Activists: Youths arming due to violence on streets
By Mike Underwood | Monday, January 14, 2008 |
http://www.bostonherald.com | Local Coverage
As cops prepare to launch a controversial program to seize guns from homes with parental permission instead of warrants, concerned youth workers claim scared kids are stockpiling weapons due to fear of being without protection on the citys toughest streets.
They would rather be caught with a gun by the police than get caught without one by their enemies, said the Rev. Shaun O. Harrison, who has launched a new campaign to encourage youngsters to hand guns over to him, no questions asked.
(that's because if they're a juvie, they get right back out!)Harrison is spearheading Operation Project Go (Gang Out) from his Dorchester headquarters, which aims to take weapons out of neighborhoods and help steer youngsters away from gangs.
His new mission was launched as the city reeled from three gun killings in less than a week and as Boston police prepare to launch the Safe Homes initiative next month, in which cops without warrants seek consent from residents to search their homes for guns. Safe Homes, aimed at helping Boston police reduce bloodshed on city streets, was announcedin November, but its implementation has been delayed.
We are still in the process of holding meetings and discussing it with community members who want to know more about how it is going to work, said BPD spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll.
She said she did not have figures on the number of weapons handed in by street workers or members of the public, but welcomed Harrisons work.
Any discussion to increase the number of guns taken out of circulation is a welcomed effort, said Driscoll.
Harrison said he helped more than 250 teenagers while president of his last project, Youth in Crisis.
I used to have kids call me up offering to hand in guns. In 2005 I got a dozen guns off the streets. But after last summer, it stopped, he said.
A lot of kids dont want to turn in their guns because of the violence. They have a fear and they feel they need to keep it for protection, he said.
His son, Jeremy, 23, is a youth advocate with Inquilinos Boriquas en Accion (IBA) in the South End, which offers a series of after-school programs.
They (young people) are not as willing to hand in weapons, especially nowadays. They dont feel safe. I have seen kids as young as 11 and 12 with guns. Theyve shown me them, Jeremy said.
They have told me that prison is like a club to them. They have a fascination with gangs and especially guns. It is ridiculous.
Joseph N. Clarke, 23, became Bostons first murder victim when he was shot in the head on the corner of Norton and Bowdoin streets on Jan. 6.
One day later, 18-year-old Darrion Carrington was felled by bullets as he waited