By Brian Denitzio and Patrick McGroarty
Reporter Staff

The first month of summer in the neighborhood was dominated by news of both rising crime rates and of the increasing efforts officials and activists were making to change that trend. During the last two weeks, the Reporter reached out to local politicians, community activists, and neighborhood residents in search of concrete solutions to the problem.

Over 40 respondents offered their support, their thoughts and opinions culled from press conferences, and public meetings, phone conversations and written statements. Some of those responses have been edited for length, and they appear at random on the pages that follow.

Andrea Kaiser
Executive Director, Bird Street Community Center

"[Grants from the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office] are offered each summer to stave off violence, and one way is to keep community centers open later. Kids just don't feel safe. After the murder [of Alex Mendes on May 8], kids weren't coming to the centers. They were afraid to leave their houses. We heard from the neighborhood that there's no place to go other than basketball games. If that's not your thing, you need a place to go. We're also employing 96 kids; we have 35 slots from the mayor's program, and over 60 slots from our own funding.

"There will be classes, and the pool tables will be operating. We have some new video games and board games. The kids can come here and talk, they can feel safe.

"Asset-based employment is also huge. If kids from Wellesley take an unpaid job that offers some job training, they're fine with that," said Kaiser. "But kids here aren't buying sneakers with the money they earn, they're giving it to their parents. There's a difference between getting a job sweeping streets and getting asset-based training to find a better job, or be exposed to college for the first time."

Barry Mullen
Founder, Florida Corridor Crime Watch

"My big thing is getting more cops out on the streets. We mailed a letter to the mayor asking him to bring us some concrete solutions to getting more cops on the street. The mayor has been screaming partnerships, but we've done our part, now they need to do their part. In the last six crime watch meetings I've organized, community service officers have been to two.

"Lawyers are told me that I have a strong suit if we can prove that we're personally effected by the crime. How much more effected could I be than lying in bed wondering what kid was going to get killed next in the neighborhood? How much more could you be effected than by losing brothers and sons? The city pushes after school programs, gun buybacks and the like, but it's not working. We need to do something different."

Tina Chery
Co-founder, Louis D. Brown Peace Institute

"Is the gun buyback successful? I guess it is. But what do we do with the child we took the gun away from? What are we doing for the families of people who turn guns in?

"I think this year, we have to shift the message. Every year we talk about the problem, and there are so many people in the community doing the right thing. But, as police say, it's one small portion of kids that are troublemakers. We take away from those doing the right thing. So maybe the media can help us in shifting that mindset and making it look like life in Dorchester is about more than just violence. We can balance the view to show people that the violence is there, but something is being done. In the midst of violence and pain and suffering, the media can show that people are promoting peace."

Related: Peace institute volunteers see struggles, hope in life on neighborhood's streets

Captain John Greland
Boston Police Department's C-11 Commander

"When you trace a gun, you can probably go back and find the original buyer, but it's all legwork after that."

"It's not like there's a database of this information. Part of the problem is that some states around here, their gun laws are not as stringent. It's too easy to go up, get a gun, and bring it back. We need more stringent, uniform laws throughout the country. I think, as a citizen, it's going to have to be a national move to get other states on board. What's the sense of really strong laws if you can just pay someone to go to another state and get a gun?"

"The push is on. People are looking for solutions. But crime is a mindset. How do you chance a mindset? We're dealing with individuals who can't see past their noses, can't see tomorrow, the repercussion of their actions."

Sam Yoon, At-large City Councillor

"There are three essential ingredients: leadership, resources, and a plan. I think the leadership is here in this city. We've solved this problem before. But I don't think the resources have been committed and there's a real stark absence of a plan.

"If we want to make a short-term impact on the trends in violence, then you've got to focus on the kids who are offending, and they are small in number and known by name. "We have to pour our resources into preventing those kids from committing crimes; into policing, street workers, prosecutors, and parole officers.

"Of course, we need resources for kids in a second category, those at risk, as well.

