Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Shooting from the Hip near Codman Square?

The news of a shooting on  Lyndhurst street can easily evoke the terrible summer
of 2005. Back then, the troubles on this street near Dorchester’s Codman Square
included drug-dealing and prostitution. So it wasn’t altogether surprising that
the pastor of a church a few blocks away, Rev. Bruce Wall, would occupy a
building on the street and put the problems on the map.

As for what happened last night, there’s no denying that a 43 year-old man was
shot in the neck. How does that matter to the community? To begin with, as
The Boston Globe reports, the gunshots were heard by neighbors, and that’s
definitely unsettling.

But is it a continuation of what happened in 2005? Not necessarily. By this
morning, the Boston Police said the shooting was “fueled by a personal dispute,”
and that the alleged shooter, a 27 year-old man from Dorchester, knew the
victim. The suspect has since been arrested and was due for arraignment in
Dorchester District Court this morning.

As The Globe makes clear, the area has had more violent crime since 2005,
including an assault on another pastor. Residents usually point out that most of
the street is quite stable, with attractive single-family homes that are, for
the most part, well maintained. But there are multi-family buildings near the
corner of Washington street—the epicenter of Rev. Wall’s “Hell Zone”—that have a
history of problems. These include multiple foreclosure petitions and distressed
sales.
If the Boston Police Dept. is correct, the story around last night’s shooting
looks different from the configuration of dots in the first news reports. It can
certainly be expected the Police Dept. would want the public to think it’s not
all that dangerous to walk down Lyndhurst street on a warm summer evening—even
if the public remains on guard. It does appear the latest shooting wasn’t a
random robbery, or something triggered by the kind of turf war that often takes
a toll on bystanders. If there are still dots on Lyndhurst street, they have to
be connected in a different way.
 
Posted by Chris Lovett at Tuesday, August 31, 201

Mayor of Codman Square’ and his Guy Friday keep the faith in neighborhood
Weekend Warriors

Two weeks ago, doctors placed a third stent in the Rev. Bruce Wall’s tireless 61-year-old heart.

“My wife keeps floating these ideas about retirement,” he was saying. “She says maybe it’s time to think about Virginia. But I can’t. There’s too much work to do. And I’m not close to being finished.”

With the silvery stubble of his trademark beard gone, Wall looks almost as young as he sounds. It’s Friday night and the pastor of Global Ministries Church is about to join his friend, probation officer Bob Nagle, and church member Vicki Daniels, for their weekly trek throughout the Codman Square neighborhood.

Wall has been patrolling a 10-block radius around his church for the better part of four years.

“I call him the Mayor of Codman Square,” Bobby Nagle said. “When you see how the merchants along Washington Street and the families up and down the surrounding streets react to him, that’s really who he is.”

Tom Menino might wince a bit at the designation. The mayor of Boston has come to see the mayor of Codman Square as a kind of well-intentioned irritant, the one black minister willing to speak his mind and remain well off the City Hall reservation.

Yet, as Wall and Nagle begin their journey down Washington Street in the direction of Four Corners, they are greeted with smiles, handshakes and return whispers of “Bless you” by all the shop owners.

“Saying ‘God bless you’ to folks is always better than just hello,” he says. “People just open up to you. We always begin these walks by checking in with the merchants. It’s critical to know how they’re doing? Do they feel safe? Are they having any problems?

“They are so crucial to the rebirth of this area,” Wall said. “If they feel threatened enough to shut down, then we go back to where we were when drugs were being sold openly right here on this corner.”

Wall stands at the corner of Washington and Lyndhurst, in the shadow of an empty brick apartment building, where he once kept a weeklong vigil, sleeping on the floor while focusing a city’s attention on the roosting hookers and drug merchants.

“They’ve left this corner,” Wall said, “we helped the residents take back this place. But the building is still empty. I’m hoping the Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation continue their plans to renovate this place. There’s already been one fire here.”

