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$26-million program to fight crime along Blue Hill Avenue
By adamg on Thu, 12/04/2008 - 7:47am
The Globe gets the scoop on the Boston Foundation's project to reduce violent crime in several hot spots along the road through "violence interrupter" street workers and job, education and mental-health programs targeted at more than 6,000 at-risk people up to age 24 - teens in gangs or DYS programs, drug dealers, pregnant teens and runaways.
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Comments
It's not a money problem.
It's a morality (or lack thereof) problem.
You cannot buy or sell moral values any more than you can legislate common sense. Which means, of course, that the City of Boston, will continue to do both with immeasurable vigor and determination.
The real moral problem
Poverty.
Of course, it is so much easier to be "moral" and grow up to be "moral" and remain "moral" when there are supporting resources for your morality. Not necessarily material resources, but resources nonetheless.
This plan seems geared to provide some of those resources using pretty much road-tested (or would that be street-tested) methods.
Being Poor = Moral Degradation?
Sorry. I don't buy it (unless you're claiming that most of the criminals are Jean Valjean types, stealing bread to feed their familes.)
Barring the type of crime some might classify as victimless (prostitution, drug use), most crime involves a lack of a sense of value concerning other people and their property. Maybe I'm in the minority, Swirly, but I believe that poverty is rarely an excuse for moral turpitude.
Resources are not non-existent. There are plenty of clergy, as well as other good people not affiliated with religion, ready and willing to mentor and guide youth in every community. Very few of those people are asking for money for their services, so poverty isn't an excuse.
That said, the combination of IGNORANCE & POVERTY may be an excuse. If folks are unaware of the resources available to them, then that's a problem. If this addresses a lack of knowledge, more power.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Try Again
Poverty is a moral problem - for an entire society.
Being poor doesn't make you immoral. It does, however, subject you to judgements about your morality, that's for sure! Funny how people that eat crap all day or starve themselves for fashion will point to the immoral eating habits of "those people" etc.
Poverty is often much more than a lack of material resources - it often means a lack of human resources for younger people in particular, usually as a result of either parents who have to work nearly every waking hour or parents who are too messed up to do their jobs.
Go read up on Marky Mark and how his parents worked all the time and had a zillion kids and never had time to know or care where they were - and where that led him before he got his clue. Its an old story, really, except he survived it and pulled himself out. That's a form of poverty that the program seems intended to address.
Did I Say That?
"Being poor doesn't make you immoral."
I don't believe anyone here said that being poor makes you immoral. I know I certainly didn't.
And, yes, poverty is a moral problem. Being a moral problem, it is up to each of us to assess what he/she feels should be done to correct it. One thing I believe would help the problem is to stop making excuses for the criminal elements in the poorer neighborhoods. Doing so does an injustice to the good folk - you know, the ones who are poor but who don't rape, rob, murder, etc.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Reread your "question" Suldog
Was your header.
My clarification for what you may/may not have misunderstood in your original post:
I never said that being poor made one immoral, and neither did you. I was concerned that you misunderstood my post and tried to clarify. My point here, in response to Bruce, was that what we often think of as "moral" has a hell of a lot more to do with "what people in our social class can accomplish much more easily" than with "morality = universal set of behaviors" per se.
As somebody who has studied poverty within a health context, I get tired of the problems of poverty being cast as a matter of willpower and character rather than circumstance and resources, which then renders people living with the consequences of poverty as conveniently (for Bruce, anyway) undeserving of aid.
Being Poor = Moral Degradation? Was your header.
"Sorry. I don't buy it." was my immediate answer to the question I posed.
OK, so that's settled. We both believe that it doesn't equal moral degradation :-)
You're giving "poverty" a much broader definition than that which it normally has, IMVHO. Also, "morals", for that matter. If we aren't using the same definitions, then we're likely to continue having an argument.
My contention is that a lack of money is not an excuse for behavior which harms others. Further unto that, I believe that making it an excuse for such behavior tends to exacerbate societal problems. Do you disagree with me?
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
interesting back-and-forth.
interesting back-and-forth. I think I'm riding with suldog on this one, for a change. while i agree that my definition of poverty includes a lack of resources and access, i don't think it is inherently tied to being immoral. Excuses are excuses. Right is right and wrong is wrong. If you don't know right from wrong, then that goes back to education/ignorance. And regardless of poverty of condition of the schools, knowing the difference is a universal principle.
Poverty and morality
No poor person caused the current economic crises. A lot of insufficiently ethical rich people did.
That's different
Steal five bucks and you might get bail.
Steal five billion bucks and you might get a bailout.
Woohoo! 26 million worth of
Woohoo! 26 million worth of bulldozers to tear down the ghetto, huzzah! Send them all to Somerville to work on the new Ikea palace!
Tomorrow's scandal
This will attract a number of charlatan "community leaders" and patronage-seeking pols. It's another trough to feed at.