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What led to the gunfire at a Roxbury community center?
By adamg on Sun, 09/06/2015 - 3:47pm
Dianne Wilkerson, president of The Friends of the Melnea Cass Facility, Inc., lays out what she knows about the gunfire outside the facility during a memorial for Angel Oller on Aug. 17 that amazingly ended with no injuries among the scores of children and mourners present.
Despite the fact that the Cass is a state-owned building where the Mass. State Police have jurisdiction, they were never notified of the plan to hold the memorial service in the Cass. We know that the comments from law enforcement right after the murder of Oller stated it was gang involved. We know that there have been no arrests to date for his murder. We also know that Oller’s aunt, a BPD officer, is on video receiving a gun from a young man in the aftermath of the shooting at the Cass. Really weakens the suggestion that the bad actors all set upon the Cass in a random act.
What we don’t know is how any rational, responsible adult could have concluded that the Cass was an appropriate site to hold a memorial service, in a building with little children, without security, for a victim of a gang involved murder.
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Comments
Perhaps the former Sen. Wilkerson
wouldn't be so anxious to have cops around if she knew that many of them now videotape everything that goes on around them. Oh, like filling your bra with cash.......
For which she served her time
Or is there no redemption, ever? And, yes, I realize that was not her first run in with the law.
No
There is no redemption when you violate the public trust. She should spend the rest of her miserable existence in shame. Yes, she served her punishment, but don't let that distract you. She sold public benefits for private gain (hers). That may not require her to be incarcerated for a long term, but it does make her forever ineligible of public trust.
Corruption of government
Corruption of government officials (especially those elected at high local/state/federal levels) should be a crime with very high penalties, including long prison sentences, and the max penalties should be always enforced. As for Wilkerson, why shouldn't she be shamed in public as much as possible ? She took bribes for years (among other crimes such as attempted extortion) and only did what 2 or 3 years?
Why dont you say da he had
Why dont you say da he had just graduated and had a stable job for almost 2 years now?? Why only illustrate whatever you hear ? Girls like you dont get to get married. Yea you a girl for that. Shit like that will get you smack
Why don't you read the article again?
The issue is not the poor dead guy, but how Mr. Lewis took over a crowded community center with no regard for the security implications.
So I take it you're a happily married man, bro?
You say that like it is a bad thing
Funny how most of the total losers doing these shootings seem to be male.
Losers? That's not very
Losers? That's not very progressive of you swirly. You don't know the socio-economic factors that led them to that point in their lives. I don't think your judgmental attitude is helpful. Micro aggressions are hurtful.
Off Point
There are many ways to criticize Wilkerson, but I think in this article that she wasn't trying to smear Angel Oller. She seems more interested in the actions Robert Lewis. As for your comments that she is just repeating what she's heard, she does make a lot of claims that can't be substantiated by anybody outside of this situation. I, for one, am going to take it all with a heaping spoonful of salt.
Your comments about marriage and smacking people are coming out of left field, though. Those are not reasons not to say what you want to say.
Very insightful story
But The Melnea Cass Facility needs to choose better friends.
Or
The Friends need to choose a better 'President'.
Aren't Friends of {anything} usually a publicly organized group? Thus the facility didn't choose the Friends, the Friends chose the facility.
Yes but....
The director of the facility could weigh in on who is President of a group with the facilities name in it.
A corrupt former politician is not a good fit for that position, in my opinion.
True
Perhaps they did and the Friends group chose to go with Ms. Wilkerson anyway? I don't know, just speculating.
There is always so much that goes on behind the scenes that we are not privy to. This is the face that is presented to us and while we all agree that she is not the best one to be put forth, nonetheless she is.
A Tax free non profit
With her as the President doesn't smell right to me.
Nothing is OK
I don't know what the solution to gang violence is. There is only so much the police/city can do. But it's particularly depressing that these gangs can't even leave one another alone during memorial services.
Easy
Designate them as terrorist organizations, which they are, and lock them up. At this point it's not even about drugs and money - more often than not it's simply gangbanger pissing contests turned deadly, sometimes with innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire.
Lock them up where?
Read up on these gangs: Prison only allows them to build connections and does little to slow down the spread of violence. Prison alone has not been shown to be effective.
