<p><a href=“http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003823981_webkillings06.html[/url]”>http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003823981_webkillings06.html</a></p>
<p>I admit- stuff like this freaks me out.
I know that horrible things happen- and we can’t anticipate everything-
but I admit to combing through crime stats when considering areas where D may be interested in attending school.</p>
<p>I hope that they are able to get some leads soon.</p>
<p>I’ve said this before, but I do not worry one iota about my S going to school in NYC, but Newark, which I live very close to, is much scarier to me.</p>
<p>OTOH, I spend my day with scores of wonderful students who have grown up there, as did the students who were killed. I keep hoping things will change, but they never seem to.</p>
<p>I have no qualms about NYC, either (I worked there for six years back in the 80s, when it was far worse than it is now), but Newark horrifies me.</p>
<p>And I’m not just saying that because my car was stolen in Newark once, from where it was parked within sight of the UMDNJ hospital buildings.</p>
<p>Oh I didn’t mean I was afraid of NYC.
My younger daughter went there when she was in 8th grade with a school group and my oldest went there by herself to visit some friends this past winter.
They both had a great time.</p>
<p>But D is interested in attending school in LA- and I have been reading about not just crime but everything ( including traffic and cliffs- I have had two friends who died in seperate accidents on ocean roads in CA)- and since Seattle is relatively boring- it is something I am concerned about.</p>
<p>( my car was also broken into- in the parking lot of Ds high school after I had stepped away for literally 5 minutes- material thefts don’t bother me so much)</p>
<p>I am also saddened by this incident that happened yesterday- to a woman who had a restraining order against her ex.
<a href=“http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003823651_stabbing06m.html[/url]”>http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003823651_stabbing06m.html</a>
bystanders were breaking chairs over his head and he still kept stabbing her according to reports- I just don’t understand that.</p>
<p>Oh, I didn’t think you meant that, EK; I use my comfort with NYC to contrast with my discomfort with Newark. It’s not cities; it’s that particular city. It just never seems to get any better there.</p>
<p>It is all about gangs and it is infecting every city. Philadelphia, Baltimore- the small NJ cities of Trenton, Camden, Asbury Park.
By the way I worked in Newark from 1980-1996 and the surrounding towns of Irvington, East Orange and Orange and I can tell you Irvington was a bigger problem.
The big problem now is you can not prosecute because no one will be a witness</p>
<p>Yup. Almost certainly gang-related. (And the victims may very well have had nothing to do with gangs.)</p>
<p>Most probably not. They were, by all local accounts, good kids victim of a vicious robbery turned murder.</p>
<p>I certainly would not put Newark on my college list. When I was a kid it was a viable city where we went to shop at Christmas. For the last 30 years–a hellhole.</p>
<p>Well, one problem about gang violence, you’ll never really hear if it was for sure. No police force or media outlet (much less witnesses or other people in the know) will talk about it. I’ve seen several newspaper articles referring to the fact that it was “initiation night” and that the girls’ purses were untouched and still in the car. Not to mention, Newark is known to be a gang stronghold.</p>
<p>It is particularly alarming because the neighborhood in which the murders took place, Vailsburg/ Ivy Hill, is a relatively stable (not burned-out and not initially directly effected by the 1967 riots) section of the city and very near South Orange, especially the part of South Orange where Seton Hall is. The high-rise brick buildings referred to in some articles are not public housing and are home to working people of many ethnic groups living in relative safety and harmony. There has been local publicity in recent years about suburban gang activity, and Newark’s crime rate and violence are of course ongoing subjects; perhaps this was part of Newark’s gang activity. It is also alarming because 11:30 at night in an okay neighborhood isn’t really that late to be out on a summer night–lots of unanswered questions here as well as family tragedy for those involved.</p>
<p>I just read the saddest article about Newark and its mayor in the NY Times.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/07/nyregion/07booker.html?_r=1&oref=slogin[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/07/nyregion/07booker.html?_r=1&oref=slogin</a></p>
<p>I think one of the victim’s dads said it best:
</p>
<p>Where to begin…</p>
<p>Yes, that was really sad; saw him say that on the news last night too. What is also sad is that many “activitists” and others in Newark have said something quite differethey seem to take the view that it is the mayor’s fault because he said he would stop the vbiolence during his term and so it should have stopped because there is something he personally could have done to transform the city. It will take a lot longer than he has had so far to transform an economy and/or a culture.</p>
<p>I lived in Newark until the June before the July 1967 riots; until two years ago, my mother lived near Seton Hall. While other cities recovered from the 60’s, Newark never did. Living in the shadow of New York, it never had the opportunities to “revitalize” or reinvent itself. It hadn’t changed much from July 67 until now. Vailsburg was always its success story. I was so sad to read about this.</p>
<p>^ In a lot of ways, urban Rochester never recovered either. Then of course, there is Detroit…ouch. There are many other cities as well.</p>
<p>Wherever there exists such a concentration of poverty it seems there are huge problems with violence too (among other things). Personally, I think that until we can fix poverty (how?) AND offer poor people housing in non-poor towns and suburbs we’ll always have the violence ghettos.</p>
<p>Sorry but the violence comes with them. Even in a wealthy liberal city.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/spectrum/index.php?ntid=203832&ntpid=1[/url]”>http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/spectrum/index.php?ntid=203832&ntpid=1</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://www.madisoncommons.org/article.php?storyid=1082[/url]”>http://www.madisoncommons.org/article.php?storyid=1082</a></p>
<p>Yes; the frequently raised specter of suburban gangs suggests a degree of mobility. It is not so much poverty as a culture of violence that is an issue here. The shooting in Newark did not in fact take place in a scary-looking place, which makes the circumstances all the more scary and sad.</p>
<p>If people in the 'burbs think they are insulated from what goes on in the poor urban areas, they are sorely mistaken.</p>
<p>The gangs are in the burbs also.</p>
<p>Lack of respect for human life is everywhere and goes beyond gangs. Admiration of violence permeates society. Accusations of “not being black enough” have followed Mayor Booker since before he was elected–generally from the same people who now condemn him for not having immediately stopped violent crime in Newark by some magical process. There’s a lot more going wrong it seems to me, beyond even the gang violence and this specific tragedy.</p>