"Unfortunate circumstances" a poor excuse

Carmen Guzman wants justice in the death of her daughter, Julissa Brisman, at the hands of Philip Markoff, the so-called "Craigslist killer." Of course, Markoff killed himself last year while awaiting trial, but Guzman believes that the gun store where Markoff purchased a 9mm pistol should be held accountable -- and she's right.

The story, in today's Globe, has a pair of quotes that leave me shaking my head. First, the owner of the State Line Gun Shop -- located about 3,000 feet over the border into New Hampshire -- said, "There really is nothing to say at all." Nothing to say about an establishment in a mostly rural state that sets up shop on the fringe of a major urban center and sells weapons to people from a neighboring state, where the gun laws are more restrictive? More than 100 guns that were purchased in New Hampshire were used to commit crimes in Massachusetts in 2009.

The next quote, even more disturbing, comes from the assistant US Attorney, who said, "It’s an unfortunate set of circumstances, but there doesn’t appear to be any intentional conduct on the part of the dealer." The "intentional conduct" of the dealer is to sell as many guns as possible and, therefore, not to worry about the details, which is this case involved a fake ID with an unconvincing photo and the name of the fake identity misspelled.

Sure, Markoff might have obtained a gun elsewhere, or he might have killed Julissa Brisman by some other means -- but wasn't her life worth just a little bit of effort on somebody's part?

Three of a kind

***I remember the day that Jorge Torres was shot. The rookie cop, who was friends with people I knew in East Boston, was hit with three bullets while chasing a bank robber. Officer Roy Sergei was killed by the gunman. After two years of recuperation, Torres tried to return to the job, but he says, "I just wasn't any good any more." Michelle McPhee writes in today's Herald that Torres -- pictured, courtesy of the Herald web site, from 1988 -- is trying to track down his partner that fateful day, Chris Rogers, who is apparently living on the streets.

***When Louis DeSanctis died three years ago, he had assets in East Boston worth $32 million. His extended family is surprised to find out that they get none of it, as the secret daughter appeared from nowhere.

***A web site names the best pizza places in Massachusetts. Can you guess who they mention first?

Facts trickle in on abandoned baby

Today's Globe, Herald and NECN have stories with a bit more information on the newborn found abandoned in an alley off Saratoga Street. Mother and child are each apparently at Mass. General hospital and in good condition, though the baby is in state custody. It's unclear at this point if charges will be filed against the mother, who neighbors say was clearly trying to hide the fact that she was pregnant.

Photo courtesy Boston.com.

Curiouser and curiouser

Three bishops resigned this week for their roles in clergy abuse cases -- one for sexually abusing a boy, one for beating youngsters at a Catholic home for children, and the third for covering up cases of sexual abuse.

Meanwhile, the National Catholic Reporter has a disturbing story about a cardinal who had "intervened, against the wishes of a U.S. bishop, on behalf of an American abuser priest" who'd "sexually abused dozens of minor boys." The story goes on to say:

Moreover, [Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos] implicated the late John Paul II in that decision. "After consulting the pope ... I wrote a letter to the bishop congratulating him as a model of a father who does not hand over his sons," [Castrillon was quoted as saying]."

Also, at least one US lawsuit has named Benedict XVI as a defendant for the Church's negligence in protecting children who were sexually abused. In a response that said the suit is "without merit," the Vatican also invoked the pope's "diplomatic immunity from prosecution in other countries." It's funny how legal principles suddenly matter to the Vatican ... oh wait ... it isn't funny at all.

Eastie in the news

***The Boston Redevelopment Authority Board approved the East Boston Neighborhood Health Center's proposal to put a new $20 million building in Maverick Square. The city's zoning board votes in a week. If all goes well, the project is expected to break ground in June.

***An East Boston man, described as a "drug kingpin," was arrested yesterday as part of an operation that arrested a number of people in Eastie, Revere and Chelsea.

Eastie wrap

***In an update on the city's dealings with the H1N1 virus, Boston.com reports on a Boston Public Health Commission analysis that shows that East Boston was hit with a higher than average rate of flu cases back in the spring, but a much lower rate during the second wave of cases in the fall.

***Globe columnist Kevin Cullen had a nice story last week on the re-dedication of the local ice rink to Lou Porrazzo, a local son who was killed in action in Vietnam on Sept. 27, 1967.

***A guy who robbed an Eastie convenience store yesterday is wanted by the Boston Police for a string of robberies. There's a photo of him here on the web site of the Dorchester Reporter.

***The story of Sal, the East Boston cat summoned to jury duty, is being widely reported. I even found a link to it at the bottom of a Wall Street Journal summary of "The Best of the Web" under the heading, "Everything is Seemingly Spinning Out of Control."

