IMPROMPTU STREET MEMORIALS
ILLUSTRATES
DEPTH OF DIVIDE BETWEEN
POLICE AND
PUBLIC IN JERSEY CITY
PASSERS-BY
GLANCE AT THE SMALL MEMORIAL FOR
SLAIN JCPD
OFFICER MELVIN SANTIAGO
TAGS: JCPD MELVIN SANTIAGO, STREET MEMORIAL FOR
SLAIN OFFICER,
JCPD,
JC MAYOR STEVEN FULOP, MEMORIAL FOR THUG
ASSASSIN
REMOVED, NEWS12 SEAN BERGIN, RACE RELATIONS,
POLICE
DISTRUST, 60’S & 70’S RACE RIOTS,
TENSIONS
RUN HIGH IN JERSEY CITY.
BLOODS
STREET GANG THREATEN MORE EXECUTIONS,
GUTTER
MENTALITY: CELEBRATING AN EXECUTIONER
(With updated links)
(Tuesday July 15, 2014 Kennedy
Blvd. & Communipaw Ave., JC, NJ) If ever the anti “Stop, Question and Frisk”
crowd, the liberal pundits, race baiters, self-appointed community activists,
African American Studies professors and the host of sociologists, social
psychologists and apologists of every stripe needed a vivid demonstration that
strips most of their core arguments to all its ugly bare naked essentials,
today in Jersey City that demonstration could be seen. At the site in front of the Walgreens
Pharmacy on this corner is a small collection of flowers, votive candles, prayer
cards surrounding the photo graph of the JCPD Officer, Melvin
Santiago who was assassinated in an ambushed early Sunday morning. It is a humble gesture of respect and
pedestrians could be seen today pausing and making the sign of the cross as
they offered their own prayer for the deceased 23 year old Officer who had been
patrolling that neighborhood for the last seven months.
A short walk from this corner
there is another somewhat larger
display paying homage to the career criminal, 27 year old Lawrence Campbell
who lured Officer Santiago to his death and executed him before Santiago even
had a chance to exit his patrol car.
This display is an odd collection of flowers and empty liquor bottles. Two white tee shirts are taped to the red
brick wall with marker pens hanging from their collars for passers-by to write
a message on the shirts. It is
considerably larger than the memorial for Officer Santiago and it has been a
flashpoint of anger and disgust for all law abiding citizens of Jersey City and
well beyond. Campbell’s memorial has
received international attention especially after Campbell’s wife was quoted
saying that she wishes her husband would have killed more Police Officers, “taken
more of them down with him if he knew they was gonna shot him like a dog”. Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop ordered Campbell’s
“memorial” to be taken down and, on and off today, it has been resurrected only
to be quickly removed again by authorities.
COLD BLOODED MURDER
When Campbell entered the
Walgreens about 4:00Am Sunday morning he was not there to commit robbery, to
steal goods or any of the typical reasons.
Once he rendered the armed security guard useless, he took his gun and
made the fateful call of a ‘robbery in progress’. He then told one customer that she should “watch
TV. I’m going to be famous”. He exited the store and hid in the shadows
waiting for the Police to respond. He
shot and killed Officer Santiago at point blank range, literally in the blink
of an eye. Campbell was soon thereafter
shot and killed by other responding Police units. Perhaps the reason that this
Line of Duty Death has garnered media coverage the world over is that it is
particularly heinous – evil, actually – even by the violent standards of today’s
America. It harkens back to a very grim
and gritty chapter in our history when various militant groups, such as the
Black Liberation Army, The Black Panthers and the Nation of Islam literally did
declare “war” of the Law Enforcement Community.
During some of the most violent of the “race riots” in the late 1960’s
into the mid 1970’s, these groups among other unaffiliated street thugs did
wage open, pitched warfare with Police Departments from NYC, Newark and Camden
NJ, to the Watts section of Los Angeles.
Obviously Campbell’s “motive”
will never be known for certain unless the investigation uncovers evidence that
he was participating in some sort of organized street gang activity or other
specific purpose. All that is known for
certain is that he sought to acquire some twisted degree of “fame” by
assassinating a Police Officer. That
fact alone raises several serious questions regarding the nature of the
hostility within the African American community today and the depths to which
hatred of authority and the Police in particular goes. That his neighbors seemed to “celebrate” his
murderous, cowardly act by erecting a memorial is clearly demonstrative and
appears to represent retrograde movement in our society and the African
American community most notably. In
urban pockets coast to coast there are wide swathes of predominately African
Americans whose neighborhoods still bear the scars of the riots that blazed
through them decades ago. There is a
distinct, virulent strain among the majority of residents in such places that
is aggressively distrustful of the Police to the point that they will harbor
known killers, drug dealers and other felons despite the crime they bring to those
vey same neighborhoods. The Police in
these locales are constantly stonewalled; they cannot get the scantest of
assistant in an active investigation. In
many of our largest most densely populated cities these neighborhoods remain
islands of all sorts of social ills that barely differ from the blights of the
60’s and 70’s.
