5 Responses to ** Assault in the 4th Ward **

1. 1. bornhere | February 10th, 2007 at 9:42 pm

   I was born in the city and grew up in hudson county. I am very upset with where this town is headed. the recent inicicents and crime in this town is horrendous. ofr 36 years I have put up with the crap in this area. Hoboken is the one town I thought would stay clean and protect the residents of this town. It seems that the crap has come back. Every year this city grows in population with all the new residences that are built, but the the HPD is not growing at the same rate. With that, their are more incidents in this city every week. The Mayor and his cronies need to wake up and start to protect this city and bring it back to where it should be. If this does not happen, we will be another Jersey City, Union City, etc.

2. 2. wgenese | February 11th, 2007 at 9:57 am

   bornhere, Hoboken has plenty of police. The population of Hoboken is not that much different to what it was when I was growing up in the 70’s and 80’s. In the mid 80’s to the mid 90’s there was an exodus of residents when gentrification started to pick up speed. A railroad apartment that once housed a family of 5 or 6 was now occupied by 1 or 2 professionals. When the conversion of factories and newer large developments started to pervade in the mid 90’s to the present is when the population began to grow again. Just allot more cars now. When the city is finished developing every square inch of town, there will be a substantially more residents than in the 70’s. Anyway, the amount of new residents to police has nothing to do with crime. There is only a small population in town that is responsible for some of the recent incidents. The police should be able to handle that. Overpaid and under worked.

   One thing that bugs me lately is all this talk as if Hoboken is becoming some kind of war zone. It has some spikes in activity just like any major metropolitan area but in the whole scheme of things its not that bad. I think the fact that Hoboken411 does such a vigilant job of reporting crime is appears that way, but its not really much better or worse than it has been for quite some time. I am not saying that the recent events should not be addressed but you have to expect a certain level of crime when you live in the most densely populated area in the nation. These types of environments will always have financially depressed areas and even if you rid Hoboken of all the gangstas you can’t prevent them from coming in from surrounding areas. Much of the crime in Hoboken is committed by outsiders. Read the police blotters.

   Although I do believe that more can be done, the HPD can’t have every block in town patrolled 24 hours a day 7 days a week. The criminals sure as hell won’t strike where 5-0 is so they just move to where they are not. The only way that crime will be permanently reduced or eradicated is when criminals stop behaving like criminals. Is it parenting, genetics, lifestyle choice spurred by current trends, a combination of all of these. Who knows.

3. 3. westy | February 11th, 2007 at 1:35 pm

   The new population in the luxury condos are not the people who are commiting the crime for the most part. They are the victims or potential victims.

   A big presentage of street crime is centered in or steming from one area in the 4th Ward. Criminals form outside the city come in to do drug deals and cause trouble in with residents of that same area.

   The 100+ person police force should be large enough to handle a mile square city. The Police and any city department when asked will always say they need more people on the payroll.

   So why the problems?

   Previously Hoboken City Hall has tried to isolate the HUD Housing from the rest of the city. The Jackson Street Projects where allowed to become worse. When Hoboken ran out of people poor enough to fill the projects they brought people in from Jersey City projects. Some of them gang members and drug dealers.

   When the uber development has pushed new “luxury” condos across from the projetcs the policy of isolation is no longer working.

   Some of the people who sat on the HUD Board allowed the area to spin out of control are now saying they can fix things if we keep them in office.

   I don’t think we can count on people who helped cause the problem can to now fix the problem.

4. 4. bornhere | February 12th, 2007 at 11:41 am

   I understand that things have gotten much better and you can’t reduce the crime to zero. I guess I just have a bit of frustration. I love the information this website is providing. I have family and friends, just like everyone else, and worry like everyone else. when I see thsi happen, I get upset. I vented my frustration here because of the responses I knew I would get….non-judgemental. Thank You

5. 5. wgenese | February 12th, 2007 at 12:23 pm

   I hear ya bornhere.
   Seems like being a gantsta is quite the trend these days. It’s pretty pathetic if you ask me.

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