Newark, Pre-Crime and the Summer of 2011: What Does Black Memorial Day Portend for the Nation?

Unlike South Africa during the World Cup, we have no money to 

fight crime

Are we wrong to assume that Black Memorial Day was just the beginning of what is going to be a long summer in the United States of America?

One city that we didn't mention initially - but in e-mail correspondence with Jim Goad found out experienced similar problems - is Milwaukee. If one were interested in digging, they could probably find that other cities experienced increased levels of violence over Memorial Day weekend 2011.

Our guess is the rapidly disintegrating City of Brotherly Love - Philadelphia - experienced increased violence, as did Indianapolis. But that's just our guess.

What's funny is one year ago we were predicting massive violence in South Africa during the World Cup. We were wrong, but for a reason we failed to consider: South Africa was turned into a police state for one month, with hundreds of millions of dollars allocated to keeping alive soccer (excuse us, futbol) enthusiasts from around the world in an effort to put a positive spin on that failing country.

Hard to believe, but South Africa had 44,000 additional police officers policing that crime-infested nation during the World Cup on top of the 300,000 private security employees already working to keep that nation in some working condition (at a cost of $450 million a year).

The only way to deal with high rates of Black crime is to erect massive police states and direct resources that could go toward building infrastructure and improving the overall quality of the nation, instead toward keeping Black crime from completely submerging the nation into anarchy.

South Africa's fate is sealed, as is NASA's.

So our question is will the summer of the 2011 present a moment that finally forces some Sanctimonious White Conservative (SWC) to speak up and confront the problem that White Flight only amplifies?

Newark, a city blessed with a Black mayor capable of raising massive funds from Disingenuous White Liberals (DWLs) trying to garner positive publicity, is only a year removed from its first murder-free month in more than 44 years. Those days are long gone as violence has forced Newark to prepare for what could be a long summer.

You should remember that Newark Mayor Cory Booker is a star in the eyes of DWLs across the nation and he was able to set-up private charities that have received hundreds of millions in a bid to fight crime in that city.

It's not doing any good and Newark will attempt a South African-style plan to combat rising rates of crime:

Newark police yesterday rolled out a wide-ranging plan to flood city streets with cops and recruit the community as crime-prevention partners, amid five recent killings and the looming memory of last summer's staggering body count.


A large-scale redeployment of police to high-crime areas, as well as increased police visibility, will be the backbone of the city's law enforcement strategy, acting Police Director Samuel DeMaio and Mayor Cory Booker said yesterday. The "Safe City Task Force" will also recruit churches, recreational centers, camps and local nonprofit groups to provide alternatives to another brutal city summer.

The unveiling of the plan days ahead of schedule follows a bloody six-day span that left five people dead and 12 others wounded by gunfire — part of a year of soaring crime rates following the layoff of 163 officers in December. As of late yesterday, 37 homicides have occurred in Newark this year.

But even with the police force’s full complement, the unofficial start of summer after Memorial Day last year began one of the city’s deadliest periods, with 35 homicides between June 1 and Aug. 31 — the worst for that time span since 1990.

"We are not going to surrender our streets," Booker said in a phone interview yesterday. "We’re coming out with superior force and we’re going to start now to make sure that this summer is not marred by violence, but marked by peace, security and strength."

All officers not assigned to the detective’s bureau or narcotics division will don a uniform. The city will bring back mounted and motorcycle units to roam high-crime areas. Precincts will introduce "community roll calls," where officers report for duty on the streets of neighborhoods they patrol. Mobile Command Units also will set up camp in 15 to 20 city trouble spots.



"If the feeling is that the police aren’t around, people think they can walk down the street with a gun in their waistband and nobody can stop them," DeMaio said. "But if the presence of the police is felt strongly in the neighborhood, the criminals are going to think twice."

The initiative is also meant to bolster community relationships, he said.

Minors beyond 100 feet of their homes after 11 p.m. will face consequences from violating the city’s curfew. Unlike past years when police issued summonses, teen violators will be taken to area churches, where clergy and community groups will mentor and direct them to summer programs.

"We want the contact between the police and the citizens in those areas to not be just negative — to not just be criminal contacts," DeMaio said.

Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn Murray applauded the city’s efforts, noting the twin goals of enforcement and engagement.

"The fact of the matter is that police alone are not going to be able to solve the problem," she said. "We need the full cooperation of citizens and witnesses, and they have to have some faith in us to ultimately come forward and talk to a jury about what they've seen."

