The month is nearly over, and the full crime map showing the areas and levels of crimes in the region can be posted. In the meantime, here’s an overview of the previous week in crime, and some statistics of the crime data so far:
On May 18, four hooded suspects robbed a jewelry store in Hackensack. Two were arrested, the others returned to Brooklyn with the stolen property. Also on that Monday, a 51-year-old inmate at a Newark rehab center was found strangled by two other inmates in a dispute over $20.
On May 19, a Tuesday, a man was arrested for attempted sexual assault on a minor in Ridgefield Park (the hometown of the author) on an internet sting, where he was told to come to a certain location to have sex with a ten-year-old girl. Police arrested him as soon as he got out of his car. Also, a post office in East Orange was robbed at gunpoint.
Wednesday, May 20, had police investigating two shotgun blasts in Irvington, and a gang of gun-toting robbers breaking into a Montclair house, tying up the three occupants, and stealing their wallets as well as possessions in the house.
On Thursday, May 21, a police sting arrested a Parsippany man with 40 loaded pistols, assault rifles, and other weaponry in his house. A few miles east in Paterson that morning, a policeman shot and missed an axe-wielding man who had tried to attack him.
On May 22, two men with Uzi assault rifles robbed a construction boss of $11,000 in cash in downtown Jersey City. Also, two teenagers were carjacked in Paterson, robbed, and left abandoned in northwest. The carjackers were found outside a liquor store an hour later, and were arrested for the carjacking, as well as the twelve baggies of crack cocaine, as well as cannabis and heroin, in their car.
On Saturday, May 23, a young woman claimed to have been raped by two men at the house of Jets’ safety Kerry Rhodes in Morristown. Also, in the early morning of downtown Jersey City, a drive-by shooting critically injured two men. One escaped with a bullet in the leg, but the other was struck six times, in the upper back, stomach, arm, leg, and hand, leaving him in intensive care in the hospital.
On Sunday, May 24, an open air drug market was busted in Jersey City, leading to six men being arrested on drug and illegal weapons charges. Also, a Laundromat owner was stabbed by a homeless man over a small sum of money in Paterson.
In the early morning hours of May 25, a 23-year-old man was fatally shot in the head on a street corner in Jersey City. Later in that day, a Crip in East Orange drew a .38 caliber pistol on his ex-girlfriend and threatened to shoot her in the head; she called the police and he was arrested. He was already facing charges for operating an organized gang of drug distribution all over Essex and Morris Counties.
Since midnight on May 1, there have been:
86 burglaries
33 non-fatal assaults
27 robberies
14 non-fatal shootings
12 stolen vehicles
6 disorderly conducts
6 distribution charges
4 fatal assaults
4 fatal shootings
3 arsons
3 larceny charges
3 sexual assaults
3 weapons offenses
2 lewd acts
1 blackmail
1 breaking and entering
1 carjacking
1 combined distribution and weapons charge
1 manslaughter
1 prostitution charge
In the northernmost six counties of New Jersey. Jersey City clearly appears to be the most dangerous place, with three murders standing out on the list, as well as eleven assaults, two non-fatal shootings, and four armed robberies. Crime has even extended into Bergen and Morris Counties, where robberies, drug distribution, burglaries, and sexual assaults have all shown up on the radar. Sussex County is the only county that’s comparatively quiet. Passaic, Essex, and Hudson are all teeming with crime.
The murders so far have been:
May 5 – Shooting in Newark, man killed with gunshots to chest and head in Vailsburg
May 6 – Stabbing in Paterson, man stabbed multiple times in Wrigley Park
May 6 – Stabbing in Jersey City, man stabbed in his neck and shoulder in Journal Square
May 11 – Shooting in Newark, man killed with gunshot to head in Weequahic
May 17 – Shooting in Newark, man killed with gunshot to chest in Weequahic
May 17 – Strangling in Jersey City, man killed by choking in The Heights
May 18 – Strangling in Newark, man killed by choking in Newark Bay
May 25 – Shooting in Jersey City, man killed with gunshot to the head in Bergen-Lafayette
For some final county data on violent crime before the crime map goes up:
Bergen County has five nonfatal assaults, three robberies.