Woman's body found on Princeton Street (Update: Body ID'd)

A sad Christmas Eve story at Boston.com: the body of a woman, her hands bound, was found last night in a blue plastic bag in an alley just off Princeton Street. Police said the woman appeared to be in her 30s with a tattoo of a dragon on her neck. Autopsy results are expected today.

Update (12/26): The body was identified by police as 39-year-old Julienne Corrao.

'John Brown’s body lies moldering in the grave'

John Brown -- terrorist to some, hero to others -- was hanged 150 years ago today not far from the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Va., that he and 21 others raided on Oct. 16, 1859. The siege lasted into the next day, but Marines under the command of Robert E. Lee -- then a colonel in the federal army -- stormed the building, killed several of the men and took Brown and others prisoner.

Brown was tried and found guilty within three weeks and hanged on Dec. 2. A 21-year-old John Wilkes Booth was among the crowd that assembled to watch. Before his death, Brown wrote:

I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood.

He was unfortunately correct.

Police reports

The Boston Police are reporting (via Twitter) that someone was shot this evening in Maverick Square. Also, it says that there was a fire this morning at 117 Maverick Street.

Links to police web sites:

Boston Police Twitter site

BPD news

Police Station 7 web site

A surge?

It appears that crime in East Boston has surged in the past few months. I've come across an increasing number of reports of robberies and assaults in the neighborhood, usually after dark. Browsing through the Universal Hub blog there were these back-to-back posts yesterday: "Thugs driving around East Boston, looking for people to mug" and "Little kid watches parents held up at gunpoint in East Boston." Both incidents were reported here at the District A-7 web site.

Now, to be fair, such an assessment -- that crime has surged -- can be skewed by several things, including that more information is available on the Internet more quickly today than ever before, therefore, I am able to read the police report more easily than in the past. In the grand scheme of things, urban crime across the country is down in the past 20 years AND East Boston has always been one of the city's safer neighborhoods.

Still, it's something to be aware of. I've never before felt like there was any part of Eastie that I could not walk through at any time of day (keeping in mind, of course, that I am a stocky male, though -- despite the mean look of the shaved head and goatee -- not a tough guy by any stretch), but now I think I'd probably be a bit leery about walking around Eagle Hill, where most of the crimes seem to be clustered, late at night.

Eastie in the media

***Channel 7's Hank Phillipi Ryan recently turned her investigative eye toward trees in the Orient Heights neighborhood of East Boston. It seems that the city has teams trimming branches, but local residents say the workers have "butchered" the trees. For some reason, when I click the video link on the 7News web site nothing happens, but by the transcript of the story one can almost hear that phony melodramatic tone that the station always uses, and in the end, there is no scandal or secret that needs a hyped investigation. The city's arborist explains that, though it looks bad, it is the correct procedure, and come fall and winter local residents will appreciate that there are fewer branches that may pose a danger to power lines. I haven't seen the trees, and I'm sure the residents are right in their assessment that their street looks less appealing, but this story highlights a problem with local news: the graphics, music, editing, teasers, writing and tone are always implying horror and crime, while most of the time the truth is much less sinister.

Update (8/29): Boston.com's GlobeWatch feature looks at the tree-pruning issue, questioning city officials. Apparently, due to limited funds, East Boston was the only neighborhood in which a new approach to street trees was taken. The story says:

Contractors were hired to trim all 2,300 trees, even if a tree did not appear damaged or unhealthy. The idea is to take a more proactive approach to tree maintenance, as other cities do, instead of waiting until problems crop up or requests come in.

***Rolling Stone magazine offers a detailed story on a young man -- blind, poor, overweight and lonely -- from East Boston who rose to be one of the best phone hackers ever. Matthew Weigman has just started serving an 11-year sentence for his crimes, which will shock you. Read the story.

***Scup's in the Harbor, the small eatery located in the shipyard at the end of Marginal Street, has the city's best BLT, according to Boston magazine. Scup's was recently given approval for a beer and wine license, and word is that they will start serving dinner, as well as lunch and breakfast, in the fall.

Around the horn

***About 45 minutes ago the Boston Police reported (via Twitter) that there is a fire at 213 Lexington Street. There appears to be one injury and 15 people are displaced. (Update 8/23: According to Boston.com -- and a reader who corrected my later error -- the fire started at 346 Saratoga Street and spread to 344.)

***Former Globe critic (and Eastie resident) Thomas Garvey praises the newly renovated Maverick Station -- and wonders how the design actually made it past the usual stumbling blocks.

***There's been a series of reported "head punching" incidents in East Boston, according to Universal Hub. Money and cell phones have been stolen.

***A reporter for the Quincy Patriot Ledger outlines the players on the issue of legalized casino and/or slot machine gambling in Massachusetts. The action will pick up when the legislature sits down in September and something will likely be passed before the holidays. Suffolk Downs and Wonderland will surely figure in all of these machinations. (Update 8/24: The Globe weighs in with a similar story on where we stand now on gambling.)

