This story is absolutely horrific:
NEWARK, N.J. - In a city where gun violence has become an all too common part of daily life, these shootings were enough to chill even the most hardened residents: Four young friends shot execution-style in a schoolyard just days before they were to head to college.
Three were killed after being forced to kneel against a wall and then shot in the head at close range Saturday night, police said. A girl was found slumped near some bleachers 30 feet away, a gunshot wound to the head but still alive.
The four Newark residents were to attend Delaware State University this fall....
It is directly related to this story/post here, from back in February:
Cops and politicians call Interstate 95 the "Iron Pipeline" because it is a popular route for criminals smuggling firearms from the South into Newark and other Northeastern cities where gun violence abounds.
A big link in that pipeline is the New Jersey Turnpike, where the State Police used to seize scores of guns every year.
But they don't anymore.
Gun arrests and gun seizures have plummeted on the Turnpike in the last decade, according to data provided by the State Police in response to a request under the Open Public Records Act.
Since 1995, the number of gun-related arrests by troopers on the Turnpike dropped 91 percent, to 17 last year, and the number of seized guns fell 87 percent, to 15. The decline comes at a time when homicides and shootings are on the rise in Newark, the state's largest city, where cops are taking record numbers of firearms off the streets.
When those illegal guns are traced to their original sale, the most common source states turn out to be along the I-95 corridor in the South ...
For many years, troopers made a priority of pulling over Turnpike motorists and searching their cars in hopes of catching drug traffickers and gun runners. That effort was abandoned in 1999, after a state investigation found troopers were stopping drivers based on their skin color, a civil rights abuse known as racial profiling.
Under pressure from the U.S. Department of Justice, the State Police were put under the oversight of federal monitors and forced to change its patrol tactics....
Think I'm kidding? Check up on Philadelphia, right off the "Iron Pipeline", and see how things are going there...
Well, black folks in the Blue Northeast are being murdered like they are going out of style, but hey! At least their feeling aren't hurt by the shame of racial profiling! Way, way worse than being ordered to your knees and shot in the back of the skull...
Somewhat related here...
I heard that on the news earlier today. In light of the circumstances, and how unfamiliar I am with the subject, I can't offer any commentary except to share how horrified I am.
ReplyDeleteLife in Newark seems cheaper than a small plastic bag of Doritos. It's so, so sad. And they seemed like decent kids, too.
No fair, making me smile with the "Doritos" analogy!
ReplyDeletePlaces like Newark and Camden are rapidly become some of the most dangerous and notorious cites in the nation; becoming synonomous with Compton, and...Detroit.
I can't wait to hear the liberals babble about how "stricter gun laws" would have prevented psychotic thugs from getting the weapons they needed for carrying out a triple slaying.
Newark doesn't need Cory Booker, it needs Rudy Guliani.
The worst...I read yesterday that Sharpe James and about 100+ protesters gathered to rally against Cory Booker, but (forgive my complete lack of knowledge of Jersey Politics 101) wasn't crime in Newark about as bad, if not far worse, when he was mayor, and was as bad the previous 40 years since the riots?
ReplyDeleteAnd I hardly think that gun laws could get any stricter than they already are in NJ. From what I understand, it's easier for one to sprout wings and fly than acquire a carry permit in Jersey.
I agree, about Cory Booker, although I think between him and Sharpe James, Booker is the lesser of two evils. One wouldn't think those two belong to the same political party. Rudy would, doubtless, bitch-slap Newark back into shape though. I love him.