Camden, N.J. Copes as Most Crime-Ridden U.S. City
Wed Mar 30,11:30 AM ET U.S. National - Reuters
By Ellen Wulfhorst
CAMDEN, N.J. (Reuters) - Yahnajeah Kirkland slumps in her child-sized wheelchair, with her head propped up, her arms flailing and a bright hair ribbon tied near a still-pink bullet scar behind her ear.
Reuters Photo
Shot while sitting in her mother's car last fall, the severely brain-damaged 3-year-old nicknamed Yaya is a heart-piercing picture of life in Camden, New Jersey, where some 80,000 people try to cope with living in America's most crime-ridden city.
The southern New Jersey city of just nine square miles, which neighbors Philadelphia, is ranked worst in six categories of crimes. With 41 murders -- 10 times the national average -- 56 rapes and 974 aggravated assaults, according to the latest statistics from 2003, it is America's most dangerous city.
Hearing stories like Yaya's, Maria Rivera won't let her small children play outside. She points to a sidewalk where a man was killed and a spot on the street where two others died.
"It makes you want to run, want to leave here. But sometimes you can't find a way out and you stuck," said the single mother. "And when you on welfare, you stuck."
Not surprisingly, Camden is one of the nation's poorest cities. Per capita income is a third of the U.S. average, a third of students drop out of Camden High School and half the city's children live in poverty.
Houses are boarded up and vacant lots are filled with garbage. Instead of supermarkets and playgrounds, there are corner liquor stores and dingy fast-food restaurants.
On Rivera's block, only one house is standing and not a street light works.
DRUGS IN, JOBS OUT
The cycle of crime and poverty spins endlessly. Since the 1960s, big factories like New York Shipbuilding Co. and Campbell Soup Co.'s have closed, while the scourge of drugs arrived. Little tax base remains to fund infrastructure or job-training, leaving a city ill-equipped to lure employers.
"There's a dark shadow cast over here," said local activist Margaret David. "It's like we have the plague or something."
Private and government aid is too easily lost in the mire of mismanagement, and development tends to fill the pockets of out-of-towners, leaders say.
What jobs there are won't feed a family, and youth are drawn to the lucrative drug trade, they say.
"They can make $500 on the corner at night, so why get out of bed for $5 an hour?" said businessman Laverne Hicks.
The fear of crime is palpable. Those who can afford it enclose their porches with metal bars they call birdcages. The fire department calls them firetraps.
Children learn early the reality of their neighborhood. One recent day in a city park, a woman playfully taught a 6-year-old boy to put his hands up and drop to the ground when police come around. "You gotta practice," she told the wide-eyed youngster.
REMOVE MASK BEFORE ENTERING
Merchants work behind panes of bullet-proof glass. "Please remove faces masks and hoods before entering store," reads one shop sign.
Yaya Kirkland was sitting in her mother's car when bullets came through the window.
She's undergone numerous surgeries but will never be the same, said her great-grandmother, Ernestine Drisdom, who must navigate a series of buses to visit the toddler.
The little girl who once loved to race her tricycle now can do little more than roll her eyes when she sees her great-grandmother. The toddler hasn't smiled since the Oct. 28 shooting, her great-grandmother said.
Police last year made nearly 11,000 arrests -- one in seven residents -- in a city with some 170 active drug corners. Yet the murder rate rose in 2004 to more than 50.
"We can't arrest our way out of this," said one officer.
Given the city's small size, residents say, the danger is magnified because there are no affluent, low-crime areas to offset the numbers.
"It didn't put any more fear in me," said Camden Police Officer Darrell Henderson. "I came to work the day after that ranking came out the same as the day before it came out."
Despite Camden's unfortunate claim to fame, residents are quick to defend each other and their down-at-its-heels city.
"We live in the baddest city, but everybody is not a criminal," said street corner denizen Shif McBride, 16. "It's a couple spoiled apples."
Residents make their own effort to keep the corners clean.
"My neighbors bring some gin, and I get my Coors Light, and we sit out here and tell them to get off our block," said one resident. "We stick together."
Camden is dotted with small shrines of plastic flowers, stuffed animals and bottles of liquor that mark where a crime victim fell. A local nun blesses the sites with holy water.
Local engineer Stacy Johnson is trying to organize a group, called Men United for a Better Camden, to convince the city's aimless youth there are alternatives to crime.
"It depends who you talk to, whether we're winning or losing," he said. "But we can't do nothing here but get better. There's nothing else.
__________________
πνεύμα γ*μισα
"Error never shows itself in its naked reality in order not to be discovered. On the contrary, it dresses elegantly, so that the unwary may be led to believe that it is more truthful than truth itself."
-Irenaeus of Lyon
That's what I did , so I don't feel one bit sorry for them . My oldest son lived near there for about a year , some of the stories he told me curled my hair . To add insult to injury it's expensive to live there compared to here too .
__________________
Kevin Haendiges
NAHC Life Member
NRA Member
Wildlife Forever Member
GOA Member
Buckmasters Member
http://hunting-indiana.com
"My neighbors bring some gin, and I get my Coors Light, and we sit out here and tell them to get off our block," said one resident. "We stick together."
I feel like I'm missin' out on a good time
__________________
Looney tunes deductive reasoning:
--Me smell Mohican burning
--Me last Mohican
--Must be me!!!
--EEEOOOWWW!!!!!
"It makes you want to run, want to leave here. But sometimes you can't find a way out and you stuck," said the single mother. "And when you on welfare, you stuck."
And I wonder why she can't get past the first interview at a job in another city.
Quote:
"My neighbors bring some gin, and I get my Coors Light, and we sit out here and tell them to get off our block," said one resident. "We stick together."
Hmmm....I wonder why the murder rate is so high? "hey, I got a great idea...let's get trashed and yell at all the guys with guns !!"
__________________ Last edited by CalHunter; 08-10-2009 at 01:21 PM. Reason: Inappropriate--called a mbr "douchebag"
I went to medical school in Philadelphia. Just driving through Camden is terrifying, I can't imagine what it would be like to live there. However, I think things are only going to change if the law-abiding people of Camden finally take a stand and say we are not going to tolerate this any longer. We are going to work with the police, even if some of the toughs in the "hood" call us traitors, to get rid of the criminals and take our community back. I hope they can muster the courage.
We are going to work with the police, even if some of the toughs in the "hood" call us traitors, to get rid of the criminals and take our community back.
I doubt that will happen. Vigilante justice might.
Someone shoots, shoot back.
__________________
πνεύμα γ*μισα
"Error never shows itself in its naked reality in order not to be discovered. On the contrary, it dresses elegantly, so that the unwary may be led to believe that it is more truthful than truth itself."
-Irenaeus of Lyon
Found the Next Place I want to Live
