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.