Vigil for shooting victim

One evening a few days back I was in the area of 5th and Vine Streets, where Jeffrey Moss aka "man man" was gunned down.  There was probably close to 100 people present, and I heard much more were there at sunset to hold a candlelight vigil for the shooting victim.

Nobody deserves to be killed over something so stupid as probably a verbal dispute gone bad. 

What sort of annoyed me about the people present for the makeshift memorial (which I despise, place flowers at the cemetery!)  was they brazenly blocked the road off to thru traffic without going through the proper channels, to memorialize a career criminal, yet if I don't get a $5 permit for a yard sale on my own property I am immediately taken to task over it.  Something so trivial, yet a sign of the lack of respect so many share toward society in general. 

I realize the police department had to act with diplomacy, because judging by the 28" rims parked for blocks around, and dominant color of red clothing with underwear showing above belt lines among the crowd, any effort to simply open the road to traffic would have been met with such a large backlash it probably would have attracted national media attention, even though authorities would have been acting according to law and ordinances.  

If only this group of 100+ people paying honor to a man who lived his life robbing, stealing and hurting others could organize and hit the streets to supervise and parent the youth, imagine how fast the community would improve!

Instead, many more children will grow into a life of entitlements, lawlessness and hopelessness.  Mr. Moss will be buried, the R.I.P. shoe polish on car windows and t-shirts with his mugshot on them will fade, and his legacy as nothing more than a criminal will be forgotten.  Life will go on for countless other people down the same path toward crime, prison and unfortunately for some, an early death.

There is no worse death than to die in vein.  Will this be the death that changes a society?  Or will it be life as usual...      R.I.P.   "man man"

Not so smart drug dealer

There is a black mini van (Kia model?) driving around Millville doing drug deals. NJ Reg. #R84-AFD. The driver is a heavyset black male with braided hair. He usually has a large black male passenger riding along with him, and they like to blast their rap music at loud levels. Real good way to keep a low profile fellas...

I have seen this van conduct suspiscious "deals" at the car wash at 7th and Main Streets a few times, and also behind McDonalds on 2nd street.

How it works is people will park in a public location and contact the man in the mini-van via cell phone. A few minutes later the van will show up and an order will be placed. The person will then be given instructions to follow the van to another location to pick up the stuff.

One night a few weeks ago a heavyset caucasian female in her 20's driving a white dodge neon contacted this mini-van, who met her at the car wash. The driver of the van could clearly be heard asking the girl what she wanted and if she had the money. The girl was then instructed to follow the van to an address in the 200 block of North 7th street to finalize the deal. I was unable to pinpoint the house address just yet, but am working on it.

Oakview??

There is a photo gallery on dailyjournal.com today titled "police investigation at Oakview apartments" with several photos of police and yellow crime scene tape, however I cannot find an article or information as to when or what may have happened. Anybody heard anything?

We need these signs

Millville should invest in these signs, and the first one needs to go in the vicinity of 2nd  and Vine Streets. There is a church and nursery school where our enterprising young women ply their trade.

Drug Raid on 3rd Street

The Daily Journal was first to break the news of a drug raid on a nuisance property on 3rd street in Millville this Friday. The house involved was 4q4 N. 3rd street, owned by William and Joyce Goelzer of 611 Glenside drive, Millville, NJ.

Police arrested four people Friday after conducting a drug investigation on the 400 block of North 3rd Street.
City police executed a narcotics search warrant at the home after several months of investigating the property for its role in narcotics sales, said Millville police Sgt. Ross Hoffman, a member of the Organized Crime Bureau for the Cumberland County Prosecutor’s Office.
Police raided the same home Dec. 8 for the same issue and made two arrests then, including one man who also was arrested Friday, he said.

This house is a known nuisance property. It is a shame that the owner lives in Millville, but apparently could not care less about the plague that nuisance tenants bring on this city. Millville has long advocated that landlords utilize a Crime free lease Addendum, a totally free procedure that is but one tool to protect the landlord's investment in their property as well as helping to ensure that our neighborhoods are safe and clean.

Kudos to the MPD for their investigation. The next step the city MUST take is to hit the landlord with a notice of condoning a nuisance property under Millville's "Excessive Use of City Services Ordinance". it is bad enough when out-of-town slumlords destroy the fabric of our neighborhoods by maintaining nuisance properties. After all, they have no stake in our city other than as an income source. But to have Millville residents that are so careless as to turn a blind eye to the crime that is rampant is truly irksome.

As a side note, I did notice a patrol vehicle parked on the corner of 3rd and Mulberry for a good part of today. Some of the denizens that congregate on the corner did not look too pleased.