THE TRUTHS THAT CANNOT BE SPOKEN
As median household income for
African American families has increased and created a Black “middle class” the
divides within the African American community as a whole are seen in stark
relief. Despite years of affirmative
action and social welfare programs many African Americans live lives little
different than that of their own parents.
In this time of convoluted “political correctness” even the terms of a
discussion addressing these issues is not possible. We have taken the concept of political
correctness to such an extreme that it is far easier and less fraught with
condemnation to avoid these discussions entirely. For many the fear of sounding or appearing to
be “racist” is so great that it trumps any opportunity for objective discourse
or interaction.
Racism is alive and well today
and it is prevalent in the “White” and “Black” communities and it appears to
pose an intractable obstacle towards better race relations. Many liberals heralded the election of the
first African American President, Barak Obama, as the line of demarcation
between the societal ills of yesteryear and as the advent of a new “post-racial”
America. The naivety that allowed so
many to believe that is undermined by reality.
The rapid ascendancy of a first term Senator from Illinois to the
Presidency was more akin to “punching a ticket” than it was a galvanizing force
uniting the diverse and disparate demographics of our country. For some reason the fact that we – the United
States – had never had a Black President was seen as a significant stigma to be
rectified was ludicrous on its face and disingenuous. We have never had an Italian American, a
Jewish American, an Hispanic/Latino American President but a majority of voters
felt the need to punch that ticket for Obama as if by mere fact of his elected
office the country would undergo some profound transformation.
Statistics of all types are
notoriously malleable just as are theories in search of a proof. Raw data, simple plain numbers however, can
speak volumes in a very forthright manner.
A spreadsheet is nonbiased; it is a tally of numbers not subject to
deeper interpretation. But, many find
raw numbers messy; they see them as untidy primitive hash marks devoid of
value. But raw numbers can be remarkably
illuminating in there simplicity and do not require in depth analysis. Crime rates are such raw numbers. The typical complaint is that minority men
(Black and Latino) are arrested in disproportional numbers compared to White
men. This is true; there is no need to
recoil from this fact. It is simply a
numerical fact. The interpretations and
detailed analysis can be conducted in Ivory towers and think tanks. On the streets the numbers speak for
themselves. Every manner of social ill
can be assigned collectively as causative influences but they cannot gloss over
the raw numbers. The majority of crime
committed in America is perpetrated by Black and Latino young men. 100% of crime in America is committed by 10%
of the population and that 10% is overwhelmingly Black and Latino.
The fact that raw numbers
remain off base and taboo occasionally surfaces as it has in the immediate wake
of Officer Santiago’s execution. Sean
Bergin of the NYC Metro Area cable news station made comments on the air, comments
that are wrapped in a tattered shroud of truth that resulted in his suspension. Mr. Bergin, a respected local journalist allegedly
made comments that were of a subjective and derogatory nature about a real
blight that continues to plaque the African American community; that being
that, in a significant majority of African American households there is no
father. The absence of a father, a
responsible male has been long identified as an exacerbating factor in all
households be they Black, White or Latino when it comes to the socio-emotional
development of young boys as they prepare for adulthood. The “No Role Model” argument has been tightly
embraced by African American and other scholars alike but Mr. Bergin’s temerity
to speak this truth provoked such ire that he may have lost his job at News 12
for good.
DOUBLE DOWN
According to sources in the
JCPD and New Jersey State Police credible
threats to Law Enforcement Officers have been made by the nationwide street
gang, The Bloods, allegedly in retaliation for Campbell’s death by JCPD
Officers. These sources, speaking not
for attribution, have been told that the gang has issued a threat stating they
have intentions to “Kill a Jersey City cop and not stop until the National
Guard is called out”. One source in the
upper echelons of the JCPD noted that this threat is “taken very seriously”
since it came from a “reliable source” who has “provided gang related
intelligence” in the past. LEO across
New Jersey have been issued alerts instructing them to be “Ultra cautious and very
aware at all times”. The precise
membership of The Bloods in Jersey City is not known but other gang
intelligence sources in the NYC Metro Area have issued warnings that Bloods
from other states may descend on Jersey City to carry out retaliatory measures
against LEO’s.
Tensions are running high and
the funeral services for both Officer Santiago and his assassin Lawrence
Campbell may exacerbate and inflame passions on both sides of the law. Two
other recent shooting events have already drawn wide criticism of the JCPD and
the JC Public Safety Director James Shea.
With this latest episode gaining such prominence the JCPD and other
Police Departments in Hudson, Essex and Bergen County are implementing measures
to insure public safety and that of their membership. Jersey City is the County seat of Hudson
County, the most densely populated in the state. The Law Enforcement Agencies in these
communities often share intelligence and work cooperatively in various
anti-crime operations.
No one in any of the local LEA’s
including JCPD was downplaying the risks associated with the threats made by
The Bloods. On the contrary; they have initiated
a handful of new patrol protocols that are already being implemented. As oneJCPD veteran Officer in the $th Patrol
District commented, “We are prepared and confident. I hope nothing else happens but we will sure
meet whatever comes our way with superior force”.
Copyright The Brooding Cynyx 2014 © All Rights
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