LIGHT ‘EM UP
Trenton police illuminate hot spots to combat violence
TRENTON >> Earlier this year, Mayor Eric Jackson called the capital city a “safe community” and defended those comments.
On Tuesday at a press conference surrounded by local, county and state police agencies, the mayor expressed a different tone, illuminating the recent violence that has plagued the city and struck fear in residents. Showing how bad it has gotten, the mayor said a senior in the West Ward recently told him she was afraid to walk from her housing unit one block away to the corner store.
“She was afraid to take that 22 steps to get to the corner store,” Jackson said outside of the Calhoun Street Firehouse. “That’s not the Trenton we want nor the Trenton we’re going to tolerate for our future.”
This week, Jackson also heard from a 10-year-old girl.
“The daughter is afraid to go outside and play in front of her house to jump rope out of fear of being shot in her community,” the first-term mayor said, noting a recent murder occurred around the corner from where she lives. “Today, there are portions and areas of our city that clearly are not safe due to this unprecedented use of guns, coupled by the ease and access of our children who could get guns.”
To combat the violence and calm residents’ fears, Jackson outlined that city police will light up six hot spot areas of crime. The initiative started on Friday and the lights will be on from dusk until dawn.
“Right now, there are areas in this city that are far too dangerous and we have to take control,” city Police
Director Ernest Parrey Jr. said. “Our plan is to take control. We have identified six areas of the city that are most prevalent to violence. We will be in those areas, we will light up those areas and we are going to be involved in a host of different plans, a host of different interdictions — both law enforcement and community based.”
The police director would not reveal what blocks would be lit up like Alaska in the summertime due to “tactical” reasons. He also believes police will not be met with resistance from residents living on the illuminated streets.
“Who wants to live in a neighborhood where you’re getting shot at?” Parrey questioned. “Would our residents really want to live in a situation like that?”
The police director also has other plans up his sleeve to address the rampant crime, where four city youth under the age of 21 were killed in a recent 10-day span, but he would
not reveal them at the press conference.
“A number of them he didn’t want to specifically go into because he doesn’t want to let the folks that are doing wrong know what we’re going to do and where we’re coming,” the mayor said. “But we are coming and we’re going to get people who are doing crime in our city.” Last month, The Trentonian exposed inadequate lighting in the capital city as a possible contributor to crime.
After Councilman Duncan Harrison called for 500 more street lights in the city at a press conference last week, the mayor is onboard.
“We have to lighten up dark areas and hot spots in our city because that is a tool that will help,” Jackson said, noting tree branches covering lights also need to get trimmed. “We have to make a concerted effort, and we will, to brighten up our city.”
Collaboration was a theme shared at the press conference attended by New Jersey Attorney General Christopher Porrino, acting Mercer County Prosecutor Angel Onofri, Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes and State Police.
And no one was called on more to help with the violence than the community.
“How can a person be shot down in broad daylight and nobody sees anything?” Friendship Baptist Church Pastor John Taylor questioned. “How can a grandmother or grandfather be robbed sitting on their porch or going to the store, and nobody sees anything? It’s time out for turning your heads, saying that it’s somebody else’s problem. It’s our problem. Let’s get to work and make things better.” The mayor referenced a recent
Trentonian story of the last murder, where 19-year-old Lance Beckett was shot numerous times and witnesses said they saw a man stomp on the victim’s head as he lay dead on the ground.
“He was gunned down and allegedly stomped on,” Jackson said with horror. “That’s hard to imagine. There were people there who witnessed this crime, no one called. We need your help.”
Additionally, no arrests have been made in the city’s last four murders during the crime wave.
“We absolutely know there are people who have information,” Jackson said, adding residents can submit tips anonymously online via My Block. “I want to make sure people feel comfortable coming forward with information and that they don’t have to fear for their safety now or tomorrow.”
Both the county and state offered services to the city in wake of the bloodshed.
Acting Mercer County Prosecutor Angelo Onofri said he will request forfeiture funds to be used to pay for truancy officer in city schools.
Last week, a study by the Advocated for Children of New Jersey found that nearly one out of every three Trenton school students was chronically absent for the 2014-15 school year. Trenton’s 32 percent rate for chronic absenteeism was one of the worst in state, with even Newark and Camden public schools performing better.
“We can’t live in a city where the leading cause of death among African-American males between 18 and 25 is homicide,” Onofri said. “The truancy problem in the city is outlandish and it needs to be corrected.”
Police will also continue to enforce curfew. Since July, children under the age of 18 who were caught out on the street from midnight until 6 a.m. were taken to a church. Police then notify the parents or guardians to pick their children.
Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes will provide crews to help improve the city’s blighted conditions.
“We will have our (Superintendent Labor Assistance Program) SLAP teams from the Department of Corrections come and clean up any neighborhood (the mayor) needs us to,” Hughes said. “We’ll be out seven days a week, and we need to clean up the community.”
The state’s new attorney general expressed his continuing support of Trenton.
“I want the people of Trenton to know that my office, the office of the Attorney General, and the New Jersey State Police, remain totally committed to the ongoing efforts to address and reduce violence in our capital,” Porrino said, outlining the various state and federal agencies that have collaborated with Trenton for the past four years. “All of us are deeply concerned about the recent wave of murders and other shootings here in Trenton, largely connected to intergang rivalries, the drug trade and turf battles.”
Coincidentally, the press conference was held across the street from where 14year Radazz Hearns was shot multiple times in August 2015 by State Police and a Mercer County Sheriff’s officer in one of the coordinated efforts to squash violence in the city. Two “Black Lives Protesters” interrupted the press conference several times.
Family members of murder victims were also present at Tuesday’s press conference.
Leroy James’ 19-year-old son Cagney Roberts was gunned down in 2014. Roberts was victimized again when gunshots rang out at his funeral service at Galilee Baptist Church, injuring several people in attendance.
James has started a nonprofit to try to reach youth that authorities have a difficult time connecting with.
“These kids who are doing these things, some of them come from broken homes and they’re not willing to speak and tell anybody about it, and that’s when we come in,” James said. “It’s only my job to give back and try to revitalize the city because when I came to Trenton in 1971, this was a thriving city. And we didn’t have no where near as many killings.”
Parents were also called on Tuesday to do more.
“We cannot do it without the parents,” State Sen. Shirley Turner (D-Mercer/Hunterdon) said. “We cannot change the hearts and minds of our young people if we cannot reach them in the homes. And it’ s the parents’ job to teach respect, and to teach love, and have respect for themselves as well as other people.”
City activist Darren “Freedom” Green said he recently spoke at funerals of three murder victims between the ages of 15 and 21.
“We’ve cultivated a generation now that is infatuated with killing itself,” Green said. “In terms of dealing with their mindset and mentality, because they’re so traumatized and in pain, they’re injecting themselves with self medication and pills. You align those two realities with the overabundance of guns in our community, you have the walking volcanos that erupting on each side of this city.”
So far this year, there have been 21 homicides in Trenton with the latest coming on Sunday afternoon.
Jackson said when he made the statement of Trenton being a “safe community” in January, the city was in a “different condition.”
“Cities are a living creature and the climate of our city right now has changed,” Jackson said. “This isn’t going to go on forever. This spike is going to go down. Today, is a different time. Right now, there is an unrest.”
However, Jackson does contend the city is “moving forward.”
“We will continue to work hard, day and night, so that nothing will shake the momentum or diminish the resolve of those who live, work and play, and operate a business in our capital city,” the mayor said. “All of this violence, yes, is unsettling. Every time in our city that a life is lost to senseless violence, it breaks my heart. And yet, it strengthens my resolve to do more to combat this crime.”