Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Why is there no outrage about the murders???

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Why is there no dialogue here on this ” Reality Based Commentary” about being able to walk in Boston’s streets without fear of being shot to death by a gangbanger??

Deval is dinning with Mia Farrow tonight worrying about Dafar? How about worrying about Geneve St where the city’s 15th murder took place yesterday????

Hey, crush out the “joints”, put down the latte cup  and let’s get serious here.

What is “together we can” going to do about the murders?? What the hell is Deavl doing about it?

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  2. I a walk in Boston’s streets all the time, and I am not at all afraid of being shot by “gangbangers” or anyone else.

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    Yes, there is a crime problem that needs to be addressed but there is no reason to hyperventilate about it.

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    I am also not sure why this needs to be Deval’s primary concern. It is a local crime issue. The mayor and city police should be the ones doing something about it. You could just as well argue that George Bush should be doing something about the murder rate in Washington D.C.

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    Anyway, since you claim to be so concerned about the problem, what are your suggestions for what the city of Boston should be doing about it?

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    • pointing out that it’s murder du jour in Boston ( another one in Broad daylight on a bus yesterday) and you don’t think that Deval should be “concerned”? …,.That Dafar is a higher priority than mayhem in the State’s capital city? OK…
      You’re probably fine walking down Newbury st but I wouldn’t recommend trying to walk  just a few short miles away in the Geneve St area. Imagine the poor souls that have to live there and don’t know if their kid will come back alive from the corner store?
      I have no solutions but then again I’m not in public office where supposedly the politicians are supposed to solve these problems instead of attending awards diners and holding meetings about Dafar?

      • I don’t believe that you care the slighest bit about people that are dying either in Darfur or Dorchester. You are just trying to take a cheap shot.

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        Why should caring about murder be a zero-sum game? Just because Deval attends an event concerned with the genocide in the Darfur region, where as many as 1000 people a day are dying, does not mean he cannot also be concerned with people dying in Boston.

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        As to where I walk. I am talking about areas of JP & Roxbury near the Orange line. Despite the fact that there have been a number of crime incidents on the Orange line, I still feel quite safe.

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        • Those pesky radical islamists again.  So do you admit we’ve got a problem with radical Islam?

            • HR and I have a discussion going on about radical islamists. While not 100% germane to the topic at hand, Darfur was mentioned in the original posting.

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              So it has nothing to do with DP and gang violence other than the fact he spent time on the Radical islamists and their ethnic and Christian cleansing in Darfur the other night instead of a problem closer to home.

          • The Bush administration has hardly lifted a finger in the matter. They clearly do not think it is very important.

    • I am also not sure why this needs to be Deval’s primary concern. It is a local crime issue. The mayor and city police should be the ones doing something about it. You could just as well argue that George Bush should be doing something about the murder rate in Washington D.C.

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      Or that George Bush was responsible for the Katrina catastrophe and not the local and state leaders whose job it was to be first responders. I’ve never heard that before.

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      Thanks to DevalPatrick.com, I know that Deval Patrick lives about a mile and a half from the Forest Hills area of Roxbury where a lot of the crime is centered.  Instead of holding a community meeting touting himself and his campaign committee.  Perhaps he should hold a community meeting to solve the crime problem.

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      Not only does he live a mile and a half from Forest Hills he lives a quarter mile from Blue Hill Ave in Mattapan.

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      It’s sad that it has taken somebody from New York to start to bring this issue to the forefront.

        • Did he offer anything substantial of help.  What you are failing to see is that actions speak louder than words, and I have seen no action from Deval Patrick on this issue.

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          You left out the part about pulling up your pants.

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          The Governor is missing an amazing opportunity to “do something” in a neighborhood that he knows all too well.  At least Romney tried to get the State Police involved, but was rebuked by the Mayor, and more probably the Police Union.

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          But to your point about reality, did you see Fitzgeralds response to Deval Patrick in today’s Boston Herald?

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          Two days ago this paper gave front-page coverage to a plea from Gov. Deval Patrick, asking adults to exercise more control, as if grounding might solve the problem.  Someone needs to enlighten his excellency that Grove Hall isn’t Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.  In that same edition, colleague Michele McPhee told of Boston cops attempting to arrest a young aggressor on Geneva Avenue, quoting from the police report: “A large unruly crowd began to gather around the officers, screaming and calling them racial terms (like `honkey’ and `white bitches’), telling (them) to get out of their neighborhood.”

