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.
Showing posts with label new jersey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label new jersey. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
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.
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