GIOVANNA FABIANO seat on a Montgomery, Ala., bus and the To view a video on
expends a STAFF WRITER 1963 March on Washington, when an this story visit
significant estimated 200,000 people descended on northjersey.com

reflect on
North Jersey’s public school children the Lincoln Memorial to rally for feder-
amount of money spent the last month focusing on the his- al legislation ending the Jim Crow laws As February draws to a close, a small
tory of blacks in America – from in the South and other forms of group of North Jerseyans of different
to do it.” the horrors of slavery to the strug- Black racial discrimination. ages and walks of life shared their

their battle
— Governor Christie, in gles of the civil rights movement. But beyond what is taught in thoughts.
ordering hundreds of state They learned that it took near- History textbooks are the individual expe-
boards, authorities and ly 100 years after President Month riences — the everyday achieve- Robert Robinson, 60

for rights
commissions to stop hiring Lincoln signed the Emancipation ments and struggles — of African- A deacon at Mount Olive Baptist
lobbyists and end “golden Proclamation ending slavery to end seg- Americans who lived through tumul- Church in Hackensack, Robert Robin-
parachute” payouts. regation in schools. They learned about tuous times and were affected in starkly son grew up in rural Virginia – the son of
Rosa Parks’ famous refusal to give up her different ways. See BLACKS Page L-6