While there’s no denying Newark, New Jersey still has a lot of work to do in reducing crime, there are certainly some good accomplishment to celebrate, such as the city having its first murder-free month since 1966:
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As Mayor Booker mentioned, what’s worth noting about Newark’s approach to fighting crime is that it’s not just about putting more “feet on the street” in the form of more police officers; the city of Newark has also made a strong investment in more programs for people coming out of prison. While making strong investments in prisoner reentry programs may not be as politically popular as being “tough on crime,” there certainly seems to be some strong benefits to making investments in programs that may end up helping convicts returning to our communities break the cycle of criminal behavior.
That’s a great positive sign. I would love to look more into the specifics of the reentry program ideas. Maybe with the new attention some of the ideas will be picked up around the country. Is Mayor Booker an up and comer? The only thing I know about him is his “feud” with Conan O’Brien!
I don’t know much about NJ politics, but he sure strikes me as an “up and comer.” From what I’ve seen of Corey Booker, he’s extremely articulate, but more than that, he’s got some great ideas, and as he mentioned in this interview, he’s a big proponent of cities sharing information on what they’re doing that works.
Cynic that I am, I have to question whether this is the best statistic to have everything on. Sorry, but one month without a murder could be a freak occurrence – luck. I mean it would seem strange to celebrate this if there were murders on the last day of Feb and/or first day of April. Well actually it seems strange to celebrate this anyway, considering it’s no like it’s a city of millions, but whatever, I guess expectations are what they are.
Crime statistics should always be about their vector which way they trending and to what degree rather than absolute numbers. And of course it’s always worth mentioning that how crimes are classified and measured change frequently depending on the agendas of who’s doing the counting.
Probably also worth noting – it looks like Booker may be getting/taking credit for the work of his predecessors. He took office in 2006. Newark was named most dangerous city in 1996, had it’s record number of murders (161) in 1981. 2008 while Booker was in office tied the record low (65) which was previously achieved in 2002, four years before he took office.
This is to say their programs & policies aren’t effective. Only that it feels like spin & marketing as much as anything. That isn’t itself a bad thing either – getting word out that you’re not as bad as people think and that safety of your citizens is a high priority is a good thing. Only, a requisite grain of salt seems to be in order.