The youngest was a year old. The oldest was ninety-six. Some were killed by bitter ex-lovers or romantic rivals, others were killed by their spouses or friends. Others yet were gunned down while selling drugs on a street corner, hit in gang crossfire, run down by fleeing felons, or simply caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The 2009 homicide map of New Jersey is fully researched and up to date, from the first homicide on January 1 2009, to the most recent one this morning. The map can be found at http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&gl=us&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=100430255326859206461.00046c0c8bf50984defdd
This map is helpful in getting a general picture of crime and its victims in New Jersey, looking at the age, race, gender, and location of these murder victims. However, not all homicides are created the same, and not all homicides are murder.
The homicide are separated into 3 degrees for the purpose of this list.
1st degree homicide – Cold-blooded murder, premeditated or otherwise. This includes gang-related hits, disputes, domestic violence, targeted killings, and blind disregard for human life. There were two cases where a victim was killed by shooters firing into a large crowd – an 18-year-old boy killed in Lawnside, and a 13-year-old girl killed in Trenton. These are counted as 1st degree homicides because of the shooters’ intent to kill, and their total lack of respect for life. Likewise, the beating death of a 9-year-old boy in Camden is counted as 1st degree, because even if the killer’s intent was not death, his recklessness with human life still classifies him as a murderer.
There have been 106 victims of 1st degree murder in New Jersey so far in 2009. Included in that are four double homicides.
2nd degree homicide – Indirect murder, aggravated manslaughter, and malicious assaults that result in death. This includes hit-and-runs that kill their victims, murders in which the killers don’t directly come in contact with their victims such as the murder of a firefighter in Elizabeth, and a controversial case in which a husband who had been fighting with his wife shot her in the back with a pellet gun, piercing her lung and killing her. Not all vehicular homicides are counted, as some are legitimately accidental, but vehicular homicides where the perpetrator runs, or refuses to stop for someone on the road, are considered opportunistic murder, despite their lack of premeditation. A driver who runs down a pedestrian due to carelessness is not the same as a fleeing criminal in a police chase who kills a woman while escaping the cops.
There have been twenty-one victims of 2nd degree murder so far in 2009.
3rd degree homicide – Justifiable homicide, including police shootings that result in the death of the criminal. This is the smallest category of homicides, and arguably the least damaging to society. When a man with a knife rushes at police threatening to kill them, taking the attacker’s life in self-defense is no crime, but still the intentional taking of life, so it counts on the homicide map.
There have been five victims of 3rd degree homicide so far in 2009, though it’s debatable if they should be considered ‘victims’ of anyone but themselves.
Some statistics and other details on the demographics of the victims:
102 men were victims of homicide, compared to 30 women. (77.2% versus 22.8%)
The range of ages was heavily concentrated from around 19-33, with a mode at 27, and smaller peaks scattered around.
0-17: 9
18-35:82
36-65: 33
66+: 7
Unknown: 6
Or, in another way of looking at it:
0-9: 5
10-19: 15
20-29: 50
30-39: 20
40-49: 15
50-59: 12
60-69: 1
70-79: 3
80-89: 3
90+: 1
Unknown: 6
The unknown ages are either people who were not identified, or in one case a homeless man whose age could not be determined. Here are some statistics on the homicides by geography:
List of cities by most homicides –
Newark – 22
Jersey City – 17
Camden – 14
Trenton – 8
East Orange – 3
Elizabeth – 3
Irvington – 3
Paterson – 3
A large list of towns had two murders, including Hackensack, Vineland, Bridgeton, and Atlantic City, and another even huger list of towns had only a single murder this year, including Garfield, Neptune, Passaic, Roselle, and Orange.
List of counties by most homicides –
Essex: 35
Hudson: 20
Camden: 17
Middlesex: 11
Mercer: 8
Passaic: 6
Monmouth: 5
Burlington: 5
Union: 5
Bergen: 4
Cumberland: 4
Cape May: 3
Atlantic: 2
Gloucester: 2
Ocean: 2
Somerset: 2
Warren: 2
Sussex: 1
Hunterdon: 0
Morris: 0
Salem: 0
As expected, the counties of Essex, Hudson, and Camden have the highest murder rates due to the cities Newark, Jersey City and Camden.
This blog will continue to cover North Jersey crime, but also murders around the entire state. Today, an unidentified woman was killed in Newark after her car was struck by three fleeing burglars, at the intersection of Foster and Dayton. The criminals, who were being chased by police after a burglary in Elizabeth, ran into Weequahic Park and are currently being hunted. This homicide is #23 for Newark, #35 for Essex County, and #132 for the state as a whole.
The blog will also cover certain publicized murders, or ones that serve as an example of typical crime, or ones that are just really interesting. Check back for more updates soon.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Thursday, June 18, 2009
A clarification of the crime map
This is just a clarification as to what kinds of crime the map covers. The North Jersey crime map consists of the following offenses:
Assault: This is a crime in which physical force is used to injure another. This can include beating, striking, stabbing, pushing, or slashing another. A subcategory is motor vehicle assault, which comprises intentional assaults with a car, or hit-and-runs. Fatal assaults are assaults in which the crime results in the victim’s death.
Robbery: A crime in which force or violence is used to steal money or other items of value from a person. Examples are robberies at gunpoint, robberies at knifepoint, robberies with the threat of violence, robberies with a physical confrontation with the victim, and the subcategory of carjackings, which is the robbery of a vehicle by force.
Shooting: A serious crime in which a firearm is used to injure a person, or an attempted shooting where a firearm is brandished with intent to menace or fire. This includes cases where the gun jams, where shots are exchanged but no one is injured, and when guns are brandished to intimidate or threaten with force, separate from robbery. Fatal shootings are shootings that result in the death of a victim.
