Monday, May 18, 2009
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.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
23 comments:
In the first paragraph of the Globe story,East Boston is referred to as "a largely immigrant neighborhood". That ought to help the real estate market around here.
There is indeed a large underbelly in this town which is illegal,Spanish speaking,and poor.
The comments posted after the article were sickening. I expect such ignorance on the Herald's posts but the Globe too is now home of a bunch of spelling, grammar and logic-impaired bigots, posting inane comments. To be filled with such fear, hatred and self-righteous indignation...well, honestly I sort of felt that way for 8 years of the Bush administration, but I didn't bother taking it out on the Internet!
In order to stop crime,the people who are supposed to stop it need to stop breaking the laws themselves.
April 2nd the globe did an article with a full color picture of Station 7 .
It highlighted the rampent abuse of the Police blocking both bus stops(post office,and across the street),as well as several handicap ramps,and fire hydrants,with their personal cars,as well as police cars.
Just Google it.
So it will go on ,and on,and on.
P.S.To the first poster,it also says the same thing in its article.
So once again,Eastie takes it on the chin.
Does anyone doubt that the police know who these gang banger / drug dealers / scumbags are?
This is the reason why no "so called upscale"restaurants are ever going to invest in Eastie.
Just today another illegal gross awening sign was put up next to subway(no permits),and its been built into a hair salon,no permits.
Great just what we need another salon.
The Globe to me has always been a communist type paer,and I hope it folds.
Nuff Said
John, I agree with you on the posts at boston.com. I don't know why I am ever drawn to those message boards because each and every time I leave sickened by the mean-spirited nature of the posts (and lack of writing skills).
Sadly we have our share of these folks here at this blog as evidenced by the first post here. Although the writing skills seem fine : ), the mean-spirit is sad. Referring to people as "the underbelly", why does someone feel that is necessary? Call illegal immigrants "criminals" if you have to (I wouldn't), but most I know are decent and hard-working, certainly not any kind of "underbelly."
Some police are hard working, but I too am always shocked by the way they think they are above the law...especially state police. Unbelievable.
Anon 9:14 pm You can't have it both ways, if the Globe folds, you won't be able to quote good investigative reporting like the one on police not following the law. I don't think the Globe is perfect, but we need someone looking into issues like this.
I am glad to have seen the article written. The fear of the police makes immigrants a target and that is a real problem.
My main criticism of the article is that Cramer did not really look very carefully at the police data she relied on. While there was an increase in crime, particularly burglaries and larcenies, in the first 4 months of the year, it is no different than in years past. A quick look at the last 5 years of data all show a spike in crime between February and May which declines a bit again until August. More importantly, East Boston is one of the lower crime neighborhoods of Boston. Charlestown, the South End, Downtown, even the Back Bay have far higher per capita rates of crime than East Boston.
Interestingly, when I wrote to Cramer to bring this to her attention, she simply dismissed it. Talk about bad reporting. There doesn't need to be a spike in crime for the fear of the police to be a problem, but she seemed insistent on making Eastie look like some hotbed of crime.
Most Former east boston residents moved to saugus in the last decade and a half,all thought they were to good for east boston, most triple decker homes were sold for a mere half a million dollars, immigrants from central america were buying these homes in droves, they were approved for subprime loans, they became proud residents of east boston, owning the american dream,a neighbor who lives up the block told me that he is selling his 2 family home for 299000 he bought it in 2005 for 380000 i said why are you selling, he said. That someone broke into his home and stole a laptop computer, and he said that 4 members of ms13 live next door to him, he said he had enough.
Let me explain what I mean by underbelly. The punks up Eagle Hill who rob food delivery people.The gangs that spray paint "Zeke" on houses,the drug dealers around Maverick,the junkies doing break-ins when you are working. The term underbelly was used only because I cant swear on this blog.It does exist, and I am not a racist for pointing it out. Also I dont care what ethnic background or country you are from,if you break in my house you are going to get a bullet in your brain.
I agree with anon 8;42. if you come to this country legally and want to do the right thing, good luck, glad to help you. if you are an unnecessary burden, Just want to be a burden on society, break in to my house and i will put you out of your misery. I qualified on a 45 in the army and still own one.
As usual Nstarluna turns it into a claim of people bashing immigrants ,and refuses to understand we are talking about the ones who "Break into America",and then rob,sell drugs etc.
As proof Nstar why dont you go back a few decades,and see what our mothers,fathers ,grand parents etc had to do to get a visa to come here through the front door.
1- A sponsor
2- A Job
3-Averified place to live
4-Get all their shots
Also you always seem to confine it to Latinos / Spanish.
For the last time its Any,and All who break in ,and then pilage,no matter what place they come from.
I also agree with the posters,my home is my castle,break in I will end the days they ever have to worry about I N S .