***I hadn't realized that -- as of July 1 -- all recyclables can be placed in the same container, even though I have yet to receive one of the new 32-gallon barrels. The city has a pamphlet available online that talks about the new guidelines.

The thieving hour?

According to the local police web site (via Universal Hub), a pair of robberies took place in Eastie a few blocks apart early yesterday within 10 minutes of each other, though it does not seem that they are connected.

The CVS in Central Square was held up at 2:40 a.m. by "a medium-dark complexion Hispanic male," who pointed a gun at the man behind the register and demanded cash. The suspect made off with between $300 and $400, and the fleeing car was seen heading north on Meridian Street.

Six minutes later, someone reported that he was mugged on Brooks Street between Bennington and Saratoga streets after leaving a nearby bar. A man was assaulted with a baseball bat by "two white/light skinned males, and one dark skinned male along with a female," who went into the victim's pockets and attempted to take his wallet.

While I was away...

While I was away -- more on that soon -- I saw these stories in the local news:

***A federal grant will allow researchers to piece together what exactly happened on the Chelsea Creek in May of 1775, when colonists sank and burned the HMS Diana, a British vessel that was appropriating supplies upriver for the Redcoat army. Considered the first naval battle of the American Revolution -- and taking place between the iconic battles at Lexington and Concord and at Bunker Hill, the confrontation is rarely cited as a key part of the nation's history. Researchers may attempt to find what, if anything, is left of the Diana. Our friends at EastBoston.com provide more on the Battle of Chelsea Creek.

***The parent company of East Boston Savings Bank is purchasing the South Boston-based Mt. Washington Savings Bank, which will increase deposits to over $1 billion.

***The specifics may still be a bit murky, but arresting Skip Gates, perhaps the leading African American scholar in the country, while he was in his own home is going to appear to many people as an indication that, despite our half-black president, the US is still a long way from being free of institutional racism. The fact that this happened in Cambridge, arguably the most liberal city in America, makes it all the more disappointing.

It's a crime

The Globe has a story today about the hazards of summer -- skin cancer, Lyme disease, EEE, West Nile, etc. -- and how they've been overblown, causing widespread worry when the dangers are relatively tiny. This idea is a microcosm of a bigger problem in our society: we worry too much about the wrong things.

Recently I heard Lenore Skenazy, author of a book called Free-Range Kids, on NPR and she cited crime figures that show that, as a rule, children are as safe today as they were when their parents were growing up. Crime did rise for a decade beginning in the mid-1980s, but the number of murders, assaults, rapes and abductions are way down in recent years. The perception, however, is that we live in crazy times and that children need to be chained to their parents.

This paranoia is fostered by local news and true-crime TV shows, but it isn't reality. Of course, every child -- every person -- who is the victim of a crime is one too many, but American parents seem consumed by the idea that a stranger is going to leap out and snatch their kid. Any review of the facts will show that when children are abducted or harmed it is almost always a relative or close friend; when they are reported missing it often turns out that they've run away or that they're with dad.

I remember going to see Michael Moore's film Bowling for Columbine and thinking that it'd be a liberal crusade against guns -- a crusade I support -- but the theme was actually quite different. Moore has been an NRA member since he was a teenager. His movie focuses on the fear that many Americans have that someone is going to burst through their door to attack them, rob them and/or hold them hostage. Again, this is an irrational fear. That is not to say that it never happens, but that it is extremely rare. Watching local TV news and true-crime shows, however, you'd think it happens every other day in your town.

As a result, people in the United States arm themselves with all sorts of weaponry and fight against laws that would exercise some control of their armaments. In the movie, Moore crosses the border and walks around Toronto -- a big urban center -- and into people's homes. Turns out they don't lock their doors as often in Canada because they don't fear crime the way we do. They aren't bombarded with fearmongering on the tube every day.

Yes, I know: crime does happen, and it can be devastating, but I don't believe that we should let the way we live be controlled by TV stations desperate for higher ratings.

A lost war

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof makes an argument that we need to drastically change the nation's policies with regards to illegal narcotics. "This year marks the 40th anniversary of President Richard Nixon’s start of the war on drugs," he writes in his most recent piece, "and it now appears that drugs have won."

One former big-city police chief says:

“We’ve spent a trillion dollars prosecuting the war on drugs. What do we have to show for it? Drugs are more readily available, at lower prices and higher levels of potency. It’s a dismal failure.”

Kristof adds that the War on Drugs has left the US with five times more people imprisoned than the world average, while at the same time enriching criminals and terrorists. He raises some good points in the column and everyone who makes policy in this country, or who cares about it, should read it and start thinking about new approaches.

