Real Estate Expert on Crime

Real Estate Expert on Crime

The essay on rising crime among youth indicates the fanciful result of appointing a real estate lawyer to be chairman of the Public Safety Committee. (Jarrett Barrios, "Mass. voters give mandate for smart-on-crime policies," Boston Herald, November 19, 2006) For many years criminal justice experts (e.g., John DiIulio, Princeton University; Heritage Foundation "The Breakdown of Marriage, Family, and Community") knew that the rising numbers of youth growing up with one parent and without an authority figure would become a serious crime issue ten years later.
We are now ten years later. Massachusetts's Public Safety Chairman is unwilling or unable to recognize that. It is politically incorrect to suggest that one parent families may be a cause of violent crime among youths.
The Harvard politician blames the gun industry. Facts show that more legal guns in the city reduce the amount of violent crime. But facts never got in the way determining nonsensical policy for Barrios. He should spend more time on criminal justice issues than promoting the flawed same sex marriage court decision. And the reason Travaligni appointed Barrios to that post is what?
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Roy Bercaw, Editor
ENOUGH ROOM
Cambridge MA USA

Mass. voters give mandate for smart-on-crime policies
By Jarrett Barrios
Boston Herald
Sunday, November 19, 2006

Our next governor, Deval Patrick, will not have 30-second sound bites, but four, long years to deliver on the many promises of this campaign, including the pledge from all political camps to make Massachusetts safer. For urban youth, who are so often the victims of violence, action could not come soon enough. In many parts of Massachusetts, particularly among urban youth, crime has increased.
It also has become increasingly violent. According to the FBI, Massachusetts has become the most violent state in the Northeast due to an explosion in youth violence over the last four years. In 2005, there were more than 600 shootings in Boston, up from 341 in 2004.
Most startling is the age of victims: High-school-age teens comprised more than 50 percent of shooting victims, according to a report on youth violent crime prevention published by the Boston City Council last year.
From shootings at Charlestown High School to three men age 23 and under walking into a South Boston housing development last week and fatally shooting a man, youth gun violence is out of control. As Gov.-elect Patrick begins to focus on his policy priorities, he has said he wants to go deeper than just gimmicks.
I believe that will mean he - like all of us - will have to answer this question: Why this rise in gun-involved youth violence at a time when crime in general is falling? One of the biggest contributing factors to gun violence is the babbling brook of illegal ballistics flowing into the commonwealth. Where guns are easy for kids to get, they will use them in their crimes.
In 2005, Boston seized 797 guns, a 35 percent increase from 2004. Further, most illegal guns are obtained through straw purchases from outside Massachusetts. Straw purchases occur when one person, who will pass the background check, travels to a state with loose gun laws - such as Pennsylvania, Virginia or Georgia - and buys several guns at one time, then distributes them on the black market. So what can be done?
First, we need Congress to modify federal laws that hamper state and local governments’ efforts to trace straw purchasing for illegal use in conjunction with the Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms’ National Tracing Center database. In Massachusetts, we can make the sharing of ballistics reports between the local and state police mandatory.
Creating a large crime-scene ballistics database will assist in linking crimes and criminals - something even National Rifle Association members would support. More information means easier prosecutions of gun-sales middlemen. Pre-election polling showed voters were unpersuaded by the tough-on-crime message.
It means the public has caught on that quick-fix sound bites are no-fix solutions. Far more important, this turn of voter sentiment portends a turn toward more effective crime policy. A governor bolstered by a mandate for change, a Legislature that has taken note of the political failures of Massachusetts-style “tough on crime” rhetoric and a public that expects policymakers to offer real answers - all the stars seem to be aligned for a real change from tough-on-crime rhetoric to smart-on-crime policies. Let’s get started.
Sen. Jarrett Barrios (D-Cambridge) chairs the state Senate’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee.