Jerseyans Don't Feel Safe in Philly

A new poll regarding big cities finds New Jerseyans feel safest in ... Manhattan!

Atlantic City came in second place in the Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind poll. Faring less well were Newark, Trenton and Camden, and Philadelphia.

About 78 percent of respondents said they feel somewhat or very safe in Manhattan, while 64 percent said likewise about Atlantic City. The poll was commissioned shortly after the second fatal carjacking in little over a year at the parking garage of the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort in Atlantic City.

Shane Garrity of Hammonton works at a marketing job in Atlantic City and says the carjackings were an anomaly.

"Those were freak incidents, those carjackings," he said. "It happens in every city

"I've been working in Atlantic City since April, walking to and from the train station, and I feel perfectly safe here," he said. "I've had no problems. I see police up and down the Boardwalk and all over on the street. There's a big police presence here."

In September, 28-year-old Sunil Rattu of Old Bridge was shot to death and 24-year-old Radha Ghetia of Sayreville was wounded in a carjacking that began in the Taj Mahal garage. The victims were robbed of a small amount of cash, then forced into their vehicle and made to drive to a nearby alley, where both were shot. Three suspects are awaiting trial in that case.

The fatal carjacking was the second in little over a year that originated in the Taj Mahal parking garage. In May 2010, Martin Caballero of North Bergen was carjacked after dropping off his family at the casino's main entrance and leaving to park the car.

Two suspects are awaiting trial in his death.

Those who have been to Atlantic City within the past year say they feel safer there than those who haven't been there recently.

Three-quarters of those who have been there in the past year (75-percent) said they feel somewhat or very safe, but only about half of those who haven't been there in the last year (53-percent) said they feel safe there.

Other New Jersey cities got poor marks for perceived safety. A majority (55 percent) told pollsters they do not feel safe in Newark; just 21 percent said that about Atlantic City.

In Trenton, 43 percent of respondents said they feel somewhat or very safe, while 33 percent said they did not. Only 2 percent say they feel very safe in Camden, with another 11 percent saying they felt somewhat safe there.

"If New Jersey is going to be healthy, its cities will have to be viable," said Peter Woolley, a political scientist and director of the poll. "One measure of viability is how safe people feel going to those cities."

In the City of Brotherly Love, 59 percent of respondents said they feel somewhat or very safe in Philadelphia, while 22-percent said they do not.

The poll of 800 registered voters statewide was conducted by telephone using both landlines and cellphones from Oct. 17 through Oct. 23, about a month after the most recent fatal carjacking from the Taj Mahal. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.