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JellyFish
Shootings rise, with a bullet
By Laura Crimaldi and Jessica Fargen
Wednesday, July 5, 2006
The explosion of gun violence wracking Hub streets is accelerating so rapidly this year that the city is on pace to record more than one shooting victim per day for the first time this decade, according to new Boston Police Department crime statistics.
There have been 214 shootings in Boston as of July 2, including 25 that left the victim dead, statistics show. That represents a 75 percent increase in shootings compared to the same six-month period a year ago, when the city recorded 122 eruptions of gunfire, 15 of them fatal.
“Every day there seems to be a shooting,” said True See Allah, who is organizing a peace rally for Saturday at Malcolm X Park.
“Because Boston is so small retaliation is almost a given.Someone is going to have to concede and someone is going to bite the bullet in order to stop it and that takes courage,” said Allah, an ex-gang member who gave up the streets and now mentors convicts.
Just two years ago, there were 189 nonfatal shootings the entire year. So far this year, there have already been 189 such shootings.
Shootings are on the rise even as the city touts the removal of 585 firearms through a gun buyback program launched June 12 as well as a modest increase in the number of firearms recovered by police in gun seizures or arrests.
The number of firearms arrests increased from 346 during the first half of 2005 to 398 so far this year, police statistics show. The number of firearms recovered by police also rose slightly, from 410 seizures through July 2 of last year to 422 seizures so far in 2006.
“Mayor Menino and the city of Boston are concerned about the numbers, but the city has been working hard and we will continue to work hard,” said Meaghan Maher, a spokeswoman for Mayor Thomas M. Menino. “(Police) are making a record number of firearms arrests. With the gun buyback, they’ve taken more than 1,000 firearms off the streets.”
Menino has yet to name a succcessor for Police Commissioner Kathleen M. O’Toole, who ended a tumultuous 28 months as the city’s top cop on Friday to take a police job in Ireland.
The Rev. Eugene Rivers, an antiviolence activist and president of the Ella J. Baker House, said there needs to be better coordination between community groups and police during the transition period.
Rivers said the real problem lies with a “cultural crisis” affecting the black community that has produced“de facto orphans” who grow up without parental supervision, are prone to violence and have easy access to guns.
“Children are not being parented, to put it simply, and that’s the biggest issue above and beyond law enforcement,” Rivers said.
Rivers proposed round-the-clock programming for youths.
While police officials said they are putting cops where they are needed, some neighborhood activists believe it’s not enough, especially as the hot summer months arrive, luring gangs and gunslingers back onto the streets.
“We just don’t feel comfortable the city is doing everything it can,” said Barry Mullen, a Dorchester activist who has organized neighborhood crime watches and has threatened to sue the city over historically low police staffing. “Visibility is the answer. We need more youth workers, more programs.”
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By Laura Crimaldi and Jessica Fargen
Wednesday, July 5, 2006
The explosion of gun violence wracking Hub streets is accelerating so rapidly this year that the city is on pace to record more than one shooting victim per day for the first time this decade, according to new Boston Police Department crime statistics.
There have been 214 shootings in Boston as of July 2, including 25 that left the victim dead, statistics show. That represents a 75 percent increase in shootings compared to the same six-month period a year ago, when the city recorded 122 eruptions of gunfire, 15 of them fatal.
“Every day there seems to be a shooting,” said True See Allah, who is organizing a peace rally for Saturday at Malcolm X Park.
“Because Boston is so small retaliation is almost a given.Someone is going to have to concede and someone is going to bite the bullet in order to stop it and that takes courage,” said Allah, an ex-gang member who gave up the streets and now mentors convicts.
Just two years ago, there were 189 nonfatal shootings the entire year. So far this year, there have already been 189 such shootings.
Shootings are on the rise even as the city touts the removal of 585 firearms through a gun buyback program launched June 12 as well as a modest increase in the number of firearms recovered by police in gun seizures or arrests.
The number of firearms arrests increased from 346 during the first half of 2005 to 398 so far this year, police statistics show. The number of firearms recovered by police also rose slightly, from 410 seizures through July 2 of last year to 422 seizures so far in 2006.
“Mayor Menino and the city of Boston are concerned about the numbers, but the city has been working hard and we will continue to work hard,” said Meaghan Maher, a spokeswoman for Mayor Thomas M. Menino. “(Police) are making a record number of firearms arrests. With the gun buyback, they’ve taken more than 1,000 firearms off the streets.”
Menino has yet to name a succcessor for Police Commissioner Kathleen M. O’Toole, who ended a tumultuous 28 months as the city’s top cop on Friday to take a police job in Ireland.
The Rev. Eugene Rivers, an antiviolence activist and president of the Ella J. Baker House, said there needs to be better coordination between community groups and police during the transition period.
Rivers said the real problem lies with a “cultural crisis” affecting the black community that has produced“de facto orphans” who grow up without parental supervision, are prone to violence and have easy access to guns.
“Children are not being parented, to put it simply, and that’s the biggest issue above and beyond law enforcement,” Rivers said.
Rivers proposed round-the-clock programming for youths.
While police officials said they are putting cops where they are needed, some neighborhood activists believe it’s not enough, especially as the hot summer months arrive, luring gangs and gunslingers back onto the streets.
“We just don’t feel comfortable the city is doing everything it can,” said Barry Mullen, a Dorchester activist who has organized neighborhood crime watches and has threatened to sue the city over historically low police staffing. “Visibility is the answer. We need more youth workers, more programs.”
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