Don't you guys get it? if the Police start to crack down on these thugs Al Sharpton will be protesting the very next day (along with Greenville Chick)

It will only get worse in that area of JC.

Congrats to Our friend Earl Morgan for always being upfront and writing "real" articles. Bergen Lafayette is a war zone. It's been for years. Who is he kidding? Does he read the newspaper everyday. The JCPD is scared themselves to go out there at night. I see them cruising up and down. They don't "walk the beat " anymore.
There has to be a solution and it stems from the fact the people on the street know every step the JCPD cops take and they know that they do not enforce curfew, they do not make their presence known.
If you are from this area I will mention all the streets that have been hot points for years and why can't they clean them up?
Dwight and MLK
Forrest and MLK
Randolph CARTERET OCEAN CLERK
Grant and MLK and OCEAN
Wegman PRKWY and MLK and OCean
STegman AND MLK OCEAN
FULTON
ARmstrong
What else to they need to know.
Chief Comey: tell your officers to get out their cars sometimes, tell them to walk the beat, tell your cops to get on their loud speakers and tell the ones on the corner to go home to get out. Follow them home. Harass those people. I know cops who are over zealous about giving a ticket and towing. If you see a youngster on the street after 10 make sure they get home. THE JC cops just have to care a bit and they will make a difference. People will rally behind them but if they are too chicken to do it, how can we do it?
We have an emergency on our hands Chief Comey, ACT like it!

I think what's really shocking about parts of Bergen-Lafayette and Greenville is how openly out of control the area feels.

It seems to me as if most of the people who live there are as polite and law-abiding as the people who live anywhere else in the city. But you folk 10 feet at night and, bam, there's an open-air drug takeout and delivery service, or a bunch of completely drunken guys sitting around staring angrily at passersby.

My roommate says it's probably safer for the people involved with these activities if they do all of this outside, rather than inside. So, maybe, if the police can't shut all of this down, letting it happen outside is a necessary evil. But my sense is that the general quality of life in the neighborhood would be better for law-abiding people if, at the very least, the criminal enterprises were operating inside a warehouse some place, rather than out on the sidewalk.

Quote:

cancer: a malignant tumor of potentially unlimited growth that expands locally by invasion and systemically by metastasis. (Merriam-Webster)

Whatever helps you sleep at night, Tom.

Jersey City's police chief: It's not a 'war zone'

The Jersey Journal
Tuesday October 14, 2008


Jersey City Police Chief Tom Comey, seen in a file photo from an awards ceremony last year, takes issue in today's paper with a Jersey Journal column depicting life in one neighborhood as "a war zone.''

Jersey City Police Chief Tom Comey takes issue in today's Jersey Journal with a recent column depicting life in one neighborhood as "life in a war zone.''

"The negative connotation conjured up by the use of that term is an insult to the vast majority of hardworking, law-abiding citizens residing there,'' he writes in the op-ed responding to Earl Morgan's Oct. 3 column.

While the "war zone'' designator was the word choice of a headline writer, and not Morgan, the column depicted a neighborhood where hard-working people are afraid to be outside because of gunfire and, particularly in warmer months, "roving bands of loud and unruly youths who make things generally unpleasant for them.''

Comey prefers to call the violence plaguing the Martin Luther King Drive area a "cancer."

"We have done a lot and more still needs to be done. We can't do it alone,'' Comey concludes. "Whether the resolution comes from the home, the courts, legislation or a social agency, we remain ready to work with anyone to eradicate this cancer."

================================

Nabe desperate to end constant violence
LIFE IN A WAR ZONE

Friday, October 03, 2008

"M a, can we move?" a teenager asked her mother while they stood on the sidewalk Wednesday, watching as Jersey City police searched the street in front of their Stegman Street house for shell casings, the remnants of a late afternoon gunfight.

Two weeks ago, the same neighborhood was rocked by four separate shooting incidents in the space of 24 hours that left two men injured.

This latest incident occurred just a stone's throw from School 15, and only minutes after the school's students were dismissed at 3:10 p.m. In fact, police on the scene questioned two School 15 teachers who had been walking on Stegman Street, toward King Drive, and were forced to duck for cover when the shooting started.

According to police, someone on a bicycle pedaled up to a car on Stegman near King Drive and fired at a vehicle until it drove off. Police said no shooting victim turned up in area hospitals.

"I was on the porch with my daughter and I had my back turned to the street when the shooting started right across the street," said the mother of the girl who wondered out loud about the possibility of relocating.

"I heard the shots and turned around and saw a man firing shots. So, I pushed my daughter into the house and slammed the door."

While residents are thankful no one was killed or wounded, they're angry and frustrated about all the gunfire that's been erupting around them.

One of the gunfights two weeks ago left a bullet lodged in the wall of a daycare center at the Mary McLeod Bethune Center on King Drive. Fortunately no one was in the room at the time.

The stretch of Stegman, between King Drive and Ocean Avenue, where Wednesday's incident occurred, is made up of, with a few exceptions, well maintained one-and two-family homes.

The residents and property owners there say they deserve the right to be able to walk, stand or otherwise enjoy their homes and their block without worrying about being shot.

And it's not only gunfire that has them upset. Residents say that during the summer months the street is often invaded by roving bands of loud and unruly youths who make things generally unpleasant for them.

"We have fights and noise here all the time," said another Stegman Street resident. "We call the police, but they don't always come. Why can't we have more police patrols?"

That woman's next neighbor, who arrived home in his car only to find his way blocked by police tape, unleashed a heated verbal torrent at the police, elected officials, even The Jersey Journal.

"None of you are doing anything," the man said, his voice freighted with anger. "All kinds of things go on this block.

"Sometimes people come here and just fire off shots into the air. No one cares, no one is doing anything about it."

Ward F. Councilwoman Viola Richardson, who arrived at the Bethune Center shortly after Wednesday's shooting, said she cares very much and denounced the shooting incidents.

Richardson said in the next few weeks she will call a meeting of community and law enforcement organizations, as well as members of the clergy, to discuss ways to cope with the street violence and hostility that seems to plague youth in the predominantly African American and Latino ward she represents.

"We need a comprehensive way to deal with this situation," Richardson said. "Whatever we do it won't be just a quick fix approach. We need a plan."

As for why gunfire has been so prevalent in this area of Stegman Street and King Drive, well, police will only officially say they are investigating. But several sources say it is the result of a feud between rival gangs.