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Walsh vows to stop gang war that has now claimed four lives

Mayor Marty Walsh said tonight that murders over the past nine days in Dorchester and Mattapan are all likely part of the same gang feud - and he vowed to stop it now:

This time last year, Boston had seen 15 shootings and 2 gun fatalities. Since January 1st of this year, we have seen 13 shootings and 8 gun fatalities.

The last four shootings are likely related, and are a combination of gang violence and retaliation. It is the understanding of the Boston Police Department that there were prior relationships between the victims and the suspects. ...

In the coming days, I will be convening several groups to discuss actions we can take in several of the areas that I discussed with Commissioner Evans and his Command Staff. We will work with all levels of government, law enforcement, and the community to reduce the trauma in our neighborhoods, get guns off the street, and address the underlying causes of violence.

While there is no single solution, improving public safety is among my highest priorities. This kind of violence cannot become commonplace; we should be shocked every time we hear of another shooting, of another death in our community.

1/27/14 - 2:45 am Two shot dead in Mattapan 92 Rosewood St. Mattapan
1/26/14 - 9:50 pm Man shot to death outside Ashmont convenience store 1186 Dorchester Ave. Dorchester
1/24/14 - 6:25 pm Man shot to death in Dorchester 82 Callender St. Dorchester
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Comments

Won't do a damn thing since the robe wearing bozos on the bench will let the gangbangers off with a slap on the wrist at sentencing.

People engage in this behavior because the consequences are a joke to them.

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I don't get it.. They say prisons are over crowded but no shit all states say that yet in South Carolina if u rob someone or shoot someone it's 25 years in an "overcrowded prison". Why can't MA punish bad people like other states do? I really don't get it. I give up. Like why.......

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Mandatory minimums, long sentences, jail time for non-violent crime -- these policies aren't working and they are expensive for taxpayers. Even Texas has reformed criminal justice to reduce prison populations and improve outcomes. I hope folks who are interested in the issue and have a clue in the head post more info about the new direction in criminal justice. I'm glad to see candidates for governor are focused on this issue, too.

Regarding gang violence in Boston, there's an initiative called Cure Violence that's being used in Chicago and Baltimore that the Dept of Justice and Johns Hopkins Dept of Public Health say is working www.cureviolence.org.

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Thank you for posting these, I'm trying to compile research on what resources are available for victims of violence and have found the links very, very helpful.

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Really? Your comment received 21 "thumbs up" in two hours?

WTF people.

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It might be one of the old "Herald Thummers". They'd post something stupid and then log in with multiple browsers/users to give themselves lots of "thumbs ups", while thumming down everyone else. The Herald recently switched to Discus for their comments, which makes it more difficult for those people to continue doing that. Maybe he's trying to do it here out of frustration.

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with this sw it's relatively easy to vote multi times (however i just went back and erased the 10 word explanation - no need to enable more vote inflation).

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While the brush of the poster may be overly broad I believe there are specific examples one can point to of a Massachusetts judge who is far too lenient on the bench - regardless of one's political leanings or feelings on the justice system. Just a simple search of such news stories points to at least dozen judges over the past decade who have been blasted in the papers [the Globe as well as the Herald] for issues of perceived or real leniency.

I think the problem is somewhat exaggerated as there are not countless numbers of people roaming the street with criminal records. And for every story of a case where a judge seemed too lenient in the sentencing there are many more cases you don't hear about because they were not perceived as lenient. But you can also find many examples of people who are arrested for a crime in Boston where it turns out they are a repeat offender. For that person to be repeat offending, and still be under the age of 50, probably means some sort of light or suspended sentence for their previous crime.

There is also the frustration brought upon the entire system, thanks to the foibles of one state chemist.

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From UHub:

http://www.universalhub.com/crime/20110306-da-violent-criminal-released-...

http://www.universalhub.com/2013/da-man-out-bail-gun-charge-when-he-shot...

These are just 2 I found in 10 seconds of searching the archives. This state has a serious disconnect between gun violence, socioeconomics, and the judiciary.

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... high numbers of "thumbs ups" don't typically occur in a vacuum. The posters who frequent Universal Hub are much more engaged than that; they'll usually contribute some of their own thoughts to the discussion instead of merely thumming up a post.

I'm not sayin' it's impossible, and I can't say I completely disagree with the OP. There are a few more posts in the thread now, but at the time JohnAKeith mentioned it, it did seem rather odd as compared to the normal dialog flow here.

It's also a very negative post. Again, at Universal Hub, the posters tend to be more optimistic about life than that. When isolated posts do receive high thumb counts, they're usually about something positive. Voting up a negative without adding your own two cents seems out of character here. I don't need to mention that it's an anonymous unverified poster.

Of course, at Universal Hub, the richness of the discussions is what really matters; the "thumb count" is meaningless by comparison. However, it was something that was very important to the coprophagous readers of the Herald.

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You get a thumbs up just for using the word "coprophagous"!

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John, how many crime stories on here have been about people convicted of multiple serious felonies which have gone on to offend again? How many of those people seem to have done less than 10 years in prison based on their age? How many are given offensively low bail? District Attorneys' requests and recommendations are constantly ignored and the public pays the price for it.

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This kind of violence cannot become commonplace; we should be shocked every time we hear of another shooting, of another death in our community.

I'm glad he said it. I'll remain cautiously optimistic that he'll actually do something. It's too depressing to be cynical about this.

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Well, I also think that it's up to "the community" yes, that includes all of us but I'm pointing fingers at the people who live in the vicinity of where these shootings happened. Stop calling on someone else to "do something" and they, themselves, get out there and do something. Boycott the Tedeschi's that hosts the gangbangers until it closes; make sure you know where your kids are 24/7 (my parents are not the brightest bulbs, but somehow they were able to manage this) and make sure that they aren't just hanging out. Oh, and don't have more kids than you have the resources to raise.

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In the coming days, I will be convening several groups to discuss actions we can take in several of the areas that I discussed with Commissioner Evans and his Command Staff. We will work with all levels of government, law enforcement, and the community to reduce the trauma in our neighborhoods, get guns off the street, and address the underlying causes of violence.

Yes, and that was also in the statement. I don't see anything wrong with getting outside help and resources when it's gotten too out of control to address it all from within. We're dealing with generations of crime and criminal mindsets, here. I grew up and was friends with people who went a totally different (wrong) direction, and it's mind boggling to me how stuff that has me clutching my pearls is completely normal to them. And some of them had parents who at least seemed as decent as mine. For whatever reason, the incentive to do wrong outweighed their parents.

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Yesterday Judge Dennis Saylor in federal court stated 'There is a culture of violence in this city but that doesn't give you a license to go out and shoot somebody. Another judge from the burbs who passes judgement on urban dwellers who are trying to make the city a better place to live

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Umm...maybe you can provide some context? Because the judge's statement looks otherwise rational.

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"Place to live..." by shooting other people? Huh? Um, no thanks.

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Looks like the remaining gangbangers over last year are better shots. Must be survival of the fittest.

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