Burglary: A crime where someone enters a house, office, building or car unlawfully and steals items. Burglaries in which nothing is stolen are not counted in the crime map.
Stolen vehicle: A crime in which a car, bike, motorcycle, truck or other vehicle is stolen, usually by use of burglary.
Other: This is a very broad category, made up of many different offenses. Included is arson, distribution of a controlled substance, fraud, kidnapping, larceny, lewd acts, manslaughter, prostitution, sexual assault, and weapons offenses, among others. Manslaughter is arguably the most serious of these, as it results in a victim’s death, though death was not the perpetrator’s intent.
What the map DOESN’T cover is simple possession of controlled substance, shoplifting, minor larceny, burglaries with nothing stolen, criminal mischief, DWI, and most nonviolent crime. The map was designed to be about serious crime, not teenagers busted with weed and petty theft.
On another note, I’ve been working on studies of organized crime, as well as high-crime neighborhoods in North Jersey. Coming up soon!
Now for crime during the last few days:
Down in Newark, a breakthrough was made in the May 17 murder of DeSean Hamilton. The killers were tracked down to a house in Irvington, and the police arrested them and their acquaintances with two silenced assault weapons and handguns on them. Meanwhile, the Newark police continued to crack down on crime, with the breakup of an open-air market in Weequahic. A woman and teenage boy were arrested with fifty-nine decks of heroin, with a 12-gauge shotgun and 9mm assault rifle loaded with hollow-points close at hand to defend their corner.
Deeper into Essex County, a Wednesday murder became the newest addition to the homicide map. Dana Cook, a 44-year-old woman, was living in a vacant house in Orange, when the apparent rightful owner arrived and argued with her. In the dispute, he allegedly stabbed her to death, and then fled. The police tracked him down with a bloodhound, and he was placed under arrest.
Bergen County had two shocking crimes this week, the first in Hackensack, where a hit-and-run left a man dead, and the driver at large. The second was early Wednesday morning in River Edge, where in an instance of road rage, the driver of the 168 NJ Transit bus got into an altercation with a motorist on Kinderkamack Road. The motorist, a white male in his 20s, pulled out a silver handgun and brandished it at the bus driver before fleeing the scene. It’s doubtful that he will be apprehended.
In the most publicized crime so far, early yesterday morning a man from Sleepy Hollow NY was pumping gas in an industrial section of Jersey City when two men approached him, one possibly wielding a shotgun. The man possibly tried to escape in his van, but the robbers opened fire and the man was shot twice. He crashed the van, and with gunshot wounds in the forearm and stomach, was left on the street critically injured. He currently clings to life inside a Jersey City hospital, his survival in the balance.
Check back for more updates, as well as the different features on neighborhoods and gangs.
Assault: This is a crime in which physical force is used to injure another. This can include beating, striking, stabbing, pushing, or slashing another. A subcategory is motor vehicle assault, which comprises intentional assaults with a car, or hit-and-runs. Fatal assaults are assaults in which the crime results in the victim’s death.
Robbery: A crime in which force or violence is used to steal money or other items of value from a person. Examples are robberies at gunpoint, robberies at knifepoint, robberies with the threat of violence, robberies with a physical confrontation with the victim, and the subcategory of carjackings, which is the robbery of a vehicle by force.
Shooting: A serious crime in which a firearm is used to injure a person, or an attempted shooting where a firearm is brandished with intent to menace or fire. This includes cases where the gun jams, where shots are exchanged but no one is injured, and when guns are brandished to intimidate or threaten with force, separate from robbery. Fatal shootings are shootings that result in the death of a victim.
Burglary: A crime where someone enters a house, office, building or car unlawfully and steals items. Burglaries in which nothing is stolen are not counted in the crime map.
Stolen vehicle: A crime in which a car, bike, motorcycle, truck or other vehicle is stolen, usually by use of burglary.
Other: This is a very broad category, made up of many different offenses. Included is arson, distribution of a controlled substance, fraud, kidnapping, larceny, lewd acts, manslaughter, prostitution, sexual assault, and weapons offenses, among others. Manslaughter is arguably the most serious of these, as it results in a victim’s death, though death was not the perpetrator’s intent.
What the map DOESN’T cover is simple possession of controlled substance, shoplifting, minor larceny, burglaries with nothing stolen, criminal mischief, DWI, and most nonviolent crime. The map was designed to be about serious crime, not teenagers busted with weed and petty theft.
On another note, I’ve been working on studies of organized crime, as well as high-crime neighborhoods in North Jersey. Coming up soon!
Now for crime during the last few days:
Down in Newark, a breakthrough was made in the May 17 murder of DeSean Hamilton. The killers were tracked down to a house in Irvington, and the police arrested them and their acquaintances with two silenced assault weapons and handguns on them. Meanwhile, the Newark police continued to crack down on crime, with the breakup of an open-air market in Weequahic. A woman and teenage boy were arrested with fifty-nine decks of heroin, with a 12-gauge shotgun and 9mm assault rifle loaded with hollow-points close at hand to defend their corner.
Deeper into Essex County, a Wednesday murder became the newest addition to the homicide map. Dana Cook, a 44-year-old woman, was living in a vacant house in Orange, when the apparent rightful owner arrived and argued with her. In the dispute, he allegedly stabbed her to death, and then fled. The police tracked him down with a bloodhound, and he was placed under arrest.
Bergen County had two shocking crimes this week, the first in Hackensack, where a hit-and-run left a man dead, and the driver at large. The second was early Wednesday morning in River Edge, where in an instance of road rage, the driver of the 168 NJ Transit bus got into an altercation with a motorist on Kinderkamack Road. The motorist, a white male in his 20s, pulled out a silver handgun and brandished it at the bus driver before fleeing the scene. It’s doubtful that he will be apprehended.
