Melvin B. Miller
Editor & Publisher

The erosion of trust

Gunfire has become an all-too-common sound in Boston’s center city. As of the first week in August, there had been 257 shootings and 25 fatalities by gunfire in 2006, 102 more shootings than last year at the same date, when 24 people were shot to death. With a record 48 total murders as of August 10, Boston is on track to record its highest homicide rate since 1990.

For most people, moral repugnance to taking a life serves as an adequate deterrence to murder. When that fails, society must depend upon institutional deterrents to discourage individuals considering homicide and restrain them by fear — the fear of being caught and the fear of the penalty when convicted.

The responsibility of apprehending the miscreants falls to the Boston Police Department, but the BPD’s so-called clearance rate is so low that violent criminals must believe that they can misbehave with impunity. Only three percent of shooting cases have resulted in arrests, giving Boston one of the lowest clearance rates in the nation.

Former Police Commissioner Kathleen O’Toole blamed community residents for this failure to perform, telling reporters that “people can’t expect a higher clearance rate without more community cooperation.” Then there was a big flap about “Stop Snitching” T-shirts.

The fact is, many people in the black community know that some police officers are involved in the drug traffic. If you provide information about a homicide to the wrong police officer, you run the risk of violent retaliation. Efforts by community activists over the years to provide more oversight of the police have been consistently rebuffed.

Many of those unfamiliar with the complexities of city life have insisted that the complaints of African Americans lack substance. While everyone seems to acknowledge that many of the shootings are drug related, there is the naïve belief that the story is simple: drug dealers are the bad guys, and the police force is totally committed to their apprehension. The notion that some policemen could be partnering with pushers seems to tax suburban credulity.

However, the recent arrest in Miami of three Boston police officers who went there to be paid for protecting drug shipments proves for others what those in the black community have known all along: some officers are involved in drugs, and if you happen to report a shooter’s identity to one of them, you can put your life in jeopardy.

Some will try to pass these recent arrests off as a singular incident, a mere blip on the radar. But that would be fatuous. Since the BPD first started testing for drugs in 1999, 75 officers have failed the test, with 61 testing positive for cocaine. This means that 61 officers either stole cocaine from the evidence room or established friendly relations with drug dealers.

The code of silence to protect the thin blue line is very strong in Boston. Unlike in New York and Los Angeles, where one failure leads to dismissal, police officers in Boston who fail a drug test get a second chance. Citizen complaints are not swiftly processed. And there is considerable opposition to an effective citizen review board.

One might ask the erstwhile police commissioner: who is it that is really not cooperating?