Republican Aberdeen Mayor Candidate Talks About His Arrest Record

ABERDEEN, NJ — Mark Bishop, the Republican running to be Aberdeen's next mayor was arrested multiple times in his 20s, including one arrest for assaulting a law enforcement officer and another for an illegal weapons possession of brass knuckles.

His opponent, current Aberdeen Councilman Greg Cannon, a Democrat and also vying to be the new mayor of Aberdeen, says Bishop's criminal past renders him unfit to be the town's leader.

“I think everyone is entitled to a second chance, but I don’t think everyone is qualified to be the mayor,” Cannon said Monday to the Asbury Park Press, which was the first to break the news of Bishop's multiple prior arrests. “His criminal record raises serious issues with his abilities to perform the duties of the office. For example, he can’t pass the background check to be a camp counselor in our summer camp, and he’ll be asked to head the end-of summer event as the mayor, so we’re going to let him around the kids anyway? It’s a real problem, running for mayor with a criminal record.”

Bishop's two most serious criminal charges were aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer (2010) and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose (brass knuckles) a year later, in 2011.

Bishop was in his early 20s at the time of all his arrests and run-ins with law enforcement. Criminal records show multiple arrests from that period in this life, including a disorderly persons arrest for criminal mischief, one arrest in 2014 for resisting arrest/eluding and another that same year for throwing bodily fluids at a law enforcement officer.

The Asbury Park Press reported that, in total, he was sentenced to two years on probation and 64 days in county jail.

In June, Bishop addressed his past in this video he posted to Facebook. At times, he became emotional in the video talking about his past and his childhood.

"I don't want to hide this from anybody, especially when I adamantly fight for transparency from our government and from our elected officials," he said in part in the video. "Growing up, I made a lot of bad decisions ... and that has led me to be arrested multiple times. I've been in the county jail multiple times. And there's really no excuse or reason for it. It was just stupidity, immaturity, thinking I was a tough guy."

Bishop said he was raised in poverty by a single mother. He was homeless and living in motels in his early 20s, he said.

"The reasons I am not embarrassed or ashamed to share my past is because I do think it helped shape who I am today. When I was young ... we were poor," he said in the June video. "I had a single mother, five children; she was barely making over minimum wage. It was tough. All my clothes were hand me downs. Couldn't afford to go to college ... And it was easy to be angry. And it was easy to blame other people. And it was easy to say, 'here we go again, the cops are just always bothering me.'"

"When I was younger, I was angry," he continued. "I challenged authority. I didn't agree with something, I fought against it. The problem was I didn't know how to channel any of that energy. I did things the wrong way; I took it out on the wrong people. I thought I was some sort of bad-ass by operating outside the rules that everybody else has to live by."

Bishop also said he hopes his story can serve as a role model for other people.

"Maybe you have kids that you are worried about," he said. "And I would like it if people could take a look at what I'm doing and how I changed the course of my life. In this country, unless you've done something heinous, this is the land of opportunity and we have second chances."

"I now own a home, am married with two kids and own/ manage a very successful seven-figure business," he told Patch for an upcoming election profile. "So I understand the struggles our residents face with rising costs, and the fear of losing their homes, because I have been there myself. I understand how difficult it is for parents, who are struggling to make ends meat (sic), and keep their jobs, to get stuck in school traffic dropping off their children, because our schools can’t afford to provide busing for all students. But I also understand how to dig us out of the hole that we’re in, because, against all of the odds, I have done that for myself as well."

Cannon has been an elected Aberdeen councilman since 2009. When interviewed for a similar election profile, Cannon said the following:

"Aberdeen voters should not vote for my opponent because he has a serious criminal record and served jail time for assaulting law enforcement officers. If I’m elected, I have no criminal record, and we can spare Aberdeen the embarrassment suffered by other Monmouth County towns where former criminals presently serve as Republican elected officials and have been in national news stories. We don’t need it to be Aberdeen’s headline."

In 2013, this newspaper article shows Cannon himself was arrested for possession of marijuana, which is now legal in the state of New Jersey. Cannon said the charges were dismissed and the matter was expunged.

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