Plainfield is under siege.
In the past few days I have received emails concerning dramatic police actions involving pullovers of motorists with multiple police cars -- marked and unmarked -- racing to the scene with sirens and lights flashing.
Streets mentioned are Leland Avenue, Richmond Street and Netherwood Avenue.
Yesterday afternoon, I witnessed two such incidents on Front Street, one on the edge of the downtown shopping district.
Last week's shooting/cop chase/accident (see Courier story here and pictures here) is another case in point. On my way to that incident, I passed an empty compact car, its driver's side rammed in, blocking the eastbound lane of West 3rd Street between Spooner and Grant Avenues. A solitary police car was sitting sentinel. When I retraced my steps from the Grant/South Second accident scene, hoping to get a picture of this vehicle, it had been towed away. No mention by the police of this vehicle ever appeared in the print stories. Was it the car originally shot at? Was it an innocent driver caught in the melée?
Lastly, reports of gunshots continue unabated.
There was an email in my inbox at 5 AM today reporting gunshots in the area of Park Avenue and Woodbine.
Earlier this month, residents learned from police that several gun casings had been found in the street near Hillside and Prospect Avenues.
Is Plainfield under siege by drug dealers and gangs duking it out over territories?
It's impossible to tell.
But there is one way that Plainfield IS UNDER SIEGE: By not keeping the public informed about what is going on, Mayor Robinson-Briggs and her administration are leaving Plainfielders under siege by doubt and fear.
Why not do something about it?
Why not put her crack communications team to work posting regular updates, say weekly, concerning police activity and crime fighting on the city's website?
What would be the harm in that?
Unless, of course, Mayor Robinson-Briggs doesn't want to talk about crime.
What do you think? Vote in the poll at the top of the right-hand column: 'Does Mayor Robinson-Briggs have a duty to update the public weekly on crime fighting?'
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7 comments:
This is where the neighborhood associations play a major part. If people will report incidents to their association and have that association contact the other associations in Plainfield, news will spread and people will be informed.
Unless the Mayor's crack PR person beats us to the punch, of course.
What exactly would you have the city do on their next to useless website? They can't disclose details of ongoing investigations or offer guesses about crime patterns without consequences. So that leaves statistics about investigations and arrests.
Is that what you want? Do you have specific examples of comparable cites doing what you propose?
What I think you really want is reporting that reveals patterns from the statistics. That's the job of news organizations. And bloggers.
I think an update on the internet with some frequency would be great. I know there have been the excuses in the past that it makes Plainfield look bad to see that much negative news posted, but it IS happening, we're not making it up. Many of my neighbors, all races, agree that if we were aware that there was something going on in the neighborhood, we would be more watchful. What harm is there in that? As far as block associations, not all areas are connected in this fashion. What about incidents that happen 2 or 3 blocks away, out of reach of a particular Block Assoc., but still in the neighborhood? I don't know about everyone else, but for me, the more I know, the better I can react.
The job of bloggers to report crime?
I didn't know blogging was a job, for most local bloggers this is a voluntary, unpaid, community service that we do with the hopes that more people will see what is going here and/or there, and at the same time, that hopefully they will use the same fashion (blogs) to inform us of what is going on in their side of the city.
It is only through connecting the many dots that we are in Plainfield that we will be able to improve Plainfield.
Maria Pellum
repeat after me " ALL IS WELL, ALL IS WELL "...however, if you read the paper, you will notice crime is RAMPANT in surrounding, South Plainfield, North Plainfield, Watchung, Scotch Plains, Green Brook etc...it's practically a CRIME WAVE in the surrounding communities. But not here in Plainfield. I read the paper, and there is no crime listed on the Police Blotter, so I know we are safe. Thank God Mayor Sharon took care of the problem with crime.
In the 30 years I've lived in Plainfield, no previous mayor ever issued weekly or even monthly reports on crime stats. So why is this suddenly an issue?
We all need to look out for each other and pay attention to what's happening in our neighborhoods, regardless of where in the city we live.
Check some of the latest news reports. Some Police Departments across the country are using Twitter to send out information to notify residents
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