Another troubling homicide on violent Trenton landscape

Yellow police crime tape stretched across Stuyvesant Avenue on Tuesday afternoon.

In one area near Hoffman Ave. several strands of tape fluttered against a cold afternoon breeze as police investigators searched for clues regarding the daylight execution of Shaela Johnson, a 19-yearold alleged member of the Crips street gang.

A video of the execution showed that two men in black exited a black vehicle parked on Stuyvesant Ave. They fired handguns as people ran for cover. Johnson died as she attempted to find refuge inside a corner store.

The strands of yellow tape reproduced a memory of “Cat’s Cradle”, a game played with a looped length of string.

Older people will recall this mental exercise that requires two or more partners who use string to form various shapes, each building on the last.

The goal of the game requires participants to deliver a final last shape without making a mistake as players use string to form different configurations.

Once seen, Cat’s Cradle is not as confusing as it sounds, certainly more understandable than the overkill of a 19-year-old young African-American woman.

Never became proficient with Cat’s Cradle. Did enjoy a same entitled literary work by Kurt Vonnegut whose 1963 science fiction novel explored issues of science, technology, a world-challenging arms race and religion.

First, some observations about this city’s latest run on violence, including three murders since November 14.

• Despite nonsense being spoken by several city council members and government leaders — police officers have minimal impact on murder. More police with more money will not stop murder. Trenton recorded 31 homicides in 2005 with a police department that included approximately 370 officers and ample resources. Poverty, poor education and lack of parental oversight creates violence and crime.

• Education changes most aspects of life. Dollars to donuts that these two killers lack educational success, likely could not spell homicide even when spotted with all vowels.

• Caucasians and middle class African-Americans live as the safest ethnic group in most cities, including Trenton. Of course, education and wealth play a major role in establishing safe lives as money and smarts buys houses in places like Mill Hill, Hiltonia and Cadwalader Place.

Most Caucasians in Trenton die of old age, bad tickers or heroin and opioid use. Even some who “die” of overdoses can receive a shot of recovery drug Naloxone so they can come back from the brink of death to live and die another day. That’s a personification of power.

•On the same day of the Stuyvesant assault, AAN supporters promised to produce a better, safer event in 2019, following the June 2018 violence that witnessed a shootout that claimed one death and 17 shot.

And they, plus, middle-class African-Americans and Latinos will. Murders and blight in hardscrabble city neighborhoods attract “That’s just the way it is is” observations. Nobody stands up and declares we’re going to repair all of these issues.

The Art All Night shooting garnered national attention because violence rarely impacts Caucasian agendas and lifestyles unless it’s some white male delivering death and destruction to other white people. People rarely shoot up black people en masse although we suffer those ones and twos of murder that add up to many by year’s end.

• Of course, immediate action during extreme violations as with the Stuyvesant Ave. murder, demands tough responses. Police and residents should exhibit proactivity to impact violence.

The Johnson killers should consider themselves fortunate that small-minded people chased away former police Director Joseph Santiago who would have unleashed a whirlwind response against them, including an effective effort to exercise warrants on anyone living under the radar of law enforcement.

Mayor Reed Gusciora noted “We cannot end violence in our City through statements or inaction; and it cannot be done overnight.”

Andrew Bobbitt, a Gusciora aide, fielded a personal complaint about a visit by Rep. Chris Smith early Tuesday before the killing of Johnson.

Smith visited Trenton Water Works and promised his help to improve water service to his constituents and others.

Bobbitt voiced no real defense about why Mayor Gusciora and Smith failed to discuss our city’s gun problem, violence issue, poverty, four closed libraries, etc.

Smith, four decades removed from his Bible-thumping days when our paths crossed at Trenton State College, should exercise his faith to help. Being a Christian should trump being a Republican.

Gusciora said “These destructive acts rise from the proliferation of guns in urban centers across this country and a lack of will to address the issue on the federal level. Gun violence is occurring with more frequency and we have limited police resources fueled by budget constraints. This is why we need federal, state, and county law enforcement agencies to assist us with daily operations and gang intervention strategies.”

• Media and politicians delivered a response that cultivated sexism regarding Johnson murder.

Remember Danny Diaz-Delgado, 20, murdered and found with his hands bound on the bank of a Hamilton waterway.

Yes, it’s been eight months and many murders since two men killed Delgado after he met up with them in Trenton to purchase a PlayStation video game for his brother.

The men robbed him of $200 then used his ATM card to extract $700 more. They then drove Delgado into nearby Hamilton and shot him dead then dumped his body near the Assunpink Creek.

“And the cat’s in the cradle and the silver spoon. Little boy blue and the man in the moon

“When you coming home, Dan?”

Delgado never returned home and we failed to care enough, hurt enough, cry enough, nor to understand that he was our son, our brother, too.

Shaela Johnson, despite an apparent troubled life? Ours, too.