Seven Days in the Capital City:
Trenton Councilman’s Wife Robbed at Gunpoint
Mercer County Comes to Aid of Trenton
Trenton Shooting Victim Dies, Marking City’s Second Homicide of 2012
Trenton Police Say Homicide Victim Died from Stab Wounds
Trenton Police Deploy City Task Force to Curb Crime
Two Armed Robbers Steal Cash from Bell Boy Cleaners in Trenton
Paralyzed Man Found Dead in Trenton’s Island Section is City’s First Homicide of 2012
Trenton Police: Three Men Flee After Shots Fired
Trenton Man Injured in Drive-By Shooting
Trenton Woman Shot in Eye Through Her Kitchen Window
Leaders Ponder Ways to Curb Violence at Trenton Central High School
Trenton Police Arrest Alleged Armed Robbers
Man Shot in Both Feet in Trenton
Trenton Shooting Victim Remains in Critical Condition
Citizens Group Hopes to Make Trenton a Safer City
Trenton Man Fires Shot at Woman, Arrested After Chase
And that’s just in one newspaper, and only the stories that made it to the attention of the press, and only of those crimes that were reported to the Police.
The first story listed, covering the robbery at gunpoint outside her house of Alysia Welch-Chester, is perhaps the one that hits closest to home. Alysia is a friend and colleague on the city’s Democratic Committee, which she chairs. She is also a near neighbor, living as she does just across the Park in Hiltonia. I am glad to hear that she is unharmed, and wish her and Councilman Chester nothing but best wishes in the aftermath of such a horrible event.
Along with this assault, a drive-by shooting over the past weekend just one block from our house is proof that this latest wave of violence is becoming very scarily personal.
It is open season in Trenton, and the fact that this crime wave is taking place in the middle of January fills one with dread over what to expect in the Spring and Summer! These are usually quieter months in terms of mayhem and violence, and I am hoping that in six months’ time we won’t look back on these weeks and find that they were, in retrospect, more peaceful. God Help Us if that happens!
The initiative announced yesterday by Mercer County Prosecutor Joseph Bocchini and Sheriff Jack Kemler to allow resources from their County departments to assist the overstretched Trenton Police is very welcome. They have been helping TPD for some time now already, although neither office is equipped or staffed to be able to meet the challenges they’ll find out on our streets.
I find it curious that in the press release published yesterday, both Bocchini and Kemler are quoted, as are Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes and Trenton’s Acting Police Director Dave Armitage. No quote from or reference to the City’s Mayor Tony F. Mack can be found.
In fact, there has been precious little communication from the mayor about the city’s crumbling public safety. Since his October trip to Washington, when the mayor pleaded with the Federal Government to reverse its denial of the City’s COPS grant application, the Mayor has been mostly silent on the subject. The press release page on the City’s website contains nothing on the subject of public safety (other than to note the passing of veteran detective Luis Medina and the appointment of Mr. Armitage) since October 7, when it was claimed that Mr. Mack returned from DC not with funds but with “Actionable Hope.” Since October, and certainly over the last six weeks the only actions in Trenton have brought despair.
I sincerely hope that the assistance from the County announced yesterday helps TPD to get this latest spasm of citywide violence under control. I think it only appropriate that additional aid from the State Police be provided, and ask Governor Christie and Attorney General Chiesa to acknowledge that this is their Capital City and the State needs to step up here, as has the County.
This Can’t Go On! Stay Safe Out There!