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          I know you know Deval, call him up tell him to drive the Caddy to Forest Hills, or get out of the Caddy when it’s crusing down Blue Hills Ave to the mansion in Milton. Tell him to do something, anything another child’s life hangs in the balance.  That’s reality.

          • From the Guardian Angels Boston Blog

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            I’m 16 years old and I’m a student.I can not disagree the young people do need to step up.But as the matter is our youths are scared to come clean.Young people know what they need to do but many do not want to risk their lives.Random people handing out fliers and urgeing youths to stop violence dosn’t solve anything.Maybe its just my opinion but i feel The gardian angels shouldn’t be the ones doing this it should be the whole COMMUNITY AND THE CITy.People say there glad the gardian angels are here this is what i say everyone and eveything young and old should have been working their efforts LONG befor they came.Violence wont stop unless people get up and stop it themselves.ACTIONS SPEAK Louder then words(sic for whold post)

             

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            The emphasis was hers.

  3. before you start spouting off.  From a couple of days ago:

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    Earlier in the day, the governor used his newfound bully pulpit to urge Boston-area parents to get involved with children in response to a wave of violence that has plagued the state’s capital city.

    There have been 13 murders in Boston this year, up from 10 the same time last year. Over the weekend, a 22-year-old New York woman was shot and killed after attending a party on crime-plagued Geneva Avenue in Dorchester.

    “I realize it’s a different time; it’s not the ’50s any more,” the governor said Wednesday in response to a question after addressing the office association members. “But every once in a while, when that adult says, ‘You know what? You’re not supposed to come to work with your pants down there,’ … even when that kid rolls their eyes, they hear you. It gets through.”

    The governor urged parents to “starting acting like that unfamiliar kid is your own kid.”

    During his campaign last year, Patrick spoke frequently of a neighbor from his youth on Chicago’s South Side who used to discipline him and his friends as if they were her own children.

    On Wednesday, he said expanding after-school and summer job programs, as well as reducing classroom sizes, could also help quell the violence by putting more children under adult supervision for longer periods of time. And he cited community policing funding he has proposed to hire 250 new police officers across the state.

    • put up the basketball nets and let’s try “night basketball” again.
      Why isn’t Deval over there in the streets with the black minister that’s trying to stop the violence.  Why isn’t he using the full power of the “State” to stop this outrageous carnage….even to martial law if that’s what it takes?
      Truth is , he’s probably in fear for his life to go there. I know I would be.
      This whole situation is totally out of control. He should stop worrying about “web sites” and award diners and start finding a way to stop the murders.

      • Martial law?  Gimme a break.

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        All you’ve done here is spew hysterical rhetoric against democrats (not that there’s anything wrong with that) while your handle is “center aisle” — which makes you pretty much a fraud in my book.  At least RRRM is honest.

        • Lawrence Massachusetts used a form of Martial law and curfews in the late 80s or early 90s to curb their violence problem and it worked.

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          They shut down a whole section of the city and blocked every entrance in and out with cruisers and barricades.

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          So there is precedent for this in Massachusetts.

          • Link to the Lawrence Barricade Story in the Globe archives

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            The cops should be doing this in Fields Corner.  They should also be doing what the Guardian Angels suggested in their blog this morning

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            It’s incumbent upon the mayor and police commissioner to send in a shock force and stop these guys. Five-O needs to start frisking the gang-bangers and see how quickly it stops the violence.

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            But that would be a simple solution to a complex problem right.  And to the moonbats a simple solution just doesn’t work, you need to give the gang-bangers basketballs, and be nice to them.  I say frisk-em and book-em and throw away the key.

            • But yeah, IMO it is too simple a solution to the problem.  Just sending in a bunch of cops to hassle all the kids and then leave and come back in a few hours doesn’t do it.  Community policing models from the early-mid 90s that achieved  a ton of success require community buy-in.  Be there a lot and address quality of life issues like noise complaints and whatnot.  If you’re doing that, you’ll just naturally catch the gangbangers once you’re integrated.  It’s much more effective than going in guns blazing like you’re gonna intimidate people away from committing crime.

              • however we don’t have time.  Community policing is Commissioner Davis’ strong point. Its what he did in Lowell. But the BPD did not have a committment to community policing until he came, and it’s going to take time to get it instituted fully.

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                Community policing isn’t about grants and dollars, it is about a mindset. A mindset that gets cops out of their cars and onto a beat.  You can institute community policing programs without increasing money. 

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                Until those programs take root, shock programs will make an immediate impact.

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                It is interesting to note that since the Guardian Angels, love them or hate them, have arrived.  The problem has gotten much more play in the media.  Heck the Herald even gave them a blog to talk about the crime problem.

