Pastor Bruce Wall

"I am not as old as I look!!!"

Thinking twice on tourism officials: Hub officials: Rev’s warnings out of line
By Donna Goodison
Wednesday, March 28, 2007

The Rev. Bruce Wall’s warning to tourists to “think twice” about vacationing in Boston runs counter to his desire to curb crime in the city, tourism and hospitality officials said yesterday.
 

    Stopping the flow of visitors to the Hub would result in a loss of tax revenue - from hotel, meal, sales and income taxes - that helps put needed police officers and community workers on the streets, they said.
 

    Frustrated by Saturday’s shooting death of a 22-year-old Kentucky woman in Dorchester that brought the city’s murder toll to 13 this year, Wall sent a mass e-mail on Monday warning that tourists were not immune from the violence. “You will take your life into your own hands if you travel to Boston,” his warning said.
 

    Wall is the pastor of Global Ministries Christian Church in Dorchester.
 

    But tourism officials said that while they understand Wall’s frustration, and that his remarks may make for a good TV sound bite or newspaper headline, his warning was irresponsible and not factual.
 

    “If you step back and try to look at it dispassionately and logically, why would you want to disrupt an industry that generates so much revenue in tax dollars to fight crime and deal with neighborhood issues and problems?” said Pat Moscaritolo, CEO of the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau. The real key to solving crime is community leaders and members working cooperatively with police and stepping forward with pertinent information, he said.
 

    Though Moscaritolo believes Wall’s remarks ultimately won’t deter tourists from visiting the Hub, Massachusetts Lodging Association head Art Canter said any bad publicity undermines the marketability of Boston.
 

    “There are many people in the suburbs outside of Boston whose perception is bad things happen in Boston,” Canter said. “The reality is, for those of us who work downtown and work in the city center, it’s one of the safest in the country compared to other major cities.”
 

    Saturday’s shooting and many others this year took place in neighborhoods not typically frequented by tourists, Canter said.
 

    “Most of the tourist attractions - the museums, the restaurants, the hotels, the trolleys - are in the city center,” he said.
 

    Still, he acknowledged, some tourists might not know enough about Boston to distinguish among its neighborhoods.

Guardian Angel Leader Coming To Boston

Sliwa Proposes Resurrecting Anti-Crime Patrols

BOSTON -- A spike in homicides punctuated by the death of a visitor from New York, shot as she sat in a car outside a party, has spurred Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa to propose resurrecting his civilian anti-crime patrols in Boston after a 15-year absence.

The Guardian Angels received mixed reviews when they expanded their subway patrols from New York to Boston from 1981 to 1992, but Sliwa said Tuesday the recent violence convinced him he should return to the city Thursday even though he had not been able to schedule any meetings with police officials.

Nonetheless, he said, he will go to police headquarters with the hope of convincing officials that Guardian Angels patrols could help investigators on the growing number of unsolved murders. He planned to bring an interracial group of eight volunteers in hopes police will let them patrol areas in Dorchester, Roxbury, Mattapan and Jamaica Plain and on a subway line that goes through some of the city's most dangerous neighborhoods.

"And if we're lucky enough to come into Roxbury and Dorchester and recruit and train people and patrol the neighborhoods at no cost to the taxpayers, who could complain?" Sliwa said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Police Commissioner Edward Davis said in a statement he applauded volunteerism and the help of citizens, as long as they work with police.

"The Guardian Angels have been told to consult Boston Police Department captains to inquire about ways they can be of assistance, as we would advise any citizen who requests to participate in public safety efforts," Davis said.

Sliwa said he hoped to meet with any police liaison and did not care if he met with "the guy who sorts the mail in the mailroom as long as he gets the message back to the chief."

Mayor Thomas Menino did not immediately return calls for comment.

The pre-dawn shooting of Chiara Levin, 22, as she sat in a car outside a party early Saturday morning has frustrated Boston police, who say they feel witnesses are withholding information. Levin, who grew up in Kentucky, recently had moved to New York and was visiting Boston to celebrate a relative's 90th birthday. Police do not believe she was targeted.

Her parents, Bill and Grazia Levin, of Danville, Ky., released a statement on her death.

"There is too much violence in our society, and we urge everyone to look for ways to eliminate these senseless acts of crime," they said.

Ideally, Sliwa said, the Guardian Angels, who do not carry guns, would talk to people on the streets, gather information about crimes and pass it along to police. Sliwa said he prefers to work cooperatively with law enforcement.

Former Mayor Raymond Flynn, who ran the city between 1983 and 1993, said he did not feel the Guardian Angels made much of a dent on crime when they were in Boston before and does not think anything would be different now.