In the most publicized crime so far, early yesterday morning a man from Sleepy Hollow NY was pumping gas in an industrial section of Jersey City when two men approached him, one possibly wielding a shotgun. The man possibly tried to escape in his van, but the robbers opened fire and the man was shot twice. He crashed the van, and with gunshot wounds in the forearm and stomach, was left on the street critically injured. He currently clings to life inside a Jersey City hospital, his survival in the balance.
Check back for more updates, as well as the different features on neighborhoods and gangs.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
A Question about Newark – and crimes so far this week
A recent article in the Star-Ledger has said that there were eleven murders in Newark in May, and around fourteen in June so far. Strangely, my list only records seven in May, and a further three in June for Newark. The Star-Ledger doesn’t report all murders in Newark, which I found somewhat shocking, due to the gravity of the crime. If this omission was anywhere but Newark, there would be outrage. Murders of suburban middle-class people not being covered is apparently unthinkable, and ignoring the impoverished dead on urban streets is the norm.
If anyone has information on these missing Newark murders, as well as any other crime, please contact me. The crime data for Newark on my map is artificially low, due to the Star-Ledger neglecting to report on most major Newark crimes, even murder.
The crimes of Newark are not the crimes of the suburbs, and a shocking attack like the one on June 12 would be unlikely in Millburn or Paramus. Only a block away from where a 19-year-old was murdered weeks before, a man pulled up in an SUV by the Stratford-Aspen apartments and began to argue with a 23-year-old man. The assailant pulled out a silver handgun and fired eight shots, striking his target in the back. However, stray bullets hit a 12-year-old boy who had been standing nearby in the stomach, buttocks, and arm, severely wounding him. The shooter escaped, leaving the boy clinging to life.
Early Saturday morning in Hoboken, another young life was ruined, but in a far different way. An 18-year-old junior in Hoboken High School and all-star of the basketball team was arrested after two vicious crimes. Around 1 AM a New York man was punched unconscious and robbed of his wallet; while police were investigating this robbery, the young man and friends were beating another man in Church Square Park for trespassing in their territory at night. The teen was arrested for robbery and assault, and his promising athletic career presumably ended.
On June 14, a sickening crime was discovered in East Orange. A family-owned grocery store was burglarized, and a citizen called the police to investigate. The police arrived at the store early in the morning before the owners got there, and discovered illegal fighting roosters bred for cockfights, and steroids used to bulk them up. The roosters were scarred, some covered in fresh wounds that suggested they had been battled within the previous few days. The owner, and his wife and teenage son, were arrested for animal cruelty, and the roosters were euthanized.
One notoriously bad area that I’ve discovered through my plotting of crimes on the map is the southern part of Montclair, especially in the vicinity of Mission Street. A hub of assaults, drug dealings, and occasional exchange of gunfire, this neighborhood was in uproar again Sunday night when a 33-year-old East Orange man was attacked by a gang of people on Mission Street. He was struck in the head with a pipe and stabbed, requiring evacuation to Newark Medical; several of his assailants were arrested, but the motive is still unclear.
As well as the Muddy Banks of the Hackensack crime blog and the New Jersey Murder Map, I’ve also been working on a study of organized crime in New Jersey. Any contributions to this would be welcome.
Murder Map
If anyone has information on these missing Newark murders, as well as any other crime, please contact me. The crime data for Newark on my map is artificially low, due to the Star-Ledger neglecting to report on most major Newark crimes, even murder.
The crimes of Newark are not the crimes of the suburbs, and a shocking attack like the one on June 12 would be unlikely in Millburn or Paramus. Only a block away from where a 19-year-old was murdered weeks before, a man pulled up in an SUV by the Stratford-Aspen apartments and began to argue with a 23-year-old man. The assailant pulled out a silver handgun and fired eight shots, striking his target in the back. However, stray bullets hit a 12-year-old boy who had been standing nearby in the stomach, buttocks, and arm, severely wounding him. The shooter escaped, leaving the boy clinging to life.
Early Saturday morning in Hoboken, another young life was ruined, but in a far different way. An 18-year-old junior in Hoboken High School and all-star of the basketball team was arrested after two vicious crimes. Around 1 AM a New York man was punched unconscious and robbed of his wallet; while police were investigating this robbery, the young man and friends were beating another man in Church Square Park for trespassing in their territory at night. The teen was arrested for robbery and assault, and his promising athletic career presumably ended.
On June 14, a sickening crime was discovered in East Orange. A family-owned grocery store was burglarized, and a citizen called the police to investigate. The police arrived at the store early in the morning before the owners got there, and discovered illegal fighting roosters bred for cockfights, and steroids used to bulk them up. The roosters were scarred, some covered in fresh wounds that suggested they had been battled within the previous few days. The owner, and his wife and teenage son, were arrested for animal cruelty, and the roosters were euthanized.
One notoriously bad area that I’ve discovered through my plotting of crimes on the map is the southern part of Montclair, especially in the vicinity of Mission Street. A hub of assaults, drug dealings, and occasional exchange of gunfire, this neighborhood was in uproar again Sunday night when a 33-year-old East Orange man was attacked by a gang of people on Mission Street. He was struck in the head with a pipe and stabbed, requiring evacuation to Newark Medical; several of his assailants were arrested, but the motive is still unclear.
As well as the Muddy Banks of the Hackensack crime blog and the New Jersey Murder Map, I’ve also been working on a study of organized crime in New Jersey. Any contributions to this would be welcome.
Murder Map
Sunday, June 14, 2009
New Jersey murder map - and how the media can distort it
If you look at the murder map on Google Maps ( http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&gl=us&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=100430255326859206461.00046c0c8bf50984defdd ), you’ll notice there’s been a big and better change. I’ve made the decision to extend the murder map to the entirety of the state, in every county, including the hot spot of Camden, as well as less dangerous cities like Trenton, Asbury Park, Atlantic City and Bridgeton. My reasons were that 1) murder is the most serious of crimes, and deserves to be covered statewide, 2) murder happens relatively infrequently compared to other crimes, so tracking all the state’s murders won’t be too tedious, and 3) the arbitrary borders I had before showed murders in some counties, ignoring murders in others, which dehumanized the victims into nothing more than statistics.
