Recap of weeks of violence

The Press of Atlantic City has a good article on the wave of violence that has been sweeping Center City.

In the past week alone, multiple shootings and stabbings have been reported from within center city. At least two people have been shot, and others may have been. Homes have been hit by stray gunfire, and cars, too, often in broad daylight. Many crimes originate in the same center city neighborhood, the area between Third and Sixth streets and Broad and Main streets.

Residents here live every day with gang and drug violence. For many, the violence is something they have come to expect.

The article is a fairly accurate depiction. If you read it, you will find the problem lays squarely in the laps of the residents that refuse to see anything, or know anything. One idiot claimed "the only way it will get better is if we leave". Sure - because you are too much of a coward to tell the police what you know! That is the one thing that really pisses me off, those people that want somebody else to fix the problem, and refuse to take ownership of their own neighborhood.

By refusing to cooperate with authorities, by refusing to get involved, you have handed the neighborhood over to third-rate thugs. All it takes is a phone call to police whenever you witness suspicious or nuisance activity. Give the police the address of the nuisance property.  Three calls in a month, and that landlord gets a letter from the city to cease and desist. If the landlord fails to alleviate the problem, they can be charged the cost of city services and liens will be placed on their property.

There was one factual error in the story.

Following a shooting spree that took place following the 2008 New Year, the Millville Police Department enlisted the aid of the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department and New Jersey State Police for a few months.

Actually, then sheriff Mike Barruzza called the Millville Chief of Police, and volunteered to send deputies to help patrol the areas. This was Barrazza's idea, not Millville's. Chief Grennon was more than happy for the offer.

Our current sheriff is too busy on publicity stunts to do anything of substance to fight gang crime.