"(Councillor Michael) Ross' report recommends taking money out of the city's $56 million cash reserve. In the last fiscal year, the city decided to spend $20 million from that fund. This year, they only decided to spend $8 million. That tells me that in this extraordinary circumstance, we need to be willing to spend to stop the violence. We ought to target our summer jobs to kids who are at risk of leading a life of crime."

Stephen Murphy At-large City Councillor

"We need more summer jobs, more programs for youth. The city needs to hire more police. I'm applauding the mayor, but I think we need more than 140. I think we need at least 200 new police officers on the streets. But of course that's a problem every year. There's only so much wheat in the barrel. With the reserve funding, that has to be distributed wisely, but with the problems we're having now, the bond rating has to take second place to providing everybody the necessary public safety. And I think they need to have a presence in the schools, as well. We should bring the Scared Straight program back, where we brought kids into the house of corrections and let them see what it's like in there. We know there are only about 300 real troublemakers, and they should be rounded up and taken out of general population. I think we need families to stand up and be families, to know what their 10 and 12 year olds doing. Too much of the burden falls on society because of the lack of family. And it would be nice if colleges and universities would step up and offer to be mentors for some of these kids, to steer them away from gangs and peer pressure."

Felix Arroyo At-large City Councillor

"The most important principle in combating violence is working together. Unless the community, youth, the police, and policy makers really listen to one another, tensions will continue to rise and nothing will change.

"With the rise in violence, I have been working on a variety of projects that I hope will bring about change. I hosted a public hearing on youth violence for young people and youth workers. I worked with the administration to create a permanent Summer Jobs Task Force. I am currently working on improving relations between the police and young people through community dialogs and the creation of a Civilian Review Board for the Boston Police Department. We have to study what works in other cities and not be afraid to adopt the best ideas in Boston."

Joel Abrams
CEO, Dorchester House

"If you could triangulate safety, clinical treatment, and prevention, community health centers would be right in the center of that vector. We are both concerned about and involved with all three of those issues. First and foremost we are providers of clinical services. We can't immediately treat the wounds from shootings or stabbings, but ultimately we may be seeing some of those people in continued treatment. Concretely, what we can do is reduce the impact of violence on the people we treat and the people who work at our health centers. We have many patients who are affected directly, either physically or psychologically. We have experience using treatment to help those suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome, and we should not see the impact of violence on peoples' lives here as very different.

"Domestic violence is another form we confront and treat with mental health resources as well as concrete social services. There are people who are mentally ill who commit violence. There are others who have been victimized and turn into a perpetrator through wanting revenge.

"The other thing health centers can concretely do is look at the spectrum of activities we have beyond treatment. Most have public health programs and youth programs well beyond the medical model. Kids have got to be offered good alternatives to lure them away from really anti-social behavior."

Lieutenant Joe O'Connor
MBTA Police Commander for Area 3

"I don't think we can paint with a broad brush what the problems are, we need to look at specific areas. At [the JFK T station], it was not any one group that solved the problem. We got together with the community, the transit police as well as the Boston police and worked together. We got people to improve the area with lighting and call boxes, and now there is an awareness of how to contact the police.

"We have a very close relationship with C-11, with Captain Greland and the officers there. We have to keep communication open with police agencies and know that we are in this long term.

"I think we have to work together with people in the neighborhoods, with the T, with neighborhood associations; we have had a lot of success lately with crime on the T but we know we are in it for the long haul."

Charles Yancey
District Four City Councillor

"We have to start with the resources at our disposal. We should reallocate and redeploy our police, to give a semblance of order and safety to people. Those police officers assigned to the districts must be part of that community in that they respect people and are held accountable.

"Last year C-11 suffered 22 percent of homicides for the whole city, but was assigned only 8 percent of police. I believe that has to change.

"I would employ a lot more young people reaching out to other young people. We do a very poor job providing young people with career options and educational opportunities.

"We have to help them so they're not caught up in destructive activities.

"I would also increase the diversity of our city workers. In many departments, they do not even come close to representing the make-up of the city of Boston. There are many departments where the top paying positions are 100 percent white. We have 11 police districts and until a few months ago, all the captains were white.