                • We’ve got the time to do things right.  I’ve talked to a couple of the captains who started the 1st and 2nd community precincts in Lowell, I’m pretty sold on the program.  Just running around hassling people, I mean, the people you’re hassling for the most part aren’t murderers.  As far as arresting lots of people just to make a statement, I’m sure there’s a time and a place for it and I’m sure that you want to use it every single time and place 🙂  I’m not against going after the bad guys but there’s no point in making it ‘us against them’ with the whole neighborhood.  At any rate, solving societal problems is very rarely done by just applying massive force. 

                • can’t be hired under Boston city ordinances.  They would probably be good to have to institute the programs.

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                  I’m glad the Angels have allowed this issue to get the press it deserves.

        • that a guy like me who is , in fact kind of a “middle of the raoder” looks like a radical conservative to you.

          • I’m a hawk, a free trader and a cynic about unions — noticing a clear pattern of Bill O’Reilly talking points doesn’t make me a “lefty”

    • Casey Ross Reported this in his blog.

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      Despite growing youth violence in urban communities, Gov. Deval Patrick’s budget slashes $11 million in funding for anti-gang programs run by local police and district attorneys.

      Advocates of the programs visited reporters in the State House today to spread the word about the funding cut, which they say hurts initiatives in 15 Massachusetts communities. The money is distributed to communities like Boston, Lowell and New Bedford through the Shannon Grant Program, named after the late state Sen. Charles Shannon.

      Patrick has made community policing one of the top priorities of his budget, which includes money for 250 new police officers. Still, the governor faced criticism from lawmakers yesterday for eliminating $20 million in community policing programs to pay for the new officers.

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      That’s reality.

  4. The periodic “why isn’t anyone posting about –insert problem here– ?????”  gambit.  Do Mass. conservatives not care about our boys and girls dying on the streets of Baghdad simply because there are no posts on that subject on their front page?  No.

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    Because Deval hasn’t done an event on the murder situation in Boston, that doesn’t indicate that he doesn’t care.  Do you suppose this is a problem that could be solved by a couple photo ops, which people would then decry?  No, this isn’t about the murders — it’s about a convenient club with which our “centrist” can bludgeon Deval.

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    Face it — this isn’t just the governor’s problem.  In a wider sense, it’s a national problem (murder rates up in several cities), and in a narrower sense the responsibility is Mayor Menino’s.  There is something amiss in fragments of youth culture across America, and The Atlantic does a typically excellent job of viewing the “stop snitching” — that is, promote mayhem — culture through the lens of Baltimore.  Though the culture certainly does have some roots in Boston (a local dj was the first to record the phrase), it is endemic to the country. 

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    While I will never hesitate to point the finger at Deval for his mistakes, pointing the finger at him for a trend that has hit cities including Detriot, Milwaukee, Baltimore (another city said to be on the rise), and St. Louis is fatuous.  This is the nitty gritty of police work, and I’d rather Deval be speaking with the commissioner of the BPD or even better letting him do his job, than holding a Romneyesque 20-minute meeting with self-appointed “community representatives” .

    • spiel…. truth be known, the crime and murder rate ( 375 in Wash DC alone last year() right on the doorsteps of our “politicians” makes the chances of surviving a tour in Iraq a far better “bet” than walking down a metro US city street. At least a soldier has training and body armor….far better survival equipment than some little 9 year old kid that gets blown away by a “gangbanger” on his way to the corner store on Geneve St in Boston  for a loaf of bread. I find it hard to believe that there isn’t total outrage ( all politics aside) about the brazen criminals and murderers that are now killing people in broad daylight with a total disregard for any law and orrder… unbelievable… and Deval isn’t doing a damn thing about it. where are the State Police? Why  isn’t martial law declared untill this horendous situation can be brought under control?? Tommorow will bring another new murder no doubt… incredible!

      • truth be known, the crime and murder rate ( 375 in Wash DC alone last year ) right on the doorsteps of our “politicians” makes the chances of surviving a tour in Iraq a far better “bet” than walking down a metro US city street.

        Boston has lost 15 people to gun crimes in the 90 days of this year.  That’s a 0.17 deaths/day rate in Boston.  In DC, that’s about 1 death/day.  In Iraq, according to Prof. Robert Farley (who specializes in the military aspects of poli sci) of the University of Kentucky, U.S. deaths are running between 2.4 and 3.0 deaths/day.  And a commonly reported rule of thumb is 10 or 12 serious injuries to U.S. soldiers per U.S. soldiers killed.

