UPDATE 10:05 a.m.: Montclair Police are now saying that last night’s incident, which set off an hour-plus helicopter search by state police, was a carjacking:
On 12/14/11 at approximately 10:10 PM, police responded to the area of Sherman Street on a report of an individual being forced into a vehicle against his will. Further information revealed that a victim had been carjacked. Police responded to the area and were able to apprehend two suspects. The investigation is ongoing and no further information is available at this time.
FILED 12:07 p.m. Glen Ridge Police have confirmed that a helicopter that has been rumbling above the south end of town is  a state police chopper assisting the Montclair Police Department.
Breaking News Network reported an armed robbery on Glenridge Ave. in Montclair, near the Glen Ridge border, shortly before 10:30 p.m., with two of three perpetrators in custody and one at large. K-9 units were called in.
10:19 p.m. NJ| Essex| Montclair| *Police Activity*| Montclair| Montclair PD has 1 under and still have 2 B/M at large after armed robbery, 1 handgun was shown. They were in foot pursuit of the perps.|BNN | BNNDESK/NJ389 | #443438
10:24 p.m. U/D NJ| Essex| Montclair| *Police Activity*| Montclair| Montclair PD’s radios are down at this time. They currently have 2 perps under, still 1 at large and 1 handgun not found. |BNN | BNNDESK/NJ389 | #443438
10:28 p.m. U/D NJ| Essex| Montclair| *Police Activity*| 20 Glen Ridge Ave| PD requesting county K9 unit, also have assistance with Glen Ridge PD|BNN | BNNDESK/NJ389 | #443438
The copter has been hovering over my neighborhood and at least four tipsters have reached out to ask what it’s all about. Â Shortly before 12:30 a.m., the helicopter was flying low over the Watsessing Park area of Bloomfield.
A recent rash of carjackings and other violent crime in the South Orange area was reported by us yesterday.
Yikes.
I live by the Bay St. Station and the helicopter was extremely low searching the near by neighborhood and on the corner of Pine and Glen Ridge Ave I saw a a police officer standing guard in the street. I contacted Montclair PD, non emergency, they stated an investigation was going on and I asked should I be worried he repeated the first statement then said they were “searching for a suspect”. Very weird night.
Streets is hood. There is no reason not to increase patrols here. (Bike, Foot, and Car). This is bullsh!t.
That neighborhood is a challenge and our council should be dealing with some of these more serious issues the town faces instead of wasting time and energy on changing the election or putting an affordable home on the Wildwood property or South Park (which WILL go forward).
JG, You have a gift for understatement. “Blighted Hellhole” would have been my choice.
Blighted hellhole? I guess that’s what it looks like through the the crack in the tinted window of deadeye’s stretch limo on the way back home from Mt. Olympus.
I love how the Barista took that grainy photo and posted it posthaste.
Jesus C- this is what, the third car jacking within the past month or two? I’m starting to seriously reconsider living in this area.
I used to live in West Hollywood where these helicopter search and pursuits were a weekly occurrence. After a while, your fears will subside. Especially when those 4 new homes go up in the Wildwood plot.
No Roo, this is the way I roll:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIFQUBQuq_E&feature=related
Walleroo, the photograph was sent by a reader. I cropped it to close-up.
Funny, deadeye, but this is closer to the image and worldview to which you seem to aspire.
Walleroo, the photograph was sent by a reader. I cropped it to close-up.
Even better!
Here’s deadeye leaving his estate and preparing to roll through the hood:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmannAYiwh0
OMG. I think I produced that one.
That helicopter may have been in the south part of town near 07042, but I was downtown until about 11pm and never heard it or saw it. Just after 11pm in 07043, I heard it. It was really loud and sounded like it was directly overhead, but I didn’t see lights. Thanks for posting the story, Bnet. Now I know what it was!
I wish that these Police Helicopters would come to do something about the township’s re development schemes….
Stu,
When I lived in Hollywood, the helicopters seemed an almost nightly occurrence, at some point you just tuned them out (kind of like my Grandmother’s apartment next to the “El” in Queens).
