I've lived in Hazleton my entire life. Most of you are hitting the topic head on, but some not so much. People in Hazleton don't really care where you come from - it's a "mind your business when you move in" mentality.
The gang situation is one of the biggest problems. It's multiple violent gangs who peddle everything from weed to oxy to heroin. They commit violence among their own just as when the Mafia was based here. The difference is the wacked out drug addicts are now busting into people's homes to support their habit. I've witnessed these acts of violence to members of my own family.
The second problem is adaptation. People from this area do not like anyone getting free things unless you are destitute. Just last week, a lady in front of me purchased two bags of King Crab legs and two lobsters all paid with an access card, driving away in a tricked-out Escalade. Remember, it's your tax money, too. Before i get jumped by some ultra lefties, many of my neighbors, without hesitation, will donate to a family stricken by disaster or violence, no matter the race or ethnicity.
I've worked in five factories in the Hazleton area - one dispersed to Europe and Asia, another to Canada, and one just had enough and closed. I've trained many in skillsets that are in need today. The Hispanics were all eager to learn, only to be absorbed into the warehouse industry instead of manufacturing.
The pictures I see of other downtowns are reflective of the way things are today. Downtown stores have been replaced by strip malls, which were replaced by generalized malls, which were then replaced by e-shopping.
My Dominican neighbor, after seeing me put in new sidewalks, came over to me and shook my hand, saying in broken English, "That makes me happy to see you do that. I move from NYC to avoid violence and was worried when I move here people would not like my family and move away". I said, "I'm not going anywhere, and if you need anything I am here for you". He is now one of my best friends. In comparison, I lived in another section of Hazleton with people of my own ethnicity for 17 years, and there were five or six families who never introduced themselves to mine.
The gang situation is one of the biggest problems. It's multiple violent gangs who peddle everything from weed to oxy to heroin. They commit violence among their own just as when the Mafia was based here. The difference is the wacked out drug addicts are now busting into people's homes to support their habit. I've witnessed these acts of violence to members of my own family.
The second problem is adaptation. People from this area do not like anyone getting free things unless you are destitute. Just last week, a lady in front of me purchased two bags of King Crab legs and two lobsters all paid with an access card, driving away in a tricked-out Escalade. Remember, it's your tax money, too. Before i get jumped by some ultra lefties, many of my neighbors, without hesitation, will donate to a family stricken by disaster or violence, no matter the race or ethnicity.
I've worked in five factories in the Hazleton area - one dispersed to Europe and Asia, another to Canada, and one just had enough and closed. I've trained many in skillsets that are in need today. The Hispanics were all eager to learn, only to be absorbed into the warehouse industry instead of manufacturing.
The pictures I see of other downtowns are reflective of the way things are today. Downtown stores have been replaced by strip malls, which were replaced by generalized malls, which were then replaced by e-shopping.
My Dominican neighbor, after seeing me put in new sidewalks, came over to me and shook my hand, saying in broken English, "That makes me happy to see you do that. I move from NYC to avoid violence and was worried when I move here people would not like my family and move away". I said, "I'm not going anywhere, and if you need anything I am here for you". He is now one of my best friends. In comparison, I lived in another section of Hazleton with people of my own ethnicity for 17 years, and there were five or six families who never introduced themselves to mine.
A
anon_xdc8rmuek44eq
Guest
I think his point was they were acquitted of murder and sentenced to 9 years in jail.
Question:
How many illegals would you estimate are living in/around Hazelton area?
I am surprised the article did not raise or attempt to provide this information. Or did it??
How many illegals would you estimate are living in/around Hazelton area?
I am surprised the article did not raise or attempt to provide this information. Or did it??
The immigrants that i have known, were here legally, work is plentiful so there is no reason to hide from anything. The drug dealers and their extended families are another story i'd guess. Several years ago they had an ICE raid and it involved Asians.
On the legal end of it, i don't know how temp agencies handle illegals, that being said temp agencies do a lot of hiring for companies, but they get their cut either from the company or the employee.
On the legal end of it, i don't know how temp agencies handle illegals, that being said temp agencies do a lot of hiring for companies, but they get their cut either from the company or the employee.
Hey football guy. I graduated from J. W. Cooper HS in Shendo. Came to Hazleton after graduation and still here. Knew many folks from the Heights and still have some relatives there.
A
anon_xdc8rmuek44eq
Guest
The article didn’t mention a number for illegal or undocumented immigrants. I couldn’t find any other source either.
And that was only after the federal government got involved. The state trial jury acquitted the killers of all charges other than simple assault and sent them on their merry way. The Feds charged them with hate crimes and got convictions for more serious charges under some of the anti-lynching laws, but it still pales in comparison to the punishments that the killers would have gotten had the state jury convicted them of the homicide charges.
I am pretty familiar with Hazleton, one side of my family is from there, came from Poland, coal miners. I am headed there next week to pick up hams from the Hazel Meat Packing company and pierogies as well.Interesting read on Sunday morning.
As America Changes, Some Anxious Whites Feel Left Behind - National Geographic
https://apple.news/AsSFpZDOvQfCxYT4zneuaQg
Anyone from, or live in, Hazleton?
Excerpt:
Hazleton was another former coal mining town slipping into decline until a wave of Latinos arrived. It would not be an overstatement to say a tidal wave. In 2000 Hazleton’s 23,399 residents were 95 percent non-Hispanic white and less than 5 percent Latino. By 2016 Latinos became the majority, composing 52 percent of the population, while the white share plunged to 44 percent.
“We joke about it and say we are in the minority now,” says Bob Sacco, a bartender at A&L Lounge, a tavern on a street now mainly filled with Latino-owned storefronts. “They took over the city. We joke about it all the time, but it’s more than a joke.”
I spent many a sunday in Hazleton visiting and have attended many funerals over the years. Hard working family town. Always was. Sounds like the youth have it together for the most part. I always root for these places.
Great pizza, ethnic food, loyal, religious, sports, 16 oz bottles of beer.
I know like many small towns, they have a heroin problem as well.
Penn State has a branch campus there on the western edge of town, looks typical, small.
Thanks for linking the article.
A
anon_xdc8rmuek44eq
Guest
Appreciate all the folks who are from or live in the area and have commented - really insightful stuff.
Posters tried hard to get a good discussion out of it.
No doubt. My Slovak grandma used to talk about the “Italian” or “Irish” church in such a way that I thought I wasnt supposed to go there as a kid. A mixed wedding was a polack and an Italian back in the day!
Here is a high level description of one problem with the newcomers, which bleeds over into other issues:
http://m.standardspeaker.com/news/i...hazleton-area-s-ineligible-students-1.2301053
KENT JACKSON / STAFF PHOTO Newly hired Hazleton Area School District investigator Daniel Gentile, right, and district security director Ed Harry are uncovering instances where registered students actually are living outside the district’s boundaries.
An investigator checking residences of students found that the Hazleton Area School District paid cyber-school tuition to a boy after he moved to Florida, spotted parents who lived outside the boundaries but drove children to stops so they could board district buses, and learned of a high school graduate who posed as a senior because she wanted to learn English.
Retired state police officer Daniel Gentile says he has identified at least 25 ineligible students since he started working for Hazleton Area on Nov. 6, 2017.
An unknown number of students have left school or stopped trying to enroll after learning that Gentile was on their trail, his supervisor, Ed Harry, the district’s security director, said.
Harry and Gentile said the research can save money for the district, which spends $13,463 per student, and ease overcrowding at schools as district officials evaluate whether to rent classroom space for next year.
They find students who are attending the wrong schools within the district. And they check whether students are receiving adequate supervision, especially when guardians are filling in for parents who live outside Hazleton.
Gentile said other investigations proved that the students are where they should be.
“If you live here, by all means you should be going to school here,” Harry said.
Harry said some parents, however, try to improperly enroll their children in Hazleton Area to protect them from big-city schools. Parents also might have arranged for after-school care in Hazleton where they work, or they want their children to stay in classes with friends even if the family moved and began paying taxes to another school district.
Gentile and Harry discovered parents living within the Shenandoah Valley, Panther Valley and Tamaqua Area school districts who were driving to bus stops so their children could attend Hazleton Area schools.