And throw away the key
Six months to a year is nothing but a gangbanger rite of passage. Six to twelve years, on the other hand, is an entirely different story - current thugs will be kept off the streets for a good long while, and future ones - well, there won't be any future ones, going away for that long just isn't worth it.
The US has a huge prison population
That hasn't stopped crime. In fact, many of these kids grew up in stressed, single parent homes BECAUSE of your "logic" - fat lot of good that does.
Please hang up and try again.
Revolving door
Huge prison population indeed, but vast majority of the said population is in and out in less than a year. Stop throwing people in jail for smoking a joint and use the space to lock up violent gangbangers. Fines for nonviolent offenses to take away the incentive, and ten years at the very least for anything gun-related.
I'm sure if the other parent
I'm sure if the other parent wasn't in prison; he/she would have been home, creating a less stressed and stable environment for the children grow up.
Exile/ban them from the city
Exile/ban them from the city (or even state) after their prison term is up :)
Not legal
Look up the case law on the subject and try again.
Not like it would work, anyway. This isn't a horse-and-buggy nation anymore.
The entire state probably not
The entire state probably not, but if released on Parole then can certainley order them to stay away from counties (Suffolk and surrounding). If they do no heed this, violate their parole and add in a bunch of years. If its a minor, kick the whole immediate family out. Might be good incentive to encourage a return to family values :)
Approval for use of facility
Where was the director of the facility? Mr. Lewis did not just barge into the facility and demand use of the space - he approached the facility and asked to hold the memorial service for a young man whose family was grieving at the horrific loss of their son. There are reams of paper to complete for use of a public facility and, while the process can be expedited, it can not be overlooked.
Did he?
Ms. Wilkerson's write-up implied that he did take over. What did I miss?
Confused on her point
I'm trying to figure out her point.
Is it that the Police should have been present?
But if they were there, they would have shot more people and caused riots?
Or that the deceased young gent's family should not have had a memorial ceremony? Or should not have had a memorial ceremony near any innocent civilian population lest they be gunned down?
Anyone?
Much simpler point
The memorial service should have been held someplace more appropriate than a community center filled with scores of little kids.
What am I missing?
What WOULD have been a "more secure" facility and how do you exclude children and family members from a memorial service? Have signs--"family members and innocent young folks this way, armed gang members over there?" And is she accusing a BPD officer of being involved with the shooters? In that case I'm not sure what additional "security" would have helped anything.
She wasn't talking about family members
It was a hot day. The Cass center has a pool. That day, it had a tennis program going on. There were scores of kids there who had absolutely nothing to do with the poor guy or his memorial. This is Boston. I'm sure there are plenty of other places at which to remember somebody other than the Cass center.
She also snarked
At the end of her write-up she snarked that no one wanted to write about positivity coming from Roxbury. Do you know if a press release was put out notifying the media of the event? Actually - maybe there was if Baker attended. His office should have notified the media.
nevermind.
Positivity?
I don't know about her, but I don't see anything positive about a gangbanger being gunned down by other gangbangers, then a bunch of gangbagers showing up at a dead gangbanger's memorial service and shooting up the place that happens to be full of kids.
Read the article
She wasn't talking about the memorial at that point, but about a completely different event a few days later at which some Olympic athletes visited the Cass center.
Thanks
Lesson learned. Next time I include the part of any article I react to in my response. For the clicky-challenged, of course.
Not sure if I qualify as press
But I did get notified of the Olympic thing in advance.
Press
Your 1 or 2 person website covers more news in this city than 2 large dailies, half a dozen local TV affiliates and numerous neighborhood weeklies combined. Please keep up the great work.
Vwery true
Amen to that.
Stay the fuux on topic
The article was attempting to get the actual facts behind the story. But as usually most posters were off on tangents and insulting each other before you could say boo. And I wasn't clear if every one who did post even read the article.
Thanks for Universal Hub for reposting the story, and the Blackstonian for posting the original. And why does Dianne Wilkerson have the best reporting on this? All I ever saw reported was "one gang showed up to shoot at another". Which may not be what happened at all.
There is always more to the story than meets
the eye. Hopefully the circumstance gets a full vetting. The State Police do a fine job with traffic enforcement and providing supplemental investigative resources for small police departments. Their intelligence infrastructure cannot match that provided by the BPD regarding Boston gangs. This appears to be a buracratic screw up. If the BPD was responsible for policing the event it certainly would have prepared for the eventuality of gang member emotions leading to gun play.