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