Like the old vaudeville joke -- except that it's NOT a joking matter -- the story on crime in Plainfield is one of good news . . . and bad news.
The good news -- you will learn from the story in today's Ledger that Operation CeaseFire is to get under way in Plainfield next month. You can also read in today's Ledger of the impact Newark's anti-gun program has had there. The other good news is that murders are down.
The bad news is that THE POTENTIAL for murder in Plainfield is up -- because gun-related crime has increased.
Not only increased, but INCREASED DRAMATICALLY -- UP AT LEAST 25% THROUGH OCTOBER OF THIS YEAR. (You have to do the math, as the Ledger story doesn't bring out the DRAMATIC INCREASE clearly.)
Reading closely, you will note the Ledger story reports a shooting incident last month in which a dozen bullets hit a car. You don't recall? Because it was not in the papers.
The incident is NOT to be confused with ANOTHER OCTOBER SHOOTING (see the Courier's October 18 story), which WAS in the papers.
Neither of which is to be confused with the SHOOTING A FEW WEEKS AGO in which a teen was seriously wounded by three bullets and medevaced to RWJ. You don't recall that one either?
Part of the bad news about the bad news is how little we know about how serious guns, gunplay and gangs are becoming in Plainfield. If the reporters don't cover it and the City doesn't put the word out, you'll just never know.
Until maybe YOU or SOMEONE YOU KNOW becomes a victim.
Is PT the only one who finds this news about the ALARMING UPSWING IN GUN-RELATED INCIDENTS jarring when set beside the Mayor's sunny assertions in the SID's Holidays issue of Positively Plainfield that "communication is a key component of what I envision as a tool for success" and "our community has been safer due to [the Mayor's] proactive [policing] mandates"?
What?! You didn't get the SID's Positively Plainfield yet? But that's another story.
-- Dan Damon
PS -- A sidebar on Operation CeaseFire will be the COST TO THE TAXPAYERS. You really have to read the fine print about how the program operates. Police overtime costs will go up. Can this good program be a bad budget-buster? You may want to ask your Councilperson.
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1 comment:
But didn't this Administration "run" on the urgent need to decrease Plainfield's crime rate? Do you think if the crimes are just not publicized that the Mayor thinks that we are dumb enough to believe that there is less crime in Plainfield now?
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