Yours truly was interviewed for the article:

Mayor Thomas M. Menino knows that ruling the roost in Boston means never having to say you’re sorry – especially when you can point the finger of blame at others over and over again.

The mayor has blamed the governor, the Legislature, the feds, state police, the firefighters union, plowing contractors, the business community, the gun lobby, weather forecasters, Sunday liquor sales, college administrators and the media when things went wrong in the city.

When the crowd got out of control at Copley Plaza at the release of the wildly popular PlayStation 3 last year, Menino blamed Sony.

When traffic gridlock shut down the city during last week’s snowstorm, Menino blamed Gov. Deval Patrick and local businesses for letting state and private sector employees out early – even though he cut city workers loose at the same time.

“He must believe nothing is ever his fault,” said Matt Margolis, a Republican political observer who co-founded HubPolitics.com with his brother. “He’s so insulated from criticism.”

The sad fact is that Menino has little to fear when it comes to his job. He’s handily reelected term after term, despite his lack of leadership or accomplishments. One example I gave was his failed gun buyback program. That was pretty much his “final solution” when it came to fighting the exploding gun violence in Boston, and it didn’t solve the problem or have any impact at all. Kids are still getting killed.

Menino is a failure as a leader. Unlike President Bush, who took responsibility for the federal government’s response (and essentially the Louisiana state government’s response) to Hurricane Katrina, Mayor Menino is point fingers and laying blame elsewhere. Sadly, the voters of Boston fall for it every election cycle.

I guess it’s nice to know that if you happen to get shot in the city of Boston with your laptop, you’ll soon be able to look up how to treat your gunshot wound.

Unfortunately, here in Boston, Mayor Menino has chosen to take incorrect courses of action to combat the rising gun violence that continues to plague the city. His gun buyback program last year has demonstrated itself to be a complete failure, with gun related violence and death up significantly this year compared to last year.

The shooting at Virginia Tech (which has resulted 32 deaths, including a student from Saugus) should be a lesson for Mayor Menino, who has been fighting a war on guns rather than a war on crime.

What the Mayor needs to be aware of is that Virginia Tech is a so-called “gun free zone.” And whether he likes it not, he cannot blame the NRA or Mitt Romney’s hunting pride for what happened at Virginia Tech or what is happening in Boston. For two hours, the students, faculty, and staff at Virginia Tech were vulnerable because no one could stop a lone gunman. Students were given a false sense of safety by their so-called “gun free zone,” and 32 people died. Here in Boston, Menino wanted to create another false sense of safety with his ridiculous gun buyback program.

How many more have to die because initiatives that claim to protect us actually make us more vulnerable?

An infuriated Mayor Thomas M. Menino yesterday slammed former GOP governor Mitt Romney for boasting about his National Rifle Association membership and “bragging” about shooting varmints with a semiautomatic, even as his former capital city is besieged by gun violence.

“How could you be hoping to talk about public safety in this country when the proliferation of illegal guns is at an epidemic stage and you are proud to say I am a gun proponent,” Menino said.

“It’s nothing to brag about for votes. That’s what he is doing. He wants to use this as a way trying to get votes, bragging about guns.”

Well Mr. Mayor, weren’t you the one who made the claim in a campaign ad that you have been effective as mayor in reducing crime, yet, violent crime is up 11% in the Hub. It was you and then Police Commissioner Kathleen M. O’Toole who kept blaming the rising crime on everything else. It was you and O’Toole who presided over rising crime rates, and not enough police officers making it on to the streets. It was your pathetic gun buyback program that did nothing to reduce gun violence. Like you said Mr. Mayor, the new cops coming to the force this year, it’s only part of the solution–what else do you got?

Once again Mr. Mayor, you are blaming someone else for your shortcoming. You are the Mayor of Boston, not Mitt Romney. This is your quagmire, Mayor Menino.

Despite a murder rate 60 percent higher than last year‚Äôs body count and bloodshed that continued to escalate with a shooting last night, Mayor Thomas M. Menino defiantly denied yesterday that Boston is in crisis, instead blaming the media for negative headlines. 

“A lot of people want to believe it’s out of control. It’s not out of control,” Menino assured a packed house at Greater Love Tabernacle in the heart of Dorchester’s shooting gallery, where he was welcomed by thunderous applause.

