Newark, NJ Murder Free For 33 Days
Violent City Goes Longest Without Homicide Report in Four Decades
The city of Newark, New Jersey is feeling a little safer over the last month. On Friday, February 15th, New Jersey’s largest city marked its 33rd day of not reporting any official homicides. This is a startling fact for a city that recently averaged two killings a week for the last few years.
To bring awareness to the growing crime rate, billboards have been posted along roads over the past few years to warn Newark citizens of their alarming homicide rate. The billboards read “HELP WANTED: Stop The Killings In Newark Now!” Since the recent murderless streak, the billboards are beginning to be taken down. This is a celebratory measure taken for an event that has not been seen in the city for over 40 years. In 1963, Newark went 40 days without a murder. However, this inevitably did not last. The years between 2002 and 2006 saw the homicide rate increase by 50 percent, prompting ideas like the billboards to emerge. These signs were paid for by the Newark Teacher Union, whose president, Joseph Del Grosso, had promised to take them down once action was there was improvement in the city’s homicide rate.
Police believe the recent streak is attributed to police prosecuting petty crimes that can lead to a potential homicide situation such as loitering and public drunkenness. More serious acts have also been pursued, which has proven to be effective in preventing minor situations from escalating into tragedies. Police have also attributed their sharing of information with other law enforcement agencies as an effective way to combat potential homicides. By working together with the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, New Jersey State Police, and the U.S. Marshals, Newark police are better able to do their jobs. The city has also taken measures to install over 120 surveillance cameras in areas of high crime in the city. These measures have not only aided in dropping homicide rates, but all of the seven forms of violent crime have fallen in Newark over the past year. Among these, rapes fell by 42 percent and aggravated assault and auto theft dropped 14 percent.
Just because the city has been murder-free, however, does not mean that people haven’t been killed. On February 3, an off-duty Newark police officer shot and killed a 30-year-old man. According to the police, however, this incident did not count as a homicide according to FBI reporting guidelines. Also in nearby Irvington, N.J. on Valentine’s Day, Newark police reported a confession of a triple homicide by a 22-year-old man who turned himself in at the police station to tell of the murder. The bodies of two women and a man were later found stabbed to death on the second floor of a two-family home about 2 ½ miles from the police station near Garden State Parkway.
Billboards Plead For Peace in Newark
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