Prometheus 6

In a speech earlier this month, the city’s mayor, Cory A. Booker, said the city would “set the national standard for urban violent crime reduction.”

Since homicide detectives have fewer new investigations to handle, the police said they were using the lull to try to resolve old cases. The Essex County prosecutor, Paula T. Dow, said her investigators were also looking at old cases, with the help of a new federal grant that would allow them to take a closer look at DNA evidence.

“When you keep adding on increased resources, manpower and strategizing, you’re going to reap results in the long run,” Ms. Dow said. By the end of June, law enforcement officials will know better whether a real change is under way, she said. “I’m hoping for the best.” 

You can understand the doubters. But at least Booker has the responsibility properly assigned. 

In Calmer Newark, the Unease Persists
By KAREEM FAHIM

NEWARK — The police say the streets here are quieter, with less shooting, fewer assaults and no killings since Jan. 13. But J. D. Crowder, whose son was murdered by robbers two years ago, still has trouble believing that anything has changed.

Young men like the ones he suspects robbed and killed his son Aaron, who played football at Rutgers University, still need to make a living, he said. “They’re not going to starve. And there’s nothing you can do about it.”

His assessment, colored by personal tragedy, was especially bleak, but he was hardly alone. In a dozen interviews, residents reacted with surprise, and in some cases disbelief, to the news that the murder rate had started to fall. People here, betrayed by the city’s past violence and taught to mind their own business, said they had simply not noticed that part of January and February had, in fact, been murder-free.

As the weekend approached, with its promise of gunplay, law enforcement officials said Friday that they had passed a new threshold: 33 days without a murder, the longest stretch since 1963, when there were no homicides for 40 days.

As of last night, there had been two homicides this year; by this time last year, there had been 12. The number of shootings has also decreased, the Police Department said. In 2007, there were 99 homicides in this city of 281,000.