So now the murder map covers the entire state, since May 1. The rural center of New Jersey has few murders, with heavy concentrations in Newark/Jersey City, and murders dotted around the border, at Asbury Park, Atlantic City, Bridgeton, Camden and Trenton. Further inwards though, murders still do occur, but without the influence of drugs and organized crime.
Here are some statistics on homicides in NJ. This includes a police shooting, which is labeled as justified; though some might disagree, it’s still the intentional taking of a life, which differentiates it from the manslaughters and drunk driving crashes that also killed, but which aren’t included on the map.
Homicides
Newark – 9
Jersey City – 5
Camden – 3
Caldwell – 2 (1 justifiable)
Mansfield – 2
Trenton – 2
Asbury Park – 1
Atlantic City – 1
Bridgeton – 1
Bridgewater – 1
Cherry Hill – 1
East Orange – 1
North Brunswick – 1
Paterson – 1
If I’m missing any on this list, feel free to contact me.
Some statistics on the murders:
The youngest victim was 1, the oldest 96. Out of the thirty-one homicide victims, there were twenty-three blacks, four Latinos, and four whites. Twenty-four men were murdered, and seven women were murdered. Three of the murder victims were minors: a 1-year-old girl, a 13-year-old girl, and a 16-year old boy. There were many, many other cases where the victim was only 18 or 19 though.
Shootings accounted for twenty murders, stabbings four, beatings two, strangling two, and arson two. Looking at the map it’s easy to see where the most violence is concentrated, but in some ways it distorts the true picture. Paterson has had a tremendous number of shootings, but only one murder; suburban Caldwell and rural Mansfield have two murders each, which were rarities for those towns. Looking at the map, I was surprised that urban Union County had no murders, despite its proximity to Newark, and the major cities and industrial areas that encircle Elizabeth and the Woodbridge-Edison area. Nevertheless, the murder map is still a useful tool and an interesting addition to the North Jersey crime map concept.
My crime map still covers only North Jersey, it’s only murders that extend to the entire state. This blog might occasionally cover murders in other parts of the state if they’re exceptional enough. A 13-year-old girl gunned down at a block party in Trenton by gang members that spray twenty rounds into a huge crowd is exceptional in a way that a teenager shot while standing on a Camden street corner is not.
It’s the media, however, that distorts the picture the most. When a white middle-aged woman is raped and killed in a suburb like Bridgewater, the press is all over it, constantly covering it, providing updates on the cases; the majority of New Jersey’s population, who tend to be middle-class and white, relate to it. However, when gang shootings and outbursts of violence leave nine dead on the streets of Newark, the press barely bats an eye, providing minimal coverage relative to the more high-profile crimes. Occasionally a Newark murder will be highlighted as a microcosm of the troubles of the city – such as the pointless murder of Alonzo Canty, a wheelchair-bound elderly man who was shot in the crossfire between two gangs. But in general, the death of a poor black teenager has become so commonplace that the media apparently can’t afford those victims the same attention they give to suburban whites. Though their lots in life aren’t as good, their suffering and deaths are no less meaningful and painful for their families.
Out of thirty-one homicides, only four had white victims: one in Atlantic City, two in rural Warren County, and one in Bridgewater – none in North Jersey. This got me thinking about how crime in North Jersey is sometimes seen by the media and culture, through the lens of the Mafia. I looked back to the first season of the Sopranos, which for many people created an idea of what North Jersey was like.
In the first season of the Sopranos, ten people were murdered over the course of a summer and into autumn in the show. Seven were white, two Latino, and one black – almost a reversal of what the murder rate in New Jersey is really like. If today a white suburban man was shot to death in Secaucus (like Chucky Signore) or North Caldwell (Mikey Palmice) there would be a media uproar. Considering the attempted assassination of the main character Tony Soprano on a crowded Montclair street that left one man dead, it would become the top story for weeks. In the show, the media almost brushes the gang violence off, and though they recognize organized crime, they downplay it.
In reality, murder in New Jersey affects mostly the poor and minority, not the affluent and powerful, despite what the Sopranos depicts. In North Jersey, you are most likely to be killed if you are young, black, live in an urban area, and have organized crime connections. The kind of targets that the show depicts, and the locales in which they occur, just doesn’t happen in the actual North Jersey.
So now the murder map covers the entire state, since May 1. The rural center of New Jersey has few murders, with heavy concentrations in Newark/Jersey City, and murders dotted around the border, at Asbury Park, Atlantic City, Bridgeton, Camden and Trenton. Further inwards though, murders still do occur, but without the influence of drugs and organized crime.
Here are some statistics on homicides in NJ. This includes a police shooting, which is labeled as justified; though some might disagree, it’s still the intentional taking of a life, which differentiates it from the manslaughters and drunk driving crashes that also killed, but which aren’t included on the map.
Homicides
Newark – 9
Jersey City – 5
Camden – 3
Caldwell – 2 (1 justifiable)
Mansfield – 2
Trenton – 2
Asbury Park – 1
Atlantic City – 1
Bridgeton – 1
Bridgewater – 1
Cherry Hill – 1
East Orange – 1
North Brunswick – 1
Paterson – 1
If I’m missing any on this list, feel free to contact me.
Some statistics on the murders:
The youngest victim was 1, the oldest 96. Out of the thirty-one homicide victims, there were twenty-three blacks, four Latinos, and four whites. Twenty-four men were murdered, and seven women were murdered. Three of the murder victims were minors: a 1-year-old girl, a 13-year-old girl, and a 16-year old boy. There were many, many other cases where the victim was only 18 or 19 though.