Guardians
Parents who live outside Hazleton Area’s boundaries legally can arrange for their children to attend the district’s schools if they sign over guardianship to an adult living in the district. They hand off their children by completing a 1302 form, named for a section of state law that governs the process. Parents cannot reclaim custody after school ends or declare their children as dependents on tax forms after signing a 1302 form.
Harry said the district sometimes learns that parents are distant when a student has medical or disciplinary problems.
“We can’t get a hold of anybody. Where are the parents? They live in New York,” Harry said. “The kids are living with a friend. Parents are out of state. They have no supervision.”
Meanwhile, children from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic are attending Hazleton Area schools while their home communities recover from last fall’s hurricanes.
“Is it a true guardianship?” Gentile wonders, “especially with human trafficking.”
He and Harry also are checking stories, so far unsubstantiated, that parents are paying adults to sign 1302 forms even though the children don’t live with the signers. The forms ask guardians if they are supporting children without receiving pay and notes that lying on the form can result in a fine of $300, a sentence of 240 hours of community service, or both.
Parents can transfer custody the day that they file a 1302 form, which saves children from missing school — something that can happen if their parents go through a longer process to let a court appoint guardians.
Even after courts award guardianship, though, issues about school registration still can arise.
Gentile told of grandparents who received custody of a student from a court. When the grandparents moved out of state, they left the student with an adult sibling who wanted nothing to do with raising children.
Other students were living with their mother in Hazleton after a divorce in which a judge ordered them to reside with their father in Wilkes-Barre.
Harry said school officials sometimes find out that students are living outside the district from the children or from relatives.
District workers and taxpayers have asked about possible registration fraud for more than a year, and Harry noticed one school in the Lehigh Valley hired a private investigator to look into six to eight students.
“We were looking at more than six to eight (and thought) it might be worthwhile to hire somebody,” he said.
Investigator’s role
None of the regional schools had an attendance investigator to use as a model, so Hazleton Area wrote a job description and hired Gentile, who conducted investigations and was a patrol section commander when he retired from the state police.
As a school district employee, Gentile delves into student registrations with the same methods and thoroughness required of police investigators.
He follows leads from district records, admissions workers and home visitors who check on truant students. After 400 bus cards mailed to students on the first day of school were returned to sender, Gentile looked into the students’ addresses.
Helped by Assistant Superintendent Tony Ryba, who used computer data to identify addresses where multiple children live, Gentile started researching homes with five or more children.
Gentile also pores over property records and other databases and contacts landlords.
By following up on postal records, he has found addresses that he calls pigeon drops — places where no one lives but up to 15 people receive mail. Conversely, he has been to homes crammed with people.
In those cases, he forwards the address to municipal code officers who can investigate whether the number of residents complies with zoning laws.
Diane Panzarella, the zoning officer in West Hazleton, said when Gentile provides information that a student is living with a distant relative or a guardian who is not a family member, she contacts the property owner. In instances where she told landlords that their tenants might be subletting rooms, landlords have contacted the tenants and, in some cases, started the eviction process.
“They are very happy that it was brought to their attention,” Panzarella said in an email.
Hazleton code enforcement officer Charles Pedri started working with Gentile and Harry last week and already has received three tips about possible unregistered rooming houses or day cares.
City ordinance allows for five, unrelated people to live together; otherwise, a rooming house isn’t permitted in some areas of the city and might require a special exception from the Hazleton zoning board to operate, Pedri said.
It’s one thing, Pedri said, for people to watch their grandchildren or neighbors’ children. But if cars or school buses are dropping off children, their minders are getting beyond what is allowed without a day-care license and safety inspections.
When a parent registering a child for school in Hazleton Area showed a New York Access card as identification, the district forwarded information to a Pennsylvania agency to ensure that the parent wasn’t receiving benefits from more than one state.
School officials also take legal action when merited.
In one case, Gentile filed forgery charges. A local doctor’s signature had been written on records indicating that four children had vaccinations, but an investigation showed that the children never saw the doctor. State law generally requires students to have vaccinations, whereas leaving children unvaccinated can put them at risk from disease and could pose risks to other students. Harry wondered why the parents didn’t just immunize their children.
Harry said a passport showed a boy who was enrolling was born in 2012, but his immunization records indicated that he had been vaccinated in 2010 and 2011, or “two years before he was alive.”
Another example of altered records involved the young woman who wanted to learn English.
Although she graduated from high school in the Dominican Republic, she obscured records from her senior year when forwarding transcripts to Hazleton Area and attempting to enroll as a senior, Harry said.
Consequences
Gentile said the district also can file charges of unsworn falsification if students or parents registering in the Hazleton Area district fail to disclose, for example, punishments that they received in other schools.
Harry said Hazleton Area has to honor disciplinary actions taken by other schools, such as suspensions and expulsions, which families don’t always disclose on notarized forms that they submit when students enroll. District officials verify the forms by consulting official school transcripts, which usually arrive after a transfer student registers.
Superintendent Brian Uplinger said the district is obligated to pay tuition for children who attend cyber or charter schools while living within Hazleton Area’s boundaries. The obligation ends when the students move, as in the case with the boy to whom the district stopped paying $13,000 in tuition after learning that he moved to Florida.
If Hazleton Area proves that a student lives outside its boundaries, it can submit a tuition bill to the district where the student lives or to the families. When families are shown such a bill, “they can’t get out the door quick enough,” Harry said.
Departures make room in the district’s schools, which continue to take in 30 new students a week and this week began signing up the approximately 800 pupils who will enter kindergarten next year, Jessica Gioia, Hazleton Area’s child accounting coordinator, said.
Because grades are full in some schools, Gioia said approximately 100 students have been assigned to a different school than they would normally attend based on their address. In some cases, children from the same family have been placed in different schools.
Crowded schools have led Gentile to check not just whether students truly are in the right school district but whether they are attending the right school within Hazleton Area based on their address.
If students go to Maple Manor Elementary/Middle School, for example, when their address is within the area served by McAdoo-Kelayres Elementary/Middle School, Maple Manor might not have space to accommodate the next families who move into its region.
“It’s a domino effect,” Harry said.
Contact the writer: kjackson@standardspeaker.com; 570-501-3587
http://m.standardspeaker.com/news/i...hazleton-area-s-ineligible-students-1.2301053
KENT JACKSON / STAFF PHOTO Newly hired Hazleton Area School District investigator Daniel Gentile, right, and district security director Ed Harry are uncovering instances where registered students actually are living outside the district’s boundaries.
An investigator checking residences of students found that the Hazleton Area School District paid cyber-school tuition to a boy after he moved to Florida, spotted parents who lived outside the boundaries but drove children to stops so they could board district buses, and learned of a high school graduate who posed as a senior because she wanted to learn English.
Retired state police officer Daniel Gentile says he has identified at least 25 ineligible students since he started working for Hazleton Area on Nov. 6, 2017.
An unknown number of students have left school or stopped trying to enroll after learning that Gentile was on their trail, his supervisor, Ed Harry, the district’s security director, said.
Harry and Gentile said the research can save money for the district, which spends $13,463 per student, and ease overcrowding at schools as district officials evaluate whether to rent classroom space for next year.
They find students who are attending the wrong schools within the district. And they check whether students are receiving adequate supervision, especially when guardians are filling in for parents who live outside Hazleton.
Gentile said other investigations proved that the students are where they should be.
“If you live here, by all means you should be going to school here,” Harry said.
Harry said some parents, however, try to improperly enroll their children in Hazleton Area to protect them from big-city schools. Parents also might have arranged for after-school care in Hazleton where they work, or they want their children to stay in classes with friends even if the family moved and began paying taxes to another school district.
Gentile and Harry discovered parents living within the Shenandoah Valley, Panther Valley and Tamaqua Area school districts who were driving to bus stops so their children could attend Hazleton Area schools.
Guardians
Parents who live outside Hazleton Area’s boundaries legally can arrange for their children to attend the district’s schools if they sign over guardianship to an adult living in the district. They hand off their children by completing a 1302 form, named for a section of state law that governs the process. Parents cannot reclaim custody after school ends or declare their children as dependents on tax forms after signing a 1302 form.
Harry said the district sometimes learns that parents are distant when a student has medical or disciplinary problems.
“We can’t get a hold of anybody. Where are the parents? They live in New York,” Harry said. “The kids are living with a friend. Parents are out of state. They have no supervision.”