"The city is really in a public safety crisis. The Guardian Angels and vigilantes - that sounds like good PR and media hype," Flynn said. "But I didn't ever think they were a deterrent. The police officers themselves thought of them as an insult."

Sliwa said the Guardian Angels won praise from police brass when they aggressively patrolled the orange subway line during their 12 years in Boston. He said his group could be particularly helpful now as the reluctance of witnesses to talk and an urban culture against snitching has grown.

The Rev. Bruce Wall, a Dorchester church pastor who has angered Menino by demanding that the mayor declare a state of emergency in certain high-crime neighborhoods, said he would welcome Sliwa's group.

"When I first heard about it, I thought I would be opposed," he said. "But after thinking it through, I would welcome the Guardian Angels, and I plan to call Curtis (Sliwa) and tell him I'd be willing to speak to him."

Davis' statement said that while he shared the frustrations with violent crime behind Wall's call for an emergency declaration, "The theory of flooding neighborhoods as an occupying force is counterproductive to our relationship with community members."

Boston has had 13 murders this year. It had seven for the same period last year.

Police seek help in fatal shooting

Third homicide in 5 weeks in neighborhood is probed

By Maria Cramer, Globe Staff  |  March 27, 2007

Police are urging those who attended a party that preceded the killing of a 22-year-old former Kentucky woman to reveal what they know, as investigators increase their focus on the events that led up to the shooting of Chiara Levin.

"It's critical for people who attended that party to come forward," Deputy Superintendent Daniel Coleman said during a press conference yesterday at police headquarters.

Coleman said investigators have interviewed the host of the party, who will be charged with violating a city ordinance that restricts after-hours parties. Other partygoers also have been interviewed, Coleman said.

"I'm not dissatisfied with the people we are aware of at this point, in terms of them providing statements to us," he said. "I'm a little dissatisfied, frankly, with people that were in the area who have not come forward."

The shooting, outside 415 Geneva Ave., was the third homicide in five weeks in the neighborhood. On Feb. 21, Andrew Keith, 22, was gunned down at midafternoon at Columbia Road and Devon Street. In the early afternoon of March 9, 18-year-old college student Quinntessa Blackwell was shot on Olney Street while walking past an elementary school.

Yesterday, Coleman, standing with Commissioner Edward F. Davis and Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley, released new details about the Levin shooting. The New York resident was in town for a great aunt's birthday and went out Friday night with two male friends, Coleman said.

Law enforcement sources briefed on the investigation have said the three friends spent much of the night in downtown Boston at Caprice Restaurant and Lounge.

Sometime between 2 a.m. and 2:30 a.m., the trio was approached by three Boston men, whom Coleman said police have identified but are not naming. The three men invited the friends to a party on Geneva Avenue and drove them there in a dark Cadillac Escalade pickup truck.

Levin and her friends were at the party for about an hour before they decided to leave. The men offered them a ride again. As the six people prepared to leave, gunfire erupted, and Levin, who was in the vehicle, was struck in the head. One of the Boston men was lightly grazed by a bullet, police said. Neither of Levin's friends was injured, as has been reported.

The Cadillac fled the site and stopped briefly in the area of Bowdoin and Adams streets, where the injured man and another of the Boston men left the vehicle before it continued to Boston Medical Center. Levin was pronounced dead just before 6 a.m.

"The coward who is responsible for this homicide snuffed out the life of a beautiful young girl," Davis said.

Police are also investigating whether a 22-year-old man who admitted himself to the hospital about 4 a.m. Saturday with a gunshot wound to the shoulder was connected to the party.

Coleman declined to comment on whether the case would be brought before a grand jury. (A subpoena from a grand jury would force witnesses to testify under oath.)

"It would be inappropriate and would not be prudent for me to comment about that," he said. "Generally speaking, a grand jury can be an effective investigation tool and asset in any of our complex investigations."

Coleman said that Levin's two friends, who a relative said were alumni of the University of Michigan, Levin's alma mater, were fully cooperative with police.

"They are understandably devastated at the loss of their friend," Coleman said.

Jonathan Schwab, Levin's cousin, said in a telephone interview yesterday that the family plans to hold the funeral in Danville, KY., where Levin grew up. "We're doing OK," he said.

He has said his cousin was probably not aware of how dangerous the area was when she accepted the invitation to the party.

Davis said the Police Department is trying to tackle the problem of after-hours functions and gang violence.

Since January, police have shut down 10 after-hours parties and 10 to 15 parties hosted by gang members that police learned about through fliers distributed throughout the city, he said.

Davis asked the public to call 911 to report after-hours affairs, which Mayor Thomas M. Menino has vowed to shut down because he said they often lead to violence. "We want to be notified before there's trouble," Davis said.

The latest killing served as a painful reminder of the reluctance of witnesses to speak out.