Essex County has three fatal shootings, five non-fatal shootings, one fatal assault, one non-fatal assault, eleven robberies.
Hudson County has one fatal shooting, two non-fatal shootings, two fatal assaults, sixteen non-fatal assaults, and seven robberies.
Morris County has one non-fatal shooting, five non-fatal assaults, and two robberies.
Passaic County has six non-fatal shootings, one fatal assault, four non-fatal assaults, and three robberies.
Sussex County has two non-fatal assaults and one robbery.
Not a day goes by that I don’t reflect on the human cost behind the numbers. While it’s easy to say that Paterson is doing well compared to Jersey City and Newark in terms of violent crime, the crime that does occur affects real human lives. Each of these shootings, robberies, and burglaries means the world to someone, and it’s something that isn’t spoken to in these cold, hard statistics.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Friday, May 15, 2009
Two weeks of tracking North Jersey crime has led me to realize
That the world is a cold and scary place.
Not really. My opinion of the world remains optimistic and I haven’t fallen too far into cynicism. But the crime map and data collection offers a chilling view of the place in which I live. I’ve found a lot of local papers and news sources that provide police and crime reports that are missing on NJ.com and the Record’s website. So with a database of crime that’s much more complete, here are a few statistics and interesting cases.
From May 1, 2009 to the present hour, there have been two fatal shootings, eight non-fatal shootings, two fatal assaults, eighteen non-fatal serious assaults, eight robberies, fifty-nine burglaries, and sixteen other offenses – ranging from distribution of controlled substance to lewd acts to arson. The heaviest concentration of crime was in Paterson, not surprisingly, with another heavy concentration in Jersey City. There were two huge strings of burglaries as well that are possibly related – one in north Bergen County, one in north Essex. Other strings of burglaries appeared in the Meadowlands, in Nutley, and other locations as well.
It’s safe to say that Paterson, as well as south Passaic County in general, is a dangerous place. Clifton holds its own against Paterson in terms of crime, and surprisingly, Newark doesn’t appear to be as crime-filled as Passaic county, but it does have more serious crime, and the most murders so far.
A few of the interesting crimes that caught my eye from May 8 onwards:
Clifton had its fair share of robberies. On May 9, a 16-year-old boy walking down Federal Street was approached by 10-12 Hispanic juveniles, who asked “what’s popping,” and then proceeded to beat and rob the teenager. Another woman was robbed that same night outside a bar on Highland at 3 AM, choked and punched, her purse stolen. That very same day, four men broke into a house in Bloomfield, tied and duct-taped the owner, and robbed him – May 9 was a good day for robbers.
Police cracked down on drugs this week. On May 8, five Bloods were arrested at a Paterson stash house, and $500,000 of cocaine, heroin and ecstasy was seized, and a similar heroin bust took place a few days ago in Paramus. Speaking of Paterson, they had a ridiculous amount of shootings the weekend of May 9-10. On May 9, a 19-year-old was approached and shot in the legs, a 35-year-old took bullets in the arms and chest in a drive-by shooting, and a 45-year-old man was shot once in the back getting ice cream; the next day, a 30-year-old bystander to a gunfight was shot in the fingers, and walked himself to the hospital. The victims in these cases all seemed resigned to their fate, living in Paterson.
On Thursday, a man was stabbed in a Jersey City parking lot, and the culprits taken down by a “father-son crime-fighting team.”
Crime strikes even the richest towns – on May 11, an $8,000 solar panel was stolen from a house on Amira Lane in Kinnelon.
On May 11, a Hoboken man was arrested on the charge of “committing a lewd act” – namely, publicly masturbating on the 300 block of 1st Street.
