31 May 2008

The Start of the Silly Season for the Newark PD

Graduation day has pleasantly passed, most of the students have moved out, and summer has (finally and belatedly) arrived. Given the amount of time the Newark police spend harassing the students, the large reduction in their "perceived" workload (fewer of those awful students having fun) should mean more time that they can devote to, you know, fighting crime.

Yeah, right. I've lived here long enough to know that the Newark police see this as "harass the non-college populace" time of the year. More speed traps (e.g. Papermill Road's northbound "25 zone" where the southbound portion OF THE SAME ROAD, which actually has businesses and residences, is a reasonable 35 zone), more extracting money for the auto insurance companies, still no devotion to doing something about crime or increasing actual safety.

And for those of us who walk around Newark at night, there is now even less safety. The "safety in numbers" provided by the large number of students is gone, replaced by...easier targets and fewer witnesses. With no police usefully in sight. Because the major problems in this town must be addressed by police in the daylight. Of course.

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