Emmet Folgert, executive director of the Dorchester Youth Collaborative, said community members have told him their lives have been threatened by gang members if they cooperate with police. "It's a longstanding problem," he said.

Police and community members, however, continue to look for ways to cooperate, Folgert said.

"The police have reached out on many levels to the community, at community meetings and directly to organizations," he said. "From [Commissioner] Davis down, everybody is approaching community leaders, and community residents and teenagers."

Levin's death moved Rev. Bruce Wall, pastor of Greater Ministries Church in Washington Street, to warn tourists to stay away from the city. "You will take your life into your own hands if you travel to Boston," Wall said in a prepared statement.

The Rev. William Dickerson of Greater Tabernacle Church, however, said the city remains relatively safe. "Even though we're dealing with these deaths, I still think Boston is a good place," he said. "We can't have an attitude of pessimism, although we need to be realistic that we need changes."

Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com.  

Activists march to protest violence

Man, 25, is killed as demonstrators gather for walk

By Khristopher Flack, Globe Correspondent  |  March 29, 2007

Less than an hour before about 150 community members marched through Dorchester yesterday to protest Boston's recent series of youth killings, activist Joao DePina , 28, was reminded why he was participating.

Steps outside of Sun Pizza on Blue Hill Avenue, about a mile from the march route, an unidentified 25-year-old man was gunned down in broad daylight.

"Here we go again," DePina said.

The shooting, at about 5:15 p.m., was the 14th homicide in the city this year, five more than the total at this time last year. It came days after a New York woman was fatally shot outside of an after-hours party on Geneva Avenue while visiting Boston for her great aunt's birthday.

"I feel nothing is moving along with us," said DePina, a 20-year Boston resident who said he is considering moving out of the city, along with his two children, because of the violence. "We shouldn't have to fight for this. We shouldn't have to fight for black youth in Dorchester to not have to worry about going to the park and ducking if they hear a gunshot."

As the sun set last night, police were examining the corner where yesterday's shooting took place, dotted with 13 orange evidence cones and a tan Red Sox hat. Police said they did not have any suspects and appealed to residents for information.

The shooting took place on the eve of a meeting between the Rev. Bruce Wall and Curtis Sliwa , head of the Guardian Angels, who want to return to the city to help fight crime after more than a decade. Boston police have urged the Angels to work with the city if they choose to walk the streets.

"We have a right to justice, and we're not getting it," said DePina. "We're building a team, and if we have to, we will march down to City Hall to get what we need from our city and save our children."

DePina was joined by the parents of several homicide victims and Councilor Charles Yancey, as well as the families of several Boston shooting victims. The march was originally organized to commemorate the birthday of Quinntessa Blackwell, the victim of a March 9 shooting, who would have turned 19 yesterday.

The nearly two-hour trek started in the area where Blackwell was killed, near a school where an 11-year-old boy was arrested Wednesday for bringing a loaded gun into the building. 

Shot teen put on life support

By Michele McPhee and O’Ryan Johnson

Friday, March 30, 2007 - Updated: 08:28 PM EST

A teenager was shot on a crowded city bus in Dorchester today, a broad-daylight attack that came as a group of Guardian Angels worked their first safety patrol less than a mile away.

The teen was traveling on the Route 23 bus, which runs from Ruggles to Ashmont MBTA stations, around 3:47 p.m. when a gunman opened fire at Columbia Road near Washington Street, hitting the teen square in the face, several law enforcement sources said.

     “This is too much, too much,” said the Rev. Bruce Wall, who was patrolling with nine Guardian Angels, including a Roxbury teen who joined the group yesterday morning, on Washington Street when the murder took place. “We will not be frightened. We will carry on. That’s all we can do, keep going.”

     The teen was not identified yesterday.

     Several police sources said the teenager was put on life support at Boston Medical Center shortly after the shooting.

     Yesterday, transit and Boston police fanned out through Dorchester in pursuit of the gunman, who fled the scene on foot. Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa said the shooting should send a message to City Hall that Boston needs all the help it can get.

    “This shows you that there is a need for us. There was a young man just (shot). How does the mayor say he doesn’t need us now?” Sliwa asked minutes after the shooting. “We will continue to be aggressive out there. The cops are overburdened. They are running from one shooting to another. We are trying to be helpful and show these kids there is another way to go rather than shooting each other.”

     Yesterday, 22-year-old Jason Correa of Roxbury became the first man in Boston to join the Guardian Angels’ ranks. He donned a red beret at the Global Ministries Church and began marching with eight other Guardian Angels from Massachusetts and Washington, D.C.

     “It’s crazy out here. We need this,” Correa said. Correa and the Guardian Angels were heading to the scene of the shooting yesterday afternoon.