Meanwhile, children from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic are attending Hazleton Area schools while their home communities recover from last fall’s hurricanes.
“Is it a true guardianship?” Gentile wonders, “especially with human trafficking.”
He and Harry also are checking stories, so far unsubstantiated, that parents are paying adults to sign 1302 forms even though the children don’t live with the signers. The forms ask guardians if they are supporting children without receiving pay and notes that lying on the form can result in a fine of $300, a sentence of 240 hours of community service, or both.
Parents can transfer custody the day that they file a 1302 form, which saves children from missing school — something that can happen if their parents go through a longer process to let a court appoint guardians.
Even after courts award guardianship, though, issues about school registration still can arise.
Gentile told of grandparents who received custody of a student from a court. When the grandparents moved out of state, they left the student with an adult sibling who wanted nothing to do with raising children.
Other students were living with their mother in Hazleton after a divorce in which a judge ordered them to reside with their father in Wilkes-Barre.
Harry said school officials sometimes find out that students are living outside the district from the children or from relatives.
District workers and taxpayers have asked about possible registration fraud for more than a year, and Harry noticed one school in the Lehigh Valley hired a private investigator to look into six to eight students.
“We were looking at more than six to eight (and thought) it might be worthwhile to hire somebody,” he said.
Investigator’s role
None of the regional schools had an attendance investigator to use as a model, so Hazleton Area wrote a job description and hired Gentile, who conducted investigations and was a patrol section commander when he retired from the state police.
As a school district employee, Gentile delves into student registrations with the same methods and thoroughness required of police investigators.
He follows leads from district records, admissions workers and home visitors who check on truant students. After 400 bus cards mailed to students on the first day of school were returned to sender, Gentile looked into the students’ addresses.
Helped by Assistant Superintendent Tony Ryba, who used computer data to identify addresses where multiple children live, Gentile started researching homes with five or more children.
Gentile also pores over property records and other databases and contacts landlords.
By following up on postal records, he has found addresses that he calls pigeon drops — places where no one lives but up to 15 people receive mail. Conversely, he has been to homes crammed with people.
In those cases, he forwards the address to municipal code officers who can investigate whether the number of residents complies with zoning laws.
Diane Panzarella, the zoning officer in West Hazleton, said when Gentile provides information that a student is living with a distant relative or a guardian who is not a family member, she contacts the property owner. In instances where she told landlords that their tenants might be subletting rooms, landlords have contacted the tenants and, in some cases, started the eviction process.
“They are very happy that it was brought to their attention,” Panzarella said in an email.
Hazleton code enforcement officer Charles Pedri started working with Gentile and Harry last week and already has received three tips about possible unregistered rooming houses or day cares.
City ordinance allows for five, unrelated people to live together; otherwise, a rooming house isn’t permitted in some areas of the city and might require a special exception from the Hazleton zoning board to operate, Pedri said.
It’s one thing, Pedri said, for people to watch their grandchildren or neighbors’ children. But if cars or school buses are dropping off children, their minders are getting beyond what is allowed without a day-care license and safety inspections.
When a parent registering a child for school in Hazleton Area showed a New York Access card as identification, the district forwarded information to a Pennsylvania agency to ensure that the parent wasn’t receiving benefits from more than one state.
School officials also take legal action when merited.
In one case, Gentile filed forgery charges. A local doctor’s signature had been written on records indicating that four children had vaccinations, but an investigation showed that the children never saw the doctor. State law generally requires students to have vaccinations, whereas leaving children unvaccinated can put them at risk from disease and could pose risks to other students. Harry wondered why the parents didn’t just immunize their children.
Harry said a passport showed a boy who was enrolling was born in 2012, but his immunization records indicated that he had been vaccinated in 2010 and 2011, or “two years before he was alive.”
Another example of altered records involved the young woman who wanted to learn English.
Although she graduated from high school in the Dominican Republic, she obscured records from her senior year when forwarding transcripts to Hazleton Area and attempting to enroll as a senior, Harry said.
Consequences
Gentile said the district also can file charges of unsworn falsification if students or parents registering in the Hazleton Area district fail to disclose, for example, punishments that they received in other schools.
Harry said Hazleton Area has to honor disciplinary actions taken by other schools, such as suspensions and expulsions, which families don’t always disclose on notarized forms that they submit when students enroll. District officials verify the forms by consulting official school transcripts, which usually arrive after a transfer student registers.
Superintendent Brian Uplinger said the district is obligated to pay tuition for children who attend cyber or charter schools while living within Hazleton Area’s boundaries. The obligation ends when the students move, as in the case with the boy to whom the district stopped paying $13,000 in tuition after learning that he moved to Florida.
If Hazleton Area proves that a student lives outside its boundaries, it can submit a tuition bill to the district where the student lives or to the families. When families are shown such a bill, “they can’t get out the door quick enough,” Harry said.
Departures make room in the district’s schools, which continue to take in 30 new students a week and this week began signing up the approximately 800 pupils who will enter kindergarten next year, Jessica Gioia, Hazleton Area’s child accounting coordinator, said.
Because grades are full in some schools, Gioia said approximately 100 students have been assigned to a different school than they would normally attend based on their address. In some cases, children from the same family have been placed in different schools.
Crowded schools have led Gentile to check not just whether students truly are in the right school district but whether they are attending the right school within Hazleton Area based on their address.
If students go to Maple Manor Elementary/Middle School, for example, when their address is within the area served by McAdoo-Kelayres Elementary/Middle School, Maple Manor might not have space to accommodate the next families who move into its region.
“It’s a domino effect,” Harry said.
Contact the writer: kjackson@standardspeaker.com; 570-501-3587
And Joe Maddon's isn't exactly universally loved around town, especially after putting his foot in his mouth on NBC last summer. If you Google "Standard Speaker Joe Maddon Editorial" you will find more, but here is a good example. I have heard that Maddon's group does more work around teaching newcomers how to skirt the rules, for instance instructing them to threaten school administrators with an ACLU lawsuit if they dare to attempt to enforce the established proof of residency requirenereq for school enrollment.
http://m.standardspeaker.com/opinion/integration-not-one-way-street-1.2228279
Editor,
If Joe Maddon accomplished anything, outside winning a World Series, it was to stir up a lot of discussion about Hazleton. Some recent editorials on this matter have been misleading.
A July 25 piece referred to the situation as a “racial divide.” The issue presented was focused on integration of the Hispanic ethnicity, not integration of a race. Both “Hispanic” and “Latino” are ethnicities, not to be used interchangeably. Our government views each differently, neither as a “race.”
In a July 31 letter the writer referred to the Hazleton’s 2006 Illegal Immigration Relief Act as the “anti-immigrant ordinance.” It might be worthwhile for that person to study the history of immigration in this country. Immigrants from many ethnicities and races were mistreated, but they persevered, learned a common language, and built communities and their lives. It has only been within the last several decades that arriving immigrants can acquire food stamps and health care and apply for housing. We have to accept the reality that things are different today, but bear in mind integration is not a one-way street.
I was disappointed that Joe believes there are only two options for Hazletonians. He stated “... you have two options right here, either get on board and help us or just ... you’re gonna die and when you die and go away ... you’re gonna get out of the way, you’re not going to be part of the problem anymore, so it’s either help or die.”
Joe, is integration a unilateral or bilateral process? If they are the only two options what language(s) should we learn to speak; after all, there are immigrants from other parts of the world, eastern Europe, South America, Asia, the Middle East and many others.
I accept that in any life-changing situation some will assimilate with little difficulty while some will balk at opportunities. Someone coming from an underdeveloped country cannot be expected to be plugged into our way of life without hardships. We may not realize it, but we are an advanced society. Assimilation over time and learning the culture and the language are an integral part of integration. That is how this country was built and has survived.
I do advocate anyone migrating to another country should learn the language of that country, not conversational, but at least be capable of handling day-to-day activities. I believe it would be very advantageous to the individual. Each year across this country millions of dollars are spent having to convert documents, books and other materials into hundreds of languages. Add to that the cost for translation services that must be provided. That money could be put to better uses. Providing these services for someone in the country for two to three years is not my issue, but when someone is in the country for 10 to 12 years and shows no effort in learning the language then I have an issue.
I cannot completely agree with Joe. There are options for all; it is not a one-way street.
