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Dorchester resident to Menino: J'accuse
By adamg on Sun, 05/10/2009 - 8:27pm
Bobby Constantino cannot believe that Tom Menino keeps saying he knows all the neighborhoods when teens like Soheil Turner keep getting gunned down, in fact, he says Menino should resign:
... You fell asleep. You gave up on [violence prevention], and the whole thing fell apart. A report out of Harvard is the smoking gun proving that the City of Boston let the success of the Boston Miracle fall through the cracks without even putting up a fight. As infighting and egos in the police department and clergy circles threatened to undermine the whole thing, you just let the whole thing slip away. I just cannot believe this, Mr. Mayor. I cannot believe it.
And I cannot believe that after all of this, you have the nerve to say that you understand this city. The facts are rather simple: You didn't understand that if left alone the problem of violence would come right back once everyone got out of jail and the same old problems plaguing the same old neighborhoods remained unsolved. You didn't understand this then, Mr. Mayor, and you don't understand it now.
How do I know this? I know this because we are back to where we started, with innocent 15-year-olds en route to school getting killed on busy streets in broad daylight, where witnesses are scared to come forward because they don't trust the police, where orders for the police to bang guys against cars and go through their pockets have only created more complaints against police and further exacerbated widespread mistrust and hostility towards law enforcement and the court system. ...
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Comments
I heard this too - a couple of years ago
I heard this exact claim from an upper level law enforcement officer about 2-3 years ago - not BPD. Was told that Boston had a system that was working and a combination of politics, turnover, "I didn't think of it" attitude led them to drop the statistical crime tracking the city was doing and he said - watch out - we're going have a repeat of what happened 10-15 years ago as a result. I truly believe the mayor cares (how can you not) - but it does sound like a lack of stewardship at some level is leading us back to a very scary future.
Another reason why people are afraid to come forward:
Another reason that frequently stops people who've witnessed and/or been victims of crimes from coming forward are well-founded fears of reprisal against them, their families, or even their property.
lol, you "heard this?" You
lol, you "heard this?" You have a "source?"
Everyone in the area since at least has known since the late 90s that the situation would explode again when people started getting out of prison.
Worst Practices
This isn't a problem confined to Boston - the entire political culture of Massachusetts seems to be fundamentally infected with not just an innability to understand best practices management in civil administration, but a total resistance to even learning or attempting to employ best practices.
Sure, there are pockets here and there where sense and reason in city management have proceeded - Cambridge and Somerville seem to have leapfrogged Boston - but the entire state is infected with this paralytic foolishness known as patronage government. Don't let the real professionals with departmental knowledge and subject matter understanding run key departments, just install your friends. Then kick the legs out from underneath any oversight and call it "budget cutting". Yeah!
The entire mess is abetted by the ancient and backward dumping of all money into a single pot and letting the legislature mete it out on a yearly basis. Several states, like Washington state, abandoned this same arrangement after catastrophic losses of bridges and massive budget fail resulted. Massachusetts can't seem to learn the same lesson.
Unless and until the excessive appointments are curtailed and budgets for critical programs are linked to specific levies and planned on a multi-year basis, the problems are just going to intensify.
Excellent letter
The Bay State Banner editorial that Bobby Constantino links to is just as clear in its call for Menino to step down.
I don't hate Menino, but it's time for him to go. Unfortunately, none of the other current candidates excites me -- McCrae and Yoon have good ideas but are too inexperienced; Flaherty is just another pol. I could see supporting Mike Ross, but he's not in, and probably not interested.
Paul Levy, on the other hand, is a great intellect with experience and success in running a large and diverse operation under regulatory and fiscal restraints, which is way more than the others can say. Plenty of contacts in the business, academic and medical cabals, as well. Shall we draft him?
Sticker Campaign
At this point it would be pretty much impossible to put someone on the ballot (I'm guessing you can still pull papers - but you need to get 3000 mayoral signatures by I think next Friday).
If you're going to draft someone - need to do it fast. Otherwise it's a sticker campaign and you had better have deep pockets because if you are not on the ballot you won't even get invited to the debates meaning media is your only way to get your message out.