After Boston’s most violent night of the summer – in the middle of an important NAACP national convention – city officials and law enforcement are in desperate need of a new strategy to deal with the surge in shootings.
Mayor Michelle Wu, hours after the spate of shootings and stabbings that had police rushing from scene to scene in Dorchester and Roxbury, focused instead on her executive order banning fossil fuels in new city buildings.
“Week after week, we see the signs of extreme heat, storms and flooding that remind us of a closing window to take climate action,” she said.
Wu also announced that the city would be holding the second biennial Roxbury Poetry Festival on Saturday.
In her regular interview with WBUR Radio, Wu was not asked about the violence.
It’s discouraging that Wu did not tackle the violence head-on yesterday the way she has done with previous deadly incidents in the city.
Perhaps Wu did not want to shift the focus to the shootings just after NAACP delegates toured Boston’s minority neighborhoods over the weekend.
City officials hope to use the convention to showcase the city and its new leadership – which is led for the first time by a non-white male.
City leaders also hope during the convention to change attitudes around Boston and its history of racism and showcase the thriving neighborhoods in Roxbury and Dorchester.
Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden, meanwhile, chose to focus on changing the attitudes around illegal guns after the shootings.
“We should all be outraged by the calamitous violence that rocked our neighborhoods (Sunday) night,” he said in a statement. “It is high time, the necessary time indeed, for a tidal attitude shift around illegal gun possession and the havoc it wreaks.”
While Hayden said the right things, there were no arrests and no strategy to prevent more shootings in the future.
Two people were killed and four injured in the series of shootings and stabbings over Sunday night – this after a relatively calm beginning to the summer.
In May, police and city officials rolled out a summer safety plan which highlighted preventing disputes between gangs and others and taking a “targeted” approach to reducing violence.
“The important subject is really making sure we address the right people at the right time,” Police Commissioner Michael Cox said.
Wu actually said she wanted to promote “fun, healthy and safe” gatherings and said the city’s summer jobs program would help keep youth off the streets.
Last month, a 12-year-old boy was shot and killed in Mattapan inside a triple decker. His older brother was arrested on gun charges.
“It’s a horrible strategy for the entire city whenever any one of our young people is lost,” Wu said.
After that shooting, Hayden said the same thing about taking illegal guns off the streets.