     Local ministers said city officials need to react to the increasing violence with an increased urgency.

     “These shootings in broad daylight are getting ridiculous, said the Rev. William Dickerson of the Greater Love Tabernacle Church. “These kids have no respect for life, no respect for authority figures. Shooting someone in the middle of the day like this, they are saying: ‘I don’t care who sees me, I am going to smoke this person and I dare someone to rat on me.’ ”

    Today’s shooting took place just blocks from where 18-year-old Tacary Jones was shot dead on a crowded MBTA bus in March 2005.

    Jones’ killers, O’Neill Francis and Ivan Hodge, were convicted March 14 and sentenced to life in prison. A juror deliberating the fate of the two men was followed home from the courthouse and threatened by thugs who told him, “We know where you live. We know where your daughter goes to school,” the Herald reported this month.

     The juror was dismissed from the jury before Hodges and Francis were found guilty. It remains unclear how Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley will pursue the juror intimidation case.

     Before today’s ambush, the Guardian Angels received a warm welcome. School children on yellow buses screamed and waved at them.

    Shopkeepers shook their hands. Teenagers grabbed fliers detailing information about the anti-crime group.

    But Jolice Seide, 21, was not convinced that the Guardian Angels would stem the relentless bloodshed.

    “They ain’t going to be able to do nothing. They be shooting everyone up in here every day,” Seide said. “It’s going to take more than the Guardian Angels.

Dorchester on edge after two shootings

By Brian R. Ballou and Michael Levenson, Globe Staff  |  April 1, 2007

Seared by gunfire that killed a man and left a teenager clinging to life support, Dorchester residents braced themselves for more violence yesterday as officials scrambled for ways to "end this insanity," in the words of one city councilor.

In Grove Hall, a lieutenant in the Fire Department told his charges to get ready to treat more shooting victims, and ordered them to check their medical equipment. Nearby, a grocer who has already installed bulletproof windows in his store, said his friends are warning their children not to ride MBTA buses. On the airwaves, a pastor beseeched parents to take responsibility for their children's behavior.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino, seeking to calm frayed nerves, said he plans to attend two church services today, one in Mattapan and the other in Dorchester.

He said gangs seem to be behind much of the violence. "There's a lack of respect for life out there," Menino said in a telephone interview. "They don't understand what life is about and they don't seem to understand death, either, that it's final."

Many residents were on edge after the spasm of violence that began Friday afternoon when a passenger was shot in the head on an Ashmont-bound bus. A law enforcement official familiar with the investigation identified the victim yesterday as Dwayne Graham, 18, of Hyde Park. Police said they did not expect Graham to survive.

Police were probing the possibility that the shooting was gang-related -- and somehow tied to the conviction last month of Ivan Hodge and O'Neil Francis for shooting and killing 17-year-old Tacary Jones on an MBTA bus in Roxbury in March 2005, the official said.

Francis and Hodge were sentenced Tuesday to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 15 years, plus four to five years to be served concurrently for gun possession.

Four hours after Graham was shot Friday, a man was shot to death on McLellan Street, about nine blocks away. The official identified the victim yesterday as James Jacobs, in his early 20s.

Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis said his department is pursuing suspects on several fronts. He said the department is also launching a comprehensive plan "to increase our visibility."

Veronica Frett, who has lived on McLellan Street for three years, said Jacobs had been visiting friends living in an apartment above hers, and had been tinkering under the hood of his Range Rover when three men approached him. An argument broke out, she said, and the four men stepped into the hallway of her building.

Frett said the argument was followed by silence and then she heard the familiar sound of creaking wood, indicating that someone had stepped back out of the hallway onto the porch. Seconds later, almost a dozen gunshots rang out.

Frett said when she peeked out her window, she saw the baseball cap the victim had been wearing lying on her porch. She said she saw the victim's feet under her daughter's car.

"It looks like that's all he could do to get away," Frett said, pointing at a thick trail of blood on the street.

Police have not made any arrests in the shootings, adding to a sense of frustration in the area.

"It's gotten to the point that you don't know when or where you may be in the middle of bullets," said Taniesha Johns, 26, who lives near the intersection of Columbia Road and Washington Street, where the bus shooting occurred.

Another resident, Michael Russell, said, "The police, they can't stop it, the Guardian Angels can't, either. If the parents aren't sticking on top of their kids it's going to just get worse."

Yesterday many residents seemed determined not to let the violence slow them as they paid no mind to yellow police tape that marked the site of the bus shooting. Robert Troncoso, who owns Roselly's grocery store on the street corner, said, "I don't feel safe, but we have to take the chance."

Troncoso said this is the worst violence he has seen in the four years he has run his shop. "We need more police," he said.

