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Bloody weekend continues: Man shot to death Saturday night
By adamg on Sun, 08/29/2010 - 5:35pm
Boston Police report a 23-year-old man was found with a gunshot wound around 9:45 p.m. on Saturday at 970 Blue Hill Ave. He was taken to Boston Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
He's the third person to be shot to death in Dorchester this weekend and the neighborhood's 23rd murder victim this year (map).
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Comments
Any connection?
Do you think this had anything to do with the police presence at the Caribbean Festival on Saturday? My wife and I walked through around 6:00, and I solemnly swear to you that I am not exaggerating when I tell you that there were somewhere between three and five hundred (!!!) uniformed police officers in the 3-block square that was cordoned off. Mostly state troopers, which means that all of eastern Massachusetts was deployed to Franklin Park. There was a helicopter circling. At one point, 50 of them formed a line and started pushing people back to make way for the street cleaner. The whole place was in riot-prep mode (no trash cans or newspaper machines in sight). I've never in my life seen this kind of police presence. Bourbon Street on Mardi Gras doesn't draw this kind of response.
Were they reacting to the incidents at the last two festivals at the park? Was it the shooting just down the street earlier in the day? Is it just the fact this this is a traditionally black festival, and BPD wanted to extend the biggest middle finger that it could to the Caribbean-American community? I'm totally mystified.
Excessive police presence at Caribbean carnival
This has bothered me for many years -- especially when St. Anthony's Feast is happening the same weekend in the North End, and I go to both events on the same day. The two events are of comparable size and purpose, yet St. Anthony's gets by with maybe 5 police officers spread over several square blocks.
Also, St. Anthony's runs until at least 11 pm, while the State Police aggressively try to shut down the Caribbean Carnival by sunset. What's the harm in letting the party and parade continue into the night?
(I didn't go to either event this year, but I've often attended one or both in previous years.)
http://www.bpdnews.com/2010/0
http://www.bpdnews.com/2010/08/29/keeping-order-at...
That's what I'm talking about!
For whatever reason more police were sent to this particular carnival than any other in the city, guns were taken off the street and murders were prevented. That's a positive to me.
Well, is there a history of
Well, is there a history of shootings, stabbings, and gang conflicts at these festivals?
Some history, but...
There is, certainly, but no more so at the Caribbean Festival than at any of the others that take place in the park. There have been two other festivals this summer, the Dominican and the Puerto Rican Festivals, which haven't had anywhere near this kind of police presence. There were shootings following both festivals, tough the degree to which they were the result of the festivals is somewhat unknown. BPD has had beefed up patrols around Egleston Square for the last few weeks, but nothing like what we saw on Saturday.
And yeah, St. Anthony's on the other side of the city is a stark contrast.
I'm really struggling here to come up with a less awful explanation than "The Caribbean Festival is traditionally black, and so the cops were out in full force," but I'm coming up short.
police reaction
Not to fill in for Mr. Nice here, but it does make sense (albeit from a pretty cynical point of view) and I don't fault the police for security (I wasn't there so I can't say how overboard it all appeared). There's been a pretty constant level of shootings this summer (I don't think it's statistically significantly more than years past, but if you're one of the ones who gets shot, that's pretty significant to you). Those shootings have been happening in the neighborhoods surrounding the site of the Festival. There just haven't been that many shootings or gang feuds in the North End (recently).
So one could say that one part of town (proxy for one demographic group -- young blacks) is more apt to have gun violence than another part of town (yuppies and old Italians). I don't think that's a racist statement but it's a pretty useless one. There are lots of other variables and statistics that would match up with the same statement.
The real question would be why so much more security at a Caribbean Festival versus Dominican or Puerto Rican festival (uhm...which are in the Caribbean also)? Are Bajans, Trinidadians or Jamaicans seen as more violent than Spanish-speaking Caribbeans? Did the police have information about a potential confrontation to occur at the Festival? I know they did arrest a bunch of "known individuals" beforehand as a precaution.
I just think it's a bummer as Carnival in Trinidad is a blast and it's really a great blessing for Boston to have such a mix of Afro-Caribbean cultures (including Honduran Garifuna) to contribute to events such as these Festivals. The crime issue is one that's linked to poverty and racism, and that second one just doesn't overlay in a map all that easily.
Are you serious?
How about it is the fact that when we gather, many times, someone has to act crazy? I am an African American as well as of West Indian descent. I use to love the carnival but I'm sick of the violence in this city and carnival being the meeting place and killing field for all who have beef. I stopped going years ago. I read that there were no major problems and that everything went smoothly (thank God). Perhaps it was the heavy police presence or do you really think these gun happy fools decided to call a truce? You call it a middle finger , I call it keeping peace. It worked, no one died so how does that mystify you? I'm happy and I'm sure carnival goer's who enjoyed themselves without incident were too. Trust me, I am not a big fan of BPD by no means. I wish that they actually cared that my boyfriend was innocently murdered and not see him as just another black man so put it on the back burner. We cry for help because we are losing too many to the street and when we get that help, we complain about that too.
There is a widespread problem
There is a widespread problem with violent people who are not functioning in civil society. For whatever reason, most of them are black males living in public housing. We have not been solving the problem, just sustaining them and occasionally ushering individuals through the justice system, so the shootings, stabbings, beatings, and thieving keep happening.