So I’m going to keep going with this project, at least until the end of May. My map is filled up with dots, but most of these are burglaries, which are the predominant crime. I’ll keep this blog updated with my findings.
Murders in North Jersey: May 1 – May 15
May 5 – Shooting in Newark, man killed with gunshots to chest and head in Vailsburg
May 6 – Assault in Paterson, man stabbed multiple times in Wrigley Park
May 6 – Assault in Jersey City, man stabbed in his neck and shoulder in Journal Square
May 11 – Shooting in Newark, man killed with gunshot to head in Weequahic
Entire crime map of North Jersey
Crime map of south Passaic County
Crime map of east Essex County
Crime map of south Hudson County
Not really. My opinion of the world remains optimistic and I haven’t fallen too far into cynicism. But the crime map and data collection offers a chilling view of the place in which I live. I’ve found a lot of local papers and news sources that provide police and crime reports that are missing on NJ.com and the Record’s website. So with a database of crime that’s much more complete, here are a few statistics and interesting cases.
From May 1, 2009 to the present hour, there have been two fatal shootings, eight non-fatal shootings, two fatal assaults, eighteen non-fatal serious assaults, eight robberies, fifty-nine burglaries, and sixteen other offenses – ranging from distribution of controlled substance to lewd acts to arson. The heaviest concentration of crime was in Paterson, not surprisingly, with another heavy concentration in Jersey City. There were two huge strings of burglaries as well that are possibly related – one in north Bergen County, one in north Essex. Other strings of burglaries appeared in the Meadowlands, in Nutley, and other locations as well.
It’s safe to say that Paterson, as well as south Passaic County in general, is a dangerous place. Clifton holds its own against Paterson in terms of crime, and surprisingly, Newark doesn’t appear to be as crime-filled as Passaic county, but it does have more serious crime, and the most murders so far.
A few of the interesting crimes that caught my eye from May 8 onwards:
Clifton had its fair share of robberies. On May 9, a 16-year-old boy walking down Federal Street was approached by 10-12 Hispanic juveniles, who asked “what’s popping,” and then proceeded to beat and rob the teenager. Another woman was robbed that same night outside a bar on Highland at 3 AM, choked and punched, her purse stolen. That very same day, four men broke into a house in Bloomfield, tied and duct-taped the owner, and robbed him – May 9 was a good day for robbers.
Police cracked down on drugs this week. On May 8, five Bloods were arrested at a Paterson stash house, and $500,000 of cocaine, heroin and ecstasy was seized, and a similar heroin bust took place a few days ago in Paramus. Speaking of Paterson, they had a ridiculous amount of shootings the weekend of May 9-10. On May 9, a 19-year-old was approached and shot in the legs, a 35-year-old took bullets in the arms and chest in a drive-by shooting, and a 45-year-old man was shot once in the back getting ice cream; the next day, a 30-year-old bystander to a gunfight was shot in the fingers, and walked himself to the hospital. The victims in these cases all seemed resigned to their fate, living in Paterson.
On Thursday, a man was stabbed in a Jersey City parking lot, and the culprits taken down by a “father-son crime-fighting team.”
Crime strikes even the richest towns – on May 11, an $8,000 solar panel was stolen from a house on Amira Lane in Kinnelon.
On May 11, a Hoboken man was arrested on the charge of “committing a lewd act” – namely, publicly masturbating on the 300 block of 1st Street.
So I’m going to keep going with this project, at least until the end of May. My map is filled up with dots, but most of these are burglaries, which are the predominant crime. I’ll keep this blog updated with my findings.
