Trenton ‘kakeidoscope’ reflects blood and murder
Kaleidoscopes exist as amazing devices that reflect beautiful optics.
Sir David Brewster created fascination with creation of these instruments in 1816 and then gained a patent one year later. These visual projectors contain loose bits of colored material (such as glass or plastic) between two flat plates and two plane mirrors. Changed position of the colored fragments reflect an endless variety of patterns.
Kaleidoscope derives from Greek kalos, eidos and skope rendering a translation — observation of beautiful forms.
Kalos embodies all things lovely, good, and well-behaved while the Greek word aischros means shameful or disgraceful. Another antonym to kalos, kakos, translates to bad, evil, ugly, and ignoble.
Trenton exists as a kakeidoscope inside an environment offering fragments of unimaginable pain, suffering, blood, bullets, fear, guns, anger, disgust, poverty, coffins, tears, disbelief, evil, eulogy and darkness.
Add the face, heart and soul of Vernetta McCray, shot Friday night, pronounced dead Saturday and certainly prayed for on Sunday.
McCray, worked for the Department of Children and Families for more than a decade.
Reports noted Trenton police raced to the 300 block of Walnut Ave. just before 9 p.m. after they received a report of shots fired. They found McCray shot in the head on the porch of her nearby Hampton Avenue home.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s office issued a statement that recognized McCray’s work history, “gaining the respect of her colleagues and serving countless children and families in Mercer County.”
“This tragedy is yet another reminder of the toll that senseless gun violence takes on our communities. Our prayers are with Vernetta, her family, and her loved ones at this difficult time.”
Shake the Trenton kakeidoscope for a perspective from Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora who planned another meeting with
state, county and local law enforcement officials for more discussions on how to “stem the tide of violence on our streets,” he informed Trentonian reporters Saturday night via text message.
“While in most of our homicides our police have identified suspects or persons of interest,” he added, “we need to find out how we can better assist in bringing these individuals to justice. We also need for the state to slow the early release of dangerous persons from incarceration simply because of the pandemic and no other factors.”
Shift kakeidoscope, as with each murder, McCray made No. 26, Gusciora and other law enforcement officials announce new theories and strategies.
The latest implemented more patrols with support from New Jersey State Police, Mercer County Sheriff’s Department and, there’s this silver bullet promise of a $4.5 million dollar investment on crime state-of-theart facility that can help with prediction of criminal activity and identify bed wetters.
By the way, Mayor Gusciora and NJ State Police could sign over that $4.5 million check. Identification of killers and criminal cutthroats tethers high school dropouts, chronic truants and illiteracy. A finite number of murderers and shooters exist in Trenton, Camden, Newark, etc. and most of them incubate in poverty.
Move kakeidoscope. Mayor Gusciora and others espouse that more police will turn this tide of murder and mayhem. Nah. May help but before former Mayor Tony Mack, who owned a burned out property on Hampton Ave. and grew up on nearby Tioga St., reduced police numbers by about 111 in 2011 which preceded a record homicide count of 37 two years later, the city recorded 31 murders in 2005 with ranks filled.
Politicians say rarely, at least not publicly, that numerous adults have failed, some church leaders have shirked their responsibilities to guide and government leaders practice the art of hand wringing, unable to voice cold, hard facts regarding personal responsibility.
Turn kakeidoscope. Certainly, COVID-19 impacts Trenton, yet this city suffers from a violent cancer that metastasizes daily.
Minimal color in current Trenton kakeidoscope unless one prefers the morbid colors associated with red blood or black and brown death.
L.A. Parker is a Trentonian columnist. Find him on Twitter @LAParker6 or email him at LAParker@Trentonian.com.