Mothers and others march for peace

I though this article pertained to the 21st century not the early 20th.

You're responding to my original post.

1) I don't read the Herald except for an occasional article. Don't read the Globe, either for an occasional article.

2) I've traveled FAR AND WIDE, and I have lived out west.

3) I NEVER called anyone 'stupid black people'.

4) No one claims there's no such thing as white, Asian, Hispanic, American Indian, whatever, criminals, psychos,thugs and gangstas. It's just it's worse in black neighborhoods than any other. Not only that, but the type of violence that occurs in black majority inner city neighborhoods tends to be quite random, affecting many totally innocent people. Not to excuse their bad behavior, but the organized crime gangs that you referenced generally did not roam the streets looking for some poor man,woman or child to assault, rob, pistol whip, stab, rape, for the chump change they have in their pockets or their phone. They dealt in loan sharking, gambling, prostitution, drugs, etc. but if you choose to have nothing to do with them, they generally left innocent people alone. If you mixed with them, you took your chances. The only really innocent people hurt by the organized crime syndicates you mentioned were store owners, bar owners, club owners,etc. who were often shook down for protection money. 99% of the other people hurt by these gangs had previous interaction with them, either borrowing money or drugs, or whatever. There's the difference. In inner city black majority neighborhoods you can be just a guy or woman going to or from work on the bus, train and get jumped, shot, and killed for whatever you have in your pockets, bag, and phone.

Let's stick to Boston because, well, we're in Boston. The most dangerous neighborhoods are black majority neighborhoods and housing projects with majority or large minority of black tenants. This is where most of the extreme violence, including gun related violence, occurs. Most of the murder perps in Boston are young black males. Most of the victims are young black males. And this is replicated in cities all across the U.S. Boston is tame compared to Philly, Baltimore, D.C., Atlanta, St. Louis, Detroit, Chicago, Miami, Memphis, Oakland.

...and there it is, didn't take long at all. There were plenty of criminals back in the days, and they were treated as such. Nowadays, anyone who dares to say blacks in US commit crime at a higher rate than any other race (with FBI stats to back it up, no less) is labeled a racist, just as we all witnessed here. Instead of admitting there's a problem and dealing with it in a way that would benefit everyone it's swept under the rug, and anyone who dares to point it out is crucified by the armchair progressive intellectuals.

Have a nice day now, and try not to drown in all those white guilt tears. Also, take a walk down one of blue hill ave side streets alone after dark and let us know how it goes. I bet your heart really bleeds for the poor and deprived, but only if they're isolated from you. That blood will dry up pretty quickly after you're parted with your iPhone, you find your car window smashed, you see drug dealers hanging out on your porch or your kid steps on a needle in your local park.

So the city gov't, police, etc... are primarily responsible for the fact that people don't raise their kids with any shot of being decent human beings? Just a total pass for mothers having babies w/o any family support structure, etc... and especially for fathers who are non-participants in their kid's lives?

Ok, what are the 'powers that be' not doing? It's not an easy problem to solve as tons of money is already spent in the schools in Boston and lots of assistance is given in the form of subsidized housing, vouchers, etc... What do you want done differently?

Nothing can be done until a safe environment [reasonably safe] is created. Security is job #1. Everything else is almost impossible to accomplish minus security.

1) I loath to say it, but some type of martial law needs to be declared in certain neighborhoods. There is no other solution. Our regular legal system and police [ as they currently operate] are not capable of accomplishing this, the situation in many inner city neighborhoods across the U.S. has festered for so long and is now so bad.

2) A massive effort must be made to round up all outstanding warrants that involve violence. Our parole system must also be reformed, there's tremendous corruption. ILLEGAL firearms must be removed from the streets and from those who possess them. If that means roadblocks in certain neighborhoods, and warrantless search and seizures, so be it. The situation is too far gone to do anything else. NOTICE I said ILLEGAL, not legal, firearms.

People talk about the huge amount of $ spent on social services, housing, healthcare, education for the poor or in some cases alleged poor. They are right, it is a huge amount. And yet we still have generations of serious violent crime problems and those living in poverty. SOMETHING IS OBVIOUSLY WRONG. I would say a completely fresh look at the big picture needs to take place, at the very least. But many people and institutions, public and private, have big vested financial interests in maintaining the dysfunctional status quo. What's required is politicians, responsible people in the private sector, and community activist to get a backbone. I don't think this is going to happen.

Scrapping the "no snitching" code would be a good start - 95% of the people living there are law-abiding citizens, everyone knows who the other 5% are, there's enough information to have them locked up for 10 consecutive lifetimes, yet no one talks to the police. And even if one of them does get locked up after a multiple-year, multi-million dollar investigation that could be done in a week if someone cooperated, they're usually out in a year or two.

Don't bother giving me that "cops are racist" BS, they won't act like your second grade teacher when they're treated like US marines in Fallujah. Treat THEM as friends instead of enemies, and they'll treat YOU as friends.

For one thing the parents could stop buying drugs, stop allowing their kids to use drugs and be members of gangs, start talking to the police and stop looking the other way. There are plenty of other poor ethnic neighborhoods in the city where the youth aren't murdering and otherwise preying on each other on a regular basis.

Just out of curiosity, where do you live? If you have kids, do they attend BPS? There's a huge difference between an idealist from Dorchester or Roxbury and an idealist from Wellesley or some other lily-white suburb.

An average recent college grad is lucky to get $40K a year, meaning he gets to take homme a whopping $2200 of that a month after taxes, insurance and all other nifty little paycheck munchers. Someone on public assistance gets an equivalent of $1,500 in section 8 alone (housing here is expensive, y'all know;) add in everything else and you're easily looking at close to $3K a month, an equivalent of $50K+ pre-tax salary. Financially, quite a few of the poor on public assistance are actually better off than a recent college grad, so why do we not see college grads engaging in all sorts of anti-social behavior? Could it be because they're too busy working so they can pay for roof over their head and food on their table? Put everyone able-bodied to work (many neighborhoods would make a landfill look squeaky-clean, and it doesn't take much skill to pick up trash or paint over graffiti) and you'll see most of the problems plaguing those neighborhoods vanish overnight. People tend to be more respectful to things acquired through hard work, and they're less likely to trash what they just cleaned.