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NJ Mayor Under Gun in Triple Killing

Newark crime rate sparks calls for idealist Booker's resignation

By Dustin Lushing,  Newser Staff

Posted Aug 7, 2007 4:34 AM CDT
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(Newser) – Jersey residents shocked by the shooting deaths of three students at a Newark schoolyard this weekend are lashing out at a young mayor who rode a wave of hope and idealism into office, the Times reports. Cory Booker, 38, is facing a wall of public hostility—and calls for his resignation—after the gruesome shootings and a homicide rate that refuses to fall.

Though Newark gun violence is down 80%, 60 people have been killed so far this year—just three shy of the 10-year record. Saturday's execution-style murders of two 20-year-olds and an 18-year-old highlighted the violence, though at least one family doesn't hold Booker responsible. "I don't blame you," a victim's father told the mayor. "I blame the parents in this city for not raising their children right."

James Harvey, second right, a former city water department employee, holds his fiancee Mary Harris while they listen Monday Aug. 6, 2007, in Newark, N.J., as Newark Mayor Cory A. Booker, left, announces that a $50,000 reward was being offered for information leading to the arrest of those...
James Harvey, second right, a former city water department employee, holds his fiancee Mary Harris while they listen Monday Aug. 6, 2007, in Newark, N.J., as Newark Mayor Cory A. Booker, left, announces...   (Associated Press)
sha, was listed in fair condition at Newark's University Hospital. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)
sha, was listed in fair condition at Newark's University Hospital. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)   (Associated Press)
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crime • New Jersey • murder • homicide • Newark • mayor • Cory Booker • gun violence

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