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Michael Muchioki, 27 and his fiancee, Nia Haqq, 25, had just returned from their engagement party in New Brunswick when would-be carjackers shot them dead — two bullets each, once in the head — just steps from their Randolph Avenue home, authorities said. Haqq’s Honda CRV had an anti-theft device, so the thugs took off.
Their families have joined a growing list of those grieving for innocent lives lost in a city that threatens to become more dangerous — if you could imagine — than Newark.
Last year, a brave Jersey City police officer was killed as he and a special unit stormed an apartment looking for a gunman. However, just because the killer himself was blown away by police, the streets weren’t suddenly made safe again.
Recently, a man walking with his girlfriend on Clerk Street was killed with a shotgun blast to the back. And early Saturday, a cab driver said two men pulled guns on him when he asked them to move a double-parked car blocking his path.
Pistol whippings, stabbings, holdups — from Lafayette to Marion to Greenville and beyond. Not for anything, but: Where is the outrage?
More importantly: Where is the response?
Where is a show of force in any one neighborhood by police insisting “This will not stand”?
Loved ones have created an exquisite online memorial to Mike & Nia.
I’ve worked in cities — including Paterson and Newark — where the prevailing attitude was: This is just the way it is. And you know what? In each of those places, things only got worse.
Mayor Healy: Where are you? Tending to gentrification downtown? Catering to developers?
Police Director Samuel Jefferson, Police Chief Tom Comey: What are you doing to make the streets safer? I don’t see mini-armies of officers descending on neighborhoods, making your intent to protect the innocent clear.
Don’t spit stats at me. Of course, car burglaries are down: Anti-theft systems are standard. Sure, non-violent crime is down: Why break into someone’s crib, looking for something to steal, when you can hit-and-run an innocent victim on the street for his or her wallet or purse?
And don’t even dare raise the argument that thugs are whackin’ thugs. I have family in Greenville — they have good jobs, they contribute disproportionately to the local, state and federal economies, they take care of their house, and they’re virtually imprisoned by the ghetto around them.
Your own website lays out your responsibilities, right there for all to see.
So do us all a favor: Read ‘em over again (in case you haven’t lately). Then cite examples, please, of how you’re making the once-proud hometown of my mom, and my grandparents and my aunt, uncles and cousins safer:
- Conservation of public harmony & order;
- Deterrence, detection & solving of crimes;
- Enforcement of state laws & city ordinances;
- Provide non-law enforcement services to the public;
- Protection of the Constitutional guarantees of all persons;
- Facilitate safe movement of people & vehicular traffic;
- Render other emergency services as needed.
Talk to us, gentlemen.
Better yet: Show us something.
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