Murders in North Jersey: May 1 – May 15
May 5 – Shooting in Newark, man killed with gunshots to chest and head in Vailsburg
May 6 – Assault in Paterson, man stabbed multiple times in Wrigley Park
May 6 – Assault in Jersey City, man stabbed in his neck and shoulder in Journal Square
May 11 – Shooting in Newark, man killed with gunshot to head in Weequahic
Entire crime map of North Jersey
Crime map of south Passaic County
Crime map of east Essex County
Crime map of south Hudson County
Thursday, May 7, 2009
A look at crime - week 1
The first week of my crime experiment is over, and I’ve been listing and mapping the major crimes that have occurred in North Jersey’s five counties. What I’ve discovered is eye-opening, though not surprising. Crime is concentrated as I would have expected in Newark, Paterson, and Jersey City, though there were a few surprises in the data.
For one, a string of burglaries in the rural, upper-class Sussex County ended within the last few days, and in a strange parallel, so did a short burst of burglaries in poor, blighted Central Paterson. The suspect of the first was a middle-aged white heroin addict, another reminder that crime is not a specialized trait of certain races, ages, or classes.
There were two murders in North Jersey over this last week, and eight assaults severe enough to make the newspapers. The first murder took place in Newark, late on May 5, when two men were shot on Isabella Street. One was wounded with gunshots to the chest, the other was killed with gunshots to the head and chest; the killer has not been found. The second murder took place on Rosa Parks Boulevard in Paterson, where a 39-year-old man was stabbed multiple times the night of May 6, and left to die. Several more attempted murders and shootings took place as well.
There was a strange coincidence that four crimes took place in very close proximity to one another. Over the last week, there was a string of crime around Randolph, Netcong, Mount Arlington, and Roxbury – places out in the rural and much richer suburbs. All, however, were unrelated, and can be written off to coincidence. A hit and run on the highway, men brandishing a handgun at a policeman, a petty robbery at a strip mall– but most shocking of all, a stabbing at a house party in Roxbury. Some guests showed up uninvited to a party for a man getting out of the armed forces. They were denied entry – they came back with friends and knives, and stabbed the 22-year-old returning veteran four times, later being arrested, and their victim flown to Morristown Hospital. Such a brutal attack in a typically white and high-end suburb could go head to head with the worst assaults and crimes of Newark or Paterson.
Other notable events during this last week were numerous arrests and assaults at the Bamboozle music festival, an 11-year-old girl accidentally shot during a drive-by shooting in Newark, a 17-year-old high school student severely beaten with a lead pipe on a major Clifton street, and most bizarre of all, a man being shot in the head in Jersey City, and driving himself to the hospital, with only superficial wounds.
Crimes for the month of May, so far – Assaults, Robberies, Shootings, Burglaries, and Other
May 1 – Assault. Man severely beaten, Apartments @ Fremont Street, Jersey City
May 1 – Robbery. Woman robbed of $2500, Tuers and Vroom, Jersey City
May 1 – Assault. Drug dealer bites and punches cops while being placed under arrest for deal made at Central and Bowers, Jersey City
May 2 – Assault. Drunken man assaults police officer, diner 53rd and Broadway, Bayonne
May 2 – Assault. Stabbing @ house party, Main Street in Roxbury
May 2 – Assault. Bamboozle @ the Meadowlands
May 3 – Assault. Bamboozle @ the Meadowlands
May 3 – Arson. Arson at apartments, West Kinney and Broad, Newark
May 3 – Shooting. Driver wounded with gunshot to head, Cornelison and Fairmount, Jersey City
May 3 – Shooting. Gas station clerk wounded with gunshot to arm, Broadway and Summer, Paterson
May 4 – Burglary. 4000 dollars from house, Zinnia Drive, Vernon
May 4 – Robbery. Wallet in A&P parking lot, Randolph
May 4 – Shooting. Police shoot burglar in leg, 16th by South Orange, Newark
May 5 – Burglary. 2 handguns from house, Mountain Road, Hardyston
May 5 – Burglary. House on East 19th Street Paterson
May 5 – Burglary. Jewelry, laptop, camera taken from house on Rosa Parks and Lafayette, Paterson
May 5 – Assault. Hit and run, woman walking on roadway seriously injured, Route 80 Mount Arlington
May 5 – Intimidation. 2 men brandish handgun at police, Route 80 Netcong
May 5 – Shooting (fatal). One killed with gunshots to chest and head, one wounded with gunshot to chest, South Orange and Isabella, Newark
May 5 – Shooting. 11-year-old girl wounded in shoulder in drive-by, 14th and 14th, Newark
May 6 – Robbery. Dunkin Donuts robbed in North Bergen, Kennedy and 21st
May 6 – Assault (fatal). Man fatally stabbed multiple times, Godwin and Rosa Parks, Paterson
May 7 – Assault. Boy beaten with pipe, Rite Aid Lexington Avenue, Clifton
For one, a string of burglaries in the rural, upper-class Sussex County ended within the last few days, and in a strange parallel, so did a short burst of burglaries in poor, blighted Central Paterson. The suspect of the first was a middle-aged white heroin addict, another reminder that crime is not a specialized trait of certain races, ages, or classes.
