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Armed holdup in Cambridge
By adamg on Mon, 10/06/2008 - 12:18pm
Cambridge Police report two people were held up at gunpoint on Blackstone Street around 9 p.m. yesterday.
The victims stated that while walking on Blackstone St. toward Western Ave., they realized that three individuals were following them. When they moved to the side to let them pass, the three black teens stopped in front of them. One of the suspects produced a handgun and demanded the victim's belongings.
Sought: Two males, one female.
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Comments
That street doesn't look
That street doesn't look bad, but it's right near two of what I've thought of as Cambridgeport crime hotspots: Western Ave. and the park on Memorial Dr.
I've been held up twice at gunpoint in Cambridge in the last few years, and probably discouraged at least a few other attempts during the same period.
The great thing about being held up in Cambridge is that CPD appears rapidly, in force. One cop gets a location & description, and numerous other cruisers zoom off to search.
Cambridge has an odd mix of crime and low-crime, and CPD seems well-suited. When I was doing/learning news photography part-time, I'd sometimes have occasion to listen in on CPD radio chatter. They're very calm and professional guys, mostly handling relatively minor issues throughout the day in an understated manner, but when there's something like an armed robbery, they seem up to the task.
Now if only the city of Cambridge could do better on some of the social problems that seem to be the cause of most of the crime.
Social problems in Cambridge
Can you amplify a bit on the social problems and how Cambridge should address them?
I wish I had answers. :) I
I wish I had answers. :)
I imagine that desperation and mental illness must drive some crime.
However, in my own limited observation, there seems to be a lot more sociopathy than I would've expected in a warm-fuzzy place like Cambridge -- not desperation, but perhaps a sense of entitlement and/or a lack of societal buy-in.
There's also a good amount of police incidents from the kind of drama that people get sucked into when they're in an environment where the drama is present and for practical reasons they can't simply walk away from the environment. It's funny how that dynamic works, but it is a very real phenomenon.
Numerous officials in Cambridge must have much better feels for the causes of crime than I do. A lot of them don't have the authority to effect change. I sense that those who do have some authority are constrained by delicate political situations. I don't fully know what the political pressures are, but they're clearly there.