Violent Crime Up 11% In Hub
by Matt Margolis, December 19th, 2006 at 01:29pm
Anyone who has been paying attention to news shouldn’t be shocked by the news that violent crime in Boston is up 11% in the first six months of 2006. Instead of fighting a war on crime, Mayor Menino has been waging a war against guns.
Despite evidence of the ineffectiveness of gun buyback programs, Menino went ahead with his program anyway, and while a large cache of guns were brought in as result, a ridiculously small number were even traced back to a crime.
The violence continued, and the gun buyback program had officially failed (as we expected) to curb the violence.
So, Menino brought in Ed Davis to be the Hub’s new Police Commissioner, and we can only hope he can make a difference, but I’m starting to lose confidence.
Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis cited guns as the primary problem.
“Weapons are much more prevalent,” Davis said last night in a national appearance on ABC News. “We’re seeing a rise in weapons on the street.”
We shouldn’t be blaming guns for crime anymore we should blame merchandise for shoplifting. A person has to pull the trigger… a person has to commit the act of stealing.
Don’t get me wrong, weapons and criminals are not a good combination, but we can’t reduce crime unless we fight crime. Menino hasn’t been fighting crime as much as he’s been fighting guns.
It’s time for a new strategy. I hope Ed Davis will do what Menino hasn’t.
Entry Filed under: Crime
12 Comments
1. Knightbrigade | December 19th, 2006 at 6:59 pm
WHAT!? The target card thing didnt work!? I thought…umm never mind.
If it is GUN crimes that everyone wants to STOP, then make MANDATORY PENALTIES for the use of a gun in ANY crime.
Example: (SHOW) a gun in a crime, (5) years on TOP of the crime committed. (USE) a gun in a crime (10) years on TOP of the crime committed.
Stop letting the dirtbags out on the streets until they rot for a while in jail. I guarantee gun crimes will drop significantly.
2. Salvatore Coglione | December 19th, 2006 at 8:37 pm
Matt wrote:
Welluh, that’s odd ’cause the latest FBI stat’s show that after a decade of decline, violent crime increased nationwide under Republican control of our national government.
Places with the worst violent crime increase?
The death penalty is quite an effective deterrent in Texas, apparantly…
Note that the worst regions for violent crime increases were the West and South, while the region with the lowest increase was the Northeast.
3. EaBo Clipper | December 19th, 2006 at 8:45 pm
OK, here comes the Ed Davis III admiration society post:
Commissioner Davis is starting to do the very things that worked so well in Lowell. For instance he has removed Vice Squad officers from their desks and forced them to WALK beats! Yes took them out of their ivory towers and put them on the streets. He won’t take bunk from any of these guys.
Give him six months guys. You’ll see a difference.
4. Andy | December 19th, 2006 at 9:01 pm
From what I understand, ‘06 is the first year of seeing an increase in crime… so Salvatore, it is premature to claim that the crime increase is a result of Republican government. It could be an aberration.
And secondly, I tend to believe that crime is more of a local issue, that is effected by local enforcement, not federal legislation.
Why don’t you address the crime situation in Boston? Because fault lies with the Democrat mayor?
Knowing you, you’d blame Romney anyways, so I shouldn’t even ask.
5. jeremiah | December 20th, 2006 at 8:38 am
The important thing is that we don’t submit the office of Mayor to any sort of results-based testing. Just because all of the results are wrong, doesn’t mean that the Mayor has done anything wrong.
I certainly hope that EaBo Clipper is right. There are so many things wrong with the way Boston fights crime, that there are several different approaches that should improve matters. I’m all for more cops on the street. Of course, that involves the consent of the Police Union, so I’m not holding my breath.
6. CCFK | December 20th, 2006 at 9:06 am
Or could it be that violent crime is cyclical and has nothing to do with a Republican or Democrat as president or governor or mayor? Gun laws have been constant. Murders in Boston have gone up and down throughout Menino’s administration. I don’t see Menino getting any credit for the down years but I do see a lot of blame for the up years. The number of murders in Boston went from 152 in 1990 to 31 in 1999. Interestingly enough, Boston held gun buybacks in 1993 and 1994. Discerning readers will note that evidence is inconclusive as to the effect of those 1993 and 1994 programs, however, using the simple-minded logic of other posters here: gun buyback + no murder reduction=failure then one has to apply the same logic to the 1993 and 1994 buybacks where gun buyback + reduced murders=success.
