Hey, there! Log in / Register
Yoon: Menino not doing enough to stop teen shootings
By adamg on Thu, 05/07/2009 - 4:25pm
City Councilor Sam Yoon, who wants to replace Menino, says the city needs a better youth-violence prevention program to keep teens from getting gunned down on Boston streets. In a statement, Yoon says:
"I am heartbroken and angry at another teen shooting, and I know we can do better. We must have the political will to make youth violence prevention our top priority, or else we risk losing a generation of youth."
At budget hearings earlier this week, Yoon called on Police Commissioner Ed Davis to crack down on overtime in the police budget and use the saved money for violence prevention.
Yoon says the city needs "a clear protocol for how to respond in the hours and weeks after a homicide – the most critical time to intervene in retaliation."
Today's shooting comes a few days after another teen was murdered on Tonawanda Street.
Yoon's complete press release:
BOSTON – City Councilor-at-Large and Mayoral candidate Sam Yoon called for Mayor Thomas Menino to implement comprehensive youth violence prevention that includes a clear protocol for homicide response with adequately funded trauma work to prevent the next shooting.
Yoon's call comes after a 15-year-old boy was shot on Dudley Street in Roxbury while on his way to school this morning. He is not expected to survive. This incident would be the second fatal shooting in four days and the beginning of what Boston's community leaders believe will be a violent summer.
"I am heartbroken and angry at another teen shooting, and I know we can do better," said Yoon. "We must have the political will to make youth violence prevention our top priority, or else we risk losing a generation of youth."
Yoon advocates for an approach that includes long-term prevention work to engage young people and establish a clear protocol for how to respond in the hours and weeks after a homicide – the most critical time to intervene in retaliation.
"We know how to control youth violence in Boston – our community based organizations, public health experts and youth workers know what needs to be done," said Yoon. "What we lack is leadership from the Mayor to coordinate a response and the resources to carry out a plan."
Earlier this week, Yoon challenged Police Commissioner Ed Davis at a City Council budget hearing to curb excessive overtime spending in order to free up resources for violence prevention efforts.
Throughout his two terms on the City Council, Yoon has been a consistent and vocal advocate for a comprehensive violence prevention strategy. When he first got on the Council in 2006, Yoon worked with anti-violence leaders to bring over 300 young people to City Hall to witness the Council's budget vote. The following year, he worked with ministers, police, youth workers, victims of violence and young people to craft a trauma protocol for the aftermath of homicides. Yoon has also proposed legislation that would generate $35 million in annual revenue for violence prevention.
Topics:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
And Yoon missed half of
And Yoon missed half of Tuesday's City Council meeting about the BPD's budget issues.
Yoon did leave and return
Yoon did leave and return during the City Council hearing on the police budget, as did other councilors, but he was there for the substance of the testimony that took over three hours. Yoon's financial analysis rightly questioned the basic math and fiduciary wisdom of the BPD overspending millions more in overtime every year than what was approved in its annual budgets under the current administration.
how long did he stay for the
how long did he stay for the year before or the one before that?
Last year, Sam Yoon only attended 5 of the 29 budget meetings and, when challenged on that fact, said that he only attended the meetings dealing with parts of the budget to which he objected. He also threatened to delay funding for a gunshot monitoring system unless more hearings were held on the subject, despite the fact that he missed two of the original hearings.
great job
At least two lives were saved by this deflection.
Councillor, Politics should not be only calculation
Yoon knows Menino is a national known advocate for preventing gun violence ck this Globe Op Ed piece -- thought he was better than using this for political gamemanship...
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinio...
ridiculous
Is all blogs are for is just moaning and complaining and filling the political debate with venom? We've finally got some real choices in this race but what I see in so many blogs like this one is just a bunch of bull. Grow up and have a real political discourse.
OK, do something about it
Anybody can get a Universal Hub account. They're free and aren't really all that hard to acquire.
