Unified community groups create new anti-crime initiative

Howard Manly

The fight against urban violence took a major step forward as four powerful organizations joined forces to serve as an information broker between the streets and the police.

Plagued by its inability to solve 285 murders over the last decade, Boston police and other law enforcement agencies have publicly complained about the lack of credible information they are receiving to make arrests, prosecute cases and convict criminals.

The information gap has been exacerbated by equally public complaints about witness intimidation, a phenomenon recently symbolized by the “Stop Snitchin’” tee shirts.

“We are partners,” said Darnell Williams, president and CEO of the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts. “We are working together, not apart to attain a common goal.”

Along with the Urban League, the Nation of Islam, the NAACP and MAMLEO (Massachusetts Association of Minority Law Enforcement Officers), pledged their support to solve what appears to be an intractable problem. The four groups are working under the name Citizens Against Crime and have already established a hotline – 617-445-0437 – where anyone can share information while remaining anonymous.

Williams also announced a $10,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the four young men killed days before Christmas in the basement of a Dorchester house.

“We want to be honest brokers,” Williams said. “We know that somebody, somewhere, knows something. We know that somebody, somewhere, has the courage and conviction to stand up.”

The meeting held on Martin Luther King Day at MAMLEO’s headquarters in Dorchester, attracted scores of community activists, religious leaders and politicians, including, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley, Boston City Council President Michael Flaherty, Boston Police Commissioner Kathleen

O’Toole, state Rep. Gloria Fox and gubernatorial candidate Deval Patrick.

Minister Don Muhammad has fought these battles before and is given credit for helping reduce the crime back in the 80s, back when the Boston homicide rate was fueled by crack cocaine neighborhood gangs, and violent turf wars.

At Monday’s meeting, Muhammad urged the development of a crime prevention strategy that included drug rehabilitation, largely because 78 percent of most crimes are drug related. Underneath the drug problem, Muhammad said, is a chronic unemployment problem.

“The community has to be involved,” Muhammad said. “We can’t keep going this way and that way. Everybody needs to be on the same page and we need to fight drugs and crime at the same time. We don’t need a soloist; we need an orchestra.”

The emerging orchestra of community crime fighters received a bit of an off-tune note when Rev. William Dickerson stood up at the meeting and demanded an apology from both former Boston police commissioner Mickey Roache and former Boston Mayor Ray Flynn for their roles in the 1990 Charles Stuart murder investigation. Both Roache and Flynn have pledged their support to work with Citizens Against Crime, but Dickerson, still troubled by the Stuart case, was reluctant to accept their involvement.

It was an odd display of disunity at a meeting were unity was the underlying theme. According to some close City Hall observers, Dickerson’s protest appeared to be the off-handed work of Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, who is reportedly miffed that CAC involved Flynn and Roache in a crime prevention effort without him.

Muhammad was clear on the reasons that he wanted the two men involved with this latest effort. “We all worked together very closely to reduce the crime rate in the eighties and nineties,” Muhammad said in an interview. “I know from past experience that this model works.”

Flynn was also clear on his involvement. “The police can’t do it alone,” Flynn said in a statement. “City hall can’t do it alone. The community can’t do it alone. It requires a united effort. The Stuart murder case taught us all an important lesson. Boston works best when everyone works together.”

City Councilor Chuck Turner was quick to point out that working together during recent months has been difficult. “Three weeks ago, the elected black officials asked Mayor Menino for a meeting to talk [about crime prevention],” Turner said. “But there’s been no meeting. That is the kind of disrespect the mayor has shown us.”

CAC wants to get beyond disrespect. Williams reiterated that point during the meeting and made sure that everyone understood that the problem facing the city is street violence — not any perceived riff within the black community or City Hall. “This is about the flow of information,” Williams said. “If people come to us, then we will make sure that their information is channeled to the proper authorities.”

Even Rev. Eugene Rivers was on board. A frequently quoted commentator in the mainstream press, Rivers told the gathering that the black church community “should put egos and political agendas aside,” and focus on the real problems of the community — “without any drama” — and get behind Citizens Against Crime.