Each Tuesday, Nicole Snelling makes the trip from the Jersey City apartment she shares with her mother and infant daughter to Kearny, where her boyfriend and the father of her child is being held at the Hudson County Correctional Center awaiting trial for a host of alleged crimes, including a gun charge that was committed here in Jersey City.

Snelling has been making the trip by public transportation, beginning when she was still pregnant with her daughter, for five months.

Like other young women her age, Snelling, 23, hopes to one day continue her education, get married, and move out of the cramped two bedroom flat she shares with three other people. When interviewed while waiting for the NJ Transit bus that will take her to her boyfriend, she talks openly and freely about her dreams for the future and problems she sees in her neighborhood near Jersey City?s notorious Ocean Avenue.

She is, however, more guarded when asked about her views on crime, gun violence in Jersey City, and what needs to be done to curb the problem.

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?Sometimes ?more cops? doesn?t necessarily mean anything for us.?

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?I don?t know?I feel like this, everybody makes mistakes,? Snelling said. ?People should pay for their mistakes, yeah. But there are a lot of reasons why people carry guns out here.?

Since the beginning of the year, city residents have again expressed their fears and anxieties about crime in Jersey City and have demanded that public officials and the Jersey City Police Department do more to address public safety and to combat crime.

In response to these demands, several changes have been made recently. The City Council formed a subcommittee on crime and public safety that now meets regularly with members of the JCPD. Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy and Police Chief Tom Comey have held a series of town hall style meetings with residents in different communities throughout the city, the most recent of which was held in Ward F last Thursday.

Finally, some of the city?s most activist residents have launched a letter writing campaign to Jersey City?s elected officials in Washington in an effort to get federal grant money approved for the JCPD so more police officers can be hired.

These discussions and changes, while important to addressing crime in Jersey City, have, however, not included the input of perhaps one of the most important demographic groups in the city: teens and young adults who are often both the victims and perpetrators of crime in the city.

In an effort to get their perspective on crime and gun violence, and what can be done to curb it, the Reporter spent several days interviewing the city?s youngest adults.

?Protecting your life?

?Sometimes it?s like the wild west out here,? said Charles ?CJ? Johnson recently. ?Sometimes you come out here and there are no problems. You can go about your business and nobody bothers you. That?s a good day. But then there are other days that ain?t like that. Two people can get into an argument, next thing you know, there?s somebody getting shot.?

CJ, 19, said he does not own or carry a gun ? but he has friends who do.

?If I needed one, I could probably have one within a few hours,? he insisted. ?I?m not saying I would, but if I had to I know where I could get one.?

When asked why petty slights and unimportant arguments escalate to shootings ? shootings in which sometimes innocent bystanders, including children ? are often injured, CJ said, ?That?s just the way it is. You gotta protect yourself out here.?

It?s pointed out to him that most people let petty slights and arguments roll off their backs without them turning violent. ?Well, you assume all these shooting are about ?petty slights.? They aren?t. Sometimes they?re about protecting your life, protecting your family. I let small things go. But if my life is threatened, or if my family?s life is threatened, I?m going to protect what?s mine. Wouldn?t you??

Being perceived as ?weak,? he said, comes with its own risks ? and can often lead to more threats and harassment.

Many of those interviewed reported being crime victims, even though a few were also the perpetrators of crimes themselves. The alleged crimes they said they endured ranged from theft and assault to assault with a deadly weapon and rape.

?Every day I used to get threatened?

Arellius Ingram, 48, owner of Uneek Creations, a clothing store in Jersey City, knows what it means to make a mistake in life, pay for it, turn his life around, and return to the community to give back. Now a businessman, Ingram served several years behind bars for various crimes, including drug dealing.

?When I was coming up, it was all about drugs,? he said. ?Drugs were the cause of a lot of the violence out here back then and you had a lot of turf wars and retaliation that fueled the violence. Now, it?s more [about the] gangs. There are a lot of gangs out here now and a lot of the young people feel pressured to join gangs for protection. If you join a gang, the gang will protect you on the street. But then, the gangs will also want you to do things for them that involve committing some crime, usually with a gun.?

A number of teens interviewed echoed these points, saying they felt a need to be ?cool? with certain gang members so they had someone to turn to if they are threatened or harassed on the street.

?Every day, I used to get threatened by these dudes. It was getting worse, and I just knew some s--t was about to go down,? said Tate Williams, 16. ?My older brother was cool with this one dude that said he would take care of me.?

Williams refused to say whether his brother?s friend was in a gang, or exactly how the problem was handled. ?Let me just say this, they don?t harass me no more.?

A friend of Williams? who did not want to be identified said he had beaten up and bullied by several older, bigger teens in the neighborhood before he received similar protection from some young adults who befriended him.

?I got me a gun,? he said.

When the Reporter initially met this teen he did not have the gun with him. But on another occasion he did and briefly flashed it in a knapsack.

Like Williams, this teen also reported that the harassment has stopped.

?They take me seriously now,? he said.

One relative of this teen, who has served time in jail on a weapons charge, said he first decided to get a gun after his mother?s home was robbed numerous times.

?My mom works hard,? he said. ?She got a lot of health problems. She got diabetes. But she still works hard and she works for everything she got ? a nice TV, a car, nice furniture, jewelry. But then, people started breaking into her home?I kinda knew who it was, too. It was these guys I had taken up there with me a few times. I gave them a warning. Told them to leave my mother alone. Then, they started bothering my sister, saying they were going to do all this stuff to her.?

Again, these threats and the alleged thefts were resolved after the teen acquired a weapon.

Too idle

Throughout March, approximately 23 teens and young adults in Jersey City were interviewed and asked what, if anything, can be done about local crime.

?There isn?t enough out here for our kids,? said Ingram. ?These kids need more adult supervision, more activities, and more job and internship opportunities. These kids are too idle too much of the time. They?ve got too much time on their hands, and that leads to problems because they get into things.?

The vast majority of the young adults interviewed said they were out of school and were unemployed. Most of the teens were still in school, but a few had dropped out. Of the 11 young adults interviewed, only two were working. Of the 12 teens interviewed, at least two had dropped out of high school.

At Healy?s town hall meetings on crime and public safety there have been calls ? from older residents ? for more cops on the streets and more foot patrols from the JCPD.

The younger adults interviewed were asked whether, in their opinion, these solutions would work, and most important, would these solutions convince them to give up their weapons. They were wary.

?I don?t know,? said one armed teen. ?Sometimes ?more cops? doesn?t necessarily mean anything for us. It means more cops protecting business. More cops protecting government property. More cops protecting white people. What does more cops mean for me? I mean, if I really believed the cops were really looking out for me and mine, and I could really see that, yeah. I wouldn?t need a gun. But until I see it and really see they?re looking out for me?.?

He tapped the waist band of his jeans where he sometimes keeps his weapon.

Read more: Hudson Reporter - Youth under the gun Teens talk about violence and crime in Jersey Cityinstance=secondary_stories_left_column#[/img]Youth Under The Gun