So get one. Then click on the Post button you'll see at the top of any page and start a discussion about what you consider a substantive issue.
when anons post about local political races
I realize there are good, understandable reasons why some folks want to post anonymously.
But when an anon (not verified) posts for or against a candidate running for office, I have to take it with a huge grain of salt. We're already seeing funny business with this city election, and I'm sure that Internet-savvy campaigns will be monitoring and posting on popular blogs such as this one.
Maybe we should care less
Maybe we should care less about who writes their opinion than the way they write it. "Is all blogs", I mean what the hell. Don't sweat guys who don't care enough to check their grammar. I think the anon's watch their stuff more closely because of the "grain of salt" argument that you really shouldn't buy.
Yoon v Manny - who's the bigger clam?
Right now, between the two, I'd side w/ Manny...
Manny says that the HCG was prescribed for a medical problem...plausable (not likely) if he can prove it.
Yoon says it's Menino's fault that a kid got shot this morning -in Roxbury at a bus stop - who, by all accounts was STALKED and targeted for a hit.
Regardless of what y'all think of Manny...does anyone really believe the MAYOR could stop a murder like this? A murder which, according to all accounts, was not random?
Hey, Yoon, why werent you in the bushes protecting this kid, this morning, you friggin CLAM?
Manny 1;
Yoon 0.
It's About Prevention
Menino didn't pull the trigger, but he could have funded street workers, summer jobs programs, and other initiatives to curb youth violence.
This takes more than banning guns - it takes a community dedicated to making the streets safer, and a government that it willing to put up the money to make it happen.
These programs work. The Boston Miracle did wonders in the 1990s. Why can't we use the same approach again?
Again, the reason is that
Again, the reason is that the state and federal governments keep cutting back on city grants, local aid and programing...even so the basic community policing standards are beng maintained after millions have been lost...where is the money for these programs?
Stop blaming the funding
The city of Boston is one of the wealthiest in the country when it comes to government spending. The only large community in the state (pop 50,000 or more) that spends more is Cambridge - we are even ahead of Brookline and Newton. Our failures are collectively our own and have zero to do with lack of funding.
Yes - I do
Of course a mayor can stop the youth murders that we have in Boston. Ray Flynn did it when he was mayor. Kids stopped killing kids on his watch, because he had the political will to put resources where they are needed - not just where the voters are. You think Menino and his cronies would allow this to continue if these kids being butchered were in West Roxbury or Roslindale, instead of Dorchester and Roxbury? Of course not. It is the mayor's job to keep our streets safe and Menino is not doing this.
The murder rate under Flynn
The murder rate under Flynn was the highest n city's history --- it was Menino who was responsible for the Miracle. He is responsble for the summer job programs, youth outreach etc that helps reduce the recent spike... Learn the facts and stop campaignng on this issue
Here are some facts...
Here are some facts on how Menino has ignored this:
http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/...
And imagine bringing up real issues in a race...terrible for all the hacks in city hall like yourself.
Anon's Selective Use of Facts
You use an article that is 4 years old?
gains have been made every year since
How duplicitous!
I do not work for the city, and am not a hack. I do know how much the city has worked to get the guns off the street, maintain funding and how hard the Myaor works to get summer jobs to at risk kids. And he has done so with less federal and state help...those are the facts... I alsoknow the Mayor calls businesses in the city and make sure they help with summer jobs and asks every year...
Using tragedies to underscore political points is not campaigning on real issues, especially when the factual backdrop is ignored, is not campaigning its grandstanding and Mr. Yoon crossed the line today.
Was it really Menino who was responsible for the Miracle?
some have some statistical evidence that the legalization of abortion affected the rate of violent crime. It's kind of like the benevolent all powerful God question: if God is benevolent and all powerful, why does God let awful things happen? If Menino is responsible for the Miracle, why is he letting violence escalate under his watch now--why not Miracle 2.0. Maybe the stars just aligned last time and some are willing to give him all the credit. That doesn't mean that we should sit on our hands, but let's not chalk it all up to one guy.
