EXCLUSIVE: In a 12 month span, the Lakewood Police Department has received 195 calls for service to Tent City, documents obtained by TLS show. The official documents show calls betweenJune 2011-June 2012.
The calls for service include calls for disorderly conduct, harassment, fires, suspicious circumstances, thefts, robberies, vandalism, wanted persons, assaults, intoxication, burglaries and other criminal activities.
Of those calls for service, many were for officers to standby for arrests on warrants from Lakewood or other towns.
In January, Judge Foster – who was expected to rule in the Lakewood Vs Tent City lawsuit – refused to close down the crime-infested camp, saying he wanted both sides to come to an agreement. TLS.
Why hasn’t the township appealed the Judge’s ruling? Don’t they realize that this is more important than downtown parking (which they spend an enormous amount of time and our money on)?
If our elected officials wont act we must replace them. When will they get it. We dont give a hoot about the old downtown. Everyone is concerned about (moderated) city in our midst!
The inspection dept are paid to inspect (moderated) city: NOT DOWNTOWN
why dont they just close it down already??
Shut it down shut it down shut it down…………..!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
And this doesn’t include people like me who are too lazy to call
Please hurry before the building permits exspire…!!
I’ll throw a kiddush…if it gets closed down…
agreed w/#1
this should be the townships TOP priority
I think we should make an ordinance to only allow police goto someone who has a residence and not a tent we will save lots of money! We can then make bulk pickups for those who pay taxes!
do they pay taxes for the services provided?
insane…shut it down asap
why dont they get their own Police dept.
Leave it alone, it is one of the only places left that has trees, If you win there will be more townhouses, which I say we don’t need, we need the trees, Lakewood used to be a place where people came because of the fresh air from the trees. Pretty soon Lakewood will be a cement city like NY
why not inundate the municipality and or judge”s office with phone calls demanding action be taken immediately and form a protest, picketing those areas as well. Just moaning about it won”t accomplish anything. This is America, if you want to draw peoples and media’s attention to a situation and hopefully get something accomplished, you have every right to make a big stink about it. If residents don”t take action, this will continue to escalate until it becomes very ugly!
It seems that township officials are not getting anywhere with this, why don’t we the people join together, form a petition and “do it ourselves”
well now that the inspection department can issue tickets let them respond there all day long and write tickets to them
simple answer and solutions simon says
How about when some many people call for a bike that when missing so what is your point about how many calls in tent city if you need service from the police you should attended to by the police fairly as expected
How many Police calls for OUR accidents per month?
Shut it down. Shut it down. Shut it down…do you get it township???
I’ll gladly drive the bulldozer.
I find it very interesting that the town passed an ordinance to the effect if your house alarm goes off in error after the 3rd time that they send an officer a fine is sent to the homeowner. I guess its more important to protect those who are just a burden on the town and not those who pay taxes.
I agree with # 11 …..well said …but regardless they live there they are homeless….some of u just don’t have a heart or show no compassion…leave them alone !!
Steven Langert should go negotiate with all the homeless when he gets back from the Republican National Convention! Go Steve Go!
don’t forget those fires they will start soon that will ruin the air quality.
#22. While you are busy having compassion on criminals, they are busy committing crimes. If they are homeless, give them a nice warm home in jail.
Why doesn’t the Township just build some affordable housing in that location and sell it to the tent dwellers cheap?
Only place left with trees? Have you noticed lately how the tents are so much more visible than ever before? They keep cutting down the trees for firewood or to put down more tents (overdeveloping!) so Cedarbridge avenue has the great scenic veiw of Tent City!
My recommendation is to let them police themselves. In the jungle its the survival of the fittest, and they arent paying taxes or even want to be part of society so let them be. Meanwhile, my neighborhood is being burglarized every night and we can use a few good cops around…
MAYBE THE DEP SHOULD GET INVOLVED
The township has bigger problems then trying to shut it down.
Remember, if you are not trying to help the problem then you are part of the problem.
It’s amazing to see what ppl are saying on here, I live right by “tent city”, have smelt the fires during the chilly nights n it reminded me of my childhood. I have a few ppl living there and their stories are sad. I met one man who had a house, kids, nice cars, etc. when times starting gettin rough his company closed shop. He lost everythin including his family. The ones that live in “tent city” are not criminals, they are trying to survive, find jobs and just try and make it. They are not sitting there by the fire drinking all night long. I used to have to walk down CedarBridge everyday to go to work, I had to pass another place that had ppl livin in tents by the tracks. After feelin uncomfortable I started walkin on the other side, but yet I never felt like that passin “tent city”. My 4 yr old grandson knows about tent city, has seen the chickens they have, and even has talked to one of the men living there. I hope to the man above that none of the ppl that don’t care about our homeless ppl, right in this town never has to be in their situation or anyone in thier family. Shame on all of you!!