Have not been in the area
It's been a while since I drove the Brockton beat, today it was empty and I mean empty, LE was every where, could not believe so much LE, I noticed one girl walking, so I follow her and in my rear view I spot LE driving toward me, I keep driving into Dunkins drive thru, order coffee, and as I drive into street, 2 LE are in the area, needles to say, I drove away, this is about noon.
Brockton mayor to target 'hot spots'
From todays paper:
Brockton mayor to target 'hot spots'
New strategy is launched
By Emily Sweeney, Globe Staff | February 15, 2007
BROCKTON -- In agreeing with the crime-fighting proposals put to him at a massive community meeting last week, Mayor James Harrington is backing a community policing strategy that will target the city's "hot spots."
Harrington also agreed to support a hefty increase in an after-school program that the meeting's organizers hope will help protect teenagers from the culture of violence that has led to a recent spate of murders.
A crowd of more than 500 gathered last week to discuss ways to stop violent crime and provide jobs to those in need.
The event -- held in St. Edith Stein Parish, the same church where mourners gathered after a 14-year-old from Brockton was gunned down in Dorchester on New Year's Day -- was organized by the Brockton Interfaith Community and Ministers of Color Urban Alliance. Members of the community group used the gathering to present to the mayor and police chief their concerns about the city's violence and how to stop it.
The meeting was the culmination of months of work: 25 lay leaders from seven congregations had been working on the proposals since September, after a rash of murders left three people dead in seven days.
And it was a key meeting for Harrington, who is up for reelection this fall and will have to campaign hard against Jass Stewart to keep his job. Stewart made history in 2005 as the city's first black candidate to run for mayor and earned 44 percent of the vote.
Members of the Brockton Interfaith Community took turns at the microphone, sharing their experiences with crime and posing questions to Harrington.
Frances Gibbs, a member of Messiah Baptist Church, told the standing-room-only crowd how her son and his best friend were gunned down in Brockton. The shooting left her son paralyzed and his friend dead.
"I see history repeating itself," said Gibbs. "I still see the killing of our babies in the streets of Brockton."
The Brockton Interfaith Community and the ministers alliance presented five proposals as questions to Harrington.
They asked, first, if the mayor would direct police to investigate the "hot spots" where a pattern of drug dealing, prostitution, or violence is evident -- and if the chief would meet with them in 45 days to discuss progress. The defined locations are Highland Street; Green Street; portions of Warren Avenue in the downtown area and to the south; and the corner of Warren Avenue and Pleasant Street.
Harrington said, "Yes.... This is what we want. You tell us" about the hot spots "and we'll work on it."
The group asked if the mayor and police chief would take the first steps toward a police "decentralization plan" that fits Brockton's geography and resources -- inspired by a similar plan in Providence -- and to meet again with the community group to plan the next steps on community policing strategies.
Harrington agreed to both. He and Police Chief William K. Conlon are scheduled to meet this week with the Providence police chief.
He agreed, too, to commit police officers to walking a beat, checking in on businesses and residents on a regular basis. "The police chief and myself have gone out and visited businesses in every neighborhood in the city," he said. "I've walked, with my staff, in neighborhoods where people think it's most dangerous and talked to kids. We'll continue that outreach, because that's where it's going to happen -- face-to-face talks to find out what it is we need to do to make those kids safe. So I'll be there, doing that with you."
Part of the community group strategy is to provide jobs as a way to keep the city's youth off the streets. Harrington agreed to a multipronged approach aimed "increasing youth summer jobs by 150 by 2008.
Harrington said he has sent out letters to 1,500 local businesses encouraging them to provide employment to teens this summer.
Finally, he agreed to support a $150,000 increase in funding for the 21st Century After School program, and to seek extra funding for after-school activities. He also said he is trying to raise money privately for church groups that provide youth activities after school.
The mayor, while generally in agreement with the group, seemed careful not to make any guarantees, and he stressed the importance of working together.
"This isn't about what I can do for you," he said. "It's what we can do together, in a partnership."