Published in the Herald News, Saturday June 10, 2006
Paterson church leaders aim to take back streets
Saturday, June 10, 2006
By BRIAN SPADORA
HERALD NEWS
The Rev. Barry Graham was not inside his church Friday night but out on the streets, because that's where he says God is needed most.
Graham, assistant pastor of the Canaan Baptist Church on 11th Avenue and East 22nd Street, was among the leaders of 11 city churches that participated in a one-mile prayer march. More than 100 people walked, prayed, sang religious songs and carried signs with messages like, "Love Your Neighbor, Don't Kill Him."
Graham began the march with a prayer, his voice amplified by speakers on the back of a flatbed truck that also carried singers and musicians.
"Father, we come on behalf of the neighborhood saying victory is ours!" Graham said, as his words reverberated off the multifamily homes and red brick industrial building across the street.
"Father, we've come to take back our sons and our daughters. We've come to take back our streets and our houses in the name of Jesus!" he said.
The march was part of a continuing effort by the city's religious community to address the problem of violent crime, particularly shootings. Four of six murders in the city this year were shootings, and all six killings remain unsolved, said Detective Lt. Anthony Traina, spokesman for the Paterson Police Department.
In April and May, the Rev. John A. Algera of the Madison Avenue Christian Reformed Church and the Rev. Stafford J. Miller of St. Philip's United Methodist Church on the city's Northside organized a gun buyback effort that yielded more than 200 weapons, Algera said.
The pastors' efforts coincide with state and national campaigns to rid urban streets of illegal firearms.
Recently, Gov. Jon S. Corzine identified Paterson as one of 10 municipalities with high rates of violence that will receive limited aid from the state's Operation CeaseFire program.
The CeaseFire effort focuses on specific neighborhoods where shootings occur often. Law enforcement concentrates resources on those neighborhoods, treating each shooting as though it were a homicide and attempting to arrest the relatively small number of criminals responsible for the majority of shootings, said Capt. Christopher J. Andreychak, project director of Operation CeaseFire. The program also pairs law enforcement with outreach groups.
The program started last year in a two-square-mile area on the Newark/Irvington border and has been a success, Andreychak said. CeaseFire has increased the percentage of shooting cases that result in an arrest or the issuance of an arrest warrant from 15 percent to 40 percent, Andreychak said. At the same time, shootings in the two-square-mile zone are down about 30 percent, he added.
Twenty uniformed state troopers and about 10 detectives are involved in that effort, Andreychak said.
The program in Paterson will not be as broad, however.
The city will receive full-time assistance from a state police trooper, and state police will also offer a two-week course on criminal investigations to three or four Paterson detectives, Andreychak said.
Algera said he was pleased about the success of CeaseFire, but he would like to see Paterson have a fully implemented program, much like the one operating in Newark and Irvington.
"The problem is the state police don't have the resources to put 20 troopers, or whatever it is, into all of the (CeaseFire) municipalities," Andreychak said.
The mayors of more than 50 U.S. cities have joined forces to reduce gun violence. Led by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Michael Menino, including those from Trenton and Jersey City, have signed a resolution that calls for uniform local action as well as greater federal involvement, including:
- Imposing the maximum punishments possible on criminals who posses or traffic in illegal guns.
- Targeting gun dealers who break the law by knowingly selling guns to illegal gun dealers.
- Developing and using technologies that aid in the detection and tracing of illegal guns.
Torres said he is waiting to review laws passed recently in Jersey City to determine whether Paterson could take similar action.
Torres said uniform federal legislation is perhaps the most important step in addressing gun violence in the cities.
He said New Jersey's strict gun laws for purchasing firearms are undermined when guns are purchased in states with more lax statutes and then transported here illegally.
"If our bordering state doesn't have those laws, that's when you have guns coming from Philly, coming from Florida, coming from all over," Torres said.
Alex Valiedo, who watched the prayer march pass by, said tougher laws alone will not heal the city.
"We need this here in Paterson," he said, looking at the marchers singing songs of praise. "We need something. There's a lot of killings."
Reach Brian Spadora at (973) 569-7132 or spadora@northjersey.com.
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