Some students at Jersey City?s Dickinson High blame victims of after-school violence

Wednesday, December 21, 2011, 3:00 AM
By Charles Hack/The Jersey Journal

Dickinson High School students said yesterday that if they keep their heads in their books, they?ll elude the type of violence that sent three people to the hospital Monday afternoon.

?If you don?t mess with trouble you won?t get into trouble,? said one 16-year-old boy. ?If you want trouble it?s there for you.?

Students said most of the fighting occurs off campus, after school, but they have also seen bricks, bottles and knives employed in scuffles inside the Palisade Avenue school.

A couple of gangs are at the center of the turmoil, they said, adding the gang members usually leave the good kids alone.

?We are always in class so we don?t have time to fight,? said one 11th-grade student. ?You can?t get hurt if you don?t put yourself in danger. If you do get hurt it?s your fault.?

Police and school officials said security has been stepped up in and around the school since Monday?s clashes.

...Trinitarios is one of New York City's most violent and fastest rising street gangs. With their reach spreading into neighboring New Jersey and beyond, these machete-welding Latino gangsters are now battling older, more established gangs, like the Latin Kings and Bloods, for control of the streets and the lucrative east coast drug market... Click wiki link below: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinitario ============================= Police say fights near Jersey City high school may have gang connection Wednesday, December 21, 2011, 3:02 AM By Charles Hack/The Jersey Journal City police who found a long trail of blood and a blood-soaked T-shirt at Baldwin and Newark avenues on Monday are still probing possible gang connections as the cause of several fights that broke out shortly after classes let out at nearby Dickinson High School. Two stabbing victims and a 15-year-old assault victim treated at Jersey City Medical Center said they were assaulted as they left school at 2:50 p.m., according to police reports that corrected earlier reports that only one victim was stabbed. Their conditions were described as not life-threatening. The 15-year-old 10th-grader, who suffered a gash on his forehead, told cops someone hit him with a belt buckle while his two friends were punched and kicked by three people, police said. The second victim, an 18-year-old Dickinson 12th-grader, said someone with a ponytail stabbed his left biceps and several fingers. The third victim, a 19-year-old man, said a man with shoulder-length hair slashed him above the left ear with a knife, reports said. Witnesses told detectives that a Dominican street gang called the Trinitarios is active at the school, reports said. ?The investigation is ongoing in reference to the stabbing and identification process,? Lt. Edgar Martinez said yesterday. ?(Investigators) are looking into whether there is an affiliation to any gangs, or rivalry between individuals in a different town.? Five people were arrested. Police recovered two knives, a baseball bat and a stick from two 16-year-olds and two 17-year-olds, all of Jersey City, during separate skirmishes, police said. A Dickinson student and two Ferris High School students were among those arrested. Paula Christen, a spokeswoman for the Jersey City public schools, said officials are waiting for police to complete the investigation before deciding ?what action is necessary? with those students. Police gave the following accounts of the arrests: A 17-year-old male was arrested at 2:40 p.m. after he fled from cops while they dispersed a crowd of 15 people fighting with baseball bats near the school, reports said. The 17-year-old had a folding knife in his pocket and was charged with rioting, failing to disperse, disorderly conduct, weapons possession and obstructing a government function, police said. A 16-year-old boy who ran toward a crowd of some 300 people on Palisade Avenue near the school swinging a wooden baseball bat a few minutes later was charged with resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, failure to disperse from a riot, and weapons possession, reports said. A 17-year-old with a ?pony tail? at Newark and Waldo avenues was charged with unlawful possession of a weapon when police said they found him with a folding double-edged switchblade. A 16-year-old boy was arrested after cops said they saw him swinging an expandable paint stick at a crowd of roughly 15 people at Baldwin Avenue and Fleet Street, reports said. He was charged with weapons possession and rioting. Luis Roman, 19, of Carlton Avenue, who was near a group of people that police were dispersing, was charged with possession of marijuana with intent to distribute after police said they smelled marijuana and found seven bags of suspected pot in his pants pocket.

Quote:

Comey: "brutal altercation". Dickinson principal:. "Ok students, be nice. Stop stabbing each other. It's a melee".

I think Dickinson needs a Principal with some principles. (Or fired).

View Larger Map Jersey City police: 3 hurt, 5 arrested as melee breaks out two blocks from Dickinson High School Published: Tuesday, December 20, 2011, 3:00 AM By The Jersey Journal Five people were arrested and three people sent to the hospital yesterday after a melee broke out this afternoon near Dickinson High School in Jersey City, police officials said. One person was stabbed, one person was physically assaulted and another individual was struck with a blunt object, possibly a bat, Police Chief Tom Comey said. The stabbing victim was rushed to the Jersey City Medical Center in serious condition, Comey said. The other two people were taken to the hospital with injuries not considered life-threatening, he said. Comey did not provide the ages of the victims last night, but indicated they were all young people. Those arrested included one adult and four juveniles, ranging in age from 16 to 19, he said. The 19-year-old was identified by police last night as Louis Roman, of Carlton Avenue. Multiple fights erupted around 3:30 p.m. near the Palisade Avenue school, police said. Due to the proximity of the county courthouse on Newark Avenue, the Hudson County Sheriff?s Office also responded. Comey declined to say last night if Dickinson High School students were involved in the fights, but emphasized that all the skirmishes broke out near the school. According to a source, the stabbing occurred at Newark and Baldwin avenues, two blocks from the school. Blood could be seen on the ground yesterday afternoon at that location. Paula Christen, a spokeswoman for Jersey City public schools, said yesterday it was nott clear if Dickinson students were involved. She said the high school principal described what occurred as a melee and said there were individuals involved who did not appear to be students. Comey said police know what sparked the brutal altercations, but declined to say. ?We know why it occurred. It?s been brewing,? he said, adding: ?It?s not related to gang activity. These are individuals who don?t get along.? The charges for the five persons arrested range from drug possession to assault, Comey said. None have been charged with the stabbing, but the investigation is ongoing, he said.