Cleaning up Gitmo

If I was unjustly imprisoned for years by an individual, a drug cartel, a rebel army or a sovereign government, I'm sure that fury and hatred would have long ago boiled over in my brain and that taking violent action against my oppressor could be something I'd agree to. The fact that The New York Times reported last month that an unreleased Pentagon study showed that one in seven terror suspects released by the US were back in the fight against this country isn't surprising. The mystifying part is that the other 86% have seemingly been able to put the experience behind them enough to move on with their lives. (In the days after the NYT story it was reported that the actual figure was probably less than one in seven.)

In the past 48 hours we've heard that one suspected terrorist has been transferred from Guantanamo Bay to New York City to stand trial and that the tiny island nation of Palau, formerly a US protectorate, has agreed to take up to 17 Chinese Muslims -- a group that has been held since 2002, even after a federal judge found that they have not been connected to any crimes.

The saga of those held at Gitmo is shameful, complex and ongoing, but the crux of the matter is that the US government has been holding people -- some dangerous, but most not -- for years without charges in violation of both our Constitution and the Geneva Conventions. Some on the right are in a tizzy about the actions of the Obama Administration, but the president recognizes that something needs to be done with the remaining 240 detainees. We cannot, and we should not, continue to hold them indefinitely without some sort of legal process.

The clock cannot be turned back, but the Bush Administration completely boggled this issue. As I see it, individuals held for violating criminal statutes need to be processed through the justice system of the government where the alleged infractions took place, whether in the United States, Iraq or Afghanistan. If someone is captured as a prisoner of war, then international law applies and that person has to be released when the battle is over (in these cases, when Baghdad or Kabul fell), unless the individual is charged with war crimes. Then an international war crimes tribunal should handle the case. There are no other categories and governments cannot just create a classification ("enemy combatant") to suit their needs.

It is time for America to move forward on this matter and for the Right to stop playing the fear card.

Police attempt to overcome silence

Crime in East Boston is up so far this year, and a Boston Globe page one story reports that local police have been building bridges with Eastie's Spanish-speaking community to reassure those residents about reporting illegal activity. There's an accompanying graphic that shows increases in several categories of crime, most notably burglary and robbery.

Holding the scoundrels accountable

The always-thorough Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com lays out a seemingly irrefutable case as to why the incoming administration must investigate and hold the Bush Administration accountable for violating US and international law by torturing people in the aftermath of 9/11.

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman weighs in similarly, but expands the notion to a widespread inquiry into a number of areas (going to war, warrantless wiretaps, politicizing the Justice Department, the response to Hurricane Katrina, the financial crisis) where incompetence and criminality may have taken place.

The desire to hold a mirror up to the past eight years and to punish this arrogant collection of rascals is strong, but doing so would undermine Barack Obama's attempts at shelving partisanship and could derail much of what he hopes to accomplish. The president-elect has said, “I don’t believe that anybody is above the law," but he's followed that with "...we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards.”

Tomorrow, Obama will take an oath to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution..." If he pushes aside a complete and just accounting of the Bush Administration in order to keep the mood in Washington, and around the country, positive, is he trampling on that oath? Is he allowing some people to get away with being above the law?

Krugman writes: "So Mr. Obama should reconsider his apparent decision to let the previous administration get away with crime. Consequences aside, that’s not a decision he has the right to make."

The wrong stuff

President Bush is in Iraq right now, his fourth visit there. It's a farewell to the site of the signature event of his presidency -- the illegal, unnecessary and botched invasion and occupation of that country. Bush may actually be holding onto the idea that history will exonerate his decision; if so, he is delusional.

A government report, which hasn't been released yet but has been leaked, condemns the entire Iraq rebuilding effort as "crippled before the invasion by Pentagon planners" and then "molded into a $100 billion failure by bureaucratic turf wars, spiraling violence, and gaps in knowledge," according to today's Globe.

The reports is called "Hard Lessons" and was put together by the federal Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. Among other incompetence and dishonesty, the report quotes no less than Colin Powell, backed up by two other high-ranking sources, saying that the reported numbers of Iraqi troops trained by US forces were made up. The Pentagon just kept increasing the amount each week.

Also in the news recently is the indictment of five Blackwater guards, employed by the US government to do security work in Iraq. They are charged with firing their machine guns and grenade launchers into a Baghdad crowd in September of 2007 and killing 17 civilians. The use of private security forces is an underreported story in this conflict. These guys were totally out of control.

One of the biggest factors that I think motivated Americans on Nov. 4 was the incompetence of the current administration. At least, the citizenry collectively said, we want people in charge who know what they are doing. Nowhere has the lack of foresight, ideological blindness, intellectual cowardice and outright stupidity of George W. Bush and his minions been more apparent and costly than in Iraq.