Boston Police report arresting Eric Hines, 25, of Roslindale, on charges he shot a man sitting on his porch on Baird Street in Mattapan shortly before 8:30 p.m. on July 13. Read more.

The Supreme Judicial Court ruled today that prosecutors can use photos found on the phone of Hyde Park man against him when he comes to trial on gun charges related to a 2011 gun battle outside his apartment.

That the decision came in a 4-3 vote, however, highlights the court's struggles to adapt search-and-seizure laws and decisions that date to the age of quill pens to the current digital world. Read more.

Thug Dog

You ain’t nothing but a Thug Dog, shootin hidin all the time

You ain’t nothing but a Thug Dog, scheming and hustling all the time

When 5-0 gets you, you gonna be doin time.

So You think you’re a badass, with your big mouth and your guns

So You think you’re a badass, doin drive bys then on the run

A bullet may get you then your Thuggin days will be done

THE BLAME GAME IS KILLING US! (USA)

It's so easy to point fingers
Play the blame game

He died, she died
Shot dead

So

Kill some cops
Shoot for the head
Remember your name
Gain some fame

It's easy to find a target
to hate

Easy to use race to bait

Blame the President,
Governors, Mayors
The Police

Agree Disagree
He said She said

Our country is at war
Us - Them mind set

No Peace

Yell, scream, rant, rave,
Comment, post, write, boast

Inciting riot? Inciting calm?
Call for healing or harm?

Too many guns
bullets flying

Shots fired
dying and crying

So many afraid to walk the streets
prisoners in their own homes

Too many guns
in the wrong hands

Neighborhoods and schools turned into
battle lands

What do we do?
What do we say?

Where is hope for
just one day?

Just one day
without bad news

Just one day
with no one dying

Just one day
with no one crying
over a body
lifeless and still

Death by gunfire
such a bitter pill

Too many guns....

With the rising rents in South Boston, I'm thinking about moving to Dorchester. I realize that Dorchester is very big and that some parts are safe while other parts are less safe. What is the crime situation in Fields Corner, particularly around Geneva Street between Park Street and Bowdoin Street? I'm thinking about renting an apartment on Westville Street near Up Academy (John Marshall Elementary School). I've heard mixed things. Would it be safe to walk from the Fields Corner T station to the elementary school at night?

Cambridge, Mass. — Tickets are on sale now for George V. Higgins’ The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Stickball Productions’ world premiere stage adaptation of the quintessential Boston crime novel. The production runs Dec. 8–Jan. 15 at Oberon in Harvard Square, for tickets, visit www.thefriendsofeddiecoyle.com

It is the winter of ‘69 in Boston and Eddie Coyle is a bottom of the barrel hood attempting to stay alive and out of jail among his “friends” – cops, bartenders, radical hippies, bank robbers, hit men and informants. Weeks away from a prison sentence for trucking stolen booze, Eddie’s making a few bucks supplying the guns for a rash of brazen bank heists, while looking to tip someone in for a kind word to the judge.

George V. Higgins’ classic novel has been called the “best crime novel ever written” by Elmore Leonard, and literary scholars have compared his unforgiving and realistic depiction of Boston’s underworld with the works of Dickens, Dostoevsky, and Balzac. Through dialogue quintessentially Bostonian, and the most poignant homage to Bobby Orr and the ’69-’70 Boston Bruins in literature, The Friends of Eddie Coyle has set the bar for Boston crime stories for nearly 40 years.

Natick Police report a grab-and-run robbery at the Natick Collection on Monday.

At around 7 p.m., police say, two men entered the Gucci store there and began to collect purses before quickly running out. Police say they got away with only nine purses, but they were worth a total of $9,500.

Recent months have seen a spate of similar robberies at high-end stores apparel and accessories stores in the Back Bay.

Widely regarded as the greatest Boston crime novel ever written, a staged reading of a new theatrical adaptation of George V. Higgins’ The Friends of Eddie Coyle will be performed at The Burren, Somerville, on Nov. 13 at 3 p.m.