Lieutenant Michael Tierney of Engine 24 said he had warned his firefighters to be ready to treat more gunshot victims. "We're expecting more retributions," he said. "I told my guys, don't be surprised if they're going out tonight. It seems like it's a trend: retribution the following night."

The Rev. Bruce Wall, pastor of Global Ministries Christian Church in Dorchester, said in a radio appearance that "we are in a state of emergency."

"Remember, united we stand and divided we fall," Wall said on WJDA-AM, urging parents to "take responsibility" for their children.

Members of the Guardian Angels, who started patrolling in Boston last week, fanned out through Dorchester and Roxbury yesterday. Founder Curtis Sliwa said the group was trying to turn young people away from violence.

"In the mindset of the perpetrators, they think they will get away with it because nobody will rat them out, so they're ratcheting it up," he said.

The city has had 15 homicides this year, up from 10 at this point last year.

Councilor Michael Ross, chairman of the council's Committee on Youth Violence and Crime Prevention, said he welcomed the presence of the Guardian Angels, but the city needs more "emissaries to our young people," such as street workers who can reach out to young people.

"We need to end this insanity," Ross said. "Obviously, police help, but police are responding to violence. It's what happens before the police arrive that is so essential."

Anti-violence morphs into council run: Boston’s attention on Bruce Wall

Joseph Mont 29.MAR.07

The Rev. Bruce Wall will decide in two weeks time whether or not he will campaign for the District Five City Council seat currently held by Rob Consalvo.

Wall, who said he was asked to run by a sitting City Councilor he declined to name, said that if he does run it will be as a district councilor, owing to financial considerations.

He estimated that a district race would cost upwards of $75,000, as opposed to an outlay of more than $200,000 needed for an at-large race.

Wall said he would come to a decision after input he receives from his staff, colleagues and his congregation.

“A lot of people have said to me that I am actually already doing the work of a city councilor, but without the resources,” he said. “The decision that has to be made is, can I do what has to be done best from the pulpit of the radio and the pulpit of my church or [as a  City Councilor]?”

Wall, 59, is pastor of the Global Ministries Christian Church in Codman Square. He has been a vocal anti-violence activist since the 1990s, when Boston suffered its last homicide spike.

At that time, Wall and other local clergy members joined forces to form the Ten Point Coalition an effort whose street-level approach to violence is widely credited as having stemmed the tide. Its work, in part, is cited by many as a key reason that in 1996 no one under the age of 18 was murdered in the city.

For his part, Consalvo said he is “ready and eager to defend” his record should Wall run.

“I would hope that anyone who runs does so for the simple reason that they want to help people and make a difference for the people of District Five,” Consalvo said. “I like Bruce Wall and respect him for the work he has done in this community.”

Consalvo stressed, however, that he “loves his job” and relishes the opportunity to work with his Hyde Park and Roslindale constituents. As for Wall’s emphasis on crime prevention, he feels that his record on that matter will hold up to any scrutiny.

“We filed an after-hours party ordinance two years ago that police are using now,” he said. “We were ahead of that issue.   “In terms of the public safety front, I would argue that there is no one on the council who has done more than me,” Consalvo continued. “I’m proud of my record on public safety.”

Among the key initiatives Consalvo has worked on in recent weeks are proposals for gun registration, gun tracking and the now-budgeted ShotSpotter technology that can detect gunfire in city hot spots.

Whether or not he chooses to run, Wall shows no indication of letting up on what has become an almost daily attack against the crime strategies undertaken by Mayor Thomas Menino.

On his radio show, broadcast on three stations at various times and days, and in email blasts and, most recently, a poster campaign, Wall has been a constant thorn in the administration’s side. The crux of his crusade is a demand that Menino and Police Commissioner Edward Davis meet with him and include his perspective on city violence-control policy. He also wants the city to declare a State of Emergency for the 10-block radius around his church.

During the past week, Wall has been particularly active.

His outreach to Curtis Sliwa, founder of New York City’s Guardian Angels — a controversial group known for its red berets and civilian patrols of high crime areas — has led to the group’s decision to once again patrol city streets as they did, briefly, in the 1990s.

At the time, residents were divided as to whether the group offered a helping hand for safer streets or were potentially dangerous vigilantes.

Tonight, March 29, at 7 p.m., Wall will host a meeting at his church where members of the Guardian Angels will discuss their return to Boston.

“I applaud volunteerism and engaged citizens who seek to assist the Boston Police in our efforts to keep our city safe,” Commissioner Davis said in response to that initiative. “The Boston Police Department, through community policing, is dedicated to collaborating with local community organizations, clergy, neighborhood activists, and our many crime watch groups to address the issues related to crime and public safety. The Guardian Angels have been told to consult with Boston Police District Captains to inquire about ways they can be of assistance, as we would advise any citizen who requests to participate in public safety efforts.”

