Double shooting fuels fears, frustrations of Paterson neighborhood's beleaguered residents
PATERSON – People who live near the corner of Union Avenue and Jasper Street say they try not to leave their homes at night.
That’s how they avoid the groups of young men who hang around the area blasting loud music, drinking, smoking marijuana and fighting, night after night after night.
“You can’t even walk through there, it’s not safe,” said one resident who asked that his name not be published because he feared retaliation. “If you say 'excuse me' to get past them, it becomes a problem.”
“It’s no good there,” said another resident, who gave a reporter his first name, Peter. “There’s a lot of trouble.”
Last weekend, a fight near the corner escalated and gunfire erupted at about 4:30 a.m. Saturday, leaving two men wounded, police said. More than 50 people were in the area when the shooting took place, but so far no arrests have been made, according to authorities.
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It was the 15th time in the past four years that gunshots were fired in that vicinity, according to a report compiled by the Paterson police department on Monday. In one instance, a man was killed. In three others, people were wounded. In the 11 other shootings, no one was injured, according to the police report.
In the aftermath of the most recent incident, Mayor Andre Sayegh is calling for a two-block stretch of Union Avenue – from Redwood Avenue to Kearney Street – to be designated a crime hot spot, an area where businesses would have to close at midnight. Sayegh said that will ease the problem. But some residents say a more active, responsive police presence would make a bigger difference and they wonder why it isn't already taking place.
“The residents in the area have been living in fear for far too long, and ensuring their safety is a high priority,” Sayegh said. “We are working on expanding the commercial curfew ordinance to include their section. The long neighborhood nightmare must come to an end."
But Councilman Michael Jackson, who represents that section of the city, said he does not support the mayor’s plan. Jackson said the local businesses are paying the price for “the inability of the police department” to bring order to the area.
A pair of notorious bars
Jackson pointed out that the shooting took place about two hours after closing time for two bars on the block that authorities say create the problems.
“It just shows the neighborhood was out of control for hours and they didn’t do anything about it,” Jackson said of the police.
Paterson Press on Monday interviewed seven area residents about the problems. They all said they thought forcing the bars on the block to close earlier would help.
But most of them also said the police need to do a better job attacking the problem. The residents said patrol cars often don’t stop when they drive past young men standing outside drinking and smoking marijuana.
“The only time the cops come when there’s something big, like a shooting,” complained one person, who said he has lived in the area for more than a decade.
A woman who lives near the bars said she called police at 12:13 a.m. Sunday when a large fight broke out on the corner of Union and Jasper. She showed a reporter her phone log to prove she had made the call.
“No one came,” the resident said. “Maybe if they came, the shooting would have never happened.”
Paterson Police Director Jerry Speziale said he was aware of the neighborhood residents’ frustrations over the rowdy gatherings ruining their quality of life. Speziale said he spoke with one woman over the weekend who was “sobbing” as she told him about the situation.
Speziale said he was not familiar with the call that the resident said she made about a fight the night of the shooting. The director said the police department had a high volume of calls over the weekend because of the Peruvian parade on Sunday, an event often accompanied by parties in the city on the night before.
Speziale said the police department takes residents’ complaints “very seriously.”
“We want to serve the public,” Speziale said. “We want to make sure the public is satisfied and served.”
The owners of the two bars that residents and officials say are part of the problem could not be reached for comment. At Boulevard Wine and Spirits, an employee said the owner was away on vacation. At El Fogon Restaurant, Bar and Liquor store, an employee said the owner was not available.
Creating more 'hot spots'
Back in February 2016, the city council had considered adding that stretch of Union Avenue to its list of crime hot spots where businesses would have to close by midnight. But the council opted not to enact the measure after representatives from Boulevard Wine and Spirits and El Fogon told officials that forcing them to close earlier would jeopardize their businesses.
Sayegh, as a councilman, was one of the few members of the governing body at that time who supported imposing the business curfew on those blocks of Union Avenue. Now as mayor, Sayegh said he believes he has enough support on the council to enact the measure.
The mayor said troublemaking crowds drawn by the bars linger on the street for hours after they close. He said forcing them to close earlier would improve the situation.
But Jackson does not agree. He warned that penalizing the businesses that have no power over what happens on the street might force them to close and leave the area with vacant buildings.
“If we squeeze these small businesses out of business, we’re only perpetuating the type of activity that we’re trying to fight,” Jackson said.
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