Shootings accounted for twenty murders, stabbings four, beatings two, strangling two, and arson two. Looking at the map it’s easy to see where the most violence is concentrated, but in some ways it distorts the true picture. Paterson has had a tremendous number of shootings, but only one murder; suburban Caldwell and rural Mansfield have two murders each, which were rarities for those towns. Looking at the map, I was surprised that urban Union County had no murders, despite its proximity to Newark, and the major cities and industrial areas that encircle Elizabeth and the Woodbridge-Edison area. Nevertheless, the murder map is still a useful tool and an interesting addition to the North Jersey crime map concept.
My crime map still covers only North Jersey, it’s only murders that extend to the entire state. This blog might occasionally cover murders in other parts of the state if they’re exceptional enough. A 13-year-old girl gunned down at a block party in Trenton by gang members that spray twenty rounds into a huge crowd is exceptional in a way that a teenager shot while standing on a Camden street corner is not.
It’s the media, however, that distorts the picture the most. When a white middle-aged woman is raped and killed in a suburb like Bridgewater, the press is all over it, constantly covering it, providing updates on the cases; the majority of New Jersey’s population, who tend to be middle-class and white, relate to it. However, when gang shootings and outbursts of violence leave nine dead on the streets of Newark, the press barely bats an eye, providing minimal coverage relative to the more high-profile crimes. Occasionally a Newark murder will be highlighted as a microcosm of the troubles of the city – such as the pointless murder of Alonzo Canty, a wheelchair-bound elderly man who was shot in the crossfire between two gangs. But in general, the death of a poor black teenager has become so commonplace that the media apparently can’t afford those victims the same attention they give to suburban whites. Though their lots in life aren’t as good, their suffering and deaths are no less meaningful and painful for their families.
Out of thirty-one homicides, only four had white victims: one in Atlantic City, two in rural Warren County, and one in Bridgewater – none in North Jersey. This got me thinking about how crime in North Jersey is sometimes seen by the media and culture, through the lens of the Mafia. I looked back to the first season of the Sopranos, which for many people created an idea of what North Jersey was like.
In the first season of the Sopranos, ten people were murdered over the course of a summer and into autumn in the show. Seven were white, two Latino, and one black – almost a reversal of what the murder rate in New Jersey is really like. If today a white suburban man was shot to death in Secaucus (like Chucky Signore) or North Caldwell (Mikey Palmice) there would be a media uproar. Considering the attempted assassination of the main character Tony Soprano on a crowded Montclair street that left one man dead, it would become the top story for weeks. In the show, the media almost brushes the gang violence off, and though they recognize organized crime, they downplay it.
In reality, murder in New Jersey affects mostly the poor and minority, not the affluent and powerful, despite what the Sopranos depicts. In North Jersey, you are most likely to be killed if you are young, black, live in an urban area, and have organized crime connections. The kind of targets that the show depicts, and the locales in which they occur, just doesn’t happen in the actual North Jersey.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Utilizing Google Maps now; and a lot of shootings in North Jersey
After seeing NJ.com’s homicide map for Hudson County in 2008, I created a similar Google map with the North Jersey homicides for 2009: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&gl=us&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=100430255326859206461.00046c0c8bf50984defdd They’re color-coded for what city they occurred in, and includes the names and ages of deceased, where they’re known. The total is 17 so far, one being a police shooting, a justifiable homicide in self-defense. After these last few days of violence, I’m surprised there haven’t been more murders.
There were a LOT of shootings these last few days. On June 9, a single shot was fired near Ocean Avenue and Wegman Parkway in Jersey City. A man who was walking by was hit in the stomach, but didn’t realize that he had been shot until he got to his apartment and noticed the blood. The victim was uncooperative with the police, and drove himself to the hospital.
Two days later, there was a report of shots fired on Temple Street in Paterson. Officers on the scene pulled over a suspicious vehicle, and approached it with guns drawn. The occupants burst out of the Hummer and began to run, dropping weapons in the process. The driver was in possession of a Tec-9 automatic machine pistol, with forty bullets and one in the chamber. Another of the car’s occupants had a .357 magnum revolver, both weapons illegal. A digital scale found in the car suggests that they were involved in the drug trade.
Saddest of all, today a shooting in Newark left a 12-year-old boy in critical condition. By the Stratford Aspen Apartment Complex, where a 19-year-old boy was murdered two weeks ago, a man in a silver SUV pulled up and began to argue with a 23-year-old man standing in a group of people. The driver pulled out a handgun and fired eight shots, one striking his target in the back, but stray bullets hitting a 12-year-old who was standing nearby in the back, arm, and stomach. While the shooter’s target was in stable condition, the young man who took the most bullets is in critical care.
Crime tends to peak on the weekends, but there’s one piece of good news. A Paterson man responsible for at least fifteen car burglaries in Rutherford has been arrested, and cooperative with police. While not on the same level as shootings and murder, at least it’s a sign of progress in the neverending fight against crime.
There were a LOT of shootings these last few days. On June 9, a single shot was fired near Ocean Avenue and Wegman Parkway in Jersey City. A man who was walking by was hit in the stomach, but didn’t realize that he had been shot until he got to his apartment and noticed the blood. The victim was uncooperative with the police, and drove himself to the hospital.
Two days later, there was a report of shots fired on Temple Street in Paterson. Officers on the scene pulled over a suspicious vehicle, and approached it with guns drawn. The occupants burst out of the Hummer and began to run, dropping weapons in the process. The driver was in possession of a Tec-9 automatic machine pistol, with forty bullets and one in the chamber. Another of the car’s occupants had a .357 magnum revolver, both weapons illegal. A digital scale found in the car suggests that they were involved in the drug trade.
