Park Rules

A. Except for unusual and unforeseen emergencies, parks shall be open to the public every day of the year between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. daily. (J. Owen Grundy Park, however, is exempt from the 10:00 p.m. closing time.) The opening and closing hours for each individual park shall be posted therein for public information. . . . C. All activity is prohibited in the parks between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m., except in the case of an exemption or special activity sponsored or approved by the City Council.

I know HP has a sign posted saying Athletic activities are prohibited between 10 PM and 8 AM, but I don't think I've seen a sign posted regarding what hours it's open.

The curfew is 10:30 for kids 16 and under. Ten years ago the curfew was some what enforced with a curfew van but I havent seen it enforced in years. Recently the police said they were going to get a curfew van for each precinct but they will probably just enforce curfew for a few months then forget about it again. As for the parks I believe there isnt a time the parks close, the only park I know of that is ever closed at night is on the west slope in the hieghts and it is only closed because area residents chain it at night.

What, if any, is the curfew for Jersey city? Is it enforced? Do the parks close after sunset?

Are there any statistics which account for attempted homicides in Jersey City? Alot of people nowadays survive wounds that would have been life threatening 15-20 years ago, so that must throw the numbers off some.

"(Healy) ...has announced a program called "Operation Little Rascal" to enforce a curfew. "We're going to start bringing these kids off the streets and bringing them to their parents," Mayor Healy said."

I hope this program works this summer - the name "Little Rascal" seems a bit out of the 1930's -- maybe the name should be updated -- hmmm -- something like "Operation Baby Bangers."

This issue has become a double edge sword. If you blame the mayor and chief of police for an increase in crime one year, they will take the credit for the decrease the following year. They will even contradict everything they said the year before. Remember when healy said that there wasn't much they could do about homicides? So why is he suddenly taking credit for the decrease?

Last year's murder rate was inflated by a couple of instances where one person killed multiple people at one time. The Egyptian family tragedy comes to mind as well as the guy who killed his relatives. Those two occurrences accounted for 7 people if I remember correctly. So naturally this year will most likely have a lower murder rate than last year.

If last year was an anomaly and the crime rates go back down to where they were in 2004, I guarantee that mayor healy will say that the programs they have put into effect are the reasons. My guess is that the weather plays more of a role than the gun buy back program.

Like the article says, you cannot base crime statistics on one year to evaluate trends. Let's see how things are in four years and then we can pass judgment.

Check out the headline this week from NorthJersey.com

"Paterson murder rate up 100%"

Source -
http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?q ... sN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2OTQ3ODYy

I think the NYtimes makes some good points!

New York Times: Small Cities Hit Hard in Crime Report
By LAURA MANSNERUS
Published: June 15, 2006

In Jersey City, where the gentrifying waterfront deflects the public eye from unchangingly poor neighborhoods, violent crime rose by 8.4 percent last year. Thirty-eight people were killed, an increase of 15 compared with the previous year.

Mourners carried the coffin of Monica Armanious, 8, on Jan. 17, 2005. She and three family members were found slain at home in Jersey City.
Multimedia

The bodies of a woman and two of her children, ages 6 and 13, were removed from their apartment in Jersey City on Sept. 21, 2005.

Paterson and Elizabeth, N.J., fared even worse with violent crime, each registering an increase of about 20 percent. In New York, Syracuse also had a 20 percent increase, and violent crime was up in Stamford, Conn., as well.

In most smaller cities and even in some quiet suburbs in the region, violent crime rose last year, according to preliminary statistics released Monday by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The increases were such that New York City, with a slight decline, appeared to be an oasis of relative calm.

Among the 15 other cities with 100,000 or more people in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, 10 had increases in violent crime, including 4 in the double digits. And in those 15 cities, taken together, the number of homicides rose by 28 percent.

The reasons, experts said, included the spread of gangs to smaller cities and suburbs and cuts in federal grant programs to local police agencies. Many attribute the success of bigger cities in part to sophisticated police techniques that they have developed, while smaller ones are just catching up — especially in their approaches to violent offenders.

While experts do not consider homicides to be a very telling gauge of crime, they agree that the increase is striking — even more so than the nationwide figures, which showed a 12.5 percent increase in homicides last year in cities with populations of 50,000 to 249,000. The numbers underscore what they describe as a resurgence of senseless violence among young men in impoverished neighborhoods.