Listening to a former Department of Youth Services worker explain how savvy teen prisoners find ways to smuggle in drugs and play the system, Wall is inspired to vent on the need for what he calls a “comprehensive plan to explore the root causes of why so many of our black, Latino and Cape Verdean kids are destroying themselves.”

Wall’s dream is to have a forensic sociologist, or better yet a team of them, spend two years examining the city’s “hot spots.” He knows it won’t happen, but that doesn’t stop Bruce Wall from talking about as he makes his way down Lithgow Street, where teams of undercover cops have corralled two kids on possible gun and drug violations.

“Bruce’s presence and his faith have made a huge difference in this neighborhood,” Bob Nagle says. “We’ve been walking together now for close to fours now in all kinds of weather. No Friday night is ever the same. And I never come away from our walks without learning something new.”

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1274726

BOSTON PRAISE RADIO
“Boston’s #1 Praise and Inspiration Radio and Television Station On The Glorystar Radio and Television Network.”

For Immediate Release – July 4, 2010, 5:30 PM, EST

NEW RADIO BROADCAST TO GO WORLDWIDE ON THE SATELLITE
BOSTON, MA – On Monday, July 12, 2010, from 5:00 AM to 6:00 AM, on WRCA 1330 AM Radio, Pastor Bruce Wall will host a new radio program that will broadcast worldwide on the Glorystar Satellite Radio, Internet and Upstream TV.

THE FAITH BASED COMMUNITY NEEDS THIS NEW VISION
So much is going on in Boston and in the “Faith Based” community. 

We need a religious broadcast that has an ethnic slant.  There are other religious radio stations and programing in New England but this is the only one on a satellite signal and AM radio.  Each broadcast will be live. 

In addition to being on WRCA 1330 AM Radio, Pastor Wall now has his own radio station operating out of his church. 

HUNDREDS OF PASTORS
Many local and national pastors will be interviewed by Pastor Wall and allowed to share their vision of their ministries and the impact of their work on the City.

Over the past 3-years pastor Wall has been on 20 different radio stations across the country.

HIS NEW RADIO STATION
His new radio station, Boston Praise Radio has 18 local pastors and church leaders broadcasting 24-hours a day.

He is using AM terrestrial radio to point his listeners to his new station, i.e.,

WRCA IS HIS NEWEST PROJECT
Morning Inspiration is his newest project.   Each morning, Monday through Friday, at 5:00 AM, he will reach people in their homes and in their automobiles.   People in Boston, and beyond, want to wake up to something that will inspire and motivate them to want to get up in the morning.   

Louise Carcione, spokesperson for Pastor Wall said, “This is our newest project and promises to give Boston pastors, and church leaders, a powerful voice in the City of Boston, nationally and worldwide.”

END

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff  |  June 14, 2010

As the number of teenage shooting victims in the city continues to rise with the wounding of a 15-year-old boy in Roxbury Saturday night, several community leaders are pledging to take new measures to curb youth violence this summer.

The Rev. Eugene F. Rivers III — head of the Ella J. Baker House in Dorchester, which mentors youth — wants clergy to reach out directly to violent offenders.

“The clergy need to be on the street mixing it up with the gang members,’’ Rivers said. “Certified gang members, not church kids out of church programs.’’

Emmett Folgert — executive director of the Dorchester Youth Collaborative, which works with at-risk teenagers — said he plans to begin meeting with the families of young shooting suspects when he has a prior relationship with those arrested. One of his goals, he said, is to divert their younger siblings from violent behavior.

“It’s obvious why we go into the homes where there’s a victim,’’ he said. “There’s such trauma and tragedy. But it’s less obvious why we’re now trying to go into homes where someone has been arrested for a shooting. Some of it may be for the rest of the family. . . . We’re looking at can we divert the next generation.’’

A Boston police spokesman said he could not comment yesterday on whether the two men arrested in the Saturday night shooting of the unidentified teenager in the leg on Eustis Street are known to police. Terrence L. Blalock, 27, and Chester A. Johnson, 24, both of Dorchester, are scheduled to be arraigned today in Dorchester District Court.

