The Trenton Times published the following article on July 9, 2013. To read the full article, click here.

Editorial: Escalating gun violence in Trenton requires more police, assistance from state

By Times of Trenton Editorial Board 
on July 09, 2013 at 6:17 AM, updated July 09, 2013 at 8:08 AM

Accelerating violence has been a problem in Trenton for years.

Forced to diminish the city police department by a third in 2011 due to budget constraints, the city has ceded more ground to thugs who pull the trigger at the slightest grievance.

But it wasn’t until Times Staff Writer Alex Zdan crunched the numbers for the first half of 2013 in the besieged city that there’s been a precise calculation of the danger.

In the capital city, where busy legislators make laws and blasé criminals shatter the laws with gunfire, there have been 20 homicides so far this year. Sixteen of those victims died of gunshot wounds, an incidence rate that dwarfs major cities — including Philadelphia, Newark and Chicago.

In the first six months of this year, Trenton homicides rose to a rate of 22 per 100,000 residents, Zdan reports. In the same period, Baltimore recorded a rate of 18 homicides per 100,000 residents; Newark nearly 13; Philadelphia seven; and Chicago just under seven homicides per 100,000 residents.

Chicago police reported 843 shootings in the first half of 2013, or about 30 per every 100,000 residents. Trenton’s shootings in the same time period work out to more than 111 per 100,000.

Fueling the explosion of violence is that many more criminals now carry guns rather than rely on “community guns” stashed in a house or on the tire of a parked car.

With so many young men armed and dangerous, shootings spurred by vengeance have become commonplace. And the provocation for revenge may be as slight as being asked not to cut into a line ahead of others.

Emboldened criminals appear unconcerned about apprehension because a fear of retribution keeps potential witnesses silent.

One letter writer to The Times likened the city to the streets of Baghdad, where internecine grudges erupt spontaneously into gunfire that claims the lives of innocents as well as combatants.

The city council was dismally shortsighted in letting the chance for a federal COPS grant to hire more officers slip by when it would have cost the typical Trenton taxpayer just pennies a day for a dozen more officers.

Well intentioned community efforts like tip-lines help, but are of little deterrence for criminals who place no value on the lives of others and don’t care who is cut down by the gunfire.

With a force still 80 officers below previous staffing levels, it’s clear the answer to Trenton’s most pressing problem by far is deploying a stronger police presence on the streets. The State Police has increased its presence in Trenton in an effort to help, but the number of shootings remains staggering.

Even though state officials are loath to give indicted Mayor Tony Mack a hand, one man’s intransigence in refusing to step down from office shouldn’t doom the city’s 84,000 residents to another year of fear and mayhem.

The state has to step in here with some means of protecting all those living in the shadows of the golden Statehouse dome in neighborhoods plagued by gunfire.