Crime of Omission?

Crime of Omission?

Adrian Walker says, Cadillac Deval "used his biography to illustrate who
he was politically." Huh? (Adrian Walker, "A crime of omission," Boston Globe,
April 5, 2007) The Governor is a Harvard corporate lawyer masquerading as a
civil rights lawyer. If Walker is unaware of that he is unaware of the problem.
Fearing to testify is one thing, an emotional response. The rational reason
that most young people refuse to cooperate with police is two-fold. First they
cannot trust the police. 19 people were killed when they went to the FBI to
report James Bulger's crimes. When a crime victim goes to the police their first
reaction is to investigate the victim.
Moreover we see and hear the loud silence from the politicians about police
corruption. We see and hear how politicians remain unaccountable for their
criminal actions. So what are the role models showing young people? Hear no
evil, see no evil and speak no evil. Young people learn faster than older
people.
Until the politicians and the police recognize that they are the problem
this cycle of violence will continue to escalate and will never be solved.

Roy Bercaw, Editor ENOUGH ROOM

A crime of omission
By Adrian Walker,
Bostonh Globe Columnist
April 5, 2007

Some day soon, with the same sense of urgency that has characterized this
administration to date, Governor Deval Patrick plans to roll out a plan to
address violent crime in Massachusetts.

While neighborhoods in Boston are cowering in fear of violent criminals, Patrick
has had almost nothing to say about the situation. He did break his silence
Tuesday to say, after meeting Mayor Thomas M. Menino at City Hall, that he loves
the city, and the mayor for that matter, and is looking for the money to express
his affection.

Wonderful. I'm sure Menino loves him, too.

Patrick's reticence is surprising, to say the least. As we were told frequently
when he was a candidate, he grew up on the South Side of Chicago. He has
personally been a victim of gang violence. He said he was the only candidate who
had ever prosecuted anyone.

Now, just a few miles from the State House, even less than that from Patrick's
home in Milton, people in Dorchester are wondering whether someone with the
intention of settling a beef is going to board the bus or the MBTA train they
are riding. They wonder if that someone will have a loaded gun and whether they
will be sitting too close to the intended target. They wonder what anyone is
doing to protect them.

That might have sounded melodramatic a few months ago, even a few weeks ago. But
not now, not after someone climbed aboard a rush-hour bus at the corner of
Washington Street and Columbia Road last Friday to commit murder at point-blank
range, one of a string of recent killings that have shocked the city.

People in government are fond of saying of crime, "We know what works." Clearly,
it isn't that simple, because what they are doing isn't working.

But there are some things government can do, and the governor can be a catalyst
for all of them. For one thing, the state needs to do more to protect witnesses.
The reasons that potential witnesses aren't eager to cooperate with law
enforcement are complicated, but one of the major factors is plain fear.

Last year, the Legislature, after protracted debate, passed a measure to help
give witnesses protection. It isn't perfect -- you don't get a new identity and
a one-way ticket out of sight -- but it has been useful. This program needs to
be fine-tuned and made permanent.

Special grand juries have turned out to be useful tools for making people tell
police and prosecutors what they know. They, too, are living on borrowed time;
funding runs out in October.

"It can't end in October," Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley told me
this week. He points to the quadruple homicide on Bourneside Street as a case
that might never have been broken without the program.

One problem Patrick is well aware of, according to one senior aide, is the flow
of guns into the state, often via the interstate from New York. As Menino has
long argued, stemming this traffic will require regional cooperation. Patrick
and his counterparts in New York and Connecticut need to find a room someplace
-- don't they all like the Berkshires? -- and figure out what they can do
cooperatively to combat gun trafficking.

Not least, Patrick needs to reassure his jittery constituents that the state is
a partner in this for the long haul and not by saying, "I'm looking under the
mattress for a few bucks, and I think I just might find them."

He needs to let Boston residents know that this is not just their problem and
that the state government will not rest until their fears are put to rest.
Mostly, he needs to mean it.

What made Patrick such an appealing candidate was the way he was able to meld
the personal and the political, the way he used his biography to illustrate who
he was politically. Crime, specifically, was one of the areas where those lines
converged.

This is the last issue on which he can remain nearly silent.

Adrian Walker is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at walker@globe.com.
Beginning next week, his column will appear on Tuesdays and Fridays.