Will Newark Ever Have Relief From Crackheads?

[5Reasons]

Can someone please tell me the exact date when I will be able to walk around Newark and NOT have to look at crackheads? I mean, what is this City's policy towards removing crackheads from the streets? I remember when there were no junkies littering the streets (the 70s); however, no Newarker that's less than 20 has EVER remembered when there weren't 95 pd junkies begging for change, as they wear dirty clothes and you fell like vomiting when they get too close to you.

What public official in Newark is going to finally propose a pro-active stance towards removing crackheads from the streets? We have loitering laws. We have littering laws. It seems as though we only want to deal with the supply side of the drug problem and yet, it is the demand side that goes unaddressed and unmolested UNTIL their drug habit spills over into criminal behavior. By that time, it is probably too friggin late to help them.

How can you raise any kid in the midst of crackheads? How do you expect to move this city forward without a vision statement? Unless this city gets proactive towards identifying the crackheads and aggressively getting them help, it will NEVER become the city that it wants.

Again, this isn't mission impossible. I firmly believe that for less than 2 million dollars per year, you could hire NEWARKERS as caseworkers-activist that can go out and roam the streets to make sure they identify these people. These people can be "tagged", entered into a datatbase, monitored and treated. Sadly, I doubt any of our "leaders" have either the fortitude or vision to deal with this issue.

[zodtee]

I know this isnt the main subject of your text but I HAD to respond...
I have never been a drug user...but have witnessed many friends, family, etc on various drugs my entire life....
There is a BIG difference between heroin addicts, crack addicts, alcoholics, etc and it is not very hard to look at an addict and know which is their drug of choice( for lack of a better term)




Back to the MAIN subject at hand....


The police or some other civic employee division should be required to do street sweeps....I dont live in newark anymore but I did when the Rt 280 ramp to Orange St was built....and I lived there when the last Gateway Bldg was built and even when the PAC.....Sad to say but it seems to me that when the powers that be dont want to insult the suburbanites, they make sure they dont see the despair( drug dealers, addicts, other loiterers) hanging around....for example, It is clean & clear down the North end of Broad St on the night the NSO plays....

The street sweeps.....no homeless, drugged out or otherwise, no loiterers, no street corner harmonizers, etc allowed at ANYTIME....if they linger, arrest em....take 1 of those abandoned buildings off Orange St( used to be the Flea Mkt..Are they still there?) and make it a holding cell of some sort....I dont claim to have the answers, Im just throwing out ideas.....Something has to give....

[ProSouth]

To me a crackhead is someone who you see lives and breathes for nothing but that crack. They will be out all day and night hustling, begging, stealing, robbing for that crack. They also visually look addicted. Many crack addicts are crackheads or eventually end up like a crackhead because of the enormous addictive power of crack cocaine. It does not take very long for someone who is addicted to crack to want more and more of the drug far above what they can afford. So in order to get that drug they will be out all day and night hustling and while they are hustling for that money they are getting "sick" from the withdrawl symptoms of the drug.

Now heroine addicts for the most part are different. There are many, many "working" heroine addicts. They work everyday for years without anyone ever knowing they have a heroine addiction especially if they snort the heroine. Even intravenous heroine addicts can keep their adictions hidden if they regulate and maintain their drug intake. Many heroine addicts only have a $20-30.00/day habit. Now those who have a $100.00 per day habit might have a harder time maintaining thir addiction so they aremore noticeable. But I know herione addicts that have been doing "dope" for 20 years or more and you would never know it by looking at them.

There are also working cocaine addicts. Most of those again snort the drug in it's powder form. Cocaine in it's powder form is less addictive than crack (which is also cocaine).

Chancellor & Leslie St., Lyons & Clinton Pl., Goodwin & Renner Ave., Osborne Terr. & Renner/Shephard Aves., Many parts of Hawthorne Ave., Clinton Ave., Clinton Place, etc. You can see crackheads almost any time of the day or night.

[J. Sharpe James, J.D.]

On Lyons Ave

[5Reasons]

You're saying the following:

1. You can't tell who's a crackhead.

2. Everyone has this problem, therefore, Newark can really do nothing in this matter.

3. 2 million dollars would be far too expensive to promote this initiative to get the crackheads off the streets and out of the face of young Newarkers.