"I also think the community can do a lot more. One of the reasons my book fair is a success is because it's a genuine community effort. I believe we should invest more in education. We should build a new high school. We should do what we can to decrease class size. I would rather make that investment than pay $35,000 to $40,000 a year to incarcerate someone.

Jack Hart
State Senator, First Suffolk

"We need to say collectively that what's happening is unacceptable. We need to take a zero tolerance approach and we're willing to partner with the mayor on that.

"We need more police officers, and I think we could have them if we returned to neighborhood schools. That would free up $30 million in transportation costs from the budget, and allow us to hire 300 new police officers. Not only would that help get more officers on the street, but neighborhood schools become a piece that builds the fabric within a neighborhood.

"We've developed a $475 million economic stimulus package that will create 100 to 150 jobs over the next 10 to 15 years through investments made around the Commonwealth. For local kids, that means that in the coming months we'll be offering job training and workforce development grants to young men and women interested in developing a trade skill or gaining employment. The hope is to send a message to thugs, who are in the minority, not to let a small group of people ruin our city."

Marie St. Fleur
Fifth Suffolk State Representative

"We have been here before, most recently in the 1990s. We in Boston are only too familiar with the tragic effects of gun violence in our neighborhoods. Yet it is precisely because we have faced this problem successfully, that we know what we have to do to stop it again. Hiring more Boston police officers is only a part of the solution. We must also work in closer collaboration with our other law enforcement organizations such as the MBTA, Housing and State Police, as well as the District Attorney's office. Since so many guns on Boston's streets come from out of state, we must have help from our federal agencies such as Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the US Attorney's office. They all have an immediate role to play in crime prevention and investigation.

"We must re-establish the kinds of partnerships that worked in the '90s. Unfortunately, after our efforts started to bear fruit, we slipped into a sense of complacency. I'm working with my colleagues and many residents to find innovative long-term solutions. In the budget that will go into effect in July, I have fought hard for funding for unique programs like ROCA, which has successfully challenged gang involved youths to turn their lives around, and for the Safe Neighborhoods Initiative, a comprehensive approach to stemming violence through law enforcement and community action around issues of crime, economic development and substance abuse. I am also working to get money to help former inmates successfully re-enter society with job and life skills that will make them less likely to re-offend. We must empower parents with the knowledge and skills to successfully fight the lure of the gang involved life that is often glorified by the entertainment industry. Finally, we must work to reduce dropout rates by delivering quality education to all students."

Father Daniel Finn
Pastor St. Mark's Parish

 "Everybody has to have a part in it: the Church, of course, the civic, and the police. I think since it is mostly happening among young people it is critical to have after school programs, like St. Peter's has an after school program operating from 5 to 10 p.m. Participating any night there might be about 75 kids.

"At a time when I think the federal government is cutting these programs, I would like to replicate here at St. Mark's what is happening at St. Peter's.

"And at the Boston Youth Catholic Connection, we are trying to give the youths a wider experience of the Church to build relationships.

"The more that we can have safe places for youth to gather and meet and reflect on how they want to be a part of the solution, not the adult community deciding for them, but have them be proactive themselves. I know our youth want to be instruments of peacemaking. And I think the Church is a part of that."

Kevin Barry
Florida Corridor Activist

"Some of the violence can be stemmed through positive reinforcement through the media. Look at the gun buyback program as a recent example. There is constant media attention. The churches talk about it and put signs in their windows. There are huge billboards around town. I believe that there should be mandatory public service announcements on TV and radio and in the press where the government can broadcast positive messages to teens. The power of marketing through media is at the cornerstone of commerce in society.

"I believe that the police force needs to be more diverse, to more closely represent the neighborhoods that it serves. Having officers who are representative of the neighborhoods provides role models for the youth and gives them someone of their own background who understands the nuances of various ethnic groups."

