BY CHRISTINE VARNO
Staff Writer
The Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office will meet with Long Branch community leaders this month to address violence in the city’s neighborhoods.
The meeting was requested by Lorenzo “Bill” Dangler, president of the Greater Long Branch NAACP in the wake of a murder that took place last month outside a city bar.
“We need to know what can be done to curtail violence in Long Branch,” said Dangler in an interview Monday.
“We do not want to be told, ‘We are working on it.’ That is not making me feel safe,” he said.
Dangler said the meeting will be held at Prosecutor Luis Valentin’s office in Freehold on Sept. 27. In addition to Dangler, members of the Long Branch Concerned Citizens Coalition (CCC) and city officials will attend the meeting.
Several calls to Valentin were not returned by Tuesday’s deadline.
CCC Executive Director and Long Branch school board member Avery Grant said Tuesday that he and Julia Wheeler, CCC chairwoman, will attend the meeting.
“Long Branch is seeing the beginning of what can become a very serious problem,” Grant said.
“We have seen a couple of shootings and there have been drug dealings [in the city], and it is spreading around,” he continued. “What we want to see happen is the administration working with the community and the schools on prevention.
“We are saying, let’s sit down and understand that there is a problem and find a way to address it.”
Grant added, “Let’s get people thinking and get them working together.”
Dangler said he made the request to the Prosecutor’s Office almost a month ago to address “the wave of violence that has victimized our community.”
Dangler has requested that the meeting be attended by Long Branch Public Safety Director William Richards and any other community organization that is interested.
“[Richards’] door has always been open, but we need to involve the public,” Dangler said. “As a community, we need to sit at the table together and get some open dialogue from all people. Residents have to feel safe.”
Richards confirmed Tuesday that he was contacted by Valentin with regard to the meeting, and will be in attendance along with representation from the Long Branch Police Department’s Youth Division and Street Crimes units.
Dangler explained that the purpose of the meeting is to ascertain what joint efforts, if any, are being taken to make and keep Long Branch a safer community.
“We need help,” Dangler said. “I want to know how involved [Valentin] is in Long Branch or how he can get involved.”
The murder of Herbert Hoover Lambert Bell, 30, Neptune City, which took place Aug. 19 at 2 a.m. outside Murphy’s Bar on Division Street was just one of several acts of violence in Long Branch that Dangler said need to be addressed.
“It is very frightening to think of a murder taking place at a neighborhood bar, with no regard for the consequences of committing such a crime in a public place,” Dangler wrote in a letter to the editor published in the Aug. 31 issue of the Atlanticville.
Dangler said he has also heard reports of gunshots in the Ludlow Street area on Aug. 15 and said a 17-year-old high school senior was shot last month on Ellis Avenue.
“If there are guns on the streets, then what makes you think they won’t be used,” Dangler said.
“I do not want to hear that we are not as bad as Asbury Park. That is not a comfort.
“Paterson did not just wake up and become one of the leaders in gangs. We cannot wait until it happens. We want to try to be ahead of it.”
Dangler added, “I know Long Branch has never been perfect, but I want to bring it back to where it was.”
The NAACP held assemblies in January and March to address gang violence in the community, and Dangler said he will see what actions need to be taken after the meeting with Valentin.