There were two murders in North Jersey over this last week, and eight assaults severe enough to make the newspapers. The first murder took place in Newark, late on May 5, when two men were shot on Isabella Street. One was wounded with gunshots to the chest, the other was killed with gunshots to the head and chest; the killer has not been found. The second murder took place on Rosa Parks Boulevard in Paterson, where a 39-year-old man was stabbed multiple times the night of May 6, and left to die. Several more attempted murders and shootings took place as well.
There was a strange coincidence that four crimes took place in very close proximity to one another. Over the last week, there was a string of crime around Randolph, Netcong, Mount Arlington, and Roxbury – places out in the rural and much richer suburbs. All, however, were unrelated, and can be written off to coincidence. A hit and run on the highway, men brandishing a handgun at a policeman, a petty robbery at a strip mall– but most shocking of all, a stabbing at a house party in Roxbury. Some guests showed up uninvited to a party for a man getting out of the armed forces. They were denied entry – they came back with friends and knives, and stabbed the 22-year-old returning veteran four times, later being arrested, and their victim flown to Morristown Hospital. Such a brutal attack in a typically white and high-end suburb could go head to head with the worst assaults and crimes of Newark or Paterson.
Other notable events during this last week were numerous arrests and assaults at the Bamboozle music festival, an 11-year-old girl accidentally shot during a drive-by shooting in Newark, a 17-year-old high school student severely beaten with a lead pipe on a major Clifton street, and most bizarre of all, a man being shot in the head in Jersey City, and driving himself to the hospital, with only superficial wounds.
Crimes for the month of May, so far – Assaults, Robberies, Shootings, Burglaries, and Other
May 1 – Assault. Man severely beaten, Apartments @ Fremont Street, Jersey City
May 1 – Robbery. Woman robbed of $2500, Tuers and Vroom, Jersey City
May 1 – Assault. Drug dealer bites and punches cops while being placed under arrest for deal made at Central and Bowers, Jersey City
May 2 – Assault. Drunken man assaults police officer, diner 53rd and Broadway, Bayonne
May 2 – Assault. Stabbing @ house party, Main Street in Roxbury
May 2 – Assault. Bamboozle @ the Meadowlands
May 3 – Assault. Bamboozle @ the Meadowlands
May 3 – Arson. Arson at apartments, West Kinney and Broad, Newark
May 3 – Shooting. Driver wounded with gunshot to head, Cornelison and Fairmount, Jersey City
May 3 – Shooting. Gas station clerk wounded with gunshot to arm, Broadway and Summer, Paterson
May 4 – Burglary. 4000 dollars from house, Zinnia Drive, Vernon
May 4 – Robbery. Wallet in A&P parking lot, Randolph
May 4 – Shooting. Police shoot burglar in leg, 16th by South Orange, Newark
May 5 – Burglary. 2 handguns from house, Mountain Road, Hardyston
May 5 – Burglary. House on East 19th Street Paterson
May 5 – Burglary. Jewelry, laptop, camera taken from house on Rosa Parks and Lafayette, Paterson
May 5 – Assault. Hit and run, woman walking on roadway seriously injured, Route 80 Mount Arlington
May 5 – Intimidation. 2 men brandish handgun at police, Route 80 Netcong
May 5 – Shooting (fatal). One killed with gunshots to chest and head, one wounded with gunshot to chest, South Orange and Isabella, Newark
May 5 – Shooting. 11-year-old girl wounded in shoulder in drive-by, 14th and 14th, Newark
