Posted on 02/01/2007 8:04:51 PM PST by Coleus
Cops and politicians call Interstate 95 the "Iron Pipeline" because it is a popular route for criminals smuggling firearms from the South into Newark and other Northeastern cities where gun violence abounds. A big link in that pipeline is the New Jersey Turnpike, where the State Police used to seize scores of guns every year.
But they don't anymore.
Gun arrests and gun seizures have plummeted on the Turnpike in the last decade, according to data provided by the State Police in response to a request under the Open Public Records Act. Since 1995, the number of gun-related arrests by troopers on the Turnpike dropped 91 percent, to 17 last year, and the number of seized guns fell 87 percent, to 15. The decline comes at a time when homicides and shootings are on the rise in Newark, the state's largest city, where cops are taking record numbers of firearms off the streets. When those illegal guns are traced to their original sale, the most common source states turn out to be along the I-95 corridor in the South -- Florida, Georgia, Virginia, the Carolinas --where gun laws are much more lax than New Jersey's, according to police.
"Any time we can interdict guns coming into the city, whether it's us or another law enforcement agency, it's going to prevent violence here," Newark Police Director Garry McCarthy said. Officials attribute the decline in gun seizures and arrests on the Turnpike to a shift in State Police strategy since the late 1990s, away from aggressive roadside searches and toward more city patrols and larger investigations.
"The bottom line is that over the last seven years we've adopted a different playbook and different rules of engagement," State Police Superintendent Rick Fuentes said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
they didn't want "racial profiling".
so they got this instead.
I guess they need to increase the manpower by 1000% so they can quickly pull over as many grandma's as possible to reach the quota and not be accused of any "profiling".
part of this is also the 65MPH speed limit - there are simply fewer people speeding now.
As far as I can tell, the percentage of speeders is at least 75% technically. No one in the left lanes is traveling less than 65, unless they would like to be run over.
on 95? are you kidding?
And just over the river from NY, man they could make a ton of money.
Hey NJ Parliament, think of the revenue form gun sales, Massachusetts, just 250 miles north, Rhode Island, only 150 miles north, Connecticut, a measly 70 miles north and of course the biggest gun buyers market around, NY City, a paltry 15 minute drive.
Not to mention that McGreevey cut the BeeJesus out of the State Police budget. The savings was spent on defending the State against lawsuits from the ACLU for profiling. So more poor folks in Newark, Trenton and Camden die. Everybody's happy. What's the problem?
I'm not saying no one speeds, but fewer people speed with the higher limit.
I don't think I can agree with that.
I think the "55" campaign taught the entire country to speed, and it is now accepted behavior.
I have not measured it, of course, but I would bet the average speed on any stretch of 95 is at least ten percent above the speed limit - if not more.
BTW, on the beltway around DC (part of 95 and 495), driving the speed limit in any of the 12 lanes will get you killed, in about 20 minutes.
It was interesting teaching my son to drive there - "Dad, it says 55..."
"Son, if you don't go faster, we will die."
Maybe fewer people are driving 20 over anymore, but when the exercise is to pull black drivers over and search for contraband 66 in a 65 will do. Hell, 56 in a 65 will do too, just make up something about an erratic lane change or something.
So let Newark and Camden shoot each other up like the Wild West. I wonder if THAT "alienates the minority community"? Whatever.... It sure doesn't bother me.
LOL, welcome to another edition of "When Liberals Collide".
Why don't the sheeple in these heavy gun-control states ever seem to ask their politicians why their state is such a powerful magnet for guns from all those loose-gun-laws/lower-crime-rate states?
Well, after all, it's New Jersey. This is normal.
Is this what you believe the NJ State Police has been doing? Why do you think this?
What a minute. Wasn't it the NAACP that was crying about too many guns? I wonder how they would feel if gunshops stopped selling to Afro-Americans?
It's not unheard of for law enforcement agencies to cook the books in the direction which serves their interests. High crime rates when they want more funding and low crime rates when the "crime fighters" are running for re-election.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.