So, to sum up your position, you're saying that there's nothing you could do.

Thanks, for your enlightened response! (Somehow, I figured you would be "defensive" on this issue, rather than progressive.)

To paraphrase my greatest white relative, Strom Thurmond, "Crackheads now. Crackheads forever!"

[jazzyken]

Getting the "crackheads" off the street can and should be done. It should not take two million dollars to acheive. It should be done with the same tax dollars that have been taken for years and that was not used. Say you go to Linden, Roselle... if you stand in the street for too long they ask you to move and if you do not go anywhere you are arrested. No question of cost. It is a matter of caring about the look of the city.
I was walking along Broad Street last week and it was a man knodding against a wall. He was disgustingly filthy, he was scratching all parts of his body, his pants was almost to his knees which means all of his a** was showing. I asked a cop to have him moved because I was walking with my children and he replied "we are towing cars right now". What in the he** is that? The officials do not care what the city looks like.
If I was someone from out of the city looking to rent or buy in this city or heck what if I was going to see a Devils game do you think I would come back after seeing that site. NO

[rice2006]

It was said earlier and bears repeating, no one is going to come see the Devils or do anything downtown when crackheads are all around begging for change. Likewise, no one is going to buy homes and raise their families in places like Vailsburg where the homeowner community is barely hanging on when crackheads are walking up and down So. Orange Avenue all day and night.

The truth is that there needs to be a carrot and stick approach to the problem. The stick is that there must be a zero tolerance policy for loitering crack traffic in the neighbrhoods first. It must mirror the tactical drug squad from this summer that went after drug dens and witnessed many a good NPD officer getting shot. Going after the crackhead should be easier.

The carrot approach is where it gets tough. The city leadership should shut down Trenton and demand a commitment from Kerry now (once he becomes Prez) to get more beds for interdiction, drug treatment slots, and the wait to get in these new beds must be sped up. Dept. of Health says state is about 200,000 beds short of what it needs. I think that is a low estimate and the figure is closer to 280 to 300,000 short.

Lastly, a regional safety net and tracking system must be created for the newly cleaned up folks from these beds. Of course, all of this is easier said (and paid for) than done.

[Doofus1]

commitment from Kerry now (once he becomes Prez)

Don't count your chickens, Ron. Kerry hasn't been able to make a move on Bush.

Realistically, what federal social program are you going to cut to pay for your program? I think the state needs to pick up the tab for this problem. Considering that the Democrats effectively control Trenton, your focus on Trenton is the right approach. It can get done on the local level rather than at the federal level. Senators James and Rice need to use their courtesy to hold a few of Codey's appointments at bay if need be.

[5Reasons]

Newark = 27 square miles and 275,000 people.

Upper Pittsgrove Township = 43 square miles and 3,500 people.

Can someone tell me why we just can't ship the crackheads to Upper Pittsgove?

"...pro-active stance towards removing crackheads from the streets"
"We have loitering laws"
"These people can be "tagged", entered into a database, monitored..."
"The police or some other civic employee division should be required to do street sweeps"

Although I hate crackheads and heroin, not heroine, users as much as the next person, they have rights too.

You can't just remove someone from the street because you suspect them to be a crackhead. If you have probable cause to believe they are under the influence then you can arrest them, but they will be out before the paperwork is completed because it's a minor offense.

There are no loitering laws as the US Supreme court struck them down years ago and if Newark has an ordinance I'm sure it violates a persons civil rights.

Tagged and monitored!! Talk about big brother. Not one of you criticized that. I can't believe it.

Street sweeps to get only drug users? I just want to be on the sidelines to watch that escapade.

Imagine yourself, ProSouth. Walking down the street passing some crackheads and you momentarily stop to converse as one of them asks you a question. Suddenly Newark PD swoops down and grabs all of you. You know you were just walking by but the officers don't see it that way and off you go to. Next thing you know you're being held in some old building to be processed and then here comes Dr. Spock to implant a monitoring device in your body.

Sounds like a good plan??