Marlea Mesh
Tuttle-Hartland Neighborhood Watch

 "I don't know if crime watches are the answer, but it makes me feel safer. I think it helps because if you live in a neighborhood, and you know who your neighbors are, you can't help but feel a little more comfortable there. So if you see someone you don't know, it alerts you, it makes people watch out for each other just in a natural fashion. It will help you identify people who you think shouldn't be there.

"But the stuff we are dealing with now is so much bigger than this &endash; the shootings &endash; someone needs to tell them that's not the way to solve a problem. 

"I think that they made a huge mistake when they eliminated the youth officers on the street, that's part of the problem, there is nothing for that age group when they start getting into trouble at 14, 15,16. Once they hit 13 there is nothing, so you have kids that age home alone, and their parents working, and what are they going to do stay inside all day?"

Maureen Feeney
District Three City Councillor

"We need a multi-pronged attack on the violence affecting so many of our friends and neighbors. We have forgotten the lessons of the recent past when a broad approach encompassing the police, neighborhoods, schools, churches, and social service agencies resulted in a dramatic decrease in violence. However, no matter how widely based our crime fighting efforts, many of these initiatives need time to take root and have a long-term impact. Because of this, our most immediate need is an aggressive response by the police and the courts to identify troublemakers, make arrests when appropriate, and incarcerate when necessary. Increasing the number of police officers is mandatory. Summer jobs for kids can bring some relief by keeping our young people occupied and out of harm's way. Quieting the streets as quickly as possible can allow time for other longer term efforts to take hold and have an impact."

Bob Scannell,
Director, Colonel Daniel Marr Boys and Girls Club

 "We fight crime with having 700 to 800 kids in here, and we run Safe Summer streets from 5 to 11 p.m. at night. Our goal is to get the kids in here where they aren't likely to be involved in stupid things. We like to give them a safe haven. Our kids come from a lot of places, we've done extensive outreach in the neighborhoods, and as a result teenagers will be coming here this summer.

"We are also able to get kids out of the city. In August we are sending 150 kids to Maine for a week of camp. In the last week of August we will send 100 kids to Disney World in Florida, and I feel fortunate to be able help send kids out of the city."

Michael Flaherty
City Council President

"In 2003 I called for more money to be directed to our community health centers because I think this is as much a public health issue as it is a public safety issue. Apart from meeting with our community health centers and with youth from around the city to learn about the issues contributing to the violence, I have worked to take dangerous weapons off our streets, close gun loopholes, and add more police and jobs for youths in this year's budget.

"I am currently working with our Mayor, neighborhood leaders, clergy, youth, the private sector and the media to put forth a new anti-violence message for this summer. The message features Kai Leigh Harriot to put a face on all the nameless victims of gun violence.

"We are not going to arrest or 'summer job' our way out of this crisis. Dealing with gun violence and substance abuse is going to take a sustained, multi-pronged effort. Let us also not forget nor diminish the role of parents, grandparents and neighbors in helping to raise children. Accountability, leadership and discipline begin in the home and are needed to ensure our young people develop into healthy and happy adults. That said, I look forward to having a hearing on how we can better help parents during these challenging times."

John Barros
Executive Director, Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative

"The strategy that all the youth say is the number one strategy is to continue to find more jobs for youth. Any positive activity is welcome, but a lot of these youths are under financial pressures, given their circumstances at home, given their own needs. Even when you look at poverty rates among kids in the urban setting it tells the story of why youth are in this situation. The thing that we need to do more of is as youth are working, to take the opportunity to develop skills and develop them as leaders and citizens that are ready to engage in positive change in their community. To employ them is not just about receiving a check, it has to be about the opportunity to learn and gain some discipline."

DSNI has also drafted a concept paper for a conflict resolution course at UMass-Boston that would offer some college credit to participants. The idea, he said, would be to expose kids with experience on the streets to life in a college setting.

Hiep Chu
Executive Director, Viet-AID

"I think we need to do more as parents. Parents generally overlook their teenagers in terms of what they do; they expect they will behave well, but in the meantime a lot of teens do not enroll in summer programs and they lack supervision.

