A strategic plan to address gun violence in Newark was unveiled Wednesday by its Office of Violence Prevention and Trauma Recovery, entailing a shifting of resources to community groups and the people they serve.
Lakeesha Eure, director of the Office of Violence Prevention and Trauma Recovery, said, “And so we’re shifting the culture to think about trust, healing and resilience. That’s the ultimate goal because we know that there hasn’t been a lot of trust in our law enforcement, in our systems and so we have to rebuild trust in the community, and we have to build the community to know that they are resilient and they can bounce back from whatever the harms are that have happened.”
Mayor Ras Baraka noted that the office is now working with $11 million of funding from the city’s public safety budget and another $17 million for organizations that work on violence prevention and victims’ recovery. Baraka said crime in the city has been steadily decreasing, as have arrests and incarcerations, a sign that new approaches to law enforcement can have a positive impact.
“We can uphold peoples’ rights and follow the Constitution of the United States and at the same time reduce violence and crime. In fact, in Newark, we are arresting less people than we were 5-10 years ago, so we’re making less arrests but we’re also seeing a constant reduction,” Baraka said.
