There are a lot of critiques of media here and across Camden, so I always like to highlight when someone does a nice job. The Courier-Post and Philadelphia Inquirer, for all their warts, provide consistently more nuanced coverage of Camden than national outlets. Do we yearn for the days when there was a newspaper based in Camden? Of course. But with the industry being how it is, it’s commendable that the CP and Inky are doing what they’re doing. In that spirit, I want to highlight this morning’s C-P editorial Camden is on the right track but needs help. The article does what is done so rarely in articles on the recent improvements in crime numbers, which is put them in terms of historical data:
Others point out that while homicides may be down sharply compared to the two prior years, the numbers aren’t so impressive when compared with statistics from before large numbers of city cops were laid off. In 2010, when the police force was of similar size, there were 27 homicides by Sept. 30. That’s still more than this year, but not by much.
It’s worth keeping such benchmarks in mind, but we can’t afford to focus on the past at the expense of dealing with the present and preparing for the future. It’s true that by breaking the union, the new force — so far a county police department in name only — has more money to play with than its predecessor. And it’s true that the state has coughed up aid that might have helped a couple of years ago.
That’s not a coincidence. Gov. Chris Christie is smart enough to know that a Camden comeback could pay dividends for him and the Republican Party, which is often out of touch with urban issues. For a guy who seems to spend most of his time campaigning out of state, Christie is a frequent visitor. “I’ve watched myself the change in atmosphere of this city,” he said last week.
We may not always agree on the details, but we welcome his help — and the national attention his presence brings. Camden can use as many friends as it can get. There’s room for candid advice and constructive criticism from anyone with a genuine interest in making Camden great again. But those with nothing productive to add to the conversation should shut up and get out of the way.
New Jersey governor Chris Christie meets with the Camden High School football team during practice at their field in Camden on Wednesday, September 24, 2014. (Photo: Denise Henhoeffer/Courier-Post)
I strongly disagree that we should be lauding a process in which a Governor guts municipal funding (and thus, a police department), busts a union, then provides additional support once a city is on its knees and desperate enough to reform in a way that fits the Governor’s political vision. But at least we are talking about that history. There are improvements in Camden. The city is now back on its feet, the way it was before the municipal cuts of 2010. Kudos to the C-P for talking about that context, even if I am skeptical that we should “welcome” such help, and even more skeptical of those who tell skeptics to “shut up and get out of the way.” But to each their own.
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Keith you are so on-point. Keeping up a posture of enlightened critical skepticism, especially about the glaring contradictions of race and class in America, is a sign of good minority mental health. It shows that, though one’s community of cultural identification remains subordinated to white external interests, one can be relatively free from the usually distorted and historically inaccurate myths about social reality that the dominant race and class in South Jersey, via control of the main media and other structures of mental production, normally peddles as some sort of rock solid, scientifically arrived at “truth” that actually turns out to be nothing more than mere neo-conservative or neo-liberal ideology wrapped up in layers of majoritarian political hogwash.
The last comment directed at “skeptics” to “shut up and get out of the way”, in my eyes, was so out of line. I think the labeling of people who have legitimate concerns and issues with this contemporary neoliberal directed Camden, and where its headed, as “skeptics” is demeaning and dismissive.
After all, people who being referred to as “skeptics” are the people who live here, and fundamentally are simply asking for the same civic rights and democratic respect that are afforded those in neighboring municipalities.
As a “skeptic” myself, I have a problem when the beneficiaries of good public and private jobs within this 8 square mile city of 97% percent minorities don’t remotely look like the people who reside here. Am skeptical for pointing that out? Am I skeptical when I point out that I can go WEEKS without seeing a black police officer on this newly created County Police Department? Or that I don’t recognize anyone of them as current Camden residents? Am I a “skeptic” when I point out research shows charters schools largely do NO better than traditional public schools? Am I skeptical that every time Gov. Christie comes here to say how much he cares about Camden he has a perimeter set up so that NO resident who is NOT connected to the Norcross machine goes anywhere near him to voice out concerns? Am I skeptic when I get upset that our local reporters ask NO follow-up questions and are not themselves the skeptical gatekeepers of public knowledge they are supposed to be but instead prefer to be the echo chamber for those with power?
I’m concerned that whenever the community wants to be included in the direction of the city, we are excluded and ignored. Further I am very skeptical when ALL of those in elected positions charged with representing residents like me, and my neighbors, all take the same marching orders from 1 or 2 men with the last name NORCROSS.
To dismiss people who find those realities truthful and distasteful, that truly want to see the city move in a better direction THE RIGHT WAY, as “skeptics” or my favorite “naysayers” only makes those hurling those labels part of the oppression us “skeptics” find so disconcerting. Our local media really has to do a MUCH BETTER understanding the opposing viewpoints held by us “skeptics” before telling us to “shut up and move out of the way.” I would venture to say that line would NEVER be directed to white people with money in Voorhees or Cherry Hill, or am I being too skeptical?
“If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”
? Malcolm X
Professor:
Thanks for the shoutout. We have a terrific editorial page editor who also happens to be a very good writer.
Regards
Chris Mitchell
Executive editor