George Miller
HAZLE TOWNSHIP
http://m.standardspeaker.com/opinion/integration-not-one-way-street-1.2228279
Editor,
If Joe Maddon accomplished anything, outside winning a World Series, it was to stir up a lot of discussion about Hazleton. Some recent editorials on this matter have been misleading.
A July 25 piece referred to the situation as a “racial divide.” The issue presented was focused on integration of the Hispanic ethnicity, not integration of a race. Both “Hispanic” and “Latino” are ethnicities, not to be used interchangeably. Our government views each differently, neither as a “race.”
In a July 31 letter the writer referred to the Hazleton’s 2006 Illegal Immigration Relief Act as the “anti-immigrant ordinance.” It might be worthwhile for that person to study the history of immigration in this country. Immigrants from many ethnicities and races were mistreated, but they persevered, learned a common language, and built communities and their lives. It has only been within the last several decades that arriving immigrants can acquire food stamps and health care and apply for housing. We have to accept the reality that things are different today, but bear in mind integration is not a one-way street.
I was disappointed that Joe believes there are only two options for Hazletonians. He stated “... you have two options right here, either get on board and help us or just ... you’re gonna die and when you die and go away ... you’re gonna get out of the way, you’re not going to be part of the problem anymore, so it’s either help or die.”
Joe, is integration a unilateral or bilateral process? If they are the only two options what language(s) should we learn to speak; after all, there are immigrants from other parts of the world, eastern Europe, South America, Asia, the Middle East and many others.
I accept that in any life-changing situation some will assimilate with little difficulty while some will balk at opportunities. Someone coming from an underdeveloped country cannot be expected to be plugged into our way of life without hardships. We may not realize it, but we are an advanced society. Assimilation over time and learning the culture and the language are an integral part of integration. That is how this country was built and has survived.
I do advocate anyone migrating to another country should learn the language of that country, not conversational, but at least be capable of handling day-to-day activities. I believe it would be very advantageous to the individual. Each year across this country millions of dollars are spent having to convert documents, books and other materials into hundreds of languages. Add to that the cost for translation services that must be provided. That money could be put to better uses. Providing these services for someone in the country for two to three years is not my issue, but when someone is in the country for 10 to 12 years and shows no effort in learning the language then I have an issue.
I cannot completely agree with Joe. There are options for all; it is not a one-way street.
George Miller
HAZLE TOWNSHIP
And here is some information on population and violent crime. It's from a few years ago, and politicians are trying to claim that things have greatly improved recently, partly due to a new chief from Paterson, NJ:
https://www.timesleader.com/news/374972/hazleton-violence-up-more-cops-needed
Hazleton is a more violent place than it was 35 years ago.
In fact, the city is more violent than it was even 15 years ago.
A Times Leader review of three decades’ worth of federal and state crime reports shows that the number of violent crimes committed in Hazleton has spiked dramatically since the early 2000s, and particularly so since 2005.
Top Searches
After nearly 30 years of losing residents, Hazleton’s declining population finally began to grow again in the 2000s, pushing the city from just under 22,000 back to more than 25,000 people — a figure not seen for more than 20 years, but still below the 27,000 inhabitants of the early 1980s.
Statistics show the spike in crime almost exactly coincides with renewed population growth.
Statistics, and conversations with community leaders, suggest that the causes behind increasing violence may not be as simple as some might like to believe.
At the same time, one two-word solution to the problem kept popping up in interviews last week: “more cops.”
But even that solution may not prove as straightforward as some would hope.
Police Chief Frank DeAndrea, in a lengthy interview with the Times Leader, shared the same view he has shared with other media and with the city’s elected officials: More full-time police officers is the answer, said DeAndrea, who does not believe part-time officers would be as effective here.
Mayor Joseph Yannuzzi shares that view. Except Yannuzzi’s defeat at the polls in May’s primary election means someone else will occupy the city’s top post come 2016.
The two councilmen vying for that honor, Republican Jeffrey Cusat and Democrat Jack Mundie, both said they believe part-time officers would be both an effective solution for the department and cost-effective for their cash-strapped city.
As of last week, four new full-time hires put the force at 38, including DeAndrea. That’s down from 2007, when there were 40 police, DeAndrea said. And the four are effectively replacements for officers who retired or took other posts.
Statistics
DeAndrea made headlines earlier this month when he pointed out that the city’s homicide rate was four times the national average — four per 100,000 people — in recent years. At that rate, this year’s lone homicide in the city puts Hazleton, with its 25,000 people, at the national average.
Homicides capture headlines, just as they capture a large share of any police department’s time and resources, but they are not the only category of violent crime.
Following the chief’s remarks, the Times Leader examined state and federal reports detailing crimes in the city using reports available from 1980 through 2013. While numbers for all 12 months were not available in a handful of years, the trends are very clear.
State and federal record keeping identifies murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery and aggravated assault as violent crimes. They identify burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft and arson as property crimes.
Compared with violent crimes, property crimes showed less fluctuation throughout the period.
As the accompanying table shows, homicides in the past four years have indeed been higher than most years over the period.
At the same time, most other categories of violent crime showed many fluctuations over the period, before spiking in the early 2000s.
Among violent crimes other than murder, the fluctuations in reported rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults stand out.
Reported rapes, often in the single digits, reached 11 in 2006, 2007 and 2011, and climbed to 19 in 2012.
Similarly, reported robberies regularly remained in the double digits in the 2000s, reaching 46 in 2012.
The reported number of aggravated assaults, which bottomed out at 5 in 1995, stood at 18 in 2005 before a dramatic increase, hitting 64 by 2011.
There is one statistic which may give some hope.
According to state and federal reports, the percentage of violent and property crimes cleared in the past 10 years has hovered between about 15 percent and 22 percent. In the early 1980s, there were years when the clearance rate was 10 percent or less.
That number seems to suggest greater effectiveness on the part of police in recent years.
But as DeAndrea explained, a smaller force is facing a greater workload. The department’s 40 officers responded to 11,000 calls in 2007. In 2014, 34 officers fielded 30,000 calls, he said.
Another measure of that workload? Arrests.
According to records from the state’s Uniform Crime Reporting System website, only 976 adults were arrested in the city as recently as 2006.
Then, Hazleton police made 1,151 adult arrests in 2007. The number stayed broadly at that level until 2013, when more than 1,400 adults were arrested. It dipped in 2014 to 1,219 adult arrests, the state website indicates.
Demographics
Hazleton’s demographics shifted dramatically in the first decade of the 2000s, with a large influx of new Latino residents coming to the city.
The city’s Latino population jumped from just under 5 percent in the 2000 U.S. Census to 37 percent in the 2010 Census. The percentage is now into the 40s, DeAndrea said.
As DeAndrea also knows well, there are many non-Hispanic residents who feel strongly about the change, and who are quick to attribute the rise in crime to the rise in outsiders from a culture different than the one which has prevailed here since the early 1900s.
“The old community is afraid of the unknown,” DeAndrea said, of people whose language and customs may differ from what they have known.
It’s natural, he said, for people whose parents and grandparents knew one another for decades to feel uneasy at the prospect of no longer knowing their neighbors, of not being able to speak their language.
Those same feelings, he pointed out, existed among the longtime Anglo-Saxon residents amid the wave of Irish, Italian and Eastern European immigration to Hazleton at the turn of the 20th century.
The chief cautions against snap judgments, and hopes others will take the time to get to know their new neighbors, as he has.
DeAndrea cited as an example a frequent complaint he hears, namely of Latino residents “loitering.”
Rather, he explained, many of the city’s new residents come from warmer climates and cultures where playing checkers on the street or merely sitting on the steps watching people go by is not considered loitering, but an intrinsic part of daily life, or “free entertainment,” he said.
At the same time, DeAndrea recognizes that the city’s demographic shift has brought changes and challenges, not least for his department.
For one thing, he notes that fear of authority, and especially police, is common among many of the city’s Latino newcomers, something rooted in the political realities of their home countries.
He freely acknowledges that the number of crimes committed is, for that reason, likely higher than those actually reported.
DeAndrea also knows that the language barrier creates a hurdle for effective policing.
Among the four policemen hired by City Council on Tuesday was Pedro Bautista, who as of now is the force’s only truly bilingual officer.
DeAndrea would like more Spanish-speaking officers, and he acknowledges that he has taken heat from some in the community for saying so.
