This article mentions 5 seperate guns. The guy shot by the cops had a gun. The kid downtown shooting in front of Grace Church had a gun. Almost every crime article posted on JCL mentions a gun. Is there a street thug in JC who does NOT have a gun? Probably not. I'm thinking that the illegal gun business in this country must be huge though I've never seen any official stats on it and I'm too lazy to look it up. In the old days, any self respecting stick-up man had to have a gun. It was to be expected, a tool of the trade but lately it seems every punk kid is packing and I don't think I'm exaggerating very much here. I'm not an anti-gun nut but it's getting scarey out there now. I don't remember hearing about any big gun runner busts lately, except that FedEx guy a few months ago. There was talk a while back about openning an ATF office in this area but idea was nixed and we rarely hear about ATF activity in local news. I'm sure they are around but we're not hearing about any major results.

If you live in a city, you can't have it all...
it's a city, this is not the suburbs... I think we need to focus on the crime then carts.. that's what i'm saying. I eat in Bergen all the time, I never go downtown to eat, if you look there are a few places in Bergen

Our neighborhood is not eclectic. Its not mixed and I don't like seeing carts and garbage. WE need to go to council meetings, and show our faces once in our while. No one does. WE can't criticize downtowners. They show up in numbers to important meetings. They have websites, the have lawyers, they have DOWNTOWN JCLIST which we are using because we don't even have a website or a central group. Our community groups are run by the good heart of a small amount of people with NO MONEY no donations nothing.
When was the last time any of us could say , Hey I'm going to go eat on MLK drive or Ocean?
Where is there a bakery? A decent Cafe?
when was the last time anyone here has looked at the redevelopment and zoning plans to see what the city is working on in relation to our area?
We only have ourselves to blame...if you are getting priced out its because you let people push you out, you didn't read, you didn't go to any meetings, and you are reactive instead of PROACTIVE. People in Greenville and BERGENLAFAYETTE expect for someone to come to their door and bring them information..no one is going to do that.
Either that or people just stay in their houses looking through the blinds hoping the next round of shots don't go through their window.

there is no comprimise. you need to have quality of life crime enforcement in order to improve the community.


laws regarding Loitering, graffiti, loud car radios, littering etc need to be enforced in order to clean up this mess.

Lafayette -

+ 1 TRILLION!

best post and most made sense ... coming from a true resident, they want to push everyone out of downtown... people who don't have to live paycheck to paycheck just dont understand it's not that easy it is impossible to afford anything over there outside of Montgomery Gardens (do they consider that apart of downtown even?)

And the affordable housing list?

I applied... it's a 3 year wait... for people who can't wait that long what happens?

But is it possible to reform a neighborhood without pushing out the long-time residents and making it as costly as downtown? That's my issue, I am all for a better quality of life, but I do like my eclectic neighborhood, I dont mind stray shopping carts or homeless people (even tho sad for them) but where is the compromise?

Look you put all the poor people in one section of town and this is what you get. Ok when you got a single mother working 3 jobs who the hell is taking care of her kids....the street .....people here can't pay 2500 a month for rent they can barely pay 1000 sometimes....and then all the downtown highrise developers have to provide affordable housing by STATE legislation and you know what they are doing...they are doing OFF SITE affordables. where?? in bergen lafayette and greenville...they dont want to put them in the high rises...and most people who are struggling and need affordable are decent people.
Its common sense and its something that needs to be addressed not wished away or say well GEE why dont you guys have a community group...people aren't even making it to their kids schools you think they are coming to meetings? The bus service sux here, you wait 30 minutes to an hour for a bus...the buses are so packed I feel like a second class citizen in a 3rd world country when i'm going to work.
The councilwoman can't do everything...she has a full time job indeed..she's got people trying to get a job , people getting evicted, people on drugs....and COPS WHO DO NOTHING!! Crime is up here because people aren't doing their jobs. That's Crystal clear.... You tell the cops to enforce the curfew and its always the same line...We don't have enough cops, we don't have enough money, we can't we wish we could, we respond by priority......etc....always the same BS for the last 25 years.

