In response to the murder that occurred Tuesday night on the corner of Mission and Bloomfield Ave., residents, police and elected officials gathered for a meeting last night at Fire Headquarters, voicing their concerns about the fatal shooting of Ibn Futrell, a former Montclair High School student in his mid-20s, and proposing solutions to crime in the community.
Fourth Ward Councilor Renee Baskerville hosted the meeting, along with Thomas Reynolds, president of the Montclair chapter of the NAACP and Montclair Police Chief David Sabagh.
The room was filled to capacity with over 100 residents present. Baskerville opened by saying that the community is “not just dealing with this atrocity…but with the frequent acts of violence” that have occurred in that area, one of the highest-crime areas in Montclair. Police are still investigating the crime and no suspects have been identified.
Sabagh said that they could not speak directly about the open investigation, but a “tremendous amount of information has come from leads and witnesses.”
“Our objective is to limit the amount of crime using the resources available,” said Sabagh. “We prioritize based on events and crime statistics.” As a result of budget cuts, he said the department was forced to downsize operations. According to Sabagh, a “community policing project”, smaller in scope and more mobile, would be implemented and is currently being discussed with Marc Dashield, the town manager.
The community policing project would “allow us to address the particular issue of that particular neighborhood until it’s fixed, and move onto another neighborhood that may request that comprehensive type of policing,” said Sabagh.
Throughout the two-hour meeting, residents repeatedly voiced concerns over inadequate street lighting, few security cameras and the lack of police presence in the area where the murder took place. Several claimed to have made repeated calls to PSE&G to fix broken streetlights and got no response. Dashield said he would contact public service and meet with the police department to resolve the lighting issues.
A resident who owns property on the corner of Mission St. commented on signs of “obvious drug activity” occurring in two local buildings and urged police to investigate.
Mark Clayton, a local resident, suggested organizing a neighborhood watch that would gather on a monthly basis to aid in crime prevention. “We can’t look at the police and say it’s their fault…it’s our responsibility,” he said.
Sabagh said the police force would do its best to meet with residents and set up watch groups.
Residents proposed additional anti-gang and drug resistance education programs in schools. Several also felt there was a lack of community centers and programs available to local youth.
“These children can’t afford a community center, they can’t afford to go to the Y,” said Dawn Muhammad, who has been a resident of Montclair for over 52 years. “It could very well have been my son that was shot. Let’s stop skipping over the issue. It’s the lights, but it’s a dark cloud over our community, too. I’m down for doing whatever is necessary, by any means necessary to open up the doors for our children to a better way of life than what they got right now.”
“There needs to be more community action in Montclair from the police department, from the residents, from the churches… We all need to expect more from each other,” Reynolds said. “I understand that there are budget cuts, I understand that there are a lot of things he [Sabagh] has to deal with…but the loss of a human, there’s no amount of budget that can fill that loss.”
He added, “Hopefully from tonight we can create a dialogue, find creative ways to bring back community policing and find creative ways to make sure these streets are safe.”
This tragedy must be embraced and addressed but superimposing a layer of local politics isn’t going to do anything. The system is a failure and can only serve to keep the problems in place. There is a need for benevolence, positive action, intelligence and caring.
There is a need for more police in Montclair, period.
The room was filled to capacity with over 100 residents present. Baskerville opened by saying that the community is “not just dealing with this atrocity…but with the frequent acts of violence” that have occurred in that area, one of the highest-crime areas in Montclair. Police are still investigating the crime and no suspects have been identified.
The last time there was a big problem on Mission Street, Renee responded by spending a Saturday there cleaning up trash from the street with other residents. Problem solved, I suppose. That’s the last time I’ve heard her mention that particular street.
“Throughout the two-hour meeting, residents repeatedly voiced concerns over inadequate street lighting, few security cameras and the lack of police presence”.
There are thousands of locations like this where no one gets shot; it’s the humanoid miscreants not the location.
How many more police do you need? Do you want to add a few officers a week until no one gets shot?
There are thousands of locations like this where no one gets shot; it’s the humanoid miscreants not the location.
What an odious statement.
Look, there are people who live on Mission Street who are law-abiding citizens who work jobs and pay taxes and don’t want to get murdered. So when a killing happens nearby, are they not supposed to be concerned that there are lights out all over the street, making it dangerous to just walk to the corner and grab some milk?
Idle hands do the devil’s work…. this is why I think it’s penny wise pound foolish to raise the rec fees for the pools in the summer. I don’t know if they do this, but open the school gyms for pickup basketball and places to congregate, albeit with adequate supervision. This is money better spent than on green energy flights of fancy. Think a couple less solar powered street lamps and a better rec program for our otherwise bored kids. Any other ideas?
this all sounds great and eases the people, until the next shooting. Good Luck
Thank you for that Nick. I couldn’t go to the meeting as my daughter is in bed by that time. I really should have gone as the murder happened on my doorstep, literally. No the owners of my building did not tell us anything except that it is a good neighborhood with friendly people. Saddened that they told people at the meeting they knew of blatent drug activity….also respecting the fact they attended. I’d also like not to be afraid at night when I go outside….my front door. When our lease is up…bye Montclair and our delusions of what we heard and read about.
The point about the Y not being affordable is interesting. Does seem like a good idea to have facilities and programs available to kids. Are there need-based or reduced-fee memberships available? does the very nice, new Salvation Army building have facilities for youth programs? I never seem to see much activity there (although haven’t been there myself, so don’t know their mission).
And someone – chief of police, mayor, Dashield – should make sure PSEG fixes those lights pronto.. I didn’t hear where the current cameras are located. Does anyone know? Is there a camera on mission street?