Governor Christie: Stop this Crime Storm Now!

This Christmas season has been an appalling one for the citizens of New Jersey, but particularly those who live in our blighted urban cores of Essex and Mercer Counties. With each passing night, our newspapers and websites bring news of another violent murder. Just this past week we saw a massacre in the Newark area at a bar in Irvington with three shot to death, only to be followed up within 48 hours of the slaughter of two children in Newark’s South Ward. And who can forget the Newark-connected carjacking murder at the Short Hills Mall just a few weeks ago? As our cities spiral out of control, and head towards what amounts to state failure, we realize that in our small, connected state urban crime endangers us all.

So what’s really going on? How can we stop this madness, or at least, hamper it?

I live in beautiful Princeton, New Jersey, but I work as a high school teacher in Newark’s troubled Central Ward. I also lived in Newark for five years as a Rutgers student, where I earned my Bachelors and Masters degrees in the 1990’s. So I know a thing or two about New Jersey’s largest city.

The trouble began about a year ago. Newark was fiscally strapped, and it, along with its surrounding communities, drastically cut its police force. Layoffs followed layoffs, and those who lived and worked in the state’s largest city began to notice something alarming, something that could not be denied by even the most casual of observer. There was little or no police presence on the streets, not in the city’s outlying areas, not even in its busy downtown. Aside from the occasional squad car speeding by, there were no boots on the ground.

This state of affairs carried on for some time as petty crimes increased. Many of my students reported an increase in muggings and robberies in their neighborhoods, but more disturbing were their reports that when summoned, the police rarely if ever showed up. Then, about a year ago, the present murder wave, which is ever increasing in its horrific intensity, began. Now it’s transformed into what amounts to nightly massacres.

Any of my students will tell you the cause. Within the past few months the “word” has filtered down to the city’s gang and so-called “criminal community.” There’s no one watching the shop. There are no police on the streets, the police are not coming when called, the police are not investigating and solving crimes. For all practical purposes, the power of the state has faded away. If you want to rob someone, rape someone, settle a score with a shotgun at 2 p.m. at a busy intersection, or wipe out someone’s family, then go right ahead. If you want to rip a commuter out of his or her car in the middle of the day on one of the city’s major boulevards, then help yourself. If you want to stick a gun at a student’s head while she’s walking to school downtown in order to get her phone, step right up. And if that gun goes off accidentally and kills that child, well, that may happen. But worry not, you may act with impunity. The state of New Jersey no longer values the lives of Newark’s citizens, and frankly, the residents of any of its many troubled cities like Trenton, Camden, Paterson and Atlantic City.

Now wait just a second. What does the “State of New Jersey” have to do with this? These are problems in specific cities and towns. This isn’t Trenton’s problem! Well, anyone with a good working knowledge of our state’s government would tell you that it is a state issue, first and foremost.

New Jersey has an excellent constitution, set up in 1947 to streamline authority and to cut out red tape. Unlike other states, our legislature and governor are specifically empowered to meet and solve problems. Our counties, towns, boroughs, cities and communities may show up on a map, but according to our state constitution, they are mere creatures of the state legislature. If the state legislature wanted to tomorrow, it could rearrange and rename all of it at will. In short, the state government is really the only power in town. In fact, the state government is every town’s government. It’s the state government that provides much of the funding, regulations and, dare I say, leadership (or lack there of) in dealing with crime and the protection of human lives and property.

New Jersey’s communities are not little independent republics, though they may seem to be on a day-to-day basis. They’re not set up to deal with regional crime problems and issues that overwhelm them. That is the job of our representatives and governor in Trenton. It’s on them. They’re the ones who could begin to reverse this situation tomorrow, if they wanted to.

So this is what we, as a state, need to do, now. If we don’t do this, this murder wave will graduate in severity very quickly and begin to undo our common sense of security, even progress.  

The Legislature needs to meet, today, and pass a supplemental spending bill to immediately add police to the streets of our urban zones. Boots on the ground. And these cops have to be local ones, not state troopers whizzing around in shiny white cars, but professionals who can get to know their specific neighborhoods and beats. Speeding, screaming police vehicles do not prevent and solve crimes; smart local cops and investigators that know their neighborhoods do.

And the buck cannot stop there. Our governor, who prides himself on his own personal effectiveness and sheer force of personality, needs to step up. He needs to take responsibility for this crime wave. Again, according to the state constitution, he’s the top cop. He needs to lead by coordinating the efforts of local and state law enforcement to intensively investigate and solve these murders. Again, it may take more funding, more tax dollars, but we’re talking about basic law and order here. New Jersey cannot be a failed state, though it’s quickly beginning to resemble a version of Lebanon in the 1980’s.

It’s going to cost money. This is not a ‘small government’ issue, because criminals could care less about political philosophy. It’s about putting value on the lives of our urban residents and those that transverse these areas on a daily basis. We need cops on the street to prevent crimes, investigators to solve crimes, and a governor that recognizes the fact that basic authority and the rule of law must be restored. Governor Christie, stop this crime storm now!