"These ideas of respect and disrespect and how you have to respond to being disrespected may have started on the mean streets of the core urban areas, but you now see them in smaller places," said David M. Kennedy, the director of the Center for Crime Prevention and Control at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

By and large, the numbers in the New York region fit the pattern in the nationwide statistics released on Monday, showing a 2.5 percent increase in violent crime — which comprised homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault — after an impressive 15-year decline.

Violent crime in the largest cities declined slightly between 2004 and 2005, with New York City recording a 1.9 percent decrease over all and a 5 percent decline in homicides. In cities with populations under one million, however, violent crime was on the rise. The report did not contain data on individual cities with populations of less than 100,000.

"Right now, comparing anywhere to New York City is kind of a setup because New York City has become extraordinarily safe," Mr. Kennedy said. "It's places not just the size of Albany and Buffalo but places the size of Newburgh that are having big-city crime problems."

Experts also caution that a one-year increase in crime may be just a small bump. It is, nonetheless, a bump visible all over the country. While violent crime in cities of over 1 million dipped by 0.4 percent, it rose 8.3 percent in cities of 500,000 to 999,999, 2.9 percent in cities of 250,000 to 499,999 and 3.4 percent in cities of 100,000 to 249,999. In cities of fewer than 10,000 people, violent crime rose 1.6 percent nationally.

John Klofas, a professor of criminal justice at the Rochester Institute of Technology, said that while "the medium-size cities have been affected the most dramatically" in the latest rise in crime, "it's too tempting to try to read a lot into this at this time."

In Rochester, for example, homicides are down slightly so far in 2006, while aggravated assaults are far ahead of the number in the comparable period of 2005, Professor Klofas said. And the increase in homicides last year, to 53 from 36 in 2004, followed a huge decrease from 2003.

The F.B.I. report led officials in some cities to protest that one year's numbers were no basis for judging their handling of crime. In Jersey City, the report prompted Mayor Jerramiah Healy and Police Chief Robert A. Troy to announce that property crimes have been on a significant decline this year and that homicides — 14 so far — were down significantly compared with the same period last year.

The department has added bicycle patrols and surveillance cameras, has offered cash to people who turned in their handguns and has announced a program called "Operation Little Rascal" to enforce a curfew. "We're going to start bringing these kids off the streets and bringing them to their parents," Mayor Healy said.

In Paterson, a Police Department spokesman, Lt. Anthony Traina, said crime statistics often fluctuated for reasons that might not be immediately apparent, citing one crime wave a few years ago after more than 400 convicts were released from prison and returned home.

As to homicides, which doubled last year, reaching 20, Lieutenant Traina said, "Over the years, we've been over 20 and down to 7."

A few other cities reported numbers just as stark: Hartford had 25 homicides in 2005, up from 16 in 2004, and in Elizabeth the number rose to 17 from 10.

One exception, oddly, was Camden, N.J. — named "America's most dangerous city" for the last two years — which had 35 homicides last year, down from 49 in 2004. The overall violent crime data for Camden, a city of almost 80,000, was not in the F.B.I. report, since it is too small.

And in Newark, where violent crime has slowly receded — declining 1.6 percent in the preliminary 2005 data — homicides increased, to 97 from 84 in 2004.

"To have had an increase in murder for the past two years is very troublesome," said Michael Wagers, the executive director of the Police Institute at Rutgers in Newark. Mr. Wagers said 90 percent of homicides in Newark were committed with guns, compared with 67 percent nationally, in a pattern he saw in other medium-size cities like Hartford and Charlotte, N.C.

"You have an intersection with gangs and guns," he said. "In the typical homicide or shooting, the victim is a gang member in some kind of dispute, disrespecting someone at a party or bumping into them, and then there's an escalation of violence between groups."

Brewster, you are right -- I saw that too! How can this person be working as a reporter! I hope they fix it before the hard copy is printed! Either way we will likely be hearing fools quote this fallacy way into the future!

I'd like to know how the Journal figures JC has the most violent crime when Newark, with a very slightly larger population had nearly 3 times the murders? How'd they get a job writing when they can't read? From what I read in the AP piece, JC had a larger "increase" in the crime rate than Newark.

If Newark was the size of NYC, they would have had over 3000 murders. Think about that before investing in Newark real estate.

What is the Jersey City police department site that brakes down statistics by precinct?

