A sign telling you to stop murdering people, people.

Newark, New Jersey, which is somehow a scarier place than it’s name cousin New York, New York, went 33 days without a murder! The signs like the one above, which have been up for around a year, are now coming down because of the reduction. Just how long ago was the last period of relative peace in the city? Try over 40 years…

The last time the city went more than a month without a killing was a 40-day period in 1963, according to Police Director Garry J. McCarthy, who was hired by Mayor Cory A. Booker in the fall of 2006 after a stint as the chief crime strategist for the New York Police Department.

A sobering fact. The reality is that Newark “has averaged about two killings a week over the last few years and saw homicides spike 50 percent from 2002 to 2006,” making it one of the most violent and unsafe places in the USA.

Note, that there was one fatal shooting on February 3rd, but under FBI guidelines it did not count as a homicide or murder. Lucky Newark!

How are they combating crime in the city?

McCarthy attributes the drop in homicides to a broader strategy to fighting crime that includes prosecuting petty crimes, like loitering and public drunkenness, as well as more serious ones.

The city last year began installing a network of more than 120 surveillance cameras in high-crime areas of the city.

“It’s not one thing we do, it’s everything we do,” McCarthy said. “It’s a confluence of a lot of strategies and tactics applied in the right way.”

Good for them, let’s hope that this 33 day stretch is only indicative of better days ahead!

[Source]

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