Some Jackson residents found an article from a worthless website which claims that Lakewood, New Jersey’s crime rate is amongst the worst in the country. However, the article’s conclusions – which were shamefully shared on a local website – are completely wrong.
The article correctly states that Lakewood has a population of about 140,000. But then it says that “according to NeighborhoodScout” Lakewood’s crime rate is at 10 per 1,000 residents “placing it in the bottom 11% of U.S. cities in terms of safety.”
On a Facebook group, Jackson residents made it clear that they believed what the article claimed as being true and used it to validate their anti-Orthodox Jewish sentiments. A local Jewish website repeated the numbers as fact as well, showing a total disregard for basic accuracy.
The truth of the matter is that the numbers are badly fudged. The article in question cited the current crime rate in Lakewood, but the population of Lakewood from years ago – when Lakewood had just 69,000 residents! Of course the current crime rate with a population of 69k would look bad, but it’s total fake news.
The fact is that Lakewood is one of the safest cities in the entire country – when you accurately count the number of crimes committed against the number of residents that live in Lakewood.
So give numbers. Give facts. Get the latest statistics. As a community we are the most peaceful people. Agreed. But there others who live in our community and is them who commit crimes. Am sure there is a place maybe the police department who can give you the number and locations of such crimes. We are targets not the perpetrators.
This is journalism? What are the numbers?