Another Success Story Of Menino’s Gun Buyback Program…
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?
Violent Crime Up 11% In Hub
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.
Menino’s Quagmire in Boston
It’s been several months since Mayor Menino’s gun buyback program… and let’s face it, after all the fan-fare and publicity ended, the violence did not.
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.
Attention Target Shoppers: Boston’s 60th Homicide
The Boston Globe reported today that “A 19-year-old Roxbury man who promised his mother he would not become a victim of the city’s increasing violence died on Washington Street yesterday after being shot multiple times…”
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…
Attention Target Shoppers: Five Murders In Six Days In Boston
Things continue to get worse in Menino’s city.
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?
