Huffington Magazine Issue 8 | Page 71

NEWARK BLUES HUFFINGTON 08.05.12 Officers are struggling to secure the city amid escalating crime and a dwindling police force. ing he repeatedly asked the governor and legislature to moderate the deep cuts in aid to the city and to provide more help on public safety, to little avail. “Some of those cuts were justifiable, and some of those cuts were not,” he says. “We as a state should be finding ways to prioritize public safety better than we are right now.” “THIS IS REAL” Newark typically sees a spike in violent crime during the summer, as bored and frustrated young people commit robberies, fight in the streets or shoot at each other from cars in drug-related disputes. In a bid to disrupt the violence, the police department’s latest strategy is to flood crime-prone areas with cops in a high-visibility show of force during the evening and early morning hours. Al Burroughs, a Newark police