Wall has also garnered press attention in the past few days for his new “warning” posters aimed at tourists visiting Boston.

Posters placed throughout the Hub read:

“Warning to all visitors and tourists traveling to Boston. You will take your life into your own hands if you travel to Boston. We want to issue a warning to all visitors coming to Boston. We are in a Sate of Emergency in the city of Boston. Children, teens and now visitors are being shot and killed at an alarming rate in the City of Boston. The city has lost the ability to stop the murders in Boston. We urge all visitors to our city to think twice about vacationing in Boston.”

Other email messages sent to his supporters, church members and local officials have been harshly critical of Menino.

“Pastor Wall stated that the doors to City Hall and Boston Police Headquarters have been closed to him, the event organizers, and the city residents who want to work with the Mayor and new police commissioner,” Wall wrote in one recent email. “Never before, in the recent history of the city has a city’s ‘top cop’ refused to meet and dialogue with a pastor who has a proven record to address youth violence.”

“The residents of the communities most impacted by the homicides are beginning to see another side of the Mayor who once was a champion of the community of color,” read another email. “Now the residents of the community feel abandoned by the mayor that they elected to office.

“Many of the candidates for the position of police commissioner for the City of Boston declined the position because they wanted to have autonomy from Mayor Menino’s micro-managing, bullish and vindictive style of leadership,” another piece of Wall’s correspondence maintains. “Many of the Black candidates for this position refused to come to Boston because of their belief that they would be controlled and told how to run the Police Department by Mayor Menino.”

Wall claims that Davis has been instructed by the Mayor not to meet with him.

“What bothers me the most is that Boston’s Police Commissioner has been pleading with the Mayor to let him engage and have a dialogue with me and my team’s plan to fight the crime in the 10-block radius of my church,” he said. “Commissioner Davis needs to stand up to the Mayor and say to him that his vindictive retaliatory methods are not good for Boston and are similar to the tactics use by gang members to attack and hurt each other. [He] needs to ‘pick his targets’ and this time and his target [should be] to confront the Mayor to tell him to back off and let him do his job.

“He wont talk to me,” Wall continued. “We are asking our kids to get along and yet we have these adults playing these stupid games. Its come to this because city officials think they can stonewall us.”

As for his “warning” to tourists, Wall said the reaction has been “shockingly supportive.”

“The business community needs to put pressure on the Mayor,” he said. 

In response to Wall’s criticisms of the Boston Police Department, Davis on Tuesday issued the following statement:

Mayor tries to quell fear after killings

Insists 'city is working'; victim of bus attack dies

By Maria Cramer, Globe Staff  |  April 2, 2007

Mayor Thomas M. Menino attended Palm Sunday services in the city yesterday, trying to reassure people that Boston is safe.

"This city is working," Menino told more than 900 people gathered at Morning Star Baptist Church in Mattapan. "There are good things happening. Let's not focus on the negatives."

Menino spoke several hours after Dwayne Graham, 18, of Hyde Park, who was shot in the head Friday while riding a city bus, was taken off life support Saturday night, according to Boston police. Graham became the 16th homicide victim in the city this year; Boston had 10 homicides at this point last year.

The victim's mother, Dorese Graham, told New England Cable News: "I lost my son, and I will never see him again. They took a piece of my heart . . . part of me . . . just ripped it out of my heart. I forgive them. I just hope and pray that they get caught."

Many residents have been terrified by the spasm of violence that began Friday afternoon, when Graham was shot on an Ashmont-bound bus at 3:30 in the afternoon, and continued last night when a man was shot in the back on Angell Street, near Franklin Park in Dorchester.

A law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation into Graham's shooting said police were probing the possibility that the slaying was gang-related and tied to the conviction last month of Ivan Hodge and O'Neil Francis for shooting and killing 17-year-old Tacary Jones on an MBTA bus in Roxbury in March 2005.

Another man -- identified by the official as James Jacobs, who was in his 20s -- was fatally shot on McLellan Street in Dorchester Friday night.

Menino sought to quell fears with brief, low-key remarks to the congregation on Blue Hill Avenue, which bisects the area where most of the homicides this year have occurred. Menino, who came to the service with his wife, Angela, told the worshipers to help any young person they believe might be at risk of falling prey to violence.

"We need to work together," he said, speaking softly. "Stay focused. Reach out. Reach out to touch somebody."

After the service, as he headed to the Greater Love Tabernacle in Dorchester, Menino said he has been too busy to meet with the Guardian Angels, a self-appointed safety patrol based in New York that returned to Boston last week. The mayor said he would see if he can find time in his schedule.

