Pubdate: Sun, 17 Dec 2006
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2006 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Andrew Jacobs

AT 101 HOMICIDES, NEWARK NEARS BLEAK MILESTONE

NEWARK, Dec. 15 -- The flickering votives, the tearful  relatives and 
the angry activists scolding City Hall  for the death of a young 
mother. It was a familiar  tableau as a small crowd huddled to mark 
the killing of  Taheerah Sweat, who the police say was shot twice by 
a man who had taken her out on the town but then left her  to die on 
the chilly pavement after they had a fight.

Ms. Sweat's killing early on Dec. 10 was the 101st  homicide in 
Newark this year, the authorities said, one  body short of a 1995 
record, when Newark was buckling  under a wave of crack-fueled mayhem.

With three times the number of homicides per capita as  New York, 
Newark remains one of the most violent cities  in the country. New 
York's homicide rate has edged up  this year, but it is nowhere near 
that of the late  1980s. Cities across the country, including 
Philadelphia, Phoenix, Orlando, San Antonio and Boston,  have seen 
increased killings, part of a two-year rise  in major crimes after a 
decade-long drop.

"If I were an epidemiologist instead of a  criminologist, I would say 
it looks like we have the  makings of an epidemic of violence in a 
number of  cities across the country," said Chuck Wexler,  executive 
director of the Police Executive Research  Forum, a Washington-based 
law enforcement group.  "Newark is not alone."

At a news conference here on Friday, Mayor Cory A.  Booker and his 
police director, Garry F. McCarthy,  tried to draw the focus away 
from homicides by  highlighting successes of recent weeks, including 
a newly fortified warrant squad that had arrested 75  people, and an 
overall drop in crime.

Officials also noted an aggressive quality-of-life  campaign that has 
yielded 600 summonses in recent  weeks. With two weeks left in the 
year, City Hall is  bracing for another killing and the inevitable 
headlines that will thrust Newark back into public  consciousness as 
a blood-soaked city where young thugs,  guns and drugs rule the streets.

For a mayor staking his administration on both the  perception and 
reality of Newark as a safe place, every  shooting is a blow.

"It's frustrating because these murders are  overshadowing all the 
progress we've made making Newark  a safer city," Mr. Booker said 
shortly after learning  of the death of Ms. Sweat, whose killer is 
still on the  loose.

On Friday, as he unveiled a "12 Most Wanted" poster  with two mug 
shots triumphantly crossed out, the mayor  added, "I want to be held 
accountable, but not for the  60 murders that happened this year 
before I took  office."

Every other category of crime, he repeatedly says, is  down 25 
percent since he took office in July, with  shootings, robberies, 
rapes and car thefts all  recording double-digit drops. And while 
homicides have edged up, Mr. McCarthy, the police chief, said that 
the  pace of killings had slowed markedly since the summer.

"We have a hundred things going, and they will start to  pay off in 
the coming months," he said. "People just  have to be patient."

But patience is wearing thin on the streets of Newark,  especially 
among the loved ones of victims of violence.  "You can put a thousand 
cops on the street, and it  isn't going to stop these knuckleheads 
from killing  people," said Chris Sweat, 40, as she stood beside an 
impromptu sidewalk memorial for her niece. "I know it's  not the 
mayor's fault, but something has to change. And  soon."

Since he came to Newark in September from the New York  Police 
Department, Mr. McCarthy has pledged to shake up  a department often 
criticized for sluggishness and a  lack of professionalism. He has 
given more autonomy to  precinct commanders, and demanded greater 
accountability from them, and he has shifted 150  uniformed officers 
from desk jobs to the streets.

Also in the works are a new narcotics division and a  video 
surveillance program that will put 60 cameras in  the city's most 
crime-battered neighborhoods.

In Newark, as in other cities, the rise in homicides  and other 
violent crimes is mostly in low-income,  minority neighborhoods, 
where guns are plentiful and  the narcotics trade is flourishing. In 
many cases, both  perpetrators and victims have criminal pasts that 
involve drugs, the police here say.

Because guns are used in 90 percent of Newark's  homicides, a 
fundamental challenge is reducing their  abundance. The streets are 
awash in Glocks, AK-47's and  .357 Magnums, and even someone unable 
to muster the  $200 to buy a cheap pistol can rent one for the 
day,  the police say.

"In the past, a drug dealer might have had a gun  stashed nearby," 
said Michael Wagers, executive  director of the Police Institute at 
Rutgers University.  "Now it's in his waistband, so small disputes 
quickly  lead to gunfire."

Mr. McCarthy is taking a page from New York's playbook,  where the 
decade-long drop in homicides has been partly  tied to a crackdown on 
illegal guns. He said the  department was tracking buyers and sellers 
to other  states and forcefully prosecuting people caught with 
illegal guns to discourage them from treating the  weapons as 
everyday accessories.

Mr. McCarthy also said he was hoping that word of  Newark's 
participation in a tough federal program that  leads to stiff 
sentences for some gun possession cases  would trickle down to the streets.

"Instead of spending a half-hour in the county jail,  you're going to 
spend five years in a federal  penitentiary in South Dakota where no 
one will visit  you," he warned.

But Tony Edwards, a former convict who helps run Street  Warriors, a 
group that tries to steer young people away  from trouble, said Mr. 
Booker's success in reducing  violent crime would depend not on how 
many prison cells  he filled, but on how many jobs he created.

"Increased law enforcement is all good, but we have to  look at the 
bigger picture," Mr. Edwards said. "It's  about jobs, it's about 
poverty, it's about education  and it's about paying attention to our 
kids. If we all  work together, I think we can turn this city around."

Ms. Sweat, 25, whose death last week left four children  without a 
mother, had not been planning to stick around  for the dawn of a new 
Newark. According to relatives,  she had grown weary of the violence 
and was weeks away  from moving her family to Virginia.
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