A FEW chronic gang-related disputes are destabilizing Boston neighborhoods, terrorizing families, and destroying hopes for a peaceful summer in the city. Worse still, children as young as six months have been wounded by bullets meant for gang rivals.
Last week, a 7-year-old Roxbury boy was shot while playing kickball near the Mission Main housing development. Police believe he was an unintended victim of a nearby shoot-out between gang members. Just weeks earlier, a 6-month-old girl was shot while in her father's arms in her Mattapan home. Police suspect a gang-related dispute in that case, as well. The violence escalated over the July 4 weekend, when seven people were shot, two fatally, in four separate shootings over an eight-hour period.
An effective police response requires attention to both dangerous places and dangerous people. Police appear to be doing an effective job of deploying specialized units to neighborhood "hot spots" where gangs are known to operate. That increased police presence may explain why shootings during the first six months of 2008 are down by about 20 percent over the same period last year. But it is less apparent that police are succeeding at targeting dangerous individuals for arrest and prosecution.
Boston's gang-related violence is often retaliatory in nature. It takes significant intelligence and cooperation to disrupt such cycles, often involving police, probation officers, the district attorney, corrections staff, and street workers.
In the 1990s, these partners focused relentlessly on the so-called "impact players" responsible for a disproportionate share of gang-related shootings. The result was an unprecedented drop in gang-related violence.
Police officials say the same techniques are being used today, including targeting irremediable gang members for arrest, along with offers of jobs and social services to those on the fringes.
Yet the results are erratic, suggesting either flaws in the strategy or mistakes in implementation.
The recent shootings of children in Boston are painful examples of why "hot spot" policing will never be sufficient. It appears that none of the shooters had links to Mission Main, where the 7-year-old boy was shot. The former sprawling housing project is now a desirable mixed-income development featuring attractive townhouses. And the disputes that led to the shooting of the 6-month-old girl in Mattapan, according to police, had their roots miles away in Dorchester and Jamaica Plain.
Targeting hardcore gang members for arrest and prosecution is still the best way to keep the city safe for children.