Saddest of all, today a shooting in Newark left a 12-year-old boy in critical condition. By the Stratford Aspen Apartment Complex, where a 19-year-old boy was murdered two weeks ago, a man in a silver SUV pulled up and began to argue with a 23-year-old man standing in a group of people. The driver pulled out a handgun and fired eight shots, one striking his target in the back, but stray bullets hitting a 12-year-old who was standing nearby in the back, arm, and stomach. While the shooter’s target was in stable condition, the young man who took the most bullets is in critical care.
Crime tends to peak on the weekends, but there’s one piece of good news. A Paterson man responsible for at least fifteen car burglaries in Rutherford has been arrested, and cooperative with police. While not on the same level as shootings and murder, at least it’s a sign of progress in the neverending fight against crime.
Monday, June 8, 2009
The Crime Map getting personal.
In any given week in crime, good things happen with the bad. The good things are the ones that you are detached from, and that give you faith in the power of humanity.
On Sunday, a Nutley woman’s ex-boyfriend broke into her house, severely beat her boyfriend, and kidnapped her at knifepoint. Through many anonymous tips, the man was located at a motel in the Meadowlands, and the woman was safely returned home, with the man being thrown in jail. That’s something that in the end has a happy outcome. Last Thursday, a woman walking up to her apartment in Greenville, Jersey City, was followed by two men up to her front steps, with several neighbors watching. While she turned around to ask what they were doing, they pulled out handguns and attempted to rob her. The neighborhood was watching; a woman on the first floor yelled out that she was calling the police and they were on their way. The two robbers fled, and everyone was safe in the end.
Other times, the crime is sickening and astounding. In broad daylight around noon on Saturday, two men, at least one bearing a knife, broke into a Maplewood Avenue house in Clifton. They began rummaging around, stealing jewelry and valuables, when they came into the room of a young woman who was sleeping. The burglars woke her up, and she began to panic. The robbers beat her until she was unconscious, the assault leaving her hospitalized, and the police chief remarking that the violence was “astounding.” The men fled,
And other times, the crime and violence strikes so close that it feels personal, and almost violating. A double homicide occurred two blocks from my girlfriend’s house in Caldwell this morning, one in cold blood, the other justified. A 37-year-old man stabbed his girlfriend to death in the kitchen of his house, 25 Espry Road, and the police came, alerted by her screams. By the time they arrived, she was dying, and the man lunged at the police with the knife. Two bullets brought him down, and both died around 10 AM today. Those two, plus a fatal shooting in broad daylight in Jersey City, made today, June 8th, the most deadliest day for homicides so far this summer. The fact that these gunshots were audible probably where my girlfriend was sleeping that morning disturbed me a little; I know the area, and I know the street, and Caldwell is not the kind of town that has murders and shootings. It feels strange to put Caldwell up next to Newark and Paterson on the murder count.
Which by the way:
Homicide count
Newark – 8
Jersey City – 5
Caldwell – 2 (1 being justifiable in self-defense)
Paterson – 1
East Orange – 1
Towns ranked by number of shootings
Newark – 10
Paterson – 7 (2 having no injuries)
Jersey City – 5
East Orange – 2 (1 having no injuries)
Irvington – 2 (1 no injuries)
Caldwell – 1
Montclair – 1 (multiple rounds exchanged, no injuries)
Netcong – 1 (no injuries)
West Orange – 1
Also striking very personally, a Stop N Shop in Teaneck five minutes away that I know and have been to was robbed by a man with a box cutter today. He was making his way out into the parking lot when he was confronted by a security guard; he brandished his blade, dropped the duffle bag and then fled. He was a white man in his forties with tattoos; he had robbed the store of diapers, formula, food, and baby medicine.
As far as other crime, there was one that needed to be mentioned. On Sunday, the police finally closed in on a public exhibitionist and masturbator who had been exposing himself and committing lewd acts around Clifton, Newark, and Passaic. He was cruising naked around Newark neighborhoods, then drove up to Passaic, where he exposed himself to two teenage girls, and was arrested. He has a history of similar misdemeanors, and is suspected in similar cases in the area.
On Sunday, a Nutley woman’s ex-boyfriend broke into her house, severely beat her boyfriend, and kidnapped her at knifepoint. Through many anonymous tips, the man was located at a motel in the Meadowlands, and the woman was safely returned home, with the man being thrown in jail. That’s something that in the end has a happy outcome. Last Thursday, a woman walking up to her apartment in Greenville, Jersey City, was followed by two men up to her front steps, with several neighbors watching. While she turned around to ask what they were doing, they pulled out handguns and attempted to rob her. The neighborhood was watching; a woman on the first floor yelled out that she was calling the police and they were on their way. The two robbers fled, and everyone was safe in the end.
Other times, the crime is sickening and astounding. In broad daylight around noon on Saturday, two men, at least one bearing a knife, broke into a Maplewood Avenue house in Clifton. They began rummaging around, stealing jewelry and valuables, when they came into the room of a young woman who was sleeping. The burglars woke her up, and she began to panic. The robbers beat her until she was unconscious, the assault leaving her hospitalized, and the police chief remarking that the violence was “astounding.” The men fled,
And other times, the crime and violence strikes so close that it feels personal, and almost violating. A double homicide occurred two blocks from my girlfriend’s house in Caldwell this morning, one in cold blood, the other justified. A 37-year-old man stabbed his girlfriend to death in the kitchen of his house, 25 Espry Road, and the police came, alerted by her screams. By the time they arrived, she was dying, and the man lunged at the police with the knife. Two bullets brought him down, and both died around 10 AM today. Those two, plus a fatal shooting in broad daylight in Jersey City, made today, June 8th, the most deadliest day for homicides so far this summer. The fact that these gunshots were audible probably where my girlfriend was sleeping that morning disturbed me a little; I know the area, and I know the street, and Caldwell is not the kind of town that has murders and shootings. It feels strange to put Caldwell up next to Newark and Paterson on the murder count.
