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Cruiser stolen, cops hit, shots fired

The crashed cruiser at JFK/UMass. Photo by Kevin Aries.

Rodriguez

A man apparently breaking into a car outside 97 Baxter Street in South Boston around 4 a.m. was interrupted by police officers, who began running after him.

He then jumped into one of their cruisers and floored it, hitting at least two of them, sending them to the hospital with minor injuries, a source says. They got off several shots at the fleeing car, but didn't hit him. A few minutes later, he crashed into a guard rail by the JFK/UMass T stop. Police then nabbed him, placed him under arrest and put him in another cruiser - in the back, in handcuffs.

UPDATE: Boston Police identify the suspect as Wilfredo Rodriguez, 37, of South Boston. He faces a variety of charges.

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Comments

We were awakened by the gunfire this morning. This neighborhood has too many drug addicts skulking around looking to steal others property. I see them everyday. This year around this neighborhood has been the most violent since busing days. It's a disgrace. I wish city hall could've done something a bit more proactive about this problem. It just seems we go from one community meeting to another and band-aid solutions that are OK for short term solutions. Enough.

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...because complaining about it on UHub is really going to help the situation.

"This year around this neighborhood has been the most violent since busing days."
(This shows that you know nothing about the history of your own neighborhood, so please make an attempt to educate yourself before making claims like these)

This story would not have involved violence had the police not let a thief run circles around them and successfully steal one of their cruisers... but that's beside the point. The main problem with your cry for help is that Broken Windows (no pun intended) style policing doesn't sit well with the families and friends of victims throughout Boston who are being shot on a weekly (sometimes daily) basis. Does some of this increasingly violent behavior stem from petty crime? Sure, but will increased efforts against the latter end the plague of violence? Most likely not, so what's the solution? I for one think there's very little that can be done about drugs, particularly in an urban area, however it is so painfully obvious that arresting low-level dealers does little or nothing to change the big-picture. Sure it takes one off the streets for now but there are plenty of others (who are probably younger and even more reckless) waiting to capitalize on the market. In my opinion a strong effort to reduce the market, though long-term, is the only feasible *solution; and it starts with education. Being properly educated lowers the likelihood of using hard drugs which will in turn lower future demand and create less of an opportunity to profit. Once the risk is no longer worth the reward violence used to protect such profits will decline.

*This solution ignores crimes of passion fueled by emotions such as pure hatred, revenge, and the kill-or-be-killed mentality. Call me a pessimist all you want but that type of violent behavior simply cannot be stopped by any law enforcement agency or social institution.

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Having lived here for over 50 years I do think I might know something about my neighborhood. Despite posting on UHub I have been involved in South Boston community affairs for many years. I'm not quite sure what you think is a solution. Education has been around for a long time. It doesn't seem to have worked around here too well. To be honest, I'm not sure what works. It seems much worse now than at any other time I can remember. There seems to me an over reliance on treatment. In too many cases it's not working. Hence, the incident this morning and the on going problem with burglary in our neighborhood. Lastly, I like many around here have had it with these problems. Drug related crime has been a major problem here. You're entitled to your opinion. I just think it's not the right one.

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If people wanted to stop crime in Southie they'd get their kids off drugs.

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If people wanted to shun you for making idiotic comments... I sure wouldn't stop them. Its not as easy as typing a UHub comment, the solution starts from the top not the bottom. Also, the majority of offenders aren't kids so lets leave parents raising kids in Southie (a dying art) out of this...

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So true I keep forgetting it's the kids from the ghetto coming to score heroin on Broadway....

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What is your definition of "ghetto"? You do realize that certain sections of Southie house some of the poorest residents in the city - black, white, a mix of many - right?

As a person who used to deal drugs, and a person who used to be hooked on cocaine (many years back, 80's and 90's, for those wondering) I can tell you that drug deals are made across the city, without any particular regard for geography or economics. If a fix is not available in one place, junkies are willing to travel. And any factor you wish to include in the equation - race or whatever else - will not matter to a person desperate to feed the monkey on his or her back. The bottom line is that it could be folks from your so-called "ghetto" coming to score on Broadway, or it might not be that. All sorts make up the totality of the problem.

Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com

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The education system in Boston hasn't worked... because it is subpar and neglects the ones who need it most (those who will grow up to be the dealers, junkies, gang members and senseless murderers of the future). Just because public education has "been around for a long time" (almost 400 years ago at BLS) doesn't mean it's not the solution. The current system has failed and we are now witnessing the results.

In regards to your statement about busing it just seemed misinformed because of the context. Comparing the racially motivated violence at that time to what's going on now is misleading to say the least. Violent crime is much worse now and it isn't being motivated by race so to say it "hasn't been this bad since busing" ignores how localized and focused that type violence was and conversely how widespread drug and gang violence is today.

Too much treatment isn't the issue, its the types of "treatment" we rely on all too often (anyone who regularly travels on Southhampton Street knows what I'm referring to). Regardless of whether you believe rehabilitative or punitive measures should be taken, pointing fingers at drug addicts for drug related crime issues is like blaming the piece of cat shit your dog just ate for being too irresistable.

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Not sure why people keep parroting that line. It is down. Boston is much less violent than it used to be, and so are most American cities.

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They may want to look elsewhere for overpriced condominiums.

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First an ambulance at BMC, now this.

Boston is becoming Los Santos.

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Yeah, I was thinking we ought to get these two together so they can jointly go after one of those long fire trucks.

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I loved him in Last of the Mohicans

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Well he looks like quite the charmer.

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antisocial behavior and crime. Also nothing new about treatment vs the criminal justice system, or a combination of both. Every public policy under the sun has been tried since the 60s -70s when this issue became a major problem along with urban decay.

Economics: We seem to be in a kind slow spiral of death / terminal decline economically and otherwise in this country. This has created a substantial under class and all the problems entails. Various powerful institutions,public and private, benefit $-wise from this problem underclass, to the point they actively encourage it or surreptitiously encourage it.

Drug trafficking is a humongous and extremely profitable industry, for the traffickers at all levels to those responsible for fighting our war on drugs. Good luck trying to change the status quo. And of course it's all because street drugs are criminally banned. Drug addiction should always have been treated as a public health issue, and so-called street drugs especially heroin, cocaine. and of course weed should have been at least decriminalized if not made legal like they were prior to the early to mid 20th century. I'm afraid the $ profit $ like I mentioned, like I mentioned above, are so massive, it's too late.

On a side note, get rid of the housing projects once and for all, and stop enabling negative behaviors and attitudes like we have for a half century now.

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So just get rid of the housing projects? Unless you are willing to permanently subsidize the residents' move to private housing, we would then see a massive increase in our homeless population, which would end up costing even more than the subsidies would be, to say nothing about the cost in terms of human suffering. We must accept the reality that a significant portion of the population cannot afford to be in the private housing market. Despite some of the negative impacts on neighborhoods that housing projects can have, they are the least bad option here, that is unless we come to the conclusion that subsidizing a significant portion of the population to be in private housing is worth the amount of government funding it would need.

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The challenge of drug use is much more complex than can be addressed by only education concerning the negative effects. The desire for altered states of mind, the pleasures and psuedo-pleasures of intoxification, greed, the destruction of character by addiction, what might be called the spiritual suicide by drug and alcohol abuse, the psychological effects of drug abuse make for incredibly complicated problems. I don't believe that punishment, education or treatment by themselves are enough.

There will always be people who will abuse drugs and alcohol. But I wonder if the number of kids who become drug and alcohol abusers are a reflection of our priorities. Do we put pleasure to too high a priority? Does getting high mask a psychological or even spiritual (though not necessarily religious) insufficiency for people who wind up addicted?

I beliee that as a society we barely scratch the surface of understanding the need to get high and what leads to drug and alcohol addiction.

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I live on Baxter have almost my whole life my son&daughter play freely on our quiet street they play in the lot by where this happens EVERYDAY and should be allowed to do so without fear of shit like this happened im sick to my stomach grateful they are at their fathers for the weekend and that i wasn't in town at all last night i couldve easily been walking home after a late night out and come right into this shit like this didt happen to this extent back when southie was majority populated by white people. Shit like this makes my point that integration is a sin my family suffers for it we scatter these critters all over our town and look what becomes of it what a disgrace.

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You're right. There were never any violent criminals in Southie back in the day....

Ah myopia... I guess they treat that with oxycontin

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why isn't that guy wearing a shirt?

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