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