Suburban derelicts continue
to plague Camden. 78% of those arrested in Federal operation were from
outside of the city.
Suburbs continue to send their drug and
criminal problems to Camden.
July 13, 2006
Michael McAteer
Camden Land and Dream
Camden drug sting nets 50 more arrests
Suburban residents who
scoff at the notion that Camden's murder rate, drug gang activity and
violence is the result of suburban communities sending their derelicts and
criminals on day trips to Camden have no ground to stand on anymore. The
statistics regarding the recent Federal investigation prove conclusively
that Camden is sinking under the weight of the Suburb's irresponsible
behavior in dealing with their drug addiction plague and criminal populations.
If what passes for
policing in the towns surrounding Camden is to make drug corners an
impossibility locally so that local addicts and criminals are diverted to
Camden, then Camden must take these towns to court to force them to pay
for the burden they impose on the city.
The fact that Camden has
drug corners and the suburbs do not, is not an example of good policing
vs. bad policing, but an example of the physical layout of cities vs. the
physical layout of small towns, and the impossibility of policing cities
in the manner of small towns. Suburban communities take advantage of this
fact, and delude themselves with false morality such as higher community
values or other hollow conceits.
The Regional Impact
Council, as called for by law in the Camden Municipal Rehabilitation and
Economic Recovery Act is long overdue for enactment. Maybe this could be
the mechanism for the City of Camden and the State of New Jersey to help
the derelict suburban communities that surround Camden recognize and begin to shoulder their responsibilities,
instead of others doing it for them, and possibly reduce the criminal
activity the suburbs generate which afflicts the City of Camden so
terribly.
Read
the names and hometowns of those arrested.