Which by the way:
Homicide count
Newark – 8
Jersey City – 5
Caldwell – 2 (1 being justifiable in self-defense)
Paterson – 1
East Orange – 1
Towns ranked by number of shootings
Newark – 10
Paterson – 7 (2 having no injuries)
Jersey City – 5
East Orange – 2 (1 having no injuries)
Irvington – 2 (1 no injuries)
Caldwell – 1
Montclair – 1 (multiple rounds exchanged, no injuries)
Netcong – 1 (no injuries)
West Orange – 1
Also striking very personally, a Stop N Shop in Teaneck five minutes away that I know and have been to was robbed by a man with a box cutter today. He was making his way out into the parking lot when he was confronted by a security guard; he brandished his blade, dropped the duffle bag and then fled. He was a white man in his forties with tattoos; he had robbed the store of diapers, formula, food, and baby medicine.
As far as other crime, there was one that needed to be mentioned. On Sunday, the police finally closed in on a public exhibitionist and masturbator who had been exposing himself and committing lewd acts around Clifton, Newark, and Passaic. He was cruising naked around Newark neighborhoods, then drove up to Passaic, where he exposed himself to two teenage girls, and was arrested. He has a history of similar misdemeanors, and is suspected in similar cases in the area.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
A new direction for this blog
This blog started out as a personal journal, a record of my thoughts and my feelings on myself, my life, and the world around me. The first few posts continued in this way, with stories of the last few weeks of my first year at American University, and only veered into the crime data and mapping on a whim. Now that the crime aspect of the blog has become more serious, the face of the blog should change, and I now consider this primarily a blog about Northern Jersey crime, rather than my own personal life.
Because of this, I’ve deleted several posts from this blog that were inappropriate in the light of such a serious subject like crime, and also to make this blog more focused on that one issue. From now on, From the Muddy Banks of the Hackensack will cover the crime map only.
And speaking of the crime map, the first week of June has seen some interesting happenings in North Jersey. Just after midnight, the first new crime of the month took place in Jersey City, with a drunken argument culminating in a man getting stabbed in the back, and then refusing to cooperate with police to find the suspect. An inauspicious start to June.
Further in Jersey City, a 9-month probe into organized crime resulted in the arrest of 35 street-level dealers and organizational leaders in a gang that specialized in heroin trafficking and dealing, with several murders attributed to them. They were operating out of the A. Harry Moore and Marion Gardens projects on Westside; seven were charged on the federal level.
Aside from the usual burglaries, minor assaults, and robberies in the area, there were two murders in Newark in the first week of June. On June 2, a 25-year-old man was found around 10pm on 11th Street near Woodland in Newark, his body riddled with multiple gunshots. The next day, tragedy struck Newark again, in the far northern reaches of the city, almost in Belleville and Bloomfield. A gang fight erupted outside the Stephen Crane projects, which are populated primarily with senior citizens. Four shots were exchanged; one of these went through an old woman’s door, another struck the chest of a 70-year-old senior citizen in a wheelchair. He died within minutes, and the culprits fled.
Since this blog will have more of a singular focus now, expect more regular updates, and more in-depth coverage of the crimes detailed. Condolences to the families of the two men who died this week in Newark.
-Ronan
Because of this, I’ve deleted several posts from this blog that were inappropriate in the light of such a serious subject like crime, and also to make this blog more focused on that one issue. From now on, From the Muddy Banks of the Hackensack will cover the crime map only.
And speaking of the crime map, the first week of June has seen some interesting happenings in North Jersey. Just after midnight, the first new crime of the month took place in Jersey City, with a drunken argument culminating in a man getting stabbed in the back, and then refusing to cooperate with police to find the suspect. An inauspicious start to June.
Further in Jersey City, a 9-month probe into organized crime resulted in the arrest of 35 street-level dealers and organizational leaders in a gang that specialized in heroin trafficking and dealing, with several murders attributed to them. They were operating out of the A. Harry Moore and Marion Gardens projects on Westside; seven were charged on the federal level.
Aside from the usual burglaries, minor assaults, and robberies in the area, there were two murders in Newark in the first week of June. On June 2, a 25-year-old man was found around 10pm on 11th Street near Woodland in Newark, his body riddled with multiple gunshots. The next day, tragedy struck Newark again, in the far northern reaches of the city, almost in Belleville and Bloomfield. A gang fight erupted outside the Stephen Crane projects, which are populated primarily with senior citizens. Four shots were exchanged; one of these went through an old woman’s door, another struck the chest of a 70-year-old senior citizen in a wheelchair. He died within minutes, and the culprits fled.
Since this blog will have more of a singular focus now, expect more regular updates, and more in-depth coverage of the crimes detailed. Condolences to the families of the two men who died this week in Newark.
-Ronan
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
North Jersey Crime Map May 2009
The month of May is over.
The first month of the crime map experiment is completed, and with it I feel like I have so much more of an understanding of the causes and results of crime.
Sometimes it takes place in the most random of locales – two thoughtless youths aiming a gun at a police officer as they speed down a rural highway. Sometimes it takes place just where you’d expect it to – a man shot in the back of the head and left to die on a Jersey City street. Sometimes it’s the border between the two, between the city and suburbia, where it worries you that sometimes the crime encroaches into the places that you don’t want them to – a man stabbed in his driveway in Lodi, Bergen County.
Sometimes the people who commit the crimes are addicts, like burglars in Sussex and Essex County who stole to feed their addiction. Sometimes, the crimes are accidental, like a man panicking and running from the police, or an 11-year-old girl accidentally shot during a drive-by shooting, or a gang of teenage girls robbing a woman just because they feel like it. These are the crimes anyone around you might do. Sometimes they’re well-planned and organized, like robberies of social clubs and malls, like huge drug rings, like stickups for thousands of dollars.
