Saving New Jersey's children three zip codes at a time

Yesterday the mayors of New Jersey's three largest cities, Ras Baraka of Newark, Jose Torres of Paterson and Steven Fulop of Jersey City, announced a bold move to collaborate on reducing violent crime in all three cities. 

The proposal evolved from the Passaic River Corridor Initiative along Route 21, which has involved as many as 80 municipalities sharing police intelligence, according to Tom O’Reilly, the head of the Police Institute at Rutgers University. State authorities have said the program has led to hundreds of arrests. 

But sharing police officers among three large cities that are not adjacent to one another while also combining social services is “sort of a first,” O’Reilly said. “They are challenging the traditional ways of thinking,” he said of the mayors. “The idea that three mayors have cut across bureaucratic lines is the first step.”

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O’Reilly said the mayors’ proposal may include expanding a Newark violence reduction program in which Rutgers is taking part, and which he said was beefed up this year, leading to two months without a gang-related homicide in the city’s Fourth Police Precinct. The program calls for paroled gang members to meet relatives of gun violence victims and to be connected with social workers. It also has a dedicated law enforcement contingent that includes state, county and federal authorities. 

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[Mayor] Baraka said that “we are also talking about reentry” programs to aid people coming out of prison. And he mentioned the possible inclusion of community groups, some of them church-based, whose members walk the streets to combat fears of citizens who don’t talk to police because they are afraid of gang retribution. Community leaders in Paterson have said that is a common problem in their city. 

“We have to combat this whole idea of no snitching,” Baraka said. 

[Mayor] Torres said he has examined a job training program in Jersey City that is led by former Gov. James McGreevey, and hopes to create a similar program in Paterson, adding that he believes he will be able to find federal money for it.

This program could be a potential game-changer in the war on children. Yes, I did say 'the war on children' because in the age of austerity for all but the wealthy, children—particularly poor children—have been hit hardest. They are the collateral damage in gang wars, domestic abuse, social safety net cuts, and education 'reform'. Stray bullets, physical and psychological abuse, food insufficiency, homelessness and apartheid-like education policies do indeed affect a child's future. And contrary to what Gov. Christie and other 'reformers' say, zip code does indeed matter because the children most affected don't live in places like this in Christie's hometown of Mendham:

Credit: homesoftherichest.wordpress.com

Or this in Christie's boyhood town of Livingston...

Credit: newjerseyluxuryrealestate.com

No, they live in places like this:

Credit: nj.com

and this...

Credit: wikipedia.org

So let's hope this program works. If the proof is there, if the research points in the right direction, if it's fact-based and not 'faith' based (ie: we 'believe' it will work, we 'hope' it will work), then the children in some of the poorest neighborhoods in New Jersey will stand a chance at overcoming the burden of their zip code because the only way out is to get out alive.

Christie can't take the heat in Paterson

Chris Pedota/The Record

Apparently Gov. Christie heeded the old saying, "If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen" and high-tailed it out of the Silk City after uttering about 25 words in his swearing in of Mayor Jose Torres. But I don't think it was the typical Jersey-style summer-in-the-city, +90° hazy, hot and humid weather that forced him out. No, I think it was the approximately 50 Paterson education professionals who showed up armed with their best teacher voices to protest. Clad in red shirts to symbolize Trenton's bleeding of the school district, they were there to deliver a message to Gov. Christie: state control is hurting their students, their schools and profession, and forcing many education professionals out of their jobs because they can no longer support their families and pay their bills.

Armed with signs that highlighted among other things, the 23% raise he recently gave his staff (because apparently they've taken on more of a workload—and the rest of us haven't), the educators repeatedly chanted, "Christie's got to go!" One woman, who asked to remain anonymous, told me she is thinking about leaving the profession because she just can't afford to stay in it. "I haven't had a raise in 4 years; my paycheck is getting smaller; I'm struggling to keep a roof over my head; and the amount of work I now do is overwhelming. There's got to be a better way. I love what I do, but I have a family. I can't work for free."

The Paterson Education Association and the state did reach a tentative contract deal in the spring, which the association is now in the process of ratifying. But some of those I spoke with in the crowd are not happy with it. They feel it's dividing the association with different salary guides and retro pay for different job descriptions and degrees/certifications. 

For the record: 

• This was not an official Paterson Education Association event.  
• I have no knowledge of the contract; I'm only reporting what I heard. 
• No contract is perfect and there are always some members who are not happy.

One educator told me that she was there today not so much for contractual issues, but for the quality of education her students are—and aren't—receiving. "I have students who come to school after seeing their friend shot and killed. What am I supposed to do? We don't have enough grief counselors or crisis intervention counselors. I'm not equipped to deal with those issues. I'm not a therapist."

And yet educators are now evaluated based in part on their students' test scores. How does a child even attempt to take a standardized test when they're suffering like that? 

The nationwide, grass-roots educator group, BATs (Bad-Ass Teachers), had a presence. This organization, while sporting what some might consider a 'militant' name, is highly organized, very vocal and very, very smart in terms of messaging and mobilizing its members, who work at all levels of education from elementary through college level. 

While the crowd was loud, it was respectful. And as the event wound down, police and firefighters, some in full dress uniforms who had been standing out in the blistering heat all that time, personally thanked us for protesting. 

Police, Firefighters, Educators: New Jersey's finest, bravest and smartest. We are #JerseyStrong!