Park shootings spark fears of gangs, calls for jobs
Mayor Kenneth E. Reeves and the Police Department denied the existence of gangs in the city last week, seeking to dispel rumors among some Area IV residents that a recent double shooting in a Cambridge park was evidence of gang activity.
``We don't have a mob or posse of any type in Cambridge, no matter what they call themselves," said Reeves. ``And I should know. I'm from Detroit."
``What I'm hearing is that there is a group of older people in their 20s interacting with those around 14 years old, almost in a Fagin sense," Reeves added, referring to the Charles Dickens character in ``Oliver Twist" who recruits children to thieve for him.
Some neighbors told the Globe in interviews and e-mails, however, that they've heard that a group of youths in Riverside has organized; one said he had seen its name spray-painted on an alley wall in May on Howard Street. Other residents said they assume the group is just a loose-knit pack of imitative teens.
On July 26 , a man and a woman in their 20s were shot in the Clement C. Morgan Park in the Area IV neighborhood; neither suffered life-threatening injuries. No suspects had been arrested by last Thursday, according to police .
Police spokesman Frank Pasquarello said, ``We don't have any information that this was gang-related. But we will investigate every possible angle."
At a neighborhood meeting held after the shooting, residents clamored for an early closing for the park and a curfew for the entire neighborhood, according to City Councilor Denise Simmons , who lives in the Area IV neighborhood.
Closing the park earlier, she said, ``is one of the many ways we might stem the violence in this neighborhood."
She requested new signs, which went up last Monday , to reflect the change from a 10 p.m. to an 8 p.m. closing, but the City Council voted Wednesday night to restore its original hours. Cambridge resident and Area IV activist David Scondras , a former Boston city councilor, said earlier in the week that closing the park early steered the city's response in the wrong direction.
``We should take back the streets," he said. ``A curfew deprives people of their homes. Don't hide. There should be more lights and more activity. I want to see something happening there every day; a farmer's market, an art sale, music, magicians, a dog show, basketball games."
``Use it or lose it," Scondras added. ``Even though shutting it down and running away is what we may feel like doing."
``I couldn't agree with him more," Reeves said in a separate interview.
Reeves called an emergency meeting of community leaders last Tuesday for a ``think-tank" session.
He said the majority sentiment was that the park needs to be open late and have more programs.
Scondras, who attended, said the mayor asked him to organize activity for the park, and that he would look into working with local businesses to create a job program for unemployed young Cambridge men.
``I'd like to see if we can set up a three-year contract with businesses for young people," Scondras said. ``The closest thing we have to a cure-all is a job."
Although there is talk of reallocating current funds, additional crime-fighting funds might also become available.
Cambridge is one of several communities selected to receive a share of the $11 million statewide Charles E. Shannon Community Safety Initiative grant program established to combat gang violence.
To qualify, cities had to demonstrate high levels of youth violence or gang activity, according to the application guidelines.
Asked when a ``loose-fitting" group of kids becomes a gang, Jack McDevitt , Northeastern University's associate dean of the College of Criminal Justice, said that a gang identifies together, uses crime to reach a goal, and defines territory it will protect.
Typical signals of a group's change to gang status include having a name, gang colors or handshakes, shootings over turf, and drug dealing.
He said he couldn't comment on whether the Cambridge violence appeared to be gang-related because it could have stemmed from multiple causes.
``One of the challenges Cambridge might be facing," McDevitt said, ``is kids today think being a gang member is cool. Some call themselves a gang but aren't really involved in gang activity."
Another possible challenge, he said, is gang members from other communities causing trouble in Cambridge.
McDevitt said Massachusetts doesn't have a history of national gangs.
Instead, gangs in the state ``tend to be neighborhood groups of kids around the same age. But they appear to be getting younger, starting at age 14 or 15. That's what we're seeing in Boston."
Reeves said he did not think that recent violence in Cambridge was overflowing from Boston. ``Our issue is not the Boston issue," he said.
Simmons identified part of the violence problem in Cambridge as some youths having ``no center" to their lives. ``But there is not just one cause, and there is not just one answer."