He says it’s just common sense, and to the benefit of the entire community, Spanish- and English-speaking: If you’re going to solve crimes, not being able to speak the language used by 40 percent of the city’s population is a major problem.
Statistics would seem to underscore his case, again from the state’s Uniform Crime Reporting System website. According to UCR, white non-Hispanics still accounted for the majority of arrests in Hazleton over the past decade, but the 2000s witnessed a major change there, as well.
For the first time, in 2013, Hispanic and non-Hispanic adult arrests were essentially even, at 704 Hispanics and 703 non-Hispanics, UCR data show. Just eight years earlier, in 2005, there were 806 non-Hispanics arrested and 216 Hispanics.
“I need (Spanish-speaking) officers, not interpreters,” DeAndrea said.
More cops wanted
Language aside, the chief stands firm on his position that Hazleton simply needs more police officers.
Right now, he wants to hit the 2007 level of 40. Given the current population and crime rate, he believes 50 or 60 are needed to truly begin bringing the city’s growing crime problem.
The mayor shares that view.
“The rule of thumb is two (officers) for every 1,000 people,” Yannuzzi said.
How, or when that number will ever be achieved remains to be seen.
Yannuzzi has pushed for a ballot proposal that would ask voters to approve a 1-mill property-tax increase which would generate enough money to hire 10 full-time officers. A mill is a $1 tax on each $1,000 of assessed property value. The mayor said Saturday he understands the issue will be on the ballot in November.
DeAndrea, meanwhile, suggested the city should explore a renter’s tax that might accomplish a similar end.
But both men say they would prefer full-time officers to part-timers.
DeAndrea said all part-timers must undergo the same training full time Hazleton officers do.
But because of scheduling and limited hours, he is concerned that part-timers may not be able to do the follow-up work on investigations with the same effectiveness that full-timers can.
He also said there’s no guarantee that part-timers won’t take the training they get from Hazleton and seek full time work elsewhere if it becomes available.
Councilmen’s views
Cusat and Mundie see things differently.
Between a $1.4 million minimum pension obligation, a “$6 million to $7 million” gap in revenue and the threat of nearly $3 million owed if the city turns out to be liable in connection with the illegal immigrant legal battles of the former administration, Cusat doesn’t know where the money for more full-timers might come from.
“Obviously, we’d like to hire more officers, but we need to figure out, financially, where we stand,” Cusat said.
Cusat said he believes part-timers could play an important role in helping do secondary work while full-time officers work on more pressing cases.
Among the duties part-timers could help with, he said, are traffic enforcement, transporting prisoners to Luzerne County Court in Wilkes-Barre and perhaps staffing a public service window in City Hall, which was closed several years ago.
“I like the idea of part-timers,” he said “but I’d like us to hire experienced part-timers.”
That, he said, could include retired officers from other municipalities.
Indeed, DeAndrea himself is a former trooper, who spent 26 years with the Pennsylvania State Police.
“He has been an incredible asset to the community,” Cusat said of DeAndrea.
Mundie, similarly, wants to explore hiring part-timers.
He pointed out that part-timers could help cut down on overtime costs. Like Cusat, he cited the expense of using full-time officers to transport prisoners to court.
Mundie said that if part-timers have been used successfully in other communities, he doesn’t understand why that wouldn’t be the case in Hazleton.
“How do you not try it? Are you afraid it might work? If you hire part-timers, and they don’t work, then they’re gone,” he said.
https://www.timesleader.com/news/374972/hazleton-violence-up-more-cops-needed
Hazleton is a more violent place than it was 35 years ago.
In fact, the city is more violent than it was even 15 years ago.
A Times Leader review of three decades’ worth of federal and state crime reports shows that the number of violent crimes committed in Hazleton has spiked dramatically since the early 2000s, and particularly so since 2005.
Top Searches
- Danielle Schmidt
- Ice Hockey
- Catholic Church
- FOOTBALL
- Sports
- Distinctive Palate
- Kings College Womens Soccer
- Bazick
- Dallas Strike
- Crestwood Field Hockey
- Costello
- Police Blotter
After nearly 30 years of losing residents, Hazleton’s declining population finally began to grow again in the 2000s, pushing the city from just under 22,000 back to more than 25,000 people — a figure not seen for more than 20 years, but still below the 27,000 inhabitants of the early 1980s.
Statistics show the spike in crime almost exactly coincides with renewed population growth.
Statistics, and conversations with community leaders, suggest that the causes behind increasing violence may not be as simple as some might like to believe.
At the same time, one two-word solution to the problem kept popping up in interviews last week: “more cops.”
But even that solution may not prove as straightforward as some would hope.
Police Chief Frank DeAndrea, in a lengthy interview with the Times Leader, shared the same view he has shared with other media and with the city’s elected officials: More full-time police officers is the answer, said DeAndrea, who does not believe part-time officers would be as effective here.
Mayor Joseph Yannuzzi shares that view. Except Yannuzzi’s defeat at the polls in May’s primary election means someone else will occupy the city’s top post come 2016.
The two councilmen vying for that honor, Republican Jeffrey Cusat and Democrat Jack Mundie, both said they believe part-time officers would be both an effective solution for the department and cost-effective for their cash-strapped city.
As of last week, four new full-time hires put the force at 38, including DeAndrea. That’s down from 2007, when there were 40 police, DeAndrea said. And the four are effectively replacements for officers who retired or took other posts.
Statistics
DeAndrea made headlines earlier this month when he pointed out that the city’s homicide rate was four times the national average — four per 100,000 people — in recent years. At that rate, this year’s lone homicide in the city puts Hazleton, with its 25,000 people, at the national average.
Homicides capture headlines, just as they capture a large share of any police department’s time and resources, but they are not the only category of violent crime.
Following the chief’s remarks, the Times Leader examined state and federal reports detailing crimes in the city using reports available from 1980 through 2013. While numbers for all 12 months were not available in a handful of years, the trends are very clear.
State and federal record keeping identifies murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery and aggravated assault as violent crimes. They identify burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft and arson as property crimes.
Compared with violent crimes, property crimes showed less fluctuation throughout the period.
As the accompanying table shows, homicides in the past four years have indeed been higher than most years over the period.
At the same time, most other categories of violent crime showed many fluctuations over the period, before spiking in the early 2000s.
Among violent crimes other than murder, the fluctuations in reported rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults stand out.
Reported rapes, often in the single digits, reached 11 in 2006, 2007 and 2011, and climbed to 19 in 2012.
Similarly, reported robberies regularly remained in the double digits in the 2000s, reaching 46 in 2012.
The reported number of aggravated assaults, which bottomed out at 5 in 1995, stood at 18 in 2005 before a dramatic increase, hitting 64 by 2011.
There is one statistic which may give some hope.
According to state and federal reports, the percentage of violent and property crimes cleared in the past 10 years has hovered between about 15 percent and 22 percent. In the early 1980s, there were years when the clearance rate was 10 percent or less.
That number seems to suggest greater effectiveness on the part of police in recent years.
But as DeAndrea explained, a smaller force is facing a greater workload. The department’s 40 officers responded to 11,000 calls in 2007. In 2014, 34 officers fielded 30,000 calls, he said.
Another measure of that workload? Arrests.
According to records from the state’s Uniform Crime Reporting System website, only 976 adults were arrested in the city as recently as 2006.
Then, Hazleton police made 1,151 adult arrests in 2007. The number stayed broadly at that level until 2013, when more than 1,400 adults were arrested. It dipped in 2014 to 1,219 adult arrests, the state website indicates.
Demographics
Hazleton’s demographics shifted dramatically in the first decade of the 2000s, with a large influx of new Latino residents coming to the city.
The city’s Latino population jumped from just under 5 percent in the 2000 U.S. Census to 37 percent in the 2010 Census. The percentage is now into the 40s, DeAndrea said.
As DeAndrea also knows well, there are many non-Hispanic residents who feel strongly about the change, and who are quick to attribute the rise in crime to the rise in outsiders from a culture different than the one which has prevailed here since the early 1900s.
“The old community is afraid of the unknown,” DeAndrea said, of people whose language and customs may differ from what they have known.
It’s natural, he said, for people whose parents and grandparents knew one another for decades to feel uneasy at the prospect of no longer knowing their neighbors, of not being able to speak their language.