May 6 – Robbery. Dunkin Donuts robbed in North Bergen, Kennedy and 21st
May 6 – Assault (fatal). Man fatally stabbed multiple times, Godwin and Rosa Parks, Paterson
May 7 – Assault. Boy beaten with pipe, Rite Aid Lexington Avenue, Clifton
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Crime and Murder Just Footsteps Away. North Jersey, Summer 2009
When I was a kid I was surprised when my mom told me that people used the motels along 46 in South Hackensack for prostitution and drugs. I always remembered my dad telling me how someone got murdered in the Popeye’s in Teaneck, and the awe I felt that such incredible and dastardly events were taking place minutes from my house. My uncle would impress me with the story of how he and his partner had a gunfight with a Paterson bank robber 1974. The robber had been wounded in the stomach, and my uncle had approached him, and the man had said that it hurt; with all the gravitas of Clint Eastwood, my uncle kicked his balls, and told him that he didn’t hurt nearly enough.
Back then, I imagined all criminals were genius masterminds, all murders were dramatic and cinematic, and all crime breathtaking and exciting. Living by the intersection of routes 80, 46, and 95, ten minutes from New York City, I remember one night the police arrested a man for dumping keys of cocaine out of his car windows on the turnpike in a fit of paranoia. I always remember how my parents would warn me away from certain parks or the movie theater at night, due to people “doing drugs” or fighting; on a walk with my girlfriend when I was 16, we heard some pops, and immediately her mom called us to come back, because some teenagers were firing guns in the air a block from her house.
When people were robbed at gunpoint or had shots fired through their windows near me, I thought I lived in an exciting place. Yeah, I knew New York was dangerous – all the rapes and murders they showed on Eyewitness News convinced me of that – but this was my hometown! This was Paterson, Newark, Englewood, Passaic, Garfield, the places that I lived.
It was all exciting and unreal to me until when I was sixteen, and saw a guy get killed by the police in a terrible circumstance in Las Vegas. He was resisting arrest in a car, and speeding away when he hit a cop on a bicycle, knocking him out. The other cop drew his gun and shot him in the head. Me and my dad were walking on the block, but we didn’t even realize what had happened. The cops began to swarm all around, and got the civilians out of the way, and it wasn’t until later I realized the man had died.
A few days after that, a gang fight broke out at a house party a couple blocks from my house, and a 15-year-old boy who was running away was shot in the back with a .357 and left for dead on the street. His name was Ricky Smith. The Paterson Bloods who had killed him were all arrested, and in the next few months, a recognizance that gang activity existed in Teaneck was much more aware. In the next year, gang members were arrested with loaded guns on streets that I walked on every day, and at the Popeye’s on Teaneck Road, a gang fight resulted in a teenager getting stabbed in the neck, needing 300 stitches to close the wound. Before I left for college, an attempted shooting of a police officer in Little Ferry over the river was the news of the day.
It was this kind of stuff that made criminology one of my biggest interests. Even now, with a more mature and sober outlook on crime, and a much bigger realization of unsafeness, the motivation behind criminals and their actions is something that never ceases to interest me.