These crime maps below are divided by county. The towns are shaded as to how many incidents of crime took place within their borders, and select incidents are highlighted to show a sample of the kinds of crime that took place within the county.
Before seeing the actual crime maps, which serve to dehumanize as well as illustrate the human cost of crime, I just want to consider the victims of the twelve murders that took place in North Jersey in the month of May. These are the ones who have lost their lives due to crime, and the ones that should be remembered most. Newark suffered six murders, Jersey City four, and one each in Paterson and East Orange.
Murders
May 5 – Shooting in Newark, man killed with gunshots to chest and head in Vailsburg. One of the people with him was also wounded by the gunfire.
May 6 – Stabbing in Paterson, man stabbed multiple times in Wrigley Park and left to die on the street. He was a 39-year-old with a family.
May 6 – Stabbing in Jersey City, man stabbed in his neck and shoulder in Journal Square. He was murdered in the doorway of his apartment building, in an apparent robbery gone wrong.
May 11 – Shooting in Newark, man killed with gunshot to head in Weequahic, one of his friends also hurt by the gunshots, making it seem to be a gang fight.
May 17 – Shooting in Newark, man killed with gunshot to chest in Weequahic, only blocks from the Beth Israel Medical Center.
May 17 – Strangling in Jersey City, man killed by choking in The Heights. A friend of his was charged with his death, which happened after an argument got out of control.
May 18 – Strangling in Newark, man killed by choking in Newark Bay. He was an inmate at a halfway house, who was only in there for being in debt for traffic violations. He was murdered by two men who strangled him over twenty dollars; the facility didn’t lock its inmates doors at night.
May 24 – Shooting in Newark, man killed by multiple gunshots in South Broad Valley.
May 25 – Shooting in Jersey City, man killed with gunshot to the head in Bergen-Lafayette on a street corner.
May 25 – Shooting in Jersey City, man killed with multiple gunshots to back in Greenville, left for dead on the street.
May 28 – Shooting in East Orange, woman killed with multiple gunshots while sitting in her car in front of an elementary school. The students found her; her ex-boyfriend, the culprit, had committed suicide in his Irvington apartment afterwards.
May 28 – Shooting in Newark, man killed with gunshot to chest in South Broad valley. He was 19.
That being said, here are the crime maps of North Jersey for May of 2009.
Bergen County -
Essex County -
Hudson County -
Morris County -
Passaic County -
Sussex County -
The first month of the crime map experiment is completed, and with it I feel like I have so much more of an understanding of the causes and results of crime.
Sometimes it takes place in the most random of locales – two thoughtless youths aiming a gun at a police officer as they speed down a rural highway. Sometimes it takes place just where you’d expect it to – a man shot in the back of the head and left to die on a Jersey City street. Sometimes it’s the border between the two, between the city and suburbia, where it worries you that sometimes the crime encroaches into the places that you don’t want them to – a man stabbed in his driveway in Lodi, Bergen County.
Sometimes the people who commit the crimes are addicts, like burglars in Sussex and Essex County who stole to feed their addiction. Sometimes, the crimes are accidental, like a man panicking and running from the police, or an 11-year-old girl accidentally shot during a drive-by shooting, or a gang of teenage girls robbing a woman just because they feel like it. These are the crimes anyone around you might do. Sometimes they’re well-planned and organized, like robberies of social clubs and malls, like huge drug rings, like stickups for thousands of dollars.
These crime maps below are divided by county. The towns are shaded as to how many incidents of crime took place within their borders, and select incidents are highlighted to show a sample of the kinds of crime that took place within the county.
Before seeing the actual crime maps, which serve to dehumanize as well as illustrate the human cost of crime, I just want to consider the victims of the twelve murders that took place in North Jersey in the month of May. These are the ones who have lost their lives due to crime, and the ones that should be remembered most. Newark suffered six murders, Jersey City four, and one each in Paterson and East Orange.
Murders
May 5 – Shooting in Newark, man killed with gunshots to chest and head in Vailsburg. One of the people with him was also wounded by the gunfire.
May 6 – Stabbing in Paterson, man stabbed multiple times in Wrigley Park and left to die on the street. He was a 39-year-old with a family.
May 6 – Stabbing in Jersey City, man stabbed in his neck and shoulder in Journal Square. He was murdered in the doorway of his apartment building, in an apparent robbery gone wrong.
May 11 – Shooting in Newark, man killed with gunshot to head in Weequahic, one of his friends also hurt by the gunshots, making it seem to be a gang fight.
May 17 – Shooting in Newark, man killed with gunshot to chest in Weequahic, only blocks from the Beth Israel Medical Center.
May 17 – Strangling in Jersey City, man killed by choking in The Heights. A friend of his was charged with his death, which happened after an argument got out of control.
May 18 – Strangling in Newark, man killed by choking in Newark Bay. He was an inmate at a halfway house, who was only in there for being in debt for traffic violations. He was murdered by two men who strangled him over twenty dollars; the facility didn’t lock its inmates doors at night.
May 24 – Shooting in Newark, man killed by multiple gunshots in South Broad Valley.
May 25 – Shooting in Jersey City, man killed with gunshot to the head in Bergen-Lafayette on a street corner.
May 25 – Shooting in Jersey City, man killed with multiple gunshots to back in Greenville, left for dead on the street.
May 28 – Shooting in East Orange, woman killed with multiple gunshots while sitting in her car in front of an elementary school. The students found her; her ex-boyfriend, the culprit, had committed suicide in his Irvington apartment afterwards.
May 28 – Shooting in Newark, man killed with gunshot to chest in South Broad valley. He was 19.
That being said, here are the crime maps of North Jersey for May of 2009.
Bergen County -
Essex County -
Hudson County -
Morris County -
Passaic County -
Sussex County -
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