Those same feelings, he pointed out, existed among the longtime Anglo-Saxon residents amid the wave of Irish, Italian and Eastern European immigration to Hazleton at the turn of the 20th century.
The chief cautions against snap judgments, and hopes others will take the time to get to know their new neighbors, as he has.
DeAndrea cited as an example a frequent complaint he hears, namely of Latino residents “loitering.”
Rather, he explained, many of the city’s new residents come from warmer climates and cultures where playing checkers on the street or merely sitting on the steps watching people go by is not considered loitering, but an intrinsic part of daily life, or “free entertainment,” he said.
At the same time, DeAndrea recognizes that the city’s demographic shift has brought changes and challenges, not least for his department.
For one thing, he notes that fear of authority, and especially police, is common among many of the city’s Latino newcomers, something rooted in the political realities of their home countries.
He freely acknowledges that the number of crimes committed is, for that reason, likely higher than those actually reported.
DeAndrea also knows that the language barrier creates a hurdle for effective policing.
Among the four policemen hired by City Council on Tuesday was Pedro Bautista, who as of now is the force’s only truly bilingual officer.
DeAndrea would like more Spanish-speaking officers, and he acknowledges that he has taken heat from some in the community for saying so.
He says it’s just common sense, and to the benefit of the entire community, Spanish- and English-speaking: If you’re going to solve crimes, not being able to speak the language used by 40 percent of the city’s population is a major problem.
Statistics would seem to underscore his case, again from the state’s Uniform Crime Reporting System website. According to UCR, white non-Hispanics still accounted for the majority of arrests in Hazleton over the past decade, but the 2000s witnessed a major change there, as well.
For the first time, in 2013, Hispanic and non-Hispanic adult arrests were essentially even, at 704 Hispanics and 703 non-Hispanics, UCR data show. Just eight years earlier, in 2005, there were 806 non-Hispanics arrested and 216 Hispanics.
“I need (Spanish-speaking) officers, not interpreters,” DeAndrea said.
More cops wanted
Language aside, the chief stands firm on his position that Hazleton simply needs more police officers.
Right now, he wants to hit the 2007 level of 40. Given the current population and crime rate, he believes 50 or 60 are needed to truly begin bringing the city’s growing crime problem.
The mayor shares that view.
“The rule of thumb is two (officers) for every 1,000 people,” Yannuzzi said.
How, or when that number will ever be achieved remains to be seen.
Yannuzzi has pushed for a ballot proposal that would ask voters to approve a 1-mill property-tax increase which would generate enough money to hire 10 full-time officers. A mill is a $1 tax on each $1,000 of assessed property value. The mayor said Saturday he understands the issue will be on the ballot in November.
DeAndrea, meanwhile, suggested the city should explore a renter’s tax that might accomplish a similar end.
But both men say they would prefer full-time officers to part-timers.
DeAndrea said all part-timers must undergo the same training full time Hazleton officers do.
But because of scheduling and limited hours, he is concerned that part-timers may not be able to do the follow-up work on investigations with the same effectiveness that full-timers can.
He also said there’s no guarantee that part-timers won’t take the training they get from Hazleton and seek full time work elsewhere if it becomes available.
Councilmen’s views
Cusat and Mundie see things differently.
Between a $1.4 million minimum pension obligation, a “$6 million to $7 million” gap in revenue and the threat of nearly $3 million owed if the city turns out to be liable in connection with the illegal immigrant legal battles of the former administration, Cusat doesn’t know where the money for more full-timers might come from.
“Obviously, we’d like to hire more officers, but we need to figure out, financially, where we stand,” Cusat said.
Cusat said he believes part-timers could play an important role in helping do secondary work while full-time officers work on more pressing cases.
Among the duties part-timers could help with, he said, are traffic enforcement, transporting prisoners to Luzerne County Court in Wilkes-Barre and perhaps staffing a public service window in City Hall, which was closed several years ago.
“I like the idea of part-timers,” he said “but I’d like us to hire experienced part-timers.”
That, he said, could include retired officers from other municipalities.
Indeed, DeAndrea himself is a former trooper, who spent 26 years with the Pennsylvania State Police.
“He has been an incredible asset to the community,” Cusat said of DeAndrea.
Mundie, similarly, wants to explore hiring part-timers.
He pointed out that part-timers could help cut down on overtime costs. Like Cusat, he cited the expense of using full-time officers to transport prisoners to court.
Mundie said that if part-timers have been used successfully in other communities, he doesn’t understand why that wouldn’t be the case in Hazleton.
“How do you not try it? Are you afraid it might work? If you hire part-timers, and they don’t work, then they’re gone,” he said.
All true of course.
The schools are broke. The city is broke. Tax revenues don’t come close to providing adequate funding to allow the entities to function properly. Big city problems without any hope of big city gentrification or large scale economic change.
The schools are broke. The city is broke. Tax revenues don’t come close to providing adequate funding to allow the entities to function properly. Big city problems without any hope of big city gentrification or large scale economic change.
Not sure of your agenda here. The people flooding the town are the root cause of many of the issues. The newcomers are of a certain race. Their race isn’t the issue, but it’s easy to associate the issues with a certain group.
This magazine, and others, have an easy target in Hazleton when they desire to write articles of this nature.
I don't have an agenda. I'm annoyed at the agenda in the article.
A
anon_xdc8rmuek44eq
Guest
I think the article is trying to say that white people are bitter and racist, and everything that this new population brings with it is hunky dory. In reality, natives will likely continue to move away, and the whole area will become a desolate wasteland of gangs, drugs, crime, and failing infrastructure. And I'm not sure that it isn't already too late to prevent that from happening.
Hazleton was a desolate wasteland full of gangs (Mafia), drugs, crime and failing infrastructure long before Latinos arrived.
There have been many articles of this nature about Hazleton and agree that most have an agenda. Just like all the stuff about coal miners and rural working class folks after Trump won. I do think many journalists can’t wait to portray the natives as a bunch of bitter out of touch white people. It is certainly more nuanced than we typically get in a article from a mainstream news source.
Yes, everything is much better now.
Hazleton has been a shit hole since the late 80s/early 90s. Downtown was virtually dead by 1995-99, and roads in & around the town have been terrible since that time. Additionally, you can thank the Mafia and connected types for introducing drugs into the area.
I'm not denying Hazleton has problems at all--quite the opposite. White people are as much to blame for those problems as Latinos. But sure, go ahead and bury your head in the sand and blame the world's problems on people who look different than you.
Yes, people have always been dying from overdoses at several times the national rate:
http://standardspeaker.com/news/153-lives-claimed-by-overdoses-in-luzerne-county-last-year-1.2306381
The oldest was 76. The youngest was 18. The average age was 38.
Most died in Wilkes-Barre, followed by Hazleton. The ZIP code for the Wyoming Valley’s West Side was next.
Fentanyl, the powerful synthetic opioid, was the most common killer. But most died with multiple drugs in their system.
A record number of people died of drug overdoses in Luzerne County in 2017, a year in which the state declared the opioid crisis a statewide emergency. The total was 153 drug deaths, up from 140 in 2016 and 95 in 2015.
Of the victims in Luzerne County last year, 104, or 68 percent, were men and 49, or 32 percent, were women.
The Citizens’ Voice, a Times-Shamrock newspaper in Wilkes-Barre, obtained a list of the victims, their ages, where they died and the drugs that killed them through a Right-to-Know request granted by Luzerne County.
Luzerne County Coroner Bill Lisman said most people who died likely didn’t even know what they were putting in their body.
“They don’t know what they are buying now, which is the big thing. They are buying a little plastic bag,” Lisman said. “There’s no quality control by drug dealers.”
Most people who died had more than one drug in their system, or “poly pharmacy” deaths, as the coroner’s office calls them.
The most common combination, resulting in 69 deaths, was fentanyl and other drugs. Heroin and other drugs killed 40.
Fentanyl, which is much stronger than heroin, killed 16 people while two people died from heroin only.
“I think that’s significant because years ago everyone said it was a ‘heroin epidemic,’” Lisman said.
The numbers also show:
■ Thirty overdose deaths in the Hazleton area, with 23 in the 18201 ZIP code and seven in 18202. The ZIP code with the most deaths, 26, was 18705, Wilkes-Barre.