Witnesses told the Globe Saturday that the boy was riding his bicycle shortly after 6 p.m. when a car pulled up beside him. One man stepped out of the car, fired several rounds at the teenager, and got back in as the car sped off. The youth was taken to the hospital with injuries police described as not life-threatening.

The attack was the latest in a wave of shootings and stabbings of teenagers in recent weeks, four of which have been fatal.

One victim was even younger, although her injury was not fatal: On June 4, a 10-year-old girl was shot in the leg on Creston Street on the Roxbury-Dorchester line. A week earlier, on May 28, 18-year-old Terrence S. Kelley Jr. was fatally shot on the same block.

On May 31, two teenagers were killed. Nicholas Fomby-Davis, 14, was shot as he rode his brother’s scooter in Dorchester, and Ivol Brown, 17, was stabbed on a Mattapan street. Fomby-Davis died about three weeks after Jaewon Martin, also 14, was shot to death on a basketball court near a housing complex on the Roxbury-Jamaica Plain line.

The Rev. Bruce Wall, pastor of the Global Ministries Christian Church in Dorchester, said in an e-mail that his church is working with Boston police this summer to launch what he calls the Codman Square State of Emergency Plan, in which volunteers will hit streets identified by police as trouble spots and “deal with the warring parties.’’

“I am going door to door to ask the pastors if they will join me in taking back the streets that surround our churches in the [10-block] radius of my church,’’ he said.

Rivers insists that working directly with known gang members is the best way to stem the violence. To that end, he hopes to work with Harvard University, the city, and several nonprofits to launch an initiative he is calling From Guns to Gloves, a boxing and literacy program aimed at the most dangerous youth.

“I’m calling for all of the most violent boys in this city to get involved,’’ Rivers said, adding that he hopes to work with police and probation officers to identify candidates for the program. He said he plans to launch the program by the end of the month.

Spokesmen for Mayor Thomas M. Menino and the Boston public schools would only say that Rivers has been in contact with city officials about the program.

The Rev. Jeffrey Brown — who leads the Boston TenPoint Coalition, which works with troubled youth, said his organization plans to launch a citywide Season of Peace campaign at the end of the month that will last until Labor Day. He said the campaign will offer programs to steer teenagers away from violence, but he declined to provide specifics.

Brown, who like Rivers and Wall works regularly with police, also credited the department with a balanced approach to combating the violence.

“They understand that they can’t arrest themselves out of this situation, but they also understand that they can’t become social workers,’’ he said.

But, Brown said, challenges remain for all parties, including the churches.

“As long as we have [teens] afraid to walk the streets that they grew up in because they are afraid of getting shot, as long as we have that, then the churches should not rest,’’ he said.

Travis Andersen can be reached at tandersen@globe.com.  

  BOSTON (AP) — A group of minority police officers wants Boston city councilors to put pressure on Mayor Thomas Menino to promote more minorities as supervisors and in specialized units after promises were made last year to diversify the department’s ranks.   The City Council has scheduled a hearing Tuesday on police diversity, and minority officers are promising to crowd the chambers.   “We aren’t further along than when we started,” Larry Ellison, president of the Massachusetts Association of Minority Law Enforcement Officers. “We need more action now and less talk.”   The hearing comes after Police Commissioner Edward Davis vowed last year to diversify command staff and a recent string of homicides occurred in minority neighborhoods where investigators say witnesses are not cooperating. Ellison said a lack of minority officers in specialized units –especially as supervisors — is one of many factors hurting police in preventing homicides. Messages seeking comment were left with the mayor’s office and police department.   Rev. Bruce Wall of Global Ministries Christian Church in Boston said many of the minority police officers come from the same neighborhoods where the crimes occur and should have a better presence in supervisory positions to help fight crime.   According to department numbers, around 16 percent of the department’s 164 sergeants are black or Latino.  In addition, the department has only a handful of minorities as supervisors in specialized units like gang and homicide.   Census estimates show minorities account for around 50 percent of the city’s resident.   Tuesday’s hearing is just the latest fight between Menino and the minority law enforcement officers’ association. For months, the group has asked the department to change requirements concerning tests for promotions, or at least inform minority officers about open positions so they could apply and prepare for test.   The group has said that supervisory positions continue to go to a select few “insiders” without minority officers having the chance to fairly compete for the jobs.   In October, the 300-member group cast a no-confidence vote after they accused Menino’s re-election campaign of warning them to tone down criticism or face negative consequences, a charge the campaign denied. The group has become more vocal as the city faces a number of gang-related homicides and shootings in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood.   Menino has reached out to black ministers in an effort to help rally community members to cooperate with police. Ellison said Menino could instead reach out to minority police officers. “The ministers don’t call us to do baptisms,” said Ellison.   “We know policing. We know these neighborhoods and we can help.” Jose Lozano, the group’s vice president, said Davis has shown a willingness to make improvements. But he said the department still is moving too slowly.   Carmelo Ayuso, president of the Massachusetts Minority State Police Officers’ Association Inc., said members of his group will also attend Tuesday’s hearing in support for Boston minority officers. But he said Boston isn’t the only police department in the Commonwealth that lacks black and Latino officers in high-ranking positions. “It’s a problem all over,” said Ayuso.   Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.