Criminologists (James Fox at Northeastern is one, Kerry Healey probably knows this as well) will tell you that the murder rate is related to the size of the cohort of young men in the Boston area. The question then becomes what strategies does Boston have in place to reach those most likely to commit or be victims of crime? We all know that Hub Politics believes the only thing that the city has done is hold a gun buyback program.
This may be the only time I agree with knightbrigade, but I think an additional penalty for using a gun in the commission of a crime might be useful. On the other hand, if such a thing is successful, we’ll probably have to have a knife buyback program. In other words, if people want to kill each other, they will kill each other, consequences be damned.
7. steve | December 20th, 2006 at 10:37 am
“but I think an additional penalty for using a gun in the commission of a crime might be useful.”
We already have such laws on the books.
What we don’t have, are JUDGES who will employ these additional penalties in their sentencing.
Feckless pols continue to rail against the gun, because they are too intellectually lazy, and too politically spineless, to pursue real solutions to the root causes of violent crime.
8. CCFK | December 20th, 2006 at 12:34 pm
And what would the solutions be steve? I see a lot of bitching, but no answers. Keeping guns out of the hands of criminals is one part of a strategy steve, no matter what you think.
9. jeremiah | December 20th, 2006 at 1:44 pm
CCFK,
“Criminologists…will tell you that the murder rate is related to the size of the cohort of young men in the Boston area.” So, you’re saying that crime doesn’t really correlate to the availability of guns in the city? Weird, it sounded in the first paragraph as if you might be disagreeing with that idea.
“…if such a thing is successful, we’ll probably have to have a knife buyback program.” Yeah, you *really* seem to keep saying that the absence/stigmatization of guns isn’t going to do much to the crime situation in the city and that gangbangers will keep targetting each other with whatever tool they can get their hands on.
That’s my position as well!
I agree with you that gun buybacks are a useless political ploy. In my view it follows that wasting public tax dollars on a political stunt is bad.
10. Shavo | December 20th, 2006 at 11:49 pm
A friend of mine who is getting his PhD in Criminal Justice thinks that this surge has to do with people arrested a decade ago are now being released from jail. Look at NYC 10 years ago, I recall Guilliani arresting people for little crimes such as jay walking only to get them linked to bigger crimes. These people get locked up someplace in Upstate NY and when the get out do they go back to NYC. Probably not because one would think that the city has information on them. I know that over the past few years more cities in NY have been sharing police data and the department of Correctional Facilities has tried to create a more uniform database to share across the state. With this information, one could probably argue that the increase in crime can be attributed to former gang members from NY moving into new turf. Its a plausible argument considering at the time that NYC started cracking down on crime, regional cities like Hartford, Sprinfield and Albany saw a huge increase in violent crime and gang violence.
11. Mr X | December 21st, 2006 at 9:48 am
Snap out of your academic theories, the answer is right in front of you…MCAS and the balloning drop out rates….wow, let’s reenter the atmospere fellas.
12. Salvatore Coglione | December 22nd, 2006 at 3:45 am
Andy wrote:
You’re using right-wing conservative circular arguments again.
If crime is rising everywhere –worse in places other than Boston– then Boston and it’s Democratic Mayor don’t merit Matt’s singling-out for political attacks. It’s as or more significant that violent crime increased nationally while Republicans were in charge nationally, and increased most in a conservative Republican-dominated state like Texas.
The only reason Matt failed to mention that Boston & MA are faring better than other cities and regions amid this nationwide uptick in crime is to exploit the local increase for political attacks on Menino. There is no legitimate reason to omit this information from his post, especially since the FBI just published all the numbers.
Shavo’s post above cites a more relevant factor (though not the only one) contributing to the national increase in crime.