■ Twenty-four people died from drugs other than fentanyl and heroin; 16 from fentanyl only; five from fentanyl and heroin only; five from cocaine only; four from heroin and other drugs (no fentanyl); two from heroin only; and one from Oxycodone.
Contact the writer: bkalinowski@citizensvoice.com; 570-821-2055; @cvbobkal
That entire NatGeo issue has an agenda, but what is it? Just look at the titles of the main and secondary articles.
- Black & White
- Skin Deep: The Science of Race
- Dawn of the White Minority
- Us and Them: Why We Divide
- Driving While Black
if the Latinos had not moved into Hazleton-what would it be like now?
Curious as to the answers I might receive to that question.
Curious as to the answers I might receive to that question.
And it looks like lots of kids of Italian descent in this video:
http://www.pahomepage.com/news/hazl...-camera-police-look-for-information/430259496
I'm out of this discussion. You can't intelligently discuss historical facts with idiots.
Don't let the door hit you on the ass on the way out! The irony of your statement is that I haven't really discussed much in this thread, but rather posted articles from 100% reputable media sources, each of which illustrated a problem caused by a certain group. You, on the other hand, spouted your nonsensical opinions, devoid of any citation. And don't you have family from Berwick, which is presently a meth wonderland, and mostly white?
A
anon_xdc8rmuek44eq
Guest
Are you suggesting the drug issues in Hazleton are caused by ‘a certain group’? That was not at all apparent or suggested in the article you shared. Can you elaborate and be more specific? I think race has very little to do with our drug epidemic.
First, an obvious correlation can be drawn between the demographic shift and the type and frequency of opioid-related deaths and arrests.
Otherwise, AG Kane sent the State's Mobile Street Crime Unit directly into Hazleton, and in spite of the staggering number of arrests and seizures, they didn't even make a dent:
http://wnep.com/2014/02/19/kicking-drugs-out-of-hazleton/
HAZLETON -- A five-month long operation to sweep the city of Hazleton of drugs turned up a handful of alleged drug rings and more than 100 arrests. These are just a fraction of the people locked up in Hazleton in the last few months as part of Operation Rising Star.
It's all part of the new Mobile Street Crime Unit that Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane helped establish in the city. It started with a tip line for officers.
"They immediately began purchasing heroin and identifying street dealers, cultivatng extreme sources of information," said Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane.
This is all what police found: 35,000 packets of heroin, guns, TVs, cash, and more than 100 people arrested from six different drug trafficking operations.
"Feelings such as hope, empowerment, faith. General Kane through her task force has made just that impact," said Hazleton Police Chief Frank DeAndrea.
Officials say this stop in Hazleton is just the first of many. They plan on taking this operation and using it across the state of Pennsylvania.
"Our offices along with our team members have identified 64 heroin stamps, 64 different stamps, and we have created a database to spread throughout the rest of the state," said Kane.
Jack Amentler has lived in Hazleton for more than 50 years. He says after all the problems the city has seen in recent years. He's happy there's progress. He says he's noticed the change.
"It feels great. It makes you want to stay here. I know there are a lot of people that don't want to stay here, but i think it's a great thing," said Jack Amentler of Hazleton.
Law enforcement officials hope others will soon start to feel the same way about Hazleton.
A
anon_xdc8rmuek44eq
Guest
That's a separate discussion from this thread, and while I'm running out of sources people here find trustworthy, here is something to peruse at your leisure - though it is from the New York Times....
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/25/us/racial-disparity-traffic-stops-driving-black.html
This kind of discussion devolves quickly though because of subjective use of statistics. Still, thanks for participating.
Details of the arrests below- some white folks in there for certain, but I'm not sure that the Bloods and Latin Kings are comprised of many of Hazleton's natives:
http://www.pacast.com/press_releases/11692_OAG_Kane.pdf
Mobile Street Crimes Unit nets more than 100 arrests in Hazleton HARRISBURG - Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane and Hazleton Chief of Police Frank V. DeAndrea Jr. today announced the successes of the Mobile Street Crimes Unit in Hazleton, which include over 100 arrests and approximately 35,000 packets of heroin seized. In just the last 3 days, agents have made 30 arrests and seized 9,060 packets of heroin as a part of "Operation Rising Star." "I envisioned this unit to be fast and effective," said Attorney General Kane. "We have identified drug networks and their key players, and we have crippled their operations." "Hazleton is a safer place than it was five months ago. I promise the law-abiding citizens here that our investigative resources will be available to local law enforcement long after we leave," she said. "But there are too many ‘Hazletons’ across the Commonwealth. The benefit of this program is in its mobility, and ability to offer immediate aid and long lasting benefits as we deploy from city to city. " With a population of 33,000 but only 38 police officers, Attorney General Kane deployed the Mobile Street Crimes Unit (known as X-IMPACT) to Hazleton in September to assist the Hazleton City Police Department with taking back a city that was overrun with violent, drug-related crimes. Investigations uncovered that heroin is the drug of choice in the Hazelton area. Approximately 64 stamps of heroin have since been identified and roughly 35,000 bags of heroin have been seized. As with any brand name, these stamps purportedly signify the quality of the heroin being bought and the organization from which it can be obtained. In five months' time, "Operation Rising Star," in conjunction with 16 local, state and federal agencies, identified numerous drug trafficking organizations. Many of the defendants arrested are also affiliated with street gangs including the Bloods and the Latin Kings. Evidence showed that gangs in Hazleton were recruiting children as young a 9-years-old. Attorney General Kane said Hazleton has become a breeding ground for the distribution of heroin – Interstates 80 and 81 intersect in Hazleton, and there are several cargo airports and two major railways. The main sources of heroin into Hazleton are New York City and northern New Jersey, and Hazleton is a sub source of heroin into the Scranton and Wilkes-Barre regions. Other drugs encountered in Hazleton included powder cocaine, crack cocaine, diverted prescription pills, marijuana and synthetic marijuana. Hazleton Chief of Police Frank V. DeAndrea Jr. lauded Attorney General Kane for her commitment to Hazleton, noting that the Office of Attorney General's agents and attorneys retrained his police force to conduct sophisticated investigations into drug trafficking. "We were losing a war and losing hope before Attorney General Kane sent X-IMPACT to us," Chief DeAndrea said. "I call this operation 'Rising Star' because we now have a light to follow. I hope the legislature will continue to support this program so that citizens in other cities and towns infested with drugs and gangs can navigate through the darkness." The Hazelton community, including area businesses, played a significant role in the success of the Mobile Street Crimes Unit in Hazelton. Attorney General Kane launched the Commonwealth's first Mobile Street Crimes Unit to combat gang-related violence and drug trafficking, which have plagued communities across the state and pose serious threats to public safety. The unit is tasked not only with fighting drug- and gang-related activity, but also with fostering cooperation and improving coordination among local, state and federal law enforcement. It will be deployed to another community in need in near future. Below is a list of the "Operation Rising Star" defendants arrested over the last three days: --Henry Abreu, 36, 329 W. County Road, Sugarloaf, Luzerne County, is charged with one count of delivery of marijuana one count of conspiracy to deliver marijuana and one count of criminal use of a communication facility. --Julio Acosta Vargas, 33, 218 W. 5th St., Apt. 1, Hazleton, Luzerne County, is charged with two counts of delivery of crack cocaine/heroin, two counts of possession with the intent to deliver crack cocaine/heroin and one count of criminal use of a communication facility. --Candace Alexander, age unknown, 619 Hobart St., Gordon, Schuylkill County, is charged with one count of possession of heroin. --Harry Bellitts, 44, 39 E. Market St., P.O. Box 413, Tresckow, Carbon County, is charged with one count of possession of heroin and one count of criminal conspiracy to possess heroin. --Shalyn Blankenship, 30, 784 Stone Church Road, Berwick, Columbia County, is charged with one count of possession with the intent to deliver heroin and one count of possession of heroin. --Johnny Boynton, 35, 409 Chestnut