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NYT: Camden's Streets Go From Mean to America's Most Dangerous City, Liberalism's Showcase
New York Times ^ | December 29, 2004 | JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

Posted on 12/29/2004 5:48:19 AM PST by OESY

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To: gridlock
Take the $2 Billion, give $30,000 to every man woman and child with the stipulation that they must move at least 200 miles away. Raze the rubble. Plant grass.

You just might be onto something there.....

61 posted on 12/29/2004 8:24:52 AM PST by Modernman (Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. --Benjamin Franklin)
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To: TFine80

"The latest craze now is "wet," a marijuana joint rolled in embalming fluid."

This was called "poor mans angel dust" in the 70's. The Moore family in Brooklyn used to sell it and obtained their formaldahyde from the Guarinos on Avenue X.


62 posted on 12/29/2004 8:25:39 AM PST by EQAndyBuzz (60 votes and the world changes.)
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To: TFine80

"The latest craze now is 'wet,' a marijuana joint rolled in embalming fluid."

I'd love to meet the person who thought this up!


63 posted on 12/29/2004 8:26:10 AM PST by Arpege92 (Modern liberalism requires everyone to look different but think the same. - Lizavetta)
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To: OESY

Faulty morality and economics of which we are supposed to be "tolerant".


64 posted on 12/29/2004 8:27:06 AM PST by P.O.E. (Happy New Year)
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To: JasonC
There is justice only where just men rule.

I happen to think it unjust to initiate violence against the nonviolent, which the drug war does do (and gun control laws also do). From that injustice, many others flow. Of course, this being a liberal gun-safety utopia brings about its own problems, such as making a lot of defenseless people to prey upon. No one small policy change will fix everything, but what's clear is that the present policies are evil, because they result in the evil seen here. (Abolish the welfare state, and the welfare mothers go away too, for example.)

65 posted on 12/29/2004 8:31:56 AM PST by coloradan (Hence, etc.)
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To: P.O.E.

Another of the great American Liberal experiments that failed. Kill the politicans there and you can clean up the area.


66 posted on 12/29/2004 8:32:11 AM PST by EQAndyBuzz (60 votes and the world changes.)
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To: OESY
Didn't Christine Todd Whitman have SWAT teams basically go door-to-door disarming and arresting gang members about 10 years ago? A sweep which was widely praised by the city's residents?

And didn't some Federal judge rule that she was violating the law by doing that, and that she had to release all of the people arrested in the raid?

The Federal court system will be the end of us all.

67 posted on 12/29/2004 8:38:45 AM PST by detsaoT (insert hot-button issue here.)
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To: Sam the Sham
What difference would a Republican make?

The voters in California, Texas, New York, Florida, Massachusetts and other states once asked that same question when confronted with a choice of governors, and New York City asked the question about its mayor, having first rejected Rudy Giuliani in favor of David Dinkins (with disasterous results). Different philosophies and policies can make a difference.

68 posted on 12/29/2004 8:50:02 AM PST by OESY
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To: Lee'sGhost
No means? I would leave everything I own to walk, crawl, roll, use a wheel chair, anything to leave a place like that. Are they simply stupid? Not trying to be trite, but I don't get it. NOTHING other than physically being held against my will would keep me there.

I'm sure many do "get the hell out of Dodge". For those that remain, the fear of leaving what they know is greater than the fear of staying.

69 posted on 12/29/2004 8:51:56 AM PST by malakhi
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To: Arpege92
I'd love to meet the person who thought this up!

Probably someone working the night shift at the morgue.

70 posted on 12/29/2004 8:54:50 AM PST by malakhi
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

I'm sure this is where the writers of The Wire get their story lines.


71 posted on 12/29/2004 9:06:55 AM PST by Poser (Joining Belly Girl in the Pajamahadeen)
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To: independentmind

I was supposed to be born at Cooper but the Dr. was convinced my mother couldn't survive the experience so they were pushing to crush my cranium ( I weighed in at over 12 lbs), my grandfather literaly carried my mother out of the hospital room and drove her to Lourdes...where I was born without a crushed skull or a deceased mother. Thank God he was there. My dad was a 20 year old truck driver on the road, my mother was unconscious and her sister was giving them the go-ahead to kill me when grandpop got there. He's one feisty little Cajun Catholic and 'der wasn't gonna be no baby killing dat day!' This story has become almost a family legend but my mother swore to it's veracity while she was alive.


