Last week, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka reported a 19% drop in crime and an all-time low in the murder rate while announcing the city’s 2025 crime figures at the city’s police academy. But for some, those numbers don’t tell the whole story.
A spate of shootings at the close of 2025 took the lives of several residents, including a 10-year-old boy, who was caught in the crossfire.
Weequahic High School teacher Bashir Akinyele says gun violence has taken the lives of too many students he’s taught, so he has devoted himself to anti-violence work in his community…