By Louis Cappelli Jr.
In the late-morning hours of Nov. 16, Camden recorded its 59th homicide. It was like so many other murders that took place in the city this year, which means it was violent, senseless and stupid. This was another resident succumbing to a deadly culture that has thrived over the past two years, as more than 110 residents have been killed out of a population slightly more than 77,000.
Since 2011, violence has embraced this city and Camden County. We know what is fueling and inflicting this insidious carnage on our community: narcotics, guns, gangs and intimidation.
The drug trade, which encompasses about 170 open-air drug markets, breeds the violence in a lethal war over turf and supply. Furthermore, we know that the demand for drugs comes from outside of this city, and about 80 percent of all arrests due to narcotics are individuals from the outlying suburbs.
As a public servant of this county and representing the people of Camden City, I am appalled and disgusted at the flagrancy and emboldened nature of the criminal element that has consistently flouted the law.
An important reason for the current criminal activity is that Camden suffers from a severe lack of public safety and guardianship. This dearth of resources results in a vacuum that is clear and unacceptable for our residents. It has led to two of the deadliest years in the city's history.
We need big ideas to solve these endemic challenges that the residents of the city face on a daily basis. We need to change the way we deliver public safety and we need to deliver it more effectively throughout Camden's 9 square miles. The current Camden City Police Department is operating at 1940s staffing levels, and change is needed to clear drug corners and stabilize our neighborhoods.
The Camden County Freeholder Board is preparing to take bold actions in order to ensure that the status quo is never again a reality for the residents of Camden City and Camden County.
In addition, we are working to create a long-term solution that will produce a consistent drop in crime and new statistical benchmarks for the city moving forward.
Our governing body was not going to stand idly by while violent crime and the murder rate surpassed that of warring Third World countries such as Sudan and Somalia. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, these countries, which are engaged in active conflicts, have homicide rates that are approximately half of Camden's or less.
In short, our nation has a murder rate of 4.2 people per 100,000 citizens. Camden's rate is 20 times higher. It pains me to keep seeing this scourge of violence affect the families and thousands of law-abiding citizens who live in the city.
My grandparents lived in the city and I grew up just outside of it, in Collingswood, and have fond memories of Camden's former retail corridor on Broadway, where my grandmother would take me for back-to-school clothes every fall at Lit Brothers and shopping for shoes at Shapiro's. I remember large corporations, teeming with employees — from Campbell's Soup to RCA — who would fill the streets.
As elected officials, I and my colleagues, have a moral imperative to create a safer city and an obligation to the children living in Camden to stabilize their neighborhoods. We must stem the tide of narcotics in the city and we must, by any means necessary, make Camden a safer place and stop the violence.
On a cold November morning, when the city was at its darkest hour and we mourned the loss of another resident to murder, our public safety mission became even greater.
It is vital to change the policing paradigm and stabilize Camden's neighborhoods, so our county becomes a secure place. We are working with the city to make sure residents can walk down the street and feel safe, and that families and children can walk to school without the threat of gunfire and drug dealing around them.
These ideas are not novel, they are not partisan and I believe they are an inalienable right for our citizens. I and my colleagues will continue to fight for them until the murders stop and we make this city a safer place in which to live.
Louis Cappelli Jr. is the freeholder director of Camden County.
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