EDITORIALS
S.O.S. for our cities
Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Stories of violent crime have gripped the public this summer like no summer in recent memory.

The execution-style murders in Newark Aug. 4 of three college students and the wound ing of a fourth who somehow survived a bullet to the head horrified the nation. The subse quent arrest of six men, some of whom are illegal immigrants with prior records, likewise has us riveted to daily media up dates.

But the question we all should be asking is: Is there an end to this? Philadelphia is well on its way to a record year in number of homicides. Newark, Trenton and other New Jersey cities continue to be plagued by almost daily shootings.

Last week, Trenton Mayor Douglas Palmer arranged a meeting of a group of the state's mayors with Gov. Jon Corzine and state Attorney General Anne Milgram. The point of the meeting was to let the governor and the state's top law-enforcement officer know that leader ship is needed at the highest level to make our cities safer.

"We believe and told the governor, this is your Sept. 11 moment," Mr. Palmer told The Times. "If you really push the envelope, the state will follow you."

To some, the 9/11 analogy might seem over the top. But in many ways, it's appropriate. Our cities and some suburbs are under siege from gang members, terrorists in their own way, who have little regard for life. In our capital city alone, there have been daylight shootouts involving various gangsters. In several incidents, inno cent bystanders were victims as the bullets flew. Good people, renters and homeowners feel as though they are hostages in their own neighborhoods. "It's our worst nightmare," Palmer said. "We all can tell our horror stories."

But unlike 9/11, when a nation pulled together, it is evi dent that many people simply don't seem to care that our cities are turning into shooting galleries -- as long as the violence doesn't spread to their neighborhoods. That's where leadership comes in.

Mr. Palmer and the other mayors asked for state grants not only to hire more police officers but also to create more jobs, especially for people coming out of prison; more after school programs to keep youngsters off the streets; and a modern, computerized system of sharing important crime information among police agencies throughout the state, as well as to establish regional gun prosecutors who would report directly to the attorney general.

The mayors' requests are not out of line. That the programs they suggest will cost money is a given. We understand the state's precarious financial position, but the call for law and order must be answered before our cities drift even further toward Third World status.

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