Mayoral challengers talking crime
Menino defends record as effective
City Councilor and mayoral challenger Michael F. Flaherty, looking for a political opening against a durable incumbent, has launched a pointed attack on Mayor Thomas M. Menino's record on crime, seizing on an issue that some community leaders say demands far more attention in the campaign.
"Over 1,000 people have been murdered in Boston in the last 16 years," Flaherty said in an interview, referring to Menino's four terms in office. "Those are statistics that you can't hide behind. That's the staggering reality of surging violence in our city that warrants everyone's attention."
While Boston has recorded 1,027 homicides since 1993, the year Menino took office, his aides said there were 1,597 homicides in the 16 years prior to his administration. They also noted that Boston, where 63 people were killed last year, has a relatively low homicide rate compared with some other cities, such as Baltimore, which had 234 slayings, and Philadelphia, which had 331.
"You can sensationalize everything if you look at it over a period of time," said Menino's spokeswoman, Dot Joyce.
Flaherty plans to unveil an anticrime plan today that proposes increasing the number of street workers - people hired to make contact with gang members and defuse conflicts - from 29 to 40, expanding their hours into the night, returning them to the schools, and allowing former gang members to join their ranks.
The city's street worker program was considered a key part of the so-called Boston Miracle of the late 1990s, when homicides plummeted. In recent years, the workers' shifts have ended at 8 p.m., when gang activity tends to peak. And state law has prevented the city from hiring former gang members with criminal records.
Flaherty's plan proposes decentralizing the Police Department by allowing district captains to develop neighborhood-specific crime plans and deploy officers where they are needed. It also calls more broadly for reactivating the coalition of community activists, clergy members, and state and federal agents who joined forces to push down the homicide rate in the late 1990s.
Flaherty, a former prosecutor, is also calling for the adoption of "e-policing," a program used by the Los Angeles Police Department that alerts residents by e-mail or text messages to crime trends in their area and offers crime prevention tips. He also wants regularly updated online maps to show residents where crimes have been occurring.
The councilor from South Boston is releasing his anticrime plan as he and the other mayoral challengers, including City Councilor Sam Yoon, continue to search for Menino's political vulnerabilities.
Twenty-three percent of respondents in a Boston Globe poll last month cited crime as the most important problem facing the city, down from 42 percent a year ago. Boston has recorded 22 homicides this year, down from 26 at this date last year. Major crimes, such as rapes, robberies, and burglaries, are down 11 percent from last year as of May 31.
But shootings are up 37.5 percent from last year, to 110 as of May 31, and the percentage of shooting victims under 21 has increased to 54 percent, from 48 percent last year.
Some activists said crime should be front and center in the campaign, especially heading into summer, when violence typically surges.
"What I'm hearing from everyday people is that they want to see more energy and focus to deal with these issues, but not from the platitude perspective," said Darnell Williams, president and chief executive of the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts. "All of the candidates are going to have to articulate what they are going to do."
The issue strikes a particular chord in minority neighborhoods hardest hit by gun violence.
"I'm angry," said the Rev. Bruce H. Wall, senior pastor of Global Ministries Christian Church in Dorchester, a frequent critic of Menino. "The lack of a detailed, comprehensive plan is the reason why we have lost so many children."
Menino, in an interview in his office last week, staunchly defended his record.
He highlighted the Safe Street program that regularly deploys police officers to "hot spots" of crime. And he pointed to his summer jobs program, which aims to keep teens busy and out of trouble.
"I'm mayor," Menino said. "I'm not out there trying to criticize. I'm trying to solve problems."
Flaherty has, in the past, blasted the Police Department's policy of not disclosing rapes until a pattern of multiple attacks has been established, and he criticized the proposed relocation of the gang unit from Dorchester to Hyde Park, which was later scuttled.
Other candidates are pushing their own anticrime proposals. Yoon has called for a half-percentage point increase in the state sales tax, saying he would dedicate the $35 million in new revenue to violence prevention programs diminished by budget cuts. He has also called for a "trauma protocol" that would dictate how police and social service workers handle the aftermath of a homicide, to prevent retaliation and comfort the survivors.
"I don't see the leadership coming from the mayor's office to do the coordination and the collaboration that we need to do to prevent violence," Yoon said. "What I see is an incremental approach. It's piecemeal, and that's not going to cut it."
Michael Levenson can be reached at mlevenson@globe.com. 