I laugh sometimes at the "miracle" stuff.
Its funny, back in the 1980s when there was a huge push to stop the gun violence in cities across the Northeast and LA, one of the prevention stragegies was simply to go out and arrest as many people as possible for as many crimes as possible. Judges were pressured to give out real sentences, police profiled and harrassed and brutalized (for real, not this cupcake stuff that people think is brutality now) and guess what? Violence went down, and peoples civil liberities went down as well. The average law abiding citizen wouldnt realize it, because the average law abiding citizen didnt get harrased!
There are plenty of other factors but a lot of people don't have a clue about what cops did in 1975, 1985, 1995, 2005, and what they do today.
And I have a small gut feeling that an educated police force actually might increase crime because there isn't the brute force of police enforcement that you once saw.
I dunno, I could be wrong but blaming it on Menino is crazy.
Its not rocket science,
Its not rocket science, every pol and cop in the city knows that 70% of the shootings in the city can be traced back to a handful of projects like Bromley Heath. Hire more cops and increase your work in the projects, the most straight forward and effective thing they could do. Quit wasting time and money with some Boston Miracle nonsense, youth basketball and Rev.Rivers arent the answer. More cops in the bad neighborhoods, spend the money and make it happen.
cscott
I think you would find that actually most of the murderers do not live in these projects.
And you would need to define "work" in order to seperate it from "rocket science".
Im not really disagreeing with you by the way.
I think its a well
I think its a well established fact that most of the homicides in the city are gang related, theres nothing random about them. The feud between H-Block and Heath St a few years back is a prime example of this. The killing of the 15 year old yesterday is an Orchard Park affair, its not that mysterious. Work isnt rocket science, its regular police work, just more of it in the areas that see the most crime. More patrols, warrant sweeps, getting to know the "impact players" and keeping an eye on things. For whatever reason there seems to be a reluctance to commit police resources to these neighborhoods.
We're talking about an age-old, pre-existing symptom of serious
The high crime rate here in many parts of Boston and other urban areas is symptomatic of age-old, pre-existing, deeply-rooted societal problems; high unemployment rates, poor school systems, the variouis institutions (i. e. religious leaders, ordinary citizens, politicians, police) failing to work together) to make things better, as well as many dysfunctional or busted-up families. Low self-esteem, resulting, at least in part, from members of marginalized groups being constant victims of prejudice is often a by-product of all of the above, as well. Add to all that the various budget cuts resulting in the decimation of programs that provide jobs, etc. for teenagers, the impulsiveness of many adolescents, and the all-too-easy access to guns thanks, at least in part, to the fact that our gun laws were furthur gutted by our previous administration, and there's a perfect recipe for the debacle that's going on right now.
"Yoon worked with
"Yoon worked with anti-violence leaders to bring over 300 young people to City Hall to witness the Council's budget vote"
Am I the only one who thinks witnessing a vote at city hall might INCREASE one's predilection to violence?
Sidebar FYI re youth violence
In 2004 the City Council did a nice report on stemming youth violence, looking at the problem from a broader perspective and offering some policy responses. The recommendations look all the more pertinent in view of current discussions about drastic budget cuts.
PDF of the report:
http://www.cityofboston.gov/citycouncil/pdfs/sp_yo...
There are no budget cuts
There is the mistaken impression in the city that we are cutting the budget. There also is no shortage of funds (see my post above). We are not cutting the budget - the headlines are because we don't have the revenue to fund the 6.25% increase the mayor needed to level fund the budget (that would have been unaffordable in 90% of the "good" years).
After accounting for stimulus funds (which fall outside the operating budget), city spending will increase 1-2% next year (unless the state cuts local aid again). The reason we have a budget deficit is because the city committed to unaffordable 5% wage increases, 7% pension increases and we refuse to reform health benefits which led to a 6% rise in costs (costs would go down if we converted to the state run GIC). Personnel costs like these represent 70% of the city's budget.