St., Hazleton, Luzerne County, is charged with three counts of possession with the intent to deliver heroin, one count of delivery of molly, three counts of criminal use of a communication facility and two counts of conspiracy to possession with the intent to deliver heroin. -Juanita Boynton, 37, 409 Chestnut St., Hazleton, Luzerne County, is charged with two counts of conspiracy possession with the intent to deliver heroin and one count of criminal use of a communication facility. --John Callaghan, 55, State Route 107 845, Nicholson, Wyoming County, is charged with one count of possession of heroin and one count of conspiracy to possess heroin. --Rafael Colon, 42, 36 E. 1st St., 1st Floor, Hazleton, Luzerne County, is charged with one count of possession of synthetic marijuana. --Dennis Cooper, 55, 583 Peace St., Hazleton, Luzerne County, is charged with three counts of possession with the intent to deliver heroin, three counts of criminal conspiracy to possess with the intent to deliver heroin and three counts of criminal use of a communication facility. --Pedro Crespo, 19, 844 N. Vine St., Hazleton, Luzerne County, is charged with three counts of delivery of heroin, three counts of possession of heroin and one count of criminal use of a communication facility. --Victor De Los Santos, 23, 123 E. Maple St., Hazleton, Luzerne County, is charged with one count of possession with the intent to deliver heroin, one count of criminal conspiracy to possess with the intent to deliver heroin and one count of criminal use of a communication facility. --Tracey Decker, 43, 240 E. Diamond Ave., Apt. 2, Hazleton, Luzerne County, is charged with one count of possession of heroin and one count of possession of cocaine. --Gerardo Diaz-Perez, 34, 232 E. Mine St., Hazleton, Luzerne County, is charged with one count of delivery of heroin, one count of possession with the intent to deliver heroin and one count of criminal conspiracy to possess with the intent to deliver heroin. --James Drob, 51, 501 S. Kennedy Dr., McAdoo, Schuylkill County, is charged with one count of delivery of heroin, one count of conspiracy to deliver heroin and one count of criminal use of a communication facility. --Robert Dufallo Jr., 551 Hayes St., Hazleton, Luzerne County, is charged with two counts of making false statements on a gun application. --Crystal Fehnel, 26, 506 W. Main St., Weatherly, Carbon County, is charged with one count of possession of heroin. --John Felice Jr., 45, 518 Ridge St., Freeland, Luzerne County, is charged with three counts of delivery of heroin, two counts of delivery of Xanax and two counts of criminal use of a communication facility. --Angelo Fiola, 51, 740 Jumper Road, Lot 205, Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, is charged with three counts of possession with the intent to deliver heroin, one count of criminal use of a communication facility and one count of possession with the intent to deliver heroin. --Nathan Fritz, 25, 231 Catawissa St., Tamaqua, Schuylkill County, is charged with one count of possession of heroin and one count of possession of paraphernalia. --Matthew Genery, 25, 208 W. Laurel St., Hazleton, Luzerne County, is charged with one count of possession with the intent to deliver marijuana and one count of possession of marijuana. --Sheila Gimbi, 28, 551 Hayes St., Hazleton, Luzerne County, is charged with one count of possession of heroin. --Felipe Gonzalez, 35, 401 Main St., PO Box 35, Drifton, Luzerne County, is charged with one count of possession of synthetic marijuana. --Erin Gaultier, 52, 305 Alvin St., Freeland, Luzerne County, is charged with one count of possession of heroin and one count of possession with the intent to use drug paraphernalia. --Yovanne Gutierrez, 22, 818 W. 1st St., Hazleton, Luzerne County, is charged with one count of delivery of heroin and one count of conspiracy to deliver heroin. --Dennis Hall, 36, 528 Cleveland St., Hazleton, Luzerne County, is charged with one count of delivery of heroin, one count of possession of heroin, one count of criminal use of a communication facility. --Justin Hill, 22, 37 E. Ridge St., Apt. B, Lansford, Carbon County, is charged with one count of possession of heroin and one count of possession with the intent to use drug paraphernalia. --Sara Hittinger, 33, 39 E. Market St., P.O. Box 413, Tresckow, Carbon County, is charged with one count of possession of heroin and one count of criminal conspiracy to possess heroin. --Debra Horvath, 55, 2008 Main St., Mahanoy Plane, Schuylkill County, is charged with one count of possession of heroin. --Alyssa Kalnas, 20, 800 Locust St., Hazleton Apartments #814, Hazleton, Luzerne County, is charged with two counts of possession with the intent to deliver heroin and two counts of criminal use of a communication facility. --Adam Kasten, 21, 183 Valley St., New Philadelphia, Schuylkill County, is charged with one count of possession of heroin and one count of possession with the intent to use drug paraphernalia. --Jennifer Marchetti, 33, 15 Old St. Johns Lane, Drums, Luzerne County, is charged with one count of possession of heroin. --Chatelle Medashekski, 19, 527 Vine St., Hazleton, Luzerne County, is charged with five counts of criminal use of a communication facility, one count of possession with the intent to deliver heroin and one count of criminal conspiracy to possess with the intent to deliver heroin. --Joshua Minaker, 28, 208 Washington St., Freeland, Luzerne County, is charged with one count of possession with the intent to use drug paraphernalia. --Duamel Munoz Rodriguez, 36, 562 Seybert St., Hazleton, Luzerne County, is charged with one count of conspiracy to deliver heroin and one count of conspiracy to possess heroin. --Robert Nemeth, 35, 63 Center Hill Road, Sugarloaf, Luzerne County, is charged with one count of possession of heroin. --Pablo Padilla, 25, 523 Ridge Ave., West Hazleton, Luzerne County, is charged with two counts of criminal use of a communication facility, one count of possession with the intent to deliver crack and one count of possession with the intent to deliver crack cocaine. --Douglas Patton, 43, 439 E. Diamond Ave., Hazleton, Luzerne County, one count of delivery of heroin and one count of criminal use of a communication facility. --Jonathan Peguero, 28, 589 Alter St., Hazleton, Luzerne County, is charged with three counts of possession with the intent to deliver synthetic marijuana, one count of criminal conspiracy to possess with the intent to deliver and one count of possession of synthetic marijuana. On a separate complaint two counts of delivery of heroin, one count of possession of heroin. --Richard Pizzo, 30, 23 Circle Drive, Barnesville, Schuylkill County, is charged with one count of possession of heroin. --William Rivera Jr., 45, 560 Carson St., Hazleton, Luzerne County, is charged with one count of delivery of heroin, one count of conspiracy to delivery heroin and one count of possession of heroin. --Juan Santiago, age unknown, address unknown, is charged with five counts of delivery of heroin/cocaine, two counts of criminal use of a communication facility and two counts of conspiracy to deliver heroin/cocaine. --Tommy Stephenson II, 32, 1418 Myrtle St., Scranton, Lackawanna County, is charged with one count of possession of heroin and one count of conspiracy to possess heroin. --Eric Stradford, 37, 301 Ridge Ave., West Hazleton, Luzerne County, is charged with one count of delivery of heroin, one count of possession with the intent to deliver heroin and one count of possession of heroin. --Christopher Velasquez, 25, address unknown, is charged with two counts of delivery of crack cocaine and two counts of possession with the intent to deliver crack cocaine. --Miranda Welsh, 36, 113 Tripond Road, Lock Haven, Clinton County, is charged with one count of delivery of heroin and one count of conspiracy to possession with the intent to deliver heroin. (A person charged with a crime is presumed innocent until proven guilty.) # # # EDITOR'S NOTE: Copies of the criminal complaints are available by calling the Attorney General's Press Office at 717-787-5211. Media Contact: Carolyn E. Myers, 717-787-5211, cmyers@attorneygeneral.gov
A
anon_xdc8rmuek44eq
Guest
Ok. But, what about OD's in say, West Virginia, which has the most per capita (52 per 100,000), and is 94% white?
A
anon_xdc8rmuek44eq
Guest
From the article you linked:
For the first time, in 2013, Hispanic and non-Hispanic adult arrests were essentially even, at 704 Hispanics and 703 non-Hispanics, UCR data show. Just eight years earlier, in 2005, there were 806 non-Hispanics arrested and 216 Hispanics.
Your point is that the Latino gangs are bringing in and peddling the drugs, right?
I don't care about West Virginia, and don't pretend to know anything about the specifics of their issues. And there are issues beyond drugs in Hazleton, including those highlighted previously. The schools are bursting at the seams due to the influx of new students. Emergency Room waiting times are off the charts. Police and EMS coverage is stretched beyond their limits. You can continue to try to argue from a Liberal mindset, but good people will continue to move away, and in 5 years we can revisit this conversation, when it becomes 100% clear that the demographic shift directly led to the downfall of this community.
A
