NEWARK
BLUES
HUFFINGTON
08.05.12
Officers assemble for a roll call prior to an operation.
department’s training facility. They
are mostly black or Latino, reflecting the demographics of a city with a
nearly 90 percent minority population. Well over a third of the city’s
children live in poverty.
“We realize that the key to our
problems in this city of Newark is
not to go out and arrest everyone,” he
says quickly and somewhat grimly,
staring down at his notes. “We need
to get you guys, at the age you are,
and let you understand what’s right
and what’s wrong, and turn your life
in the right direction.”
Booker then bounds to the podium and gives a brief though spirited
speech about the heroism of the city’s
public safety workers.
“You may not get up-close and personal with Batman or Superman or
Spiderman,” he says. “But during this
summer you will get a chance to be