"Two, neighbors generally need to be tighter in terms of relationships. Everybody should watch out for everybody else. The whole neighborhood crime watch is great. If a kid is in their backyard and they see someone next door who shouldn't be there, they can call the police because they have a relationship with that neighbor and know something is wrong.

"The third thing has more to do with guns. Somehow, someway, we have too many guns in the hands of people in general. I do believe in freedom, but not to have guns, from my personal perspective. The number is too many out there. But I do hear that the buyback has been very successful."

Stanley Pollack,
Executive Director, Teen Empowerment

"Youth leadership is a priority in changing the behavioral patterns, cultural patterns. That leadership was in place in the 1990s. We need more youth leadership positions and comprehensive programming for youth. In the 1990s we had MCAS support programs, and many other programs of substance that have been cut. If you ask for street workers, then send them out with nothing to offer, what is that going to do? We need a comprehensive youth development strategy. For one third or one fourth of the money being called on for more police, you could have it. We've had a huge commitment from young people willing to do something in their community, and if you gave them a vehicle to do something useful, they would do it. That was our world in the late 1990s, a model that was abandoned in 2001, 2003, and guess what, the problem is back."

Dianne Wilkerson
State Senator, Second Suffolk

"If we want to make a list of things we can do almost immediately, we have to take it personally when we see people lifted up as workers of the Boston Miracle and say that we know there were others involved too. The danger is that the money follows that one person. Let him say what he's going to say. The danger is the money shift. The faith based initiative shift has been a wholesale failure, and I do not worry about lighting striking me when I say that. I do think that we have to have a different kind of relationship with the press. When I read this or that person was responsible for the Boston Miracle, I say, 'says who?' We're paying for our own silence. We didn't anticipate that the money would start following those people, and it's somewhere else in a place no one is responsible for. I call this man the drive-by preacher. He does damage. The 10-Point Coalition does some things well, but we get slammed for not asking questions. I think of the quote 'If you always do what you did, you always get what you always got.' If we're not doing what we did, we shouldn't be puzzled by not getting what we want."

Linda Dorcena Forry
Twelfth Suffolk State Representative

"On the immediate policing front, I will continue to work to direct more state police resources onto state-controlled roads and parks in Dorchester and Mattapan. Just this month, my colleagues in the Legislature and I appropriated additional monies to help beef up patrols along the Neponset Greenway, and at the soon-to-be-open Neponset II park.

"State police have jurisdiction on these parks right now and we have a responsibility to ensure that they are properly patrolled and policed. We need to have a zero tolerance for drug dealing, loitering, and disruptive behavior at our parks- both city and state- particularly now that the summer season is here, to ensure that they remain safe havens for all city residents. I think that the state needs to do all it can to take the burden off of the Boston police as they direct their primary resources onto the sections of our city most challenged by violent crime. In a more general sense, I am concerned that we are not sophisticated enough in the way we engage the survivors of violent crime. The best way to stop tomorrow's shooting is to solve the one that happened yesterday. In the aftermath of a violent attack or homicide, very often, relatives or friends of a victim grieve and react in a dangerous vacuum. Too often, a reckless retaliation comes next.

"We need to descend on a victim's family with a two-fold aim: To support that stricken household- and to stop that next crime from happening. Right now, that sort of response is left to under funded non-profits like the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute, who have trail-blazed in this area, but really don't have the resources that are required to do their job effectively.

"As a long-term strategy, whatever side of the political aisle we hail from, let's agree that we need to stop enabling administrations that eviscerate federal funding for community policing. For the last six years, the Bush administration and the Republican controlled Congress have done just that by zeroing out grants that helped Boston and other cities make such dramatic strides in the 1990s. It has crippled our ability to expand police forces at a time when we need it more. And that's not just a Boston problem. Violent crime is up- across the board- by five percent in American cities. Under Clinton-Gore, the dynamic was reversed. Appropriate resources came in to fund policing and we saw the results on the ground."

