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
NJ Mayor Under Gun in Triple Killing
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 involved in...   (Associated Press)

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." (More New Jersey stories.)

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