As a victim of a crime by an Illegal ,I can say he got to split my head open while robbing me,got caught,the cops are banned from asking him if hes here Illegal(thanks to people with your visions)paid a 25.00 bail ! ,and never showed up for court.
Hes probably already bought a new identity in Central Square Park.
All of us had parents, grandparents or other relatives who came here, some legally, some illegally and others enslaved and forced to come. As I've said before, my thinking -- which I know is far removed from most of my neighbors and most Americans -- is that human beings have been migrating for more food, more resources and better climate for as long as we've been a species, and the national borders that were artificially drawn in the past couple of centuries are not ever going to stop such an elemental human behavior.
Of course, we do need to manage immigration, but vilifying people in search of food for their kids, decent healthcare, work with dignity, human rights, etc. is not a solution and it is not even logical.
The Globe article mentioned the small rise in crime and the BPD's attempts to open lines of communication with Spanish-speaking residents. Let's focus on those points and not make the typical ignorant comments about others.
Do you know who is the real underbelly of this town is? The postal credit Union. They have destroyed the simple folk of East Boston. They poisened the creek and polluted the air. They stole from the elderly and beat inocent children. I have heard they have a sweat shop in the vault where they make cheap t-shirts. When will these egregious acts of tirany stop?
If Anonymous had actually read the comment I wrote, he/she may have noticed that I was not concerned with the presentation of immigrants at all. I was more concerned with the focus on the purported increase in crime in East Boston. A quick look at the BPD statistics over time shows that the rate of crime during the period referred to in the article is no different than in years past. There are regular cycles of increases and decreases in crime that occur with the change in seasons.
My only concern, as presented in my comment, was that the article made it sound like East Boston has a crime problem. If you compare Eastie to the other neighborhoods you will find that, as usual, East Boston has one of the lowest rates of crime in the city both in the time period mentioned in the article and over time in general.
I knew that the article was going to bring out the racists, and it has, as evidenced by a few of the comments here and on boston.com. Since there is no coherence to the racist claims being made here, I do not feel they warrant a response.
NStarluna,it is offensive to be called a racist when you are not one.The statistics you are fond of are inaccurate here because as the article states; alot of these crimes are NOT being reported. Just because individuals do not want illegals commiting crimes in their community,does not make them racist.Perhaps you are an illegal,thus thou protest too much!!
Anonymous - we've had this conversation before. Please see out: http://thehubsterblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/on-campaign-trail.html
And the assumption that all or even most crimes being committed in this neighborhood are being committed by a specific ethnic group is racist.
I have lived in East Boston for sixty two years. I welcome anybody who comes to this country legally, and wishes to make a better life for themselves and family. I just ask, do it the old fashioned way. If you wish to live off the dole, or support yourself through petty crime, who needs you.? Why should we be subject to this? professor (illegal) starluna would consider me a racist. I served in the U.S. Army with a mixture of diversified soldiers. We all shared the same productive goals, we had no use for the sick bay brigadiers.
CARRY YOUR OWN WEIGHT AND BE A GOOD PERSON.
HAPPY Memorial Day my brothers and sisters.
What does the Postal Credit Union have to do withthe crime wave in East Boston? I cant see the correlation between banks and crime.
Postal Credit Union? It is not open yet. What crimes committed there? Do you think Gem auto parts looked better? Is the taliban funneling funds? What creek was destroyed? SWEATSHOP IN THE MASTER SAFE? What does that place have to do with crime in East boston? What are you smoking? Roll me one.
The Postal Credit Union has done nothing but turn a disgusting eyesore into a great looking spot for all of East Boston to follow.
Special Thanks to Derick Brodin for making it happen.
I personally think that comment was just to break our chops.
Maybe if more developers cared to build like that our town wouldn't look like it does.
nuff said
Who is our chops? Derek, if that is you just come out and say it. Don't hide behind the vault. The truth of the matter is east boston savings is the best bank around...has been for years. Way Nuff Said.
Hey 5-22 post.
Who mentioned anything about East Boston Savings bank being bad,if at all??
Please part your anger,and re-read ,as reading id fun de mental !
Proof positive,your a b.bster.
Who want's people to sign names,but wont sign his.
Go Postal Credit Union.
Its about development,and respect for Eastie,and I am willing to bet you do not live here.
Probably an absentee landlord whos 3-family building has about 60 people living in it. As long as the checks don't bounce !
Peace out !
Thank You Derick !
Who is in charge of scraping these scum venim gangs off the streets of east boston,hope its the fbi, or the staties from the airport ,no sorry the staties are raking in 160 grand a year just on detail, lets use these staties in east boston to round up these scumbags, now that summer has arrived, these scumbags will terrorize east boston ,i have a question, how come you do not see gang activity in west roxbury, hyde park, rosilandale or even brighton, hmmmmm
Post a Comment