Andrea Cabral
Suffolk County Sheriff

"My end of it is where people are already, and what we do every single day is done within our inmate program and reentry program. Every person that leaves here with a better education or some vocational skills or support and services and an actual job, and we do get people actual jobs, is one less person out in the community feeling as though their choices are limited.

"A great deal of my effort goes into helping people who want to help themselves, and having good solid programming, We just started gender-specific programming because of our female offenders. Their needs have been ignored historically, but their numbers in the system are rising. My place is making sure that people who are being released from my facility are leaving here looking toward opportunities or a job, and have the skills to talk to an employer. My position is an illustration of what happens when things are not in place before people come to see me.

"There needs to be a strong focus on youth programs and alternatives for kids. Even before that, we need to look at what kind of support there is for parents who are raising kids and working. There are people who really do want to do better and be better role models for children. For the folks that want to make it better for themselves an their families, those resources do have to be there and there preventative effect is significant.

"We need to not be pennywise and pound foolish here. When we invest in these kinds of programs there are significant returns. We have the choice program, which is a trained cadre of corrections officers, who learn an entire curriculum around visiting the middle schools and the high schools, where they talk to kids about choices and self-esteem and understanding that even at a young age the choices you make can have significant consequences."

Mike Capuano
United States Congress, Eighth District

"The most important thing the citizens can do is to make sure that they have a crime watch and report things to the authorities, hopefully in an organized way. You can't wait until somebody else does it. You have to take action yourself, and there are limits to what you can do as a private citizen. You can make sure crime gets reported, you can make sure people have the courage and backing of their neighbors so they don't think they're alone."

Bob Constantino
Counselor, Madison Park High School, former A.D.A. in Roxbury

"A huge problem is funding. We don't want to sit around and toss about pie-in-the-sky ideas, but we do need a change in our thinking. What should be paramount to all of us is the lives of our young people, and if that is most important to us, we should be spending our money in a way that would save their lives and save money. I think the biggest problem is that we're doing just the opposite. Everything we're doing right now is reactionary, once it's too late to do anything but prosecute. Here we are spending money on getting guns off the street, which is obviously important, but why isn't it the case that we're spending money on the real problem of kids that have become so lost and inundated with street influence that they're killing each other? We have this sort of hardscrabble, ragged network of resources to help kids before they fall, and it's not that organized and it's not that efficient, and it's not too bureaucratic but once it's too late, once somebody's dead, once the trigger has been pulled, we have this enormous, daunting criminal justice system and one can't help but ask if our priority is saving young people before it's too late, why aren't we devoting that type of energy and that type of infrastructure to a system that will help them before they jump?

We have got to start heeding our constitutional mandate for character education. The single most significant thing wrong with our young people in the inner city is that many of our kids come from families that are struggling and deeply hurting. They don't have the resources to raise their children in an environment where so many other influences are at work.

"When the dissolution of the family unit has affected our young people the way it has, street influences take over.

"There's a huge chasm between middle and upper class in Boston and the people in the inner cities and I feel like a lot of young people in the inner city don't feel like they will ever be able to have access to the education, business community, and academic institutions. We need to reach out with loving arms to our young people."

Fernando Bossa
Groom-Humphrey Neighborhood Association

"Obviously money is the big one, from all the meetings that I've been to the resources are out there and everyone seems to be doing their job on services, yet still we have tons of families and tons of people who are suffering and getting caught between the cracks. We need to call on nonprofits, local businesses, faith based organizations, hospitals, community centers everything that we can tie on to come together to make these things work. We're all doing what we're supposed to be doing, but it just seems like there's not enough out there to cover for everybody."

Franco Marzo
Magnolia Street resident

"I don't think it's a problem right now that we need police, but right now the cops we have in this neighborhood are not doing their job. To me as a tax payer they're not doing their jobs. Whatever happened to police walking the streets? As a citizen living over here, we can't even walk outside.

"Police have to do their job in every small thing from public drinking to drugs, to double parking, until criminals know [there is a police presence]. Of course we need more police, but the police we have now, they have to do their jobs. It seems to me like the police are absent, it's only when we call them that they show up. The police are always in catch up; why aren't the police ahead of the game?"