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        This means you are engaging in hyperbole by claiming our streets are safer than Baghdad.

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        center aisle, you need to calm down.  Today you’ve thrown a gender slur at a Senator and now you’re making extremely off-base claims.  This is not helping the cause.  It’s an important cause, and I think the legislature needs to devote more resources to policing these streets.

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        But the facts should be justification enough, without hyperbole.

        • I think he was using DC as an example of one city in the US. If you aggregate them all together then the number is worse.  The funny thing about statistics is they can be used in a variety of ways to bolster any argument.  Ever read this book?

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        • http://www.disasterc…

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          Stats only go to 2005 with  16,573 US Murders during ONE year alone but you get the picture…. Iraq is a hell of lot safer place than the good ole USA. “Inconvenient truths” are an awful thing aren’t they?

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          I don’t think I’m engaging in “hyperbole” at all. My whole question in starting this topic is when is Deval Patrick going to start acting like a Governor and do something about the outrageous carnage?? Unfortunately, I think that too many here are too busy “carrying the water” for this guy to ask that question.

          • due to gun crimes, and compare that to Iraq, then here we go:

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            Since March 2003, the number of Iraqis who died due to the war is 655,000.  This is robust data from the best methods statisticians have to offer in war-torn situations such as Iraq.  Iraq had about one-tenth the population of the US, so if a proportional number of Americans died in the U.S. that would be 6.5 million dead over the last four years.  Multiply 16,573 by 4 and you don’t come close to 6.5 million.

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            But the level of your hyperbole is just stunning.  Nobody with any sense thinks Iraq is safer than the U.S.  That is why Iraqi refugees flee to the U.S.  Because nobody’s setting off carbombs here.

            • whatsoever between kids gunned down in Boston and in the USA to “Iraqis”??
              I did “compare” the US murder numbers ( over 16,000 in ONE year)to the number of US Soldiers killed in Iraq (3285 in FOUR years) and concluded that one has a better chance of survival as a soldier in Iraq than an inner city US citizen. The facts and numbers are indisputable

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              Your “introduction “of Iraquis who are killing each other in sectarian violence into the discussion is irrelevant and meaningless.

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          • Yes, more total people were murdered in the US than soldiers in Iraq, but your percent chance of getting killed in Iraq is much higher. Remember there are ~300 million people in the US, but <200k troops in Iraq, so the death rate is hundreds of times higher in Iraq.

            Math does not appear to be your strong suit.

      • I see our troops dying in Iraq as a problem.
        You see it as a “spiel”, as does the president.
        Which is why they’re dying there in the first place.

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        In what building do you sit in the center aisle?  John Birch Society HQ?

        • is where the vast majority of Americans sit. I think where you’re sitting is in one of Prof Ward Churhill’s class rooms. You’re so far over on the left that “middle of the road” people look like radical conservatives to you…. and please, spare us the disingenuous “troops” spiel…left wingers hate the military, be honest about it.  All the liberals have succeeded in doing is undermining our people and embolding our enemies

          • Call me crazy, but based on writing style I’m pretty sure this is the same quality poster who goes by the name “Ted K’s Liver” (nickname, Liver Boy) over at Red Mass Group.

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            And he loves BMG.  Here are some of his greatest hits:

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            “go blather the  gay crap on another site. Most people here don’t like ‘gays’ . I’m one of them.

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            “Meanwhile, over on BMG the lunatics are enraged”

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            “It’s no secret that gay liberals dominate the BMG thread”

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            “EaBo..if you can possibly imagine, I dislike this horrible Pelosi bitch even more than you do … a disgrace.. a total disgrace. I see her and the “Waxman cockroach” from the ‘Peoples Republic of Mexifornia( Gawwwd an incredibly UGLY SOB to boot) and I want to puke….Unfortunately , we now live in a Nation where millions and millions of 380lb welfare queens are tuned in to ‘Rosie’ on the tube and actually believing her traiterous bullshit….Think I’m gonna be sick”

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            BMG is in my opinion, a very closed minded , incredibly intollerant site that does not permit dissenting views…The truth is that the  liberal site is dominated by homosexual gay rights activists who ‘goose step’  in ‘lock step’ and absolutely DO NOT tollerate anything but ‘THEIR VIEW’…No fear of some ‘gay lawyer’ who censors the ‘web site’ objecting to what you have to say.”

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            “Tolerating??? How about us ‘tolerating’ a woman masquerading as a man? Why do you insist upon calling yourself ‘Peter Porcupine’ when ‘Pauline’ Porcupine would be correct? Ya ok we all know of the ‘poetic license’ taken by TS Eliot, et al… but please, spare us….. don’t foister the ‘views’ of a woman upon us in the guise of a man… thanks for ‘coming out’ ‘Pauline’.”