The plan was already showing promise Monday. Police handing out fliers around Spruce Street interrupted an attempted armed robbery at the Walter Lewit Drug Store, arresting the alleged gunman and getaway driver, DeMaio said.

But late afternoon gunfire erupted in the city’s West Ward yesterday, injuring two men, one critically, and punctuating the daunting task police face.

So what does the plan to fight pre-crime in Newark actually mean?:

"The focus will be on the community ... in the neighborhoods and we'll better work together to show what is necessary … to show that we are a phenomenal city," he said [Mayor Booker] to a standing-room-only audience of roughly 150 people that included police officers, firefighters and students from Calvary Christian School. A large screen behind Booker read, "Have a super summer in Newark." 
The plan includes:

• Restructuring the police department so officers normally behind a desk are in the street on patrol at least once a week. This will shorten the administrative work week to four days for the summer;
• Police roll calls will take place outside precincts for residents of the community to view;
• "Super summer" coordinators that include nonprofits to discuss ideas to suppress crime;
• Extending hours of public parks and swimming pools;
• Creating an online, living document that people can check to find activities;
• Deploying members of the Essex County Prosecutor's Office's V.I.P.E.R. unit to Newark that will focus on narcotics and anti-gang enforcement;
• Bringing back motorcycle patrols, mounted units and a helicopter;
• Developing community bus rides where residents show police problems;
• Developing a curfew where those caught would be taken to a house of worship in the city, instead of being taken home.

"I don't want our department to be anonymous individuals that people don't engage with," Booker said about the city's police force. "A lot of officers live in our neighborhoods and they have to get to know people there."

Last year, from June 1 to Sept. 1, the city witnessed 35 murders, according to Booker. He told the audience Friday, "That will not happen ever again."

Booker said the initiative was supposed to start later in June, but that changed after a spate of violence this past week left at least five people dead, including Newark police officer William C. Johnson. Johnson was shot in a drive-by shooting six blocks west of the church on Lyons Avenue last Thursday. He died early Friday morning. Rasul McNeil-Thomas, 19, of Newark, was charged with Williams' murder Saturday. Another suspect remains at-large.

Boston, Charlotte, Nashville, Milwaukee, Chicago, Decatur (Al.), Myrtle Beach, Miami, Long Beach and Rochester, New York were all cities impacted by Black violence and Black Flash Mobs over the Black Memorial Day 2011.

Newark is preparing for the summer of 2011 by instituting pre-crime initiatives in that failing city. No matter how much money pours in from Mayor Booker's DWL friends, delaying the inevitable is no longer an option.

Based on the actions of 'youths', 'urban teens', 'bikers', 'gang members', Black people in cities throughout America over Black Memorial Day Weekend 2011 - and based on Newark's desperate attempt to prepare for the onslaught of criminality - we can safely argue that the summer of 2011 will offer many more moments that will make the events of Memorial Day pale in comparison.

Unlike FIFA and the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, most major cities are cutting their police budgets and don't have excess funds allocated to deal with minority crime. Those cities that do try and stop minority crime are investigated by the Department of (in) Justice and Eric "My People" Holder, who in his spare time is campaigning to get The Wire back on the air.

We are nearing the point where that national dialogue on race is forced upon us and the 'nation of cowards' will finally be called upon to discuss how a significant percentage of 13 percent of the American population requires the erecting of police state to properly govern.

In the past, we have argued Atlanta will be the city that witnesses the beginning of the end of Black-Run America. Violence is rising in that city, though media outlets have as yet to identify what is going on there.

The homosexual population in Atlanta is powerful and you wonder if, like in Miami, it will be homosexuals that point out the problems that are to come in The City too busy to Hate.

Unlike South Africa at this time last year, the United States no longer has the money to stop what is coming. All we can do is enact curfews in major cities. That's it.

DWLs (and SWCs) have thrown money at this problem for 40 - 50 years and augmented the Black Undertow. Crusading White Pedagogues (CWP) have taught Black students that every problem and obstacle they face in America is due to White Privilege and continued white racism, simultaneously teaching white children that they are responsible for every evil in this world.

The consequences of our indifference to reality are upon us.

So readers, we ask you to submit stories from the city that you live in that discuss how police and elected officials are preparing to deal with pre-crime.




 

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