Steve Leonard,
Former principal, Jeremiah E. Burke High School

"As each year of success went on a kind of attrition set in, little by little we got too confident, a little too cocky about how great we were doing saving the lives of children in Boston.

"Here we are in 2006 just about where we were in 1996. The number one thing is giving kids meaningful occupation; that they get paid to serve the community, some kind of student/youth work program.

"Also the YMCA, the Boys Club, Girl Scouts, all those places should put their heads together and find options for students other than getting in trouble and provide a safe environment where they can be their real selves.

"The one thing that I saw that really, really neutralized this gang business was the street worker program. The street workers were out there with the kids, with the gang members, with the non-gang members. They had a group of folks that really understood the world of the street. There was a peaceful truce situation and people started to have some rules when they engaged with each other.

"We have to be constantly vigilant, that's the order of the day, our children and their futures are too important to forget that. This is a cycle, and the cycle gets repeated under the same circumstances and same conditions every time and if we really are a people that learn from our mistakes, then the message should be very clear. We don't need to learn another thing to get this right, all we have to do is remember the lessons of the past."

Emmet Folgert (shown below with kids from DYC)
Director, Dorchester Youth Collaborative

"I think we've got to bring in that multi-agency task force&emdash;the State Police, the ATF&emdash; to shut down the shootings. That's strictly a short-term solution. There was a reason why we did it last year, the same reason we have to do it again: You start losing control. When crime becomes this high, it becomes the cause of future crime. We need to bring in a lot more resources than the city of Boston has to put a stopper on this. We need to make sure every kid has an opportunity to be diverted away from crime. That's the longer solution."

Davida Andelman
Bowdoin-Geneva neighborhood activist

"The climate is far different today than in the 1990s. It is amazing how easy it is for young people or anyone for that matter, to buy a gun. You begin to feel there are more people in the neighborhood with guns than without.

"We have had a successful gun buyback. But this is only for another two weeks. I feel it is like having a bake sale to raise funds for the military.

"Yes, we need the obvious, funds for violence prevention programs. Monies have been severely decreased by a change in federal, state and private foundation priorities. "Increased police presence; some things never change. However, what is really needed is: One, the Boston police need to get out of their cruisers and get to know people. I am tired of hearing nothing can be done about solving crimes because the Boston Police cannot get information. The only way to get important information is to make sure there is the basis of a relationship. Yes, it is a two way street. The first step needs to be getting the police out on the streets building relationships. Two, mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers, whoever in the family needs to do what one grandmother did. She went into the grandson's room took the gun and turned the weapon into the gun buyback. If there is someone in the household you know or suspect has a gun either tell the family member with the gun they cannot live in the house with the weapon or take the gun and turn it into the police."

Mamadou Ndiaye
Director, Log School

"Ideas for increasing and organizing a community presence: We want to increase and organize community presence. Two, We would like to have a hotline specifically for this area for community members who are aware of a problem and for parents who are intimidated by their children. We would like to have an outreach program created for parents who are concerned that their child is carrying a gun. The area needs more money and creative ways to increase programming for our youth. We feel the forced closing of schools at 1:30 is a big problem. We need the schools to stay open until 3:30 with programs for after school. We need schools and community centers to fully integrate violence prevention programming into their curriculum. We need more police presence, especially after a murder, to send a message that we are not going to give people free reign to do what they want. We need street workers to establish relationships with the young people and try to bring them into programs. We would like to have cameras set up on various corners."

Bill Walczak, CEO, Codman Square Health Center

"The last time this subject ran in the pages of the Reporter, my suggestion was an e-mail alert system that was implemented in July, 2004. Over the past year, E-Lert has been supplemented by additional e-mail alert systems in the St. Mark's, Adams, Freeport, and Fields Corner areas.  