Most violence? Jersey City tops state, FBI says
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
By JOURNAL STAFF AND WIRE REPORT

Jersey City has the most violent crime of any big city in the state, according to FBI statistics released yesterday.

The city saw increases last year in murders, robberies and other violent crimes, according to the FBI's statistics compiled from New Jersey's six largest cities. Jersey City is the only Hudson County municipality on the list.

Jersey City saw increases in all of its violent crime indexes, except for forcible rape. The murder rate increased 65.2 percent, with 38 murders in 2005 compared with 23 in 2004.

Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy said statistics from the first six months of this year show the city is moving in the right direction.

"There is no other administration or police department in the state that has done more to fight guns and gangs on the streets," Healy said, pointing to three proposed gun control ordinances and the hiring of more cops.

Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said he hopes 2005 was an aberrant year and said the general trend since the early 1990 has been a decline in crime.

"One year doesn't make a trend," DeFazio said. "I think the homicide rate in Jersey City (in 2005) was tragically inflated, especially by multiple murders."

The Armanious family of four was slain in their Heights home Jan. 11, while three members of the Wilson family were stabbed to death in their Wegman Parkway home on Sept. 19 or 20.

"Law enforcement has to come together with new initiatives, strength and resolve," said DeFazio, adding: "We have to remember that much of crime is driven by social ills that are beyond the control of the police and the prosecutors. People have to take responsibility for their antisocial behavior."

The FBI tracks crime statistics nationwide. Beside Jersey City, the New Jersey cities whose statistics were released were Newark, Paterson, Woodbridge Township, Edison Township and Elizabeth. Of the six cities, Jersey City's statistics were the worst, Woodbridge's the best.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

FBI: Violent crime up in majority of NJ's biggest cities

By DONNA DE LA CRUZ
Associated Press Writer

June 12, 2006, 4:23 PM EDT

WASHINGTON -- Murders, rapes, robberies and other violent crimes measured by the FBI rose in the majority of New Jersey's six largest cities in 2005, according to FBI statistics released Monday.

The FBI measures statistics in cities with a population of 100,000 or more.

Jersey City saw increases in all of its violent crime indexes, except for forcible rape. The murder rate increased 65.2 percent with 38 murders in 2005 compared with 23 in 2004.

Beside Jersey City, the cities whose statistics were released were Newark, Paterson, Woodbridge Township, Edison Township and Elizabeth. The violent crimes measured were murder, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, property crime, burglary, larceny theft, motor vehicle theft and arson.

Of the six cities, Jersey City's statistics were the worst, Woodbridge's the best.

Newark, the state's largest city, saw its overall violent crime index decline, with decreases in robberies, property crimes, burglaries, larceny thefts and motor vehicle thefts. But the murder rate increased 15.5 percent with 97 murders in 2005, compared to 84 in 2004, and forcible rapes were up 13.7 percent.

The FBI data, compiled from reports by more than 12,000 law enforcement agencies, does not contain overall crime numbers in any category nor does it offer any explanation for the changes. The FBI's final annual crime report comes out in the fall.

Criminal justice experts said the statistics reflect the nation's complacency in fighting crime, a product of dramatic declines in the 1990s and the abandonment of effective programs that emphasized prevention, putting more police officers on the street and controlling the spread of guns.

In New Jersey, Michael Wagers, executive director of the Police Institute at Rutgers-Newark, attributed the bulk of violence to the availability of guns.

"Nine out of 10 homicides in Newark were committed with a gun, compared with the national average of 6 or 7 homicides," Wagers said. "It's alarming to see a number of cities in New Jersey see an uptick in violent crime."

Overall violent crime increased in Paterson, Edison and Elizabeth. Paterson and Elizabeth also saw their murder rates and forcible rapes increase.

Edison had no murders in 2005, compared to two in 2004. The city also saw a decline in its forcible rapes _ 6 in 2005 and 7 in 2004. But an increase in robberies, aggravated assaults, burglaries and arsons increased the city's overall violent crimes total.

Woodbridge had the best statistics with its overall violent crime totals down. The city had two murders last year compared with four in 2004, and decreased property crimes, aggravated assaults, burglaries and arsons. But forcible rapes and robberies were way up _ the city saw a 70 percent increase in rapes with 17 in 2005 compared to 10 in 2004, and a 40 percent increase in robberies with 81 in 2005, compared to 58 in 2004.