Unfortunately the good times stopped rolling and we didn't plan properly for it even though the city was warned repeatedly by the Municipal Research Bureau, the Financial Commission and the Alliance of Boston Neighborhoods that their spending and hiring was unsustainable. Sadly they ignored the warning and we are now faced with laying off people we hired just last year (at a cost to the school department alone of $4 million!).
stevel
Stevel don't cities and towns budget for state aid every year and that state aid isn't comming this year? The contracts are budgeted years in advance and with retirements every year (the most expensive employees) the city just hires cheaper employees.
I think its a little more complicated than you or I are making it out to be.
Not so complicated
Pete - yes aid was cut - but it was easy for the city to offset that - they got cut $60 million but were able to offset this with $30 million in stimulus plus $30 million in other cost savings (wage freeze, hiring freeze and lower fuel costs each amount to about $10 million). Thus aid cuts for Boston net to a wash.
Even though people retire - keep in mind everyone behind the retiree typically gets a 3% cost of living and 2% seniority raise - so if someone making $100k this year retires - the guy that "replaces" him in the chain makes $105k for the following year - that's one of the things that is killing the budget.
Bottom line - the budget (including stimulus funds) is going from 2.419 billion to 2.455 billion. The city has identifed about $45 million in other savings/reductions to reserves. The problem is we are still about $30-50 million short (depending on which round of numbers you use) because our elected officials signed off on contracts that 3 independent organizations repeatedly told them would drive the city's finances off a cliff (BMRB, FinCom and ABN).
Full disclosure - I do the research and give the neighborhood presentations on property tax and budget issues for ABN - you can check out most of the source material on www.cityofboston.gov/budget and click on the year you are looking for. More info on our city finance presentations is available on abnboston.org.
It's a little more complicated than this - I'm abbreviating for the blog - but at the end of the day it's essentially adding and subtracting.
Thanks.
I still don't see how the guy replacing the guy making 100K is going to be making 105K. I guess it depends on the department too. Teachers are different than firefighters. If a 20 step teacher with a masters making 95K retires, they are replaced by the step 1 teacher making 50K. Surely the 19 step teacher is now the step 20 teacher, but he doesnt necessarily "replace" him because he is already in the system. The system has to hire someone at step 1 (generally).
Now I guess with the fire department, the first year firefighter is making 45K, and the 30 year firefighter is making 50K and the 3% raise each year is around 1-2K per person.
I guess it comes down to how much property tax Boston brings in each year? I would like to see a chart on each years property tax income.
Also, does the stimilus package go right into the general fund and is it only for one year? (making it really not part of a year to year budget)
Bottom guy/top guy
After re-reading what I wrote at 1 am - realized probably not the best example. But the point is the retiring guy doesn't get replaced by the guy at the bottom of the totem pole - he is replaced by the guy behind him in line making about the same plus the COL and possibly plus the step (compounded with the COL). The main point is that according to Lisa Signori at a January presentation - to level fund the budget we needed 5% more in the payroll (COL plus step increases).
As for revenue - the city has 3 sources -
Property tax - 60% of revenue and increases historically about 5.0-5.5% - however that was not sustainable as the 3 organizations pointed out - this drove our ability to hire and hand out raises for the past several years - this is a huge nightmare for the residents as we will need to make up for reduced commercial taxes as commercial values drop-but that's a whole different topic.
State aid - about 25% of revenue and increases typcially about 1% annually - but getting cut about 10% this year
Other - 15% of revenue miscellaneous fees, fines etc. - increases about 5% annually - somewhat dependent on oil prices (we get an excise tax on jet fuel) and interest rates on treasuries where we hold our cash reserves(very low now - costing the city money - nothing we can do for the time being without stepping up the risk scale which is probably and rightly not even legal.
Best numbers on the property tax are at:
www.cityofboston.gov/assessing - scroll toward the bottom of the page and you'll see Facts and Figures - click on the year you want and you'll be blessed with more information than you ever wanted about property taxes (very well laid out and easy to understand).