Boston Debacle

In the 1990s, we had the Boston Miracle. In the year 2007, we're rapidly descending toward the Boston Debacle.

Back then it was federal prosecutors locking up thugs for years. It was Boston police officers working with community activists to rid the streets of guns. It was ministers, it was outreach workers, it was a raft of programs funded by a political establishment well aware of the stakes.

This year, it's something else entirely -- uninvolved feds, an undermanned police department, a governor playing a shell game with crime-fighting funds, quarreling clergy.

The result? Dead girls, murders in broad daylight, kids dying in their early teens, an out-of-town visitor shot in the head.

Last week, an 11-year-old boy walked into his school with a loaded gun, which was shocking, though not all that surprising to anyone who knows anything about the daily life of the Boston p ublic s chools.

Consider a few other incidents, included in a confidential report prepared by the Boston s chool p olice for city officials and provided last week to the Globe:

Three Wilson Middle School students were arrested on charges of carrying bullets.

Boston p olice intercepted a student walking to Brighton High School with a pellet pistol.

A Madison Park High student was seen concealing a 10-inch carving knife before walking through a metal detector.

An English High School student was found carrying a knife.

A student shot another in the back of the head with a BB gun on a school bus.

Here's what's most remarkable: They all happened the same day, Jan. 11. And if anyone thinks Jan. 11 was anything but typical, think again. The day before, there were three episodes involving knives; the day after, another four.

I called Richard Stutman, the evenhanded head of the Boston Teachers Union to ask one question: What the hell is going on?

"Kids bring weapons to protect themselves," he said. "When you think that some kid has to bring a knife to school because it's not safe to walk in their own neighborhood, it says a lot about society. And think about that kid trying to manage his daily life."

Then he added, tellingly, "The classrooms are a lot safer than the streets that surround them."

Which is scary, but true. The town has an eerie feel to it these days, as if the worst is yet to come. On Thursday, the Guardian Angels arrived, at almost the exact same time that a gathering of civic activists met in the State House to protest Deval Patrick's ludicrous law enforcement cuts. On Friday, two men were shot dead in the city, one on a crowded T bus.

On Wednesday, a man was killed, shot in the head during rush hour on Blue Hill Avenue . The weekend before, Chiara Levin died.

The governor said youths should pull their pants up. Thank you, sir. City officials haven't said enough. Witnesses to crimes aren't saying anything. The killings go on, as hard-working, God-fearing people remain under siege inside their own homes.

Friday, pastor Bruce Wall had big letters taped inside the windows of his church in Codman Square declaring, "State of Emergency." Curtis Sliwa and his Guardian Angels walked down Washington Street, to the whir of cameras and occasional shouts of passersby.

"The more the mayor says he doesn't want them and the police commissioner says he doesn't need them, the more the community says they must be good," Wall said of the Angels.

As if to prove the point, a school bus idled at a stoplight, the youths rushing to the windows to see the Angels, sticking their arms out, pleading to shake hands. If only it were enough.

Problem is, the thugs are getting more brazen, the residents more frightened, the police more burdened, the politicians more distant. The worst is yet to come in this Boston Debacle.

Brian McGrory's column will appear on Wednesday and Sunday. He can be reached at mcgrory@globe.com.