“This city works. The problem is you’re always seeing headlines about the bad news. I wish we had a good news newspaper. The Good News of Boston. The bad guys don’t control this city, they only control the headlines.”

Already facing a major embarrassment over the initiative of the Guardian Angels to come to Boston to do the job Menino refuses to do, the least Menino could do is recognize he’s let Boston deteriorate into a crime-plagued city.

UPDATE: The Guardian Angels blog at the Boston Herald…

A teen was shot dead in the street outside a Roxbury middle school yesterday afternoon in a blast of gunfire that sent terrified kids and grown-ups scattering for cover. 

Cedric Steele, 18, was hit by at least six of nine bullets fired outside his uncle’s corner store, across the street from Timilty Middle School, at 3:53 p.m., roughly half an hour before students were dismissed from the school’s extended-day program.

Steele’s 12-year-old cousin didn’t see the shooting but heard the shots and ran outside her Centre Street home to find his bloody, bullet-riddled body.

“I seen my cousin . . . all shot up,” said the girl, as her mother rubbed her back to comfort the child. “I ran upstairs to get some towels for him, but the police wouldn’t let me touch him.”

Is Menino ever going to admit his gun buyback program was a total failure?

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.

And it’s going to get worse.

As the Hub prepares for even more violence in the wake of the death of Jahmol Norfleet, the 20-year-old, “a Roxbury gang leader turned peacemaker,” it’s time to recognize the reality of what’s happening in Boston and start demanding action from Mayor Menino. Gun violence was not stifled as a result of Menino’s pet program. Sure, at the time it was good publicity for him, but we need to move forward and actually do something about the problem.

But if there’s any silver lining for Menino, it’s that come January, the quagmire in Boston won’t just be his problem, it will be his to share with Deval Patrick, who campaigned on lies and distortions about the number of police on the streets, and the overall crime situation in our state, and blaming Mitt Romney and Kerry Healey for all things wrong.

Well, there’s not going to be a Republican governor anymore to be the perfect scapegoat… Menino and Patrick will have to do something about violent crime in Boston. No more excuses, no more pointing fingers, no more gimmicks… from either of them.

David “Pablo” Robinson was killed in a hail of gunfire shortly after 12:30 a.m. near the intersection of School and Weld streets, making him the city’s 60th homicide this year, two more than at the same time last year, when the city had a 10-year high in slayings, police said. 

He was pronounced dead at Brigham and Women’s Hospital yesterday.

Police said they had no suspects in the shooting and declined to comment on a possible motive.
Gloria Robinson , his mother, said she believes he was wrongly targeted.

“He was a person without any malice. He wouldn’t harm anyone,” she said .

As the number of murders spiked this year, Robinson said she pleaded with her son to be careful.
“He would say, `Don’t worry. I don’t have problems with anybody,’ ” she said.

Wake up, Mayor Menino, crime and murder is out of control in your city. Your gun buyback program obviously did nothing to stop or slow gun violence, so when are you going to do something that will actually solve the problem!?!?!?

UPDATE: This may be a start…

Police found a man shot to death late Monday night inside a car a block from Ronan Park in Dorchester, marking the city’s 59th murder this year — and the fifth in the last six days.

The unidentified man was discovered by Boston Police around 11:39 p.m. at Fox Street and Mount Ida Road. Nearly three days earlier, a 23-year-old man was gunned down in the same neighborhood in Dorchester as he entered Gigi’s bar on Bowdoin Street, which a family member owns.

The string of homicides has again left the community reeling and police searching for suspects. Last Wednesday night, an East Boston High School student was shot to death at a T bus stop in Mattapan. The following night, a Roslindale man was stabbed to death on Hyde Park Avenue. Then, early Friday morning, a 28-year-old Dorchester man was gunned down on Stanwood Street — less than a mile away from where the 23-year-old man was shot to death early Saturday at the bar.

While crime statewide is down, Boston, under the leadership of Mayor Menino, has seen its homicide rate go up. Deval Patrick supporters may attempt to blame the latter on the Romney/Healey Administration, but the truth is, this is Menino’s problem. He thought his gun buyback program would work. It didn’t.

Menino rushed to the spotlight when Boston went a whole two weeks without a murder, but after five murders in six days, he’s not talking about crime, or his failed gun buyback program… instead his issue of the moment is free WiFi in Roxbury.

His constituents are getting killed on a daily basis, but at least they have wireless internet… right?