I can attest that our elected officials do have a vested interest in combating these problems. I understand that we can expect more news of this sort in the future.

Info sharing

http://www.nj.com/ today lists 2 of cumberland county's most wanted. One of these individuals is a Mexican male named Sergio Angel of the Bridgeton area. In the press release, it is listed that Angel has a tattoo on his left hand stating "SUR 13 STG." Just want to share the meaning of this so the community is aware who is among us:

"Sur" stands for Surenos, or Southern Hispanic. Most Mexican street gangs fall under southern/southside (Sureno), or Northern (Norteno). The # 13 is a number southerners represent by (Nortenos use 14).

"STG" is a term prisons use in classifying members of more notable gangs that pose a danger to the orderly running of a facility. STG stands for Security Threat Group.

The Surenos are on the high end of the pecking order. In prison, other gangs will fall in line to a Surenos member or clique. the Surenos' main function is to act for, and report directly to the Mexican Mafia, who ulitmately control all kinds of illicit activities, but especially the flow of narcotics coming from Mexico into the U.S. The Surenos will hold responsibility for distribution of the narcotics and any other bidding the Mexican Mafia wants done.

Seeing what the Surenos do on the street, and knowing the prisons classify their members as part of a security threat group, these people are not wannabe's, and are serious career criminals. the fact that this Sergio Angel has STG tattooed directly on his hand is an easy tell that he is no stranger to the penal system or criminal lifestyle.

Many of these gang members will blend in with migrant farm worker populations who travel all over the country seasonally looking for work. It is an easy way to maintain mobility and move drugs among networks for street level distribution.

more gun play at 5th and Mulberry

9PM Monday night,and more shootings at 5th and Mulberry. I will post more info as it comes in.

Attempted Robbery

Heard there was an attempted robbery a few nights ago on North 5th street of a Dominos pizza driver. In an awesome turn of events, the pizza delivery person was able to grab a chainsaw from the back of his vehicle to defend himself, which caused the suspects to think twice and quickly retreat! Good to see the driver was not harmed simply trying to earn a few dollars.

A message from Adotp-a-Block

Good afternoon friends,

Under the leadership of the Greater Millville Ministerial Association, the Adopt a Block Program truly made a difference in our neighborhoods last year. We collected several tons of trash and had an obvious presence in the community every third Saturday morning. After taking a short break, we’ll be back on the job starting Saturday, February 18^th and you’re invited to join us. We’ll meet at 10 AM at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, 3^rd and Mulberry Streets to pick up our gear and then go out to spruce up our City. After an hour or so, we’ll return to St. Paul’s for refreshments and to share our experiences.

We do this not only to pick up trash but to engage our neighbors and invite them to participate. While we’re concentrated in Center City, any block in any neighborhood can be adopted, by any group, including within our Arts District. An individual can join with any group they want.

We also do this because it’s fun. You get a cool t-shirt and you get to hang out with cool people. And on a serious note, we know that we have significant challenges in our City. This is one of many approaches that we know works.

So we hope that you’ll join us on the 18^th. In the meantime, please print and post our flyer in your business, school or church. If the weather is bad, we’ll renew our program on March 17th. If you have any questions, please call me or Pastor Elizabeth Nees at 856-825-3008.

Thanks, Ed   

Edward C. Einhaus

Project Implementation Coordinator

Center City - The Heart of Millville Program

c/o AHOME Inc.

400 E. Main St.

Police Command Vehicle

Several years ago the MPD acquired a Police Command Vehicle. Now, the wisdom of outlaying that amount of money has been questioned - but to allay the worst fears, this was not paid for with property tax dollars; it was acquired through a grant that had a limited scope.  Anyway, coulda-woulda-shoulda- we have the vehicle now.

The question I am posing is this, "Where in the hell is it?" Okay, I know where it is. It is usally housed in a space at the Millville Rescue Squad, in space paid for by Office of Emergency Management funds. OEM headquarters are pretty much mandated to receive such funds, and ours is at the MRS. At least, that is how things stood last time I had any conversation about it, I don't know if anything has changed in the interim.

Anyway, this rant has a purpose. The PCM is doing nobody any good parked in a garage. With stepped up patrols throughout the neighborhoods, why not use it as a mobile police office? Park it in front of the known drug house on the 500 block of Mulberry Street for a month, and have the beat and bike cops use it as an office.

Park it on the 200 block of Vine Street for a month so that the plethora of hookers that hang out around the church and nursery school 24/7 will be forced to move their base of operations.

And, to really mix things up, strategically place some undercover operations in the likely areas where the dealers, pimps and whore will relocate.

Just an idea...