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            “center aisle” has posted 70+ comments here at BMG. There is little difference between center aisle’s and Ted K’s Liver’s writing, vocabulary, posting style, grammatical errors, use of quotations and perpensity to tell liberals to “Crush out that joint”.

            • I have no idea what this “lurker_58” is talking about???
              “lurker” ??
              I thought there were rules here regarding personal attacks such as this? Is this type of unwarranted attack permitted?

              • Either your lying here or you are a plagiarist:

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                RMG Comment from Ted K’s Liver:

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                Maybe you should crush out the “joint” “dude” and put your Latte cup down.

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                BMG Comment from center aisle:

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                Hey, crush out the “joints”, put down the latte cup and let’s get serious here.

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                Anyone can see that Ted K’s Liver and center aisle is the same person. If anyone here doesn’t believe me, look at his posts on both sites and you will see undeniable similarities.

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                Liver Boy, please take your homophobic, putrid, anti-woman, hate-spewing self back to wherever you came from. Thanks in advance.

                • According to Google, that’s the only 2 uses of the phrase “Crush out the joint” on the whole of the Internets. 

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                  Now Lurker: Get to work on solving some of the homicides in Beantown. 

            • Wonder how I so upset Ted K?  I posted this in response to somebody decrying the ‘tastelessness’ of somebody who had registered as ‘Tony Snow’s Colon’.

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              ‘We’ asked for it….by tolerating a user with the name Ted K’s Liver – who ALSO makes excellent points!

              Turnabout IS fair play, and I would condemn them both to a Celebrity Death Match of the Battling Organs with a Tastelessness Jock Cup as grand trophy.

              Yr. Obedient Servant, Peter Porcupine, Republican
              by: Peter Porcupine @ Fri Mar 30, 2007 at 13:14:15 PM EDT

    • From the Guardian Angels blog at the Boston Herald

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      f there are no leads or capture of the thugs who shot that boy on the bus yesterday, we’re going to take it up a notch.

      We will come up with fliers overnight and bring them to the Rev. Bruce Wall’s service tomorrow at 11 a.m. and then go out into the community calling on people to give it up to us! We’ll make sure your tips get to the right people.

      If police can’t make an arrest in this shooting, it will be another nail in the coffin. The community has to step up while the memory of an 18-year-old shot in the face is still fresh in their minds. Every day there’s a delay it feeds the gang ego.

      The gangs are taking the stop snitchin’ code to a whole new level. It’s the old Sicilian code of omerta – snitches get stitches and end up in ditches.

      We need to stymie that concept.

      We’re going to step up to young people tomorrow and hand out the fliers, look them right in the eye and say `You need to do the right thing.’ We’ll do the rest. We’ll do the heavy lifting. They will take the flier and, hopefully, call us a half hour later. STEP UP YOUNG PEOPLE!

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      That’s much better than “pull up your pants”!!!!!

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      Welcome to the City Guardian Angels, when you get set up in Roxbury, Dot, and Mattapan I hope you come to Eastie.

  5. It seems like every year, there’s some murder that happens around the Bowdoin/Geneva or Seaver St. area and suddenly people start yelling about “what is being done about it?”

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    We already know what to do about it.  We need more social, educational, and vocational options to compete with the option of joining a gang.  We need more street advocates who are able to keep in touch with the community and serve as resources for  at-risk children.  We need more cops to enforce the law and more DA’s to work on the backlog of homicide cases.  It’s not as if this neighborhood or Maverick or parts of Charlestown have suddenly become dangerous neighborhoods. 

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    We don’t allocate the manpower to gain the intelligence and background needed to do the job correctly.  And we lack the will and the budget commitment to spend what it takes to do the job right.  The real problem is a lack of budgeting on both the local and state levels, just as it was last year and just as it was five years ago. 

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    And blaming Deval for a municipal crime problem seems misguided.  He is certainly part of the solution.  But without the Legislature and Mayor Menino, this problem isn’t going to get solved.  Unless, of course, you expected Deval to solve the crime spree by suiting up like some combination of Rambo,  Robocop and Jack Bauer to take out all the bad guys at once.  While that would be very cool, I expect that this problem will probably be tackled by more traditional means. 

    • I live two blocks from Maverick Station, and I don’t find it dangerous at all. I have not read about a shooting here in many years.  But then the evil gentrification is beginning so maybe that’s the reason.

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