When I got to American University, during welcome week we couldn’t go a day without getting a public safety alert of a sex offense or robbery on the roads around American. A casual acquaintance of mine was nearly killed on August 20th, when he was being robbed at gunpoint on Nebraska and Van Ness, and the perpetrator pulled the trigger, only to have the gun jam. In DC, I was much more conscious of high crime areas, and I took this back with me when I went home for breaks.
One night this semester I found a crime map that showed all the crime in DC for the last few years, and I was shocked at the amount of crime in the NW. I didn’t think that the NW had such heavy crime, but this is DC – there were murders and shootings around Tenleytown, people killed in Georgetown, and robberies and knifepoint and gunpoint all around the AU area, and other parts of DC that I frequented. (One of my favorite discoveries was a drunken argument between two homeless men on Constitution Avenue in front of the White House. One of them, who was in a wheelchair, pulled a gun out of his bag and shot the other in the leg…in front of the White House.)
When I looked at crime statistics for my home in New Jersey, I was shocked. Not having paid attention all year to news from back home, I saw killings in Hackensack, drive-by shootings in Lodi, my town having five rapes and five robberies, teenagers being stabbed in gang fights in high school. News reports said that people wouldn’t walk in central Hackensack at night by 1st and Central because drugs were being sold their, and armed robberies kept taking place. Was my home always this dangerous, had I missed it all these years, or was I just more conscious?
I had an idea for this summer to chart all the violent crime in my area, recording it both here and on a Google map. This is not as a scare tactic, but as a sober reminder that this isn’t a problem just for inner cities, and that New Jersey and the places that we live all suffer from crime. My sources will be newspapers, both paper and internet. Because crime spikes in the summer, there will be enough data to have a good look at crime in my area, the places that it occurs, and why it occurs.
This chart and map will cover Bergen County, Passaic County, Essex County, Hudson County, and Morris County. Crimes covered are shootings (fatal and non-fatal), assaults, robberies, and other – including arson, rape, or other high-profile cases that make the news.
May
May 1 – Assault. Man severely beaten, Apartments @ Fremont Street, Jersey City
May 1 – Robbery. Woman robbed of $2500, Tuers and Vroom, Jersey City
May 2 – Assault. Drunken man assaults police officer, diner @ 53rd and Broadway, Bayonne
May 2 – Assault. Bamboozle @ the Meadowlands
May 3 – Assault. Bamboozle @ the Meadowlands
May 3 – Arson. Apartments @ Broad and West Kinney, Newark
May 3 – Shooting. Driver wounded with gunshot to head, Cornelison and Fairmount, Jersey City
May 3 – Shooting. Gas station clerk wounded with gunshot to arm, Broadway and Summer, Paterson
May 4 – Shooting. Police shoot burglar in leg, 16th by South Orange, Newark
May 5 – Shooting. One killed with gunshots to chest and head, one wounded with gunshot to chest, South Orange and Isabella, Newark
Back then, I imagined all criminals were genius masterminds, all murders were dramatic and cinematic, and all crime breathtaking and exciting. Living by the intersection of routes 80, 46, and 95, ten minutes from New York City, I remember one night the police arrested a man for dumping keys of cocaine out of his car windows on the turnpike in a fit of paranoia. I always remember how my parents would warn me away from certain parks or the movie theater at night, due to people “doing drugs” or fighting; on a walk with my girlfriend when I was 16, we heard some pops, and immediately her mom called us to come back, because some teenagers were firing guns in the air a block from her house.
When people were robbed at gunpoint or had shots fired through their windows near me, I thought I lived in an exciting place. Yeah, I knew New York was dangerous – all the rapes and murders they showed on Eyewitness News convinced me of that – but this was my hometown! This was Paterson, Newark, Englewood, Passaic, Garfield, the places that I lived.
It was all exciting and unreal to me until when I was sixteen, and saw a guy get killed by the police in a terrible circumstance in Las Vegas. He was resisting arrest in a car, and speeding away when he hit a cop on a bicycle, knocking him out. The other cop drew his gun and shot him in the head. Me and my dad were walking on the block, but we didn’t even realize what had happened. The cops began to swarm all around, and got the civilians out of the way, and it wasn’t until later I realized the man had died.