72 posted on 12/29/2004 9:51:41 AM PST by pgkdan
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To: OESY
The New Jersey doesn't belong there. It's losing money to boot. It should be moored on the Hudson River, near the Intrepid, a throwback to when it provided AA protection to Essex class carriers in WWII. In fact, its air defense systems should be reactivated.
73 posted on 12/29/2004 10:43:00 AM PST by Dilbert56
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To: gridlock

I think Camden needs some good jobs and the army corps of engineers to get back on it's feet.


74 posted on 12/29/2004 11:02:24 AM PST by virgil
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To: OESY
Camden has been a dump since the 1960s. Once again, America's darkest decade contiues to haunt us. Good intentions truly have paved the road to hell in this instance. To those who say it has gotten worse, I say I dont think so. In the early 1990s the catholic Bishop died and when they laid his body out for the viewing, people stole his rings and other valuable items off it. I had been robbed there when visiting an elderly aunt when I was about 10 years old back in the 1980s. The place is a dump and there is only one way to fix it. Throw cops at the problem and reform the schools for real so people have some hope. But the democrats in charge are all crooked and most are under indictment even as they hold office, the schools are a disgrace, and I dont see it ever improving.

On the other hand, if Philly is dumb enough to pass a "no smoking in bars" law the Camden waterfront could become a hoppin' spot overnight!

75 posted on 12/29/2004 11:19:58 AM PST by pepsi_junkie (Often wrong, but never in doubt!)
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To: detsaoT
Didn't Christine Todd Whitman have SWAT teams basically go door-to-door disarming and arresting gang members about 10 years ago?

Never anything really effective. One thing I do recall, however. The city's District Attorney, a fellow by the name of Asbell who craved the spotlight and was on TV all the time, showed up one night on the news after surviving an ambush in which his car was shot up by vengeful drug lords. I recall a cop being quoted anonymously that he didnt buy it. His reason was that the drug lords knew that if they did that, the hammer would fall and they'd all be put out of business. It turns out it was staged and the guy was put out of office in disgrace. But my takeaway was that the police could end the drug trafficing if they wanted to, but chose to look the other way for some reason. I suspect graft, of course, but it could be cowardice. Either way, it was a very telling comment that explains a lot about why Camden continues to be a wasteland.

76 posted on 12/29/2004 11:25:41 AM PST by pepsi_junkie (Often wrong, but never in doubt!)
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To: pgkdan

Wow, remarkable story.


77 posted on 12/29/2004 11:37:32 AM PST by agrace
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To: JasonC
Gangs couldn't make money selling drugs, and therefore, wouldn't be killing each other to take over their business.

They'd be killing each other to take over something else. Protection rackets, welfare mother paychecks, anything you please. They will beat the defenseless for a living because it is the only livelihood they know

But unlike drug sales those crimes have actual victims, who will do what they can to prevent their commission and cooperate in their punishment. Drug prohibition is failing in much the same way that alcohol prohibition failed.

78 posted on 12/29/2004 11:45:37 AM PST by Know your rights (The modern enlightened liberal doesn't care what you believe as long as you don't really believe it.)
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To: OESY

Camden's new nickname:

Caracas on the Delaware.


79 posted on 12/29/2004 11:48:43 AM PST by TLOZ
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To: gridlock; lightingguy
New Jersey has been pouring money into Camden with all the usual boondoggles. Highway beautification, the NJ Aquarium, the Battleship New Jersey museum, an arena, minor league baseball, the works. And still it gets worse and worse. The parking lots by the waterfront attractions are all empty because the visitors drive across the river, pay big bucks to park in Philadelphia, and take the ferry back across the river, rather than drive ten blocks through Camden.

The summer of 2003, my husband and I decided to take our kids to the NJ State Aquarium on the way to Ocean City MD (we lived in northern NJ at the time) and we parked in one of those parking lots and headed across the street to the aquarium with no mishap. Getting off the highway and to the aquarium requires that one see little of Camden, so I had no idea...til we left, took a wrong turn and had trouble finding our way back onto the highway.

Having lived in New Haven CT, NYC and just outside Newark, I consider myself relatively exposed, but I had NEVER seen rundown city streets like they sport in Camden. It was mid-afternoon and I was nervous. We actually stopped to get directions from a traffic cop in the median to hasten our departure as much as possible.

It's too bad, because the aquarium and the kids' playground outside it are pretty cool.

80 posted on 12/29/2004 11:55:50 AM PST by agrace
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