As to the crime problem, a big part of the problem we have in NJ is that we desperately need bail reform – the odds are that these guys were out on bail already for some other anti-social activity, and they’ll almost assuredly be released on bail again for this – probably in time to ruin someone’s Christmas. We keep catching them and then we let them go a day or two later – it’s pretty ineffective (and stupid).
Carl,
I know about the bail reform and we also need to reduce the county docket backup so that we aren’t returning so many criminals to the municipal courts to be tried since the sentences are so limited. The same crack dealer has been caught twice (or was that three times) in the vicinity of Bullock in under 6 months. He’s probably back out there now.
I too heard the chopper last night, but too have managed to tune them out.
Funny that you mention the ‘EL’. When I lived in Jersey City, the Path would run under our row house on Christopher Columbus Drive. We never felt it, but our visitors frequently thought there was an earthquake occurring when ever a train would rumble by. You couldn’t hear it, but you definitely could feel it.
Bail reform is nice and all, but where are you going to put them? The jails are full and in this era of “less government spending” I’m just happy there were any cops available to handle this call to begin with.
Hobbes,
The jails aren’t really the problem as much as it is the court system, which is almost gridlocked – that’s as much about politics as anything else.
Also, as much as it costs to put felons is the State Pen (about 50k per year), it’s a fraction of what it costs letting them run free, arresting and processing the same miscreants over and over again (any idea how much it costs to fly one of those whirly-birds for an hour?), investigating the crimes that would not have happened, etc. – and that’s not even adding in the cost to the citizenry, or our society.
It’s all about priorities – what is important to our governors, our state legislators and the NJ judiciary has very little connection to what is actually in the best interests of the State and its citizens. That’s because they aren’t representing the citizens, they are representing themselves and the machines that elected or appointed them. Our state government is so dysfunctional, it’s almost non-functional.
No jobs, no money, rise in the poor, middle class evaporating.
Gridlock in DC.
Welcome to the “Winless Wonderland” of Baristaville.
Get eye covers and earplugs.
Plus a gun under the pillow.
This is God’s country and even HE ain’t pokin’ head after 10pm.
Our state government is so dysfunctional, it’s almost non-functional.
(Except for the part that takes our money and spends it – that part gets more functional every year)
We have a State Gov’t?
I thought all we had & needed was Chris Christie!
It’s all about priorities – what is important to our governors, our state legislators and the NJ judiciary has very little connection to what is actually in the best interests of the State and its citizens. That’s because they aren’t representing the citizens, they are representing themselves and the machines that elected or appointed them. Our state government is so dysfunctional, it’s almost non-functional.
The same can be said for the federal government too. Getting elected to Congress is like winning the lottery. Perks, kickbacks, lavish gifts and campaign money from lobbyists and a get out of jail free card for trading on insider info.
Good post JG. Roo, “Blighted Hellhole” is pretty accurate, vantage point doesn’t matter. I don’t care if its from a limo, from a state chopper chasing thugs, or from the Mission Street mini mart. Lets call a spade a spade. Its an effing problem and it needs attention, if you disagree lets take a stroll along bloomfield and grab coffee at the minimart tonight at 10:00pm. I can put up with a lot of things, it just turns out that crack dealing and robbery at gun point (over and over and over again) are not on the list.
This is why I don’t mind having dents and scratches on my car – hijack protection!
Wow! What a compassionate community.
Didn’t B-net run a piece, what, last week, about the fact that 30% of our 4th Ward LIVES IN POVERTY?
It’s possible that the people committing the crime, as above, are middle class, well-educated folks. But i doubt it. No, I suspect the people who committed the carjacking (and probably the victims of it) are the same people whose ancestors were systematically denigrated and disenfranchised for centuries.
And what do you want to do? Get them tried and into jail quicker. You call their neighborhoods “hellholes” like they got that way in a vacuum. You use the occasion to snark about your politics, to try to blame the party in office, or even to diss the messenger.
