Citizens and council members talked about violent crime at the Jan. 16 council meeting.
The discussion began during public comment when Myra Campbell spoke about a shooting that took place last week. Campbell heard five loud shots while sitting in her living room last Thursday, she said, and later learned a young man had been shot dead.
“We need to address this and not try to cover it up,” she said. “There were police officers everywhere and we’re not seeing police officers now.”
She suggested there should be more police assigned to parts of town with heavy crime, and also noted the community’s role in working with the police and giving them information.
Regarding the young man who was killed, “no one was sweeping that under the rug,” Mayor Ed Johnson said. “The death of one person is one too many. We’re working every single day in Asbury Park and we continue to work to pull people in.”
Campbell then suggested the city provide a public report as to what the police department is doing.
Community activist Duanne Small also spoke about the city’s crime.
“As long as the youth of our community are receiving an inferior education and the economic injustice that’s taking place in our town, you will continue to have violence, drug dealing, robberies and so forth,” Small said. “The issue that needs to be addressed is the education and the economy. If we addressed those issues, we wouldn’t need that many police.”
Small added that he makes it a point to speak to young people in the city whenever he can.
Johnson responded that “the old rules [of arresting our way out] are not applicable to 21st-century challenges. The police are one answer,” he said.
He recalled a situation a few weeks ago when he saw two police officers playing basketball with some local young people.
“My first thought was, ‘Why aren’t they at the station?’ Then I thought, ‘You know what, this is exactly what they should be doing — having a relationship with the community,'” Johnson said. “I’ve seen officers walking, talking, relating to people, and that’s something that’s not going to happen overnight but that’s happening.”
City resident Joe Woerner spoke next, seconding what Campbell and Small said.
“Mayor Johnson, it’s nice to hear you say those words that we’re doing things,” Woerner said. “The reality is what we’re doing isn’t working. If you look at crime statistics, it’s generally trending downward. In Asbury Park in the last 10 years, it’s trending upward … What we’re doing in Asbury Park is not working. Until the public got up here to speak about this, no one spoke about this issue. It was not addressed by public officials.”
Johnson and Deputy Mayor John G. Loffredo responded to Woerner’s comments.
“A lot of people got away from their computers and said, ‘Let’s not look at statistics. Let’s look at what our children are doing every day,'” Johnson said. “We are changing people’s lives one by one by one … We have some significant challenges and it’s not going to be a penicillin cure.”
Loffredo said more people than ever are worried about Asbury Park’s children and trying to help them.
“There’s a whole big world outside of Asbury Park,” he said. “Our kids have to realize Asbury Park is not the only place to be. Their horizons need to be broadened … We need to say to our kids, ‘Don’t depend on Asbury Park for your living and don’t depend on Asbury Park to solve your problems. I couldn’t have expected growing up with 11 brothers and sisters, saying, ‘Neptune needs to employ all of us and fix all of our problems.'”