"Recently, the Police Department started something called the 'Citizen Observer' which moves somewhat in this direction.  But, frankly, it isn't enough, and technology has advanced so much further that we ought to be looking at fully employing technology as a key element for all community policing strategies. Many people carry Blackberries and cell phones, giving them immediate access to information they wish to have.  Couldn't this be expanded to include knowledge that can prevent crime and/or allow residents to assist in solving crime?

"Last year, I witnessed a demonstration by Technology Bridge, a Savin Hill-based company which supplies wireless camera technology to local organizations.  From a simple hand-held Palm Pilot, a camera, located on a pole, was able to be moved in any direction to follow any action.  

"There are thousands of hidden cameras located everywhere.  But commonly they are used after a crime is committed. From E-Lert, I know that there are a limited number of spots in our communities that are the most dangerous.  We can do a much better job employing this technology to prevent crime.

"We can also send out warnings by text messaging to let people know when there are crime problems at certain locations.  We can extend E-Lert systems across the city, so that people know what is happening, and what they can do about it.  A few months ago, I witnessed a crime in my neighborhood and called the police department.  I had most of a license plate number and a make and model of the car that the perpetrators were in, but they drove off before the police arrived.  Imagine getting a text message asking to be on the lookout for that car and to call it in to the police department?  Before you say 'vigilante,' remember that the DC Area Snipers were only found after the police issued an alert to the community describing the car."

Larry Mayes
Boston's Chief of Human Services

"I think moving forward we have to do more in the public awareness, public information vein. It is completely shameful for anyone not to believe that public messages, be it entertainment, media, does not have an impact on people and what they do. You don't spend trillions of dollars on advertising unless it has some return. I would love to see moving forward, more public messages. Just this week, and we see it quite often, there was a young man, he was 15 in court on a gun charge. There was no parent there with him. This is an indicator that kids are left on their own, without proper mentoring. Who is helping them work through these choices? You're also dealing with the issue of parents of kids and the kids enjoying the same types of entertainment, to me that's a fairly new phenomenon. You look at some of the video games and how kids are spending their time. So how do you balance that with free enterprise versus the protection of children? There has to be a major discussion from a public policy perspective on the balance between free enterprise and protecting children."

Martin Walsh
Thirteenth Suffolk State Representative

"I think the situation today compared to three years ago is a lot different.

"There's obviously a lot more gun violence and access to drugs and I think they go hand in hand. What we really need is to get more street workers out on the street, and we need to educate younger people to take a more active role in trying to taking their neighborhoods back. I think street workers that come from hanging on the corner somewhere and can connect with the kids in a real way.

"I spoke this week at South Bay [prison]. There's over 195 people incarcerated there. There have to be people that have come out of jail, that have gotten sober, and put their life together that we can tap into and give them an employment opportunity.

"Ten years ago [violence] was over drugs and turf, now it's about kids dis-respecting each other and that's a lot deeper problem. We're not going to solve the problem by simply throwing money at the problem, we should throw it, don't get me wrong, but that's putting a band aid on a much deeper cut that's in need of stitches."

 Thomas Menino
Mayor of Boston

"The strategic crime council was formed six months ago to bring all different agencies together for one hour to talk about all strategies we're employing to make our city safer. It has a six-pronged approach: a legislative agenda, public health, law enforcement, community outreach, education and awareness, and judicial.

"We're working hard to put together tough national legislation. We have tough gun laws in Massachusetts, but people are going down south or to nearby states and buying guns and selling them here or using them as community guns.

"One of the things we need is for the community to get involved; everybody has a responsibility. It's expansion of the very effective crime watches we have in Boston. We need people to be the eyes and ears. It isn't about police officers on every street corner. Yes, we're putting more cops on the streets than we've had in seven years. That's what we need is more people telling us what's going on; there's a lot of eyes and ears out there."

Carlos Moreno, 18
Bowdoin-Geneva resident

"Things would get better if they didn't pay cops so much just to drive around in cars. I want to see more community policing, where cops talk to youths. A lot of kids don't trust them. If they sat down and talked to people one on one about their tactics and really built a relationship. I'd love to play baseball against or dunk over some police officers."