A few days after that, a gang fight broke out at a house party a couple blocks from my house, and a 15-year-old boy who was running away was shot in the back with a .357 and left for dead on the street. His name was Ricky Smith. The Paterson Bloods who had killed him were all arrested, and in the next few months, a recognizance that gang activity existed in Teaneck was much more aware. In the next year, gang members were arrested with loaded guns on streets that I walked on every day, and at the Popeye’s on Teaneck Road, a gang fight resulted in a teenager getting stabbed in the neck, needing 300 stitches to close the wound. Before I left for college, an attempted shooting of a police officer in Little Ferry over the river was the news of the day.
It was this kind of stuff that made criminology one of my biggest interests. Even now, with a more mature and sober outlook on crime, and a much bigger realization of unsafeness, the motivation behind criminals and their actions is something that never ceases to interest me.
When I got to American University, during welcome week we couldn’t go a day without getting a public safety alert of a sex offense or robbery on the roads around American. A casual acquaintance of mine was nearly killed on August 20th, when he was being robbed at gunpoint on Nebraska and Van Ness, and the perpetrator pulled the trigger, only to have the gun jam. In DC, I was much more conscious of high crime areas, and I took this back with me when I went home for breaks.
One night this semester I found a crime map that showed all the crime in DC for the last few years, and I was shocked at the amount of crime in the NW. I didn’t think that the NW had such heavy crime, but this is DC – there were murders and shootings around Tenleytown, people killed in Georgetown, and robberies and knifepoint and gunpoint all around the AU area, and other parts of DC that I frequented. (One of my favorite discoveries was a drunken argument between two homeless men on Constitution Avenue in front of the White House. One of them, who was in a wheelchair, pulled a gun out of his bag and shot the other in the leg…in front of the White House.)
When I looked at crime statistics for my home in New Jersey, I was shocked. Not having paid attention all year to news from back home, I saw killings in Hackensack, drive-by shootings in Lodi, my town having five rapes and five robberies, teenagers being stabbed in gang fights in high school. News reports said that people wouldn’t walk in central Hackensack at night by 1st and Central because drugs were being sold their, and armed robberies kept taking place. Was my home always this dangerous, had I missed it all these years, or was I just more conscious?
I had an idea for this summer to chart all the violent crime in my area, recording it both here and on a Google map. This is not as a scare tactic, but as a sober reminder that this isn’t a problem just for inner cities, and that New Jersey and the places that we live all suffer from crime. My sources will be newspapers, both paper and internet. Because crime spikes in the summer, there will be enough data to have a good look at crime in my area, the places that it occurs, and why it occurs.
This chart and map will cover Bergen County, Passaic County, Essex County, Hudson County, and Morris County. Crimes covered are shootings (fatal and non-fatal), assaults, robberies, and other – including arson, rape, or other high-profile cases that make the news.
May
May 1 – Assault. Man severely beaten, Apartments @ Fremont Street, Jersey City
May 1 – Robbery. Woman robbed of $2500, Tuers and Vroom, Jersey City
May 2 – Assault. Drunken man assaults police officer, diner @ 53rd and Broadway, Bayonne
May 2 – Assault. Bamboozle @ the Meadowlands
May 3 – Assault. Bamboozle @ the Meadowlands
May 3 – Arson. Apartments @ Broad and West Kinney, Newark
May 3 – Shooting. Driver wounded with gunshot to head, Cornelison and Fairmount, Jersey City
May 3 – Shooting. Gas station clerk wounded with gunshot to arm, Broadway and Summer, Paterson
May 4 – Shooting. Police shoot burglar in leg, 16th by South Orange, Newark
May 5 – Shooting. One killed with gunshots to chest and head, one wounded with gunshot to chest, South Orange and Isabella, Newark
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