"Let's not play on vigilantes," said Menino, who has said gangs seem to be behind much of the violence. "Let's play on vigilance."

Menino received warm applause from the Morning Star congregation, and some worshipers said they felt reassured by his speech.

"He's supportive of the neighborhoods," said Beverly Rogers, 45, of Roslindale, who has attended services at Morning Star for two years. "We need something. We need some help."

But Arva Byron, 17, of Dorchester said she was not comforted by Menino's words.

"I do believe Boston should call a state of emergency," she said, referring to the declaration that the Rev. Bruce Wall, pastor at Global Ministries Christian Church, has made on his radio show and plastered in white letters on his church window.

"Lives are at risk, and I have friends who are afraid to walk the streets," Byron said.

The Rev. John M. Borders III, who led the service at Morning Star, called on his congregation to pray for an end to the violence.

"We pray that [perpetrators] will bring their weapons to the house of the Lord and lay them on the altar and lay themselves on the altar," he said.

At a later service at Global Ministries near Codman Square, members of the Guardian Angels said they have a list of names and phone numbers of 35 to 40 people between the ages of 15 and 25 who want to help patrol the streets of Dorchester.

Some in law enforcement see the Guardian Angels as media-hungry vigilantes, and neither City Hall nor the Police Department has embraced the group. But the group said it plans to remain in the city until crime drops. One member yesterday said the organization plans to recruit up to 200 volunteers, the number the Boston chapter boasted at its peak during the 1980s and early 1990s. The chapter disbanded in 1992.

Many teenage men have approached the Angels eager to sign up, said John Ayala of the Angels' Washington, D.C., chapter. He was speaking to more than 100 worshipers gathered at Global Ministries, where the pastor, Wall, has invited the group to set up headquarters.

"We're having people praising us and thanking us," Ayala said. "They're walking up and saying: 'How can I join? How can I get involved?' "

At Global Ministries, church deacons stood behind the eight Angels who attended the service, placed their hands on their shoulders, and prayed for their well-being.

The Angels, who have about 16 volunteers so far, have walked the streets during the day and patrolled MBTA stations and trains at night, including the Orange and Red lines, said Erich Kennedy, a Boston resident who had been active with the group when they were here previously.

Wall told his congregation that the Guardian Angels have arrived as the city is desperate for more help.

"I'm tired of walking the streets by myself," he said. "I'm so thankful God sent me some angels."

Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com.  

JOAN VENNOCHI

Safe vs. unsafe Boston?

By Joan Vennochi, Globe Columnist  |  April 1, 2007

CURTIS SLIWA knows a power vacuum when he sees one.

When it comes to tackling guns and violence in Boston, there's a definite opening for Sliwa, the media-savvy founder of the Guardian Angels. He landed in Boston last week and easily commandeered headlines and airwaves. It's another publicity feather in his red beret.

In a previous column, I wrote that people in those neighborhoods most terrorized by guns and gangs should work together more to address the crisis. But the burden should not be theirs alone. Strong leadership is needed on the streets, but also from City Hall, Beacon Hill, and the business community.

Young people are dying in a geographically compressed part of the city -- the mostly black part. For a long time, much of the city -- the white part -- looked away. As long as it continues to look away, the political and business establishment accepts this distinction: Instead of new Boston and old Boston, there is now safe Boston and unsafe Boston.

Unfortunately, the boundaries between safe and unsafe can blur. Chiara Levin, a 22-year-old out-of-town visitor stumbled into unsafe Boston when she ended up at an after-hours party on Geneva Avenue. She paid for the mistake with her life, when gunfire broke out and she was shot.

Her death focused attention on a subject that hasn't seemed like much of a priority for Boston's power elite. For them, the hot urban issue isn't crime. It's whether to relocate Boston City Hall further away from the people, from Government Center to the waterfront. Meanwhile, the business community is fighting the governor's efforts to close corporate tax loopholes; it is not offering to pitch in more revenue to the state for schools and police.

Only after Levin became this year's 13th murder victim did Boston powerbrokers start talking about the best way to allocate resources to stop street violence. What might really have put a scare into them is the Rev. Bruce Wall's warning to tourists to "think twice about vacationing in Boston." Let us hope that the prospect of losing tourist dollars does not motivate more than the reality of losing young people to an inner-city crime wave.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino is addressing the crime problem, with mixed results. Last year, he sponsored a gun buyback program. According to police, it took 1,000 guns off the streets, but it did not end the violence. Boston's new police commissioner, Edward F. Davis, says he is committed to putting more officers on the streets and deserves a chance to implement his agenda. But clearly, some people in the affected neighborhoods don't feel the city is doing enough. Why else would they welcome Sliwa and his crew?

