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Community Voices For A Safer Trenton | NJ.com Coverage
Jah’saan Reid thought he was signing up for a summer job.
The 17-year-old was out of school and uncertain about his future when he joined the Junior Street Team at Trenton’s Restorative Justice Hub. Instead of just a paycheck, he said, he found mentors who listened to him, challenged him and helped him recognize his own potential.
“I didn’t realize I was joining a community of people who believed in me, supported me and wanted to see me succeed,” Reid said.
His experience brought a personal dimension to a wide-ranging community forum about what happens before violence erupts, what neighborhoods need after gunfire stops and how Trenton might better coordinate the organizations and government agencies responsible for prevention and recovery.
The gathering was convened by Rev. Dr. Charles Boyer, pastor of Greater Mount Zion AME Church and co-founder and executive director of Salvation and Social Justice. It brought together Gov. Mikie Sherrill, Attorney General Jennifer Davenport, Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora, U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, other state and local leaders, residents, faith leaders and frontline violence-intervention workers.
The forum took place in the aftermath of the Aug. 30 mass shooting on Locust Street in East Trenton’s Wilbur section. Tyasiah West, 33, a mother of three, and Anthony Howlett, 42, who was known for his community involvement, were killed. Eight others were wounded when multiple gunmen opened fire on a gathering of about 100 people, according to authorities.
The discussion offered a broad picture of the conditions surrounding violence, the programs already working to address them and the gaps that remain between community needs and government systems.
Speakers repeatedly returned to one central message: Public safety cannot depend on policing alone.
“It does mean good policing, but it also means violence intervention, mental health, housing, recreation, education, jobs, safe streets, strong neighborhoods and people who have credibility in the community working outside of government,” Gusciora said.
Building safety beyond law enforcement
Trenton is not starting from zero, the mayor said. The city has two street teams, the ARRIVE Together mental health response program, community organizations such as Salvation and Social Justice and Isles and municipal departments working in health, housing, human services, recreation and economic development.
What is missing, he said, is a structure capable of bringing those efforts together around “one table, one strategy and accountability for getting the job done.”
The proposed Office of Violence Prevention emerged as one possible way to provide that coordination.
Former Trenton Mayor Douglas Palmer called on the city to establish and fund the office in its next municipal budget. He also proposed a resident-led anti-violence coalition and a citywide prevention plan with clear goals, assigned responsibilities, timelines and annual public reporting.
The office, Palmer said, could connect community intervention, trauma recovery, victim support, employment, housing, reentry services and other programs that residents often must navigate separately.
“Safe neighborhoods require strong neighborhoods,” Palmer said. “Strong neighborhoods require partnership, and partnership requires leadership willing to act.”
Tracey Syphax, a former leader of the Trenton Restorative Street Team, said the office should strengthen community organizations without attempting to control them.
“Government cannot manufacture trust,” Syphax said. “That trust was earned over years on porches, in hospitals, at funerals, inside prison walls and on corners where government is often nowhere to be found.”
“The office should stand beside community organizations, not above them,” he added.
Syphax said violence prevention frequently goes unnoticed because its successes are incidents that never occur.
“The public sees violence happen,” he said. “Community violence-intervention workers see violence before it happens because someone trusted steps in early.”
Those interventions may involve mediating a dispute, helping someone find housing or employment, connecting a returning citizen with services or persuading a young person to seek counseling rather than retaliate.
Looking to Newark for a model
Speakers from Newark offered a model of what sustained investment and coordination could look like.
Newark established its Office of Violence Prevention and Trauma Recovery after reallocating 5% of its public safety budget. The office works alongside police, schools, hospitals, social workers, street teams, victim advocates and community organizations.
“Public safety is not a department; it’s an ecosystem,” LaKeesha Eure, Newark’s deputy mayor for public safety, said.
Eure said an office should not attempt to provide every service itself. Its role is to ensure that organizations understand their responsibilities, share information and prevent people from falling through the cracks.
She also warned against treating community-based intervention as a temporary experiment dependent on short-term grants.
“As long as the police have a budget, we’re going to have a budget,” Eure said of violence-prevention programs.
Baraka offered examples of what coordination can mean in practice: placing credible messengers near probation offices where conflicts might arise, creating alternatives for students serving long suspensions, reserving summer jobs for young people most affected by violence and connecting families with street teams after a shooting to prevent retaliation.
“This is a public health issue,” Baraka said.
Newark still has shortcomings and problems to address, he said, but its reductions in violence demonstrate that communities do not have to accept a certain number of homicides as inevitable.
“Zero is possible,” Baraka said.
Sherrill acknowledged that Trenton’s challenges extend beyond law enforcement and reflect decades of underinvestment.
“The state has just not done right by our capital city,” she said.
But Sherrill did not announce new funding for a Trenton Office of Violence Prevention or the community programs discussed at the forum.
From conversation to action
Residents made clear that bringing influential people into the same room was meaningful, but lasting confidence will depend on whether the discussion leads to action.
Monisha Moore attended to advocate for a woman she considers a sister who was wounded in the Locust Street shooting. Moore said the woman now has a metal rod in her leg and bullet fragments that cannot safely be removed. A single mother of three, she is no longer able to provide for her children as she did before the shooting.
Moore brought her 16-year-old son to hear the discussion. She described him as a good child but said she understood how quickly circumstances could change for young people growing up around violence.
“I’m happy to be here in Trenton, but I’m going to be honest: I’m scared to continue to raise him in Trenton,” she said.
By the end of the evening, the forum had assembled many of the people who could shape Trenton’s approach to violence prevention and placed programs, policy, trauma, poverty and public safety within the same conversation.
Whether that conversation produces a budget, timeline or formal plan remains to be seen.
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