At Thursday evening’s Jackson Township reorganization meeting, USDA official and Jackson Council President Barry Calogero and his colleagues on the council took what can only be described as retaliatory measures against fellow Councilman Ken Bressi.

Mr. Bressi’s deposition in the ongoing Oros Bais Yaakov lawsuit, which was recently leaked online, showed that anti-Semitic sentiments and biases exist at the highest levels of Jackson’s government. The details of his deposition have Jackson’s leaders rattled, knowing that Bressi delivered a serious, and honest, blow to their chances in court.

At the reorganization meeting, Calogero and the other Councilmen responded by stripping Bressi of all his committee and subcommittee positions, but for one. The Jackson Republicans Facebook also posted photos of their party officials in Jackson, conspicuously leaving Mr. Bressi out of the pictures. Bressi is being ostracized by his party because he dared to tell the truth.

What seems obvious, is that Jackson officials are engaging in witness intimidation and retaliation. Those who may sit for a deposition in any current or future lawsuit against Jackson Township are being warned that if they don’t say only what benefits the powers that be in Jackson – even at the expense of lying under oath – are subject to what essentially amounts to expulsion from the party and partaking in any leadership roles.

It is sad and disheartening to see the depths to which Jackson leadership has fallen to. Whether one should stand up and tell the truth is now a matter of debate, if even that. Those who have self-serving interests in mind now run the circus that Jackson has become. It’s turned into a racket, possibly a criminal one, where those who refuse to lie and obfuscate their way through local issues are subjected to besmirching of their names and ostracization from their colleagues.

What a disgrace.