Boston projected more of a collective civic conscience in the face of adversity when the heads of prominent corporations based in the city made up the power elite. "Their focus was on Boston. These were decisionmakers. They pledged funds and made things happen," said Lawrence S. DiCara, a longtime Boston lawyer and former City Council president. "The new money has not checked in yet," observed DiCara.

Those CEOs of yesterday sponsored jobs programs and efforts to improve schools and build affordable housing. The infrastructure they created is still in place, now championed by the heads of hospitals, universities, and nonprofits. This summer, the jobs program run by the Boston Private Industry Council will match up 2,400 inner-city teenagers with jobs in banks, hospitals, and technology firms, said executive director Neil Sullivan.

That's an all-time high, but more jobs are desperately needed. The "next frontier," said Sullivan, is getting to the leaders of Boston's new economy -- the venture capitalists and fund managers who take over office space vacated when old-line corporations leave. The buildings fill up, but "I don't know how to get in there," said Sullivan.

Boston looks and feels vibrant. The street violence is confined to a small area and does not generally intrude on the city's overall vitality. Residents of luxury condos rarely cross paths with the city's have-nots. As the gap grows greater between rich and poor, so does the physical distance. It makes the gunfire even easier to ignore.

That's where leadership comes in. Leaders force everyone else to face what they would rather avoid and come up with a plan to deal with it. Any lag in figuring out what is next on Boston's crime-fighting agenda gives Sliwa and the Guardian Angels an opportunity to push their own.

Joan Vennochi's e-mail address is vennochi@ globe.com.  

Looking for trust

By Adrian Walker, Globe Columnist  |  May 1, 2007

The city breathed a sigh of relief over the weekend with the news that two men had been arrested in the slaying of Chiara Levin.

Reverend Bruce Wall put credit for the break in the case in proper perspective yesterday. "If they have the right people, that's great," he said. "The credit goes first to the community, and second to the police and prosecutors. The neighborhood did their job."

It is no secret that solving homicides has become a challenge for the Boston Police Department, thanks to a public that fears retribution from criminals and has issues with law enforcement. Both problems leave people reluctant to aid in investigations.

The cooperation in this case wasn't all voluntary. A fair number of people knew what had happened, and were squeezed to talk.

Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis admitted as much. "It was a lot of detective work," he said in a telephone interview. "This is not a case where people called us. We had to go see them."

Speaking with guarded optimism, Davis said he hopes the kind of work that cracked this case can be applied to other homicides. "What I hope will be useful is a recognition that the criminal justice system can work," Davis said. "The fact that we're moving forward with this prosecution shows it's not necessary to retaliate on your own. The only way to get out of that cycle is to put trust in police and prosecutors."

Davis is right, but the reality is that trust has become a scarce commodity.

The Levin killing horrified Bostonians, and rightfully so. But she takes her place among dozens of other victims of the past couple of years, and most of those cases are unsolved. Every one of them deserves the full-court press that this case got.

As was obvious all along, Levin was on the receiving end of an attack meant for someone else. According to the account offered by prosecutors, Casimiro Barros, 20, and Manuel Andrade, 33, were firing at each other. Now, they are co defendants in the most notorious homicide of the year. Senseless doesn't even begin to describe it.

Still, the arrests raise a question about why so many cases go unsolved. The rising number of homicides is often compared to the wave of similar violence in the early 1990s, but the dynamic now is different. In the decade since fear of killings last gripped Boston, a strong "no snitching" ethic that was only nascent in the '90s has taken firm hold.

The code of silence is fueled partly by distrust of law enforcement, partly by criminal intimidation, and partly by a belief that problems on the street can and should be solved among gangsters themselves. The police are on the outside looking in. So are thousands of law-abiding citizens caught figuratively -- and sometimes literally -- in the crossfire.

Wall has been steadfast in calling for more community involvement in solving crimes. "People who have the information need to give the information," he said. "We shouldn't have to be coerced. We shouldn't have to be subpoenaed."

Yet, he acknowledges that witnesses are often justified in being afraid to cooperate with prosecutors. After they testify, after the trial is over, they have to return to their neighborhoods, and that can be unnerving.

Wall recalled that in the early days of the Ten Point Coalition, ministers often accompanied witnesses to court when they went in to testify, to help counter intimidation. "The idea was to outflank the other side," he said.

Chiara Levin's slaying prompted a fair amount of soul-searching about local violence. But the most important pondering may need to come from residents themselves, who are going to have to face hard questions about whether maintaining silence in the face of deadly violence makes them more safe, or less so.

Solving homicides is one of the most pressing problems facing this city. And the sad truth is that the criminals are far ahead of their would-be captors. That isn't entirely the fault of law enforcement. And police and prosecutors alone won't fix it.

Adrian Walker is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at walker@globe.com.