Friday, September 6, 2013

Newark, NJ aspiring to be Chicago or Detroit or Oakland, Ca.


The streak is still alive.
The city of Newark continued its awe-inspiring murder streak Thursday evening with its tenth homicide in as many days. A 14-year old boy, Ali Rajohn Eric Henderson, was gunned down in the courtyard area of Riverview Terrace Housing Complex. Heroin and weapons were reportedly found in Henderson’s bedroom.
It looked like a close call Thursday as to whether Newark would be able to continue its recent streak of nine murders in nine days or would drop below its 1.0 per day murder rate for the ten-day period, but the city, as always, rose to the occasion, hitting double-digits.
Newark mayor Cory Booker, who is running for a U.S. Senate seat from New Jersey, did not immediately tweet about this tenth and most recent murder on his much-celebrated Twitter account, instead imploring residents Thursday to “Use caution when driving in school zones.”
It is unclear whether Booker was advising people to use caution when driving in school zones because they might get shot at any time.
NJ.com even took a poll Wednesday, in response to Newark’s summer murders, asking “Should Booker suspend his U.S. Senate campaign and focus on Newark?,” with more than 75 percent of respondents saying that Booker should suspend his campaign, as of Thursday evening.
As The Daily Caller has reported, Booker has been using his Twitter account this election cycle to coordinate his frequent acts of heroism, in which he employs Newark city agencies to save pets, put out mattress fires, and perform other feats that Booker then takes credit for.
Though Newark is reportedly safer than only 9 percent of U.S. cities, and though Newark has a higher crime rate than more than 93 percent of New Jersey communities, Mayor Booker has been routinely praised on Twitter during his Senate campaign for his heroics. Buzzfeed cited Booker’s tweeting last month in reporting that Booker has “captured the hearts of people in Newark and on the Internet.”
Booker even employed his trademark Twitter catch phrase “On it” Thursday, in the midst of Newark’s murder streak, to address a mess left behind by city workers.
“The level of danger in this city is at an all-time high. For those of us here in Newark, we’re not just the number one carjacking city in the world, we’re the number one murder, crime city in this country, and we need help,” said a spokesperson for the Newark Anti-Violence Coalition.
Booker’s Senate campaign and a spokesperson for the city of Newark did not return requests for comment.

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