According to reports released by the New Jersey State Police and the National Crime Data Bank, the crime rate in New Jersey is at it’s lowest since the 1960’s. However the number of murders, as well as the amount of gang related crime is higher than ever. Incidents of gang crime, including gang graffiti, murder, robbery and drug dealing are on the rise and have spread from the inner cities of Newark and Camden to the leafy suburban streets of towns such as Teaneck and Willingboro. Gangs such as the Bloods and Crips, the MS-13 and the 18th Street Gang.
In 2002, Trenton, NJ had 42 known groups of drug dealers. Last year, there was one gang who controlled over 90% of the city’s drug trade, the Bloods. In 2003 there was one gang related homicide in the city of Trenton, while in 2006 there were 23. And when police in this city of roughly 85,000 people began to crack down on gang activity, making massive sweeps of the most dangerous neighborhoods, the gang member moved to neighboring Burlington County, a rural area, with towns like Willingboro, population 33,000, who has seen a spike in gang activity over the last year with several gang related homicides and other crimes reports The Courier Post Newspaper.
Cities such as Paterson, in Passaic County, have also seen an increase in gang activity that has spread to surrounding towns that had never been exposed to this type of activity. In Teaneck, NJ last year, reports The Bergen Record, a 15 year old boy was shot and killed outside a houseparty by a reputed member of the Bloods gang from Paterson. Arrested were five men total, all from Paterson. This was after a separate incident in which a local man was severely beaten by members of the Crips, in Teaneck. Teaneck Police arrested several men, from Teaneck, Hackensack and Paterson in connection with the crime.
According to the New Jersey State Police Gang Survey of 2007, 43% of New Jersey’s 567 municipalities reported some sort of “gang presence.” The Bloods gang was named as the most abundant gang in New Jersey. Some of the other gangs reported to have a large presence in New Jersey are the Crips, the Latin Kings, the Netas and the Pagans Motorcycle Club. However the gang that is growing more rapidly than any other of these gangs, is the Mara Salvatrucha or the MS-13. The MS-13 is comprised mainly of Salvadorean and Hondurean immigrants and was founded in Los Angeles. Members of MS-13 have in the past been known for wild gang related tattoos covering their whole bodies including their faces.
The streets of New Brunswick, NJ, in central new Jersey are marked with gang related graffiti from gangs such as MS-13, the Bloods and the 18th Street Gang. Earlier this year a man was shot and killed by members of the Bloods gang in an apparent mistaken identity. The Home News of Central Jersey reported that
another man shot in that incident, also a Bloods member, was the intended target. The day before a teenager was shot multiple times in a drive by shooting just blocks from the later shooting. Last year a teenager in neighboring Franklin Township was shot in the back and killed after he was approached by two Bloods gang members and “G checked.” The gang members started asking him questions to see if he was really a Blood, something he claimed to be. They determined that he wasn’t, and shot and killed him.
Some of New Jersey’s safest towns have been infiltrated by gang activity recently. The Press of Atlantic City reports that Barnegat Township, a suburb of Atlantic City, was plagued by incidents of gang graffiti. Several housing developments, as well as highway signs were defaced with graffiti and markings commonly used by the Bloods gang. Mount Holly, NJ reported three gang related homicides in 2006. Drug rings tied to the Latin Kings have been broken up in rural Cumberland County within the last year, and those gangs were also responsible for several homicides in the past few years.
Many experts have called the rise in gang crime and activity a plague, and it is most definitely a problem that is rapidly growing, not just in urban New Jersey, but in rural and suburban areas as well. The allure for many young people to join or form a gang is fueled by many different things. Some reasons are purely society. Many of the youngsters involved with gangs come from poor backgrounds, with little hope for the future, they see the flashiness and camraderie of gangs as a way to advance themselves. Many others are in a way duped by older gang members into becoming involved with a “promising” lifestyle that will provide them with all the things they desire, fast cars, money, women. Still others just want to be tough. Gang life is secretive, with hand signs and graffiti that only other gang members can decipher. Gangs use different slang, and wear certain colors or types of clothing or have certain tattoos to distinguish themselves from others.
According to the New Jersey State Police Gang Survey of 2007, seven tenths of New Jersey’s population lives in a municipality with a gang presence. The highest rate being in Hudson County where 97% of the population lives within the limits of gang territory. The State Police have identified “gang clusters” which are municipalities which share borders which all have a gang presence. The areas, mostly along major highways, such as a large stretch of towns and counties along I-195 and I-295 all have reported a gang presence from the same gangs. However, the inverse of this were the presence of “no gang clusters” or areas that shared borders which did not report any gang presence.
While New Jersey’s cities such as Newark, Camden, Paterson and Jersey City may have more gang members, more different gangs and more gang crimes, the problem of gangs is obviously a statewide problem. The suburbs have become more than just a quiet place to live and work, as suburban youths and adults are more often turning to gang life to provide them with fulfillment. Active recruiting is taking place all over the state, and the heavy policing and anti gang initiatives started in the cities have drove these criminal enterprises into the suburbs. No longer are the suburbs a haven from the crime and grime of the inner city.
For more info on gangs in New Jersey see:
http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/…
http://www.northjersey.com/…
http://www.courierpostonline.com/…
http://www.njsp.org/info/pdf/njgangsurvey-2007.pdf