Greenville the person- What's your problem with me? I'm not going after you. Take that chip off your shoulder.

What can we do to help? Many downtown residents want to see the other areas of JC improved. We don't live in a bubble as some people think. People all over the city need to stand up and say enough is enough. Get out and vote and change the administration. Downtown has only recently become the nieghborhood that it curently is. Only 5 years ago downtown was a lot rougher and closer to greenville in crime.

Quote:

THEIR parents can do that, not me. I am not into the "gangsta culture" but your stupid generalizations make you think that I am. In fact if you met me you wouldn't even know that it was me since probably think everyone is the same in Greenville.

Lafayette -

I agree with your post about the 10:00 curfew for the teens, why don't I EVER see the police enforce this? This should be something strictly enforced.

Look -

I am the first for being involved in your childrens lives, I won't scream product of their enviorment and give you a billion socialist facts cause it's all bullsh*t. A friend of mine went to her daughters !ST GRADE back to school night and out of 30 parents... TWO showed up, I was disgusted. I don't condone violence, drugs, gun, etc. I have had a gun put to my head before, it's not fun, I am the last person to promote the NRA... just because I feel one way about ONE incident does not make me an activist for "ghettoism"

I agree that the people have to organize better. but the city administration has to take interest too. Currently, the interest is solely in Downtown jersey city. Greenville and Bergen Lafayette are treated as the step child.
The police precint on Bergen avenue next to Snyder High school has to be one of the worst departments ever.
The cops here are sarcastic, afraid, and apathetic because YES they think everyone here likes all of this...they fail to realize that they are the ones with the legal guns and the ones that are here to protect and serve....they pass by all the drug points and wave hello! ..instead of parking themselves there until people get the message that loitering and drug dealing are unacceptable.
WE have a 10 o oclock curfew WHY aren't we enforcing this? do you expect the community groups to go out there and tell the armed "good youngsters" to please go home. NO WAY........and frankly neither Healy or anyone in the administration cares. They would probably hope that whole area of Jersey city just be wiped out....somehow.....
It's frustrating and only if you have lived here do you know what I am talking about.

My bad -

I apologize, I confused you with JCMan

Greeneville -

according to Lynn we should be making citizens arrests...

When did I drag your name into this post? I was talking about the neighborhood.

When I say Greenville I'm not refering to your handle I'm refering to the neighborhood.

The point I'm trying to make is that these thugs are glamourized by the youth. They want to grow up to be a hustler, or a pimp, or a gangsta. How about son, grow up to be a lawyer, a fireman, a teacher, a doctor. And don't give me the BS about a product of the environment. I went to high school in the S. Bronx in the early 90's and plenty of people I went to school with went on to do great things.
Families need to stop making excuses and actually RAISE their children. Make sure they go to school, check to make sure they did their homework, talk to their teachers, etc.

Stop the excuses and do something, don't wait for someone to.

Quote:

This is BS there are plenty of communities in plenty of cities/states that have taken control of their neighborhoods and helped to clean them up.

What are you saying? Are the majority of people who live in Greenville thugs and drug dealers? If not, wouldn't the majority of citizens want these types of people out??? Get off your arse and organize comunity watch programs.

The people of Greenville shouldn't be relying on police to get it's population under control, they should be doing it themselves.

Quote:

WTF?! Why don't you try to stop the drug dealing that happens in the Holland gardens?

I wasn't even talking about the police shooting. Just read the above article about these thugs running around broad daylight shooting people in the streets like it's the F'n Wild Wild West!!!

One went through a window into a daycare center. Try to defend these lowlifes when you child is shot dead.

Enough is enough take back your neighborhood Greenville and stop blaming others and the system. You are being held hostage by your own children.

This happen in the second hottest spot for drugs in the city. There's no way any of the people in Greenville can do anything without a badge and a gun. The city should require cops to "live where they work" so that they could serve as a deterrent against crime, much like what Hoboken is now doing in the projects.

GVC, I don't see what the cops did wrong - they investigated and then pulled over the driver that fit the description of the man involved in the shooting. The suspect was the one that hit the cop.