NEWS UPDATE-BOSTON, MA JUNE 7, 2010

ON TUESDAY, JUNE 8, 2010,12:00 PM TO 1:00 PM, PASTOR BRUCE WALL WILL SPEAK TO THE CITY OF BOSTON AND PRESENT A PLAN THAT WILL HELP TO STOP THE VIOLENCE IN BOSTON. YOU WILL BE ABLE TO HEAR HIM ON WWW.BOSTONPRAISERADIO.COM.)

PASTORS SPEAK AND LEAD

I DO NOT APOLOGIZE
I do not apologize to those who are offended that I will not let go of what God is saying to and through my life regarding the loss of so many lives in Boston.

THEY WOULD NOT BACK DOWN
The role of the prophet is to speak what God is saying to the listeners.  Jeremiah, Isaiah, Joel and other Old Testament prophets were hated because they did not back down from the call on their lives or what they had to do.  A true prophet does not bite their tongue.

TEN YEARS
It will take us ten years (If we start now) to climb out of the pit of neglect, greed, indifference, anger, arrogance and betrayal that plague our city. 

A WHITE COUPLE
While sitting in one of the two funerals that were held in two different churches today for homicide victims, I saw a white couple and It dawned on me, that most white children in Boston die from natural causes, diseases, or accidents.  Very few die as a result of being shot in the head, chest or back at a point blank range.

IN BOSTON
In Boston children of color are dying before their time.  

In Boston children are so afraid to live that some are embracing death rather then life and preparing to die.

In Boston youth are afraid to be on the bus, the trains or to walk in the
neighborhood.

In Boston far too many parents are burying their children. 

THE GOVERNMENT HAS MONEY BUT NO ANSWERS
Stop looking to the government to stop the homicides, shootings and stabbings. Only God can do that through us.

IF YOU ARE A PASTOR THEN LEAD
Pastors are to lead elected officials not follow them.   The politicians should no longer be allowed to speak at the funerals for homicide victims.  They should only be allowed to attend and sit quietly. 

WAKE UP BOSTON
When will we wake up as a city? When will God’s people take their rightful place and lead?
 
In Boston pastors are afraid to speak without getting the permission of the elected officials.  Since 2005, Boston has become the murder capital of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Our mission should not be to just get through the summer with a few homicides.  I challenge the city to change their paradigm and pray that we will have an entire year without ANY homicides. Death and life is in the power of the tongue.

The homicides must stop not only in the summer, but they must stop year round.
 
Let’s believe that we will stop counting the homicides and start counting the graduations.  

Pastor Wall

Two suspects will be arraigned on first-degree murder charges Tuesday morning in connection with the shooting death of a 14-year-old boy in Dorchester on Sunday night, marking the second time in a month that a Boston teenager was shot and killed on a city street.