I suspect the people who committed the crime (and their victims) are the people who know that no one cares about them except insofar as they are ruining your night’s sleep, or making you contemplate a gun license, or making you consider moving to Morris Plains so you don’t have to “deal” with them.
They know you can’t be bothered to be compassionate, to stand for them, to at least make an effort at understanding…
Even as you toast the season…
wow ihateplaydates, really? So how far does your compassion go? Clearly past crack dealing, car jacking, mugging, and armed robbery… So whats your limit arson, murder, rape?
“Welllllll ya know, his/her ancestors were systematically denigrated”
Stop, check your calendar, its 2011. There is simply no excuse.
Yes, ihateplaydates, I’m compassionate. The police should be careful that the thugs don’t bang their heads as they’re being placed in the back seat of the patrol car. It’s this kind of wind-brained, pathetic, criminal-as-victim mentality that makes me incredulous. Why the eff should I waste any time trying to better understand the motivations of a violent criminal that is a real threat to my community. You need to pull your head out of (fill in blank).
I agree, in part, with ihateplaydate’s sentiment here.
Yes, criminals have to be dealt with; you can’t let a rapist, carjacker, drug dealer or corporate lobbyist just wander the streets. But as human beings building a society together we SHOULD think beyond just throwing them in jail. It is a reflection of the society/community/whatever micro or macrocosm that you’re talking about when it’s citizens become criminals.
Thinking about street crime you have to, or should, especially if you’re a gov’t official or someone in a position of power, think about and try to understand what leads someone to commit such a crime.
I wonder if anyone commenting on this story from their home or office or maybe starbucks has known what it’s like to really struggle. To be without heat or food. To live hand to mouth unable to plan for a better future. Crime probably starts to look pretty attractive when you’re other options are slim to none. And I don’t want to hear “well pick yourself up by your bootstraps” or “get a job” or “go to college”. It is literally, not that easy. Especially right now (And speaking as someone paying for college right now-I know what funding has been cut to financial aid and the rising cost of tuition. I also know how hard it is to find a job.)
And then perhaps with all that “bootstrapping” when does one get to enjoy life? And what are our values in this country? We are constantly bombarded with propaganda telling us we should want fancy cars and clothes, big houses, lots of money. Those ideals are almost certainly unattainable by the impoverished but that’s what we’re trained to want so how else to achieve that crap “dream” then to go out and steal or deal drugs to get that cash for that fancy car or jacket. Our values are all skewed.
In Montclair they just approved some mass revision of South Park St., right? Ummmm but don’t we have a huge crime problem below Willow Street that could have used some investment to fix? A new social program? Another community center? A beautification project? Something/anything that lets those who are living in poverty know the town and community is thinking about them? Wants to help them out? No. let’s just make it prettier for those shopping at Urban Outiftters and Starbucks. Honestly. Park is street is freaking functional. Elm Street is not….THAT makes me incredulous deadeye-not the criminal as victim mentality. When we help out our neighbors, the community is better for EVERYONE.
I personally would rather live in a society who’s ideals are that of looking out for their fellow man not every man for himself.
and yes, I do, in part, blame society. If a young kid is screwing up at school, I look to the parents and what’s going on at home. You don’t just give the kid detention and forget about them, that’s not going to help. The problem needs greater attention and yes, compassion.
Username: Yeah, I guess you’re right. Somehow Starbucks and Urban Outfitters, and lets not leave out Anthropologie, as bright spots along the Grand Cloaca that is our main thoroughfare, provoked those sociopaths to violence. Instead of having a habitable, hospitable, and law abiding community, we should all just find the lowest common denominator and establish that as our standard of living and behavior. Let’s get some fried chicken places, check cashing joints, and hair braiding places, and let the inmates run the asylum. Great idea. We’re not building a society. We had a functioning one that is being debased. There is another post on site about the former glory of Broad St. in Newark. There, but for the grace of God, go we…
Seriously, ihateplaydates? Seriously? You read a news story about a carjacking and your response is that we should have compassion for individuals who commit first degree violent crimes? What about a little compassion for say the victims of said crime?