I'll admit I'm wrong if things turn out different - bu this looks cut and dry.

Greenville Chick and Greenville you two should run for city council. you are a great representation of whats going on in our inner cities.

Lets build a wall around greenville and set up cameras. It would make for a great reality show plus it would be another revenue stream for our city.

I wonder why greenville's real estate is 40% less than any other part of JC and it has the highest foreclosure rate in the city.

It boggles my mind how some people just will never get it.

NOT defending anyone that I think is justifiably wrong.... And let me tell you, if the investigation comes out with the tables turned on the cops... would u admit you were wrong? Or would that be too hard for you, cause I know I sure as hell will admit I was wrong.

But im pretty sure they won't ever write about this case again.

Where's Greenevillechick to defend these low-lifes and tell us how these oppressed suspects are justified for all of the shooting.

The one dude that was pulled over in the car and had a gun was lucky that he wasn't shot at by the cops - it's usually not a good thing to sit on a gun when being pulled over by the cops, especially if you're an ex-con.

What the F is going on in Greenville?

People of Greenville you need to make a stand that this will not be tolerated. You can not continue to protect and makes excuses for these Thugs. These Thugs are tearing your community apart. The thug lifestyle needs to stop being admired by the youth. It is a disease that will infect your entire community.

The no snitching policy has to stop and enough is enough with, "he was such a good boy."

Yeah, Greenville isn't so bad.

...and all the while, Healy sings on....

3 shooting incidents hours apart
Friday, September 19, 2008
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

It was Dodge City in Jersey City's Greenville section Wednesday night into early yesterday morning as shootouts left a bullet buried in the wall of a daycare center, two men wounded, and one man in handcuffs.

Police are investigating if the three incidents are related.

"I'm concerned about the number of violent crimes that are taking place, in general. But it's highlighted by these shootings in pretty close proximity to each other," said Ward F Councilwoman Viola Richardson. "If violent crime is down, it's not in my neighborhood."

At 5:36 p.m. Wednesday, police responded to Martin Luther King Drive and Dwight Street, where they found a bullet had crashed through the window of the Mary McLeod Bethune Life Center and lodged in the wall of a daycare room that was empty, reports said.

In his nearby locksmith shop, Mofalc Meinga peeked through his bullet-proof door yesterday and said he had heard shots and saw a male running with an outstretched arm as if aiming a gun.

"He was young and they (witnesses) said he was chasing someone on a bike," Meinga said. "This was broad daylight so it was really a shock."

At 7:50 p.m., a shootout broke out at Bidwell and Ocean avenues, where police found three spent shells of different calibers and a 20-year-old Neptune Avenue man with bullet wounds to his back and arm, reports said.

He told police a man had gotten out of a van and opened fire on him so he ran away. The man was rushed to the Jersey City Medical Center, reports said.

Then at 12:12 a.m. Thursday police responded on a call of a shooting at Stegman Street and Ocean Avenues, where they found blood on the sidewalk and a 20-year-old victim with a gunshot wound to his right elbow in his nearby residence, reports said. He said he had been approached by a man who fired at him with a revolver, reports said.

A short while later, officers at Ocean and Claremont avenues pulled over Perry Bowens, 28, of Arlington Avenue, in his car because he matched the description of the gunman in two of the shootings, reports said.

As the officers approached they saw Bowens hide something and found he was sitting on a handgun, reports said.

Outside the car, Bowens elbowed one cop in the face, punched one and struck another before he was subdued, reports said. Bowens was not charged in the shootings, but he was charged with three counts of aggravated assault on police officers, as well as resisting arrest and weapons offenses, reports said.

Bowens was in prison from Aug. 6, 2004 to Dec. 17, 2007 on drug dealing charges and weapons offenses, corrections records say.

"Everything is still under investigation as to whether they are connected and what the cause might be," Jersey City Police Inspector Kenneth Teschlog said of the shootings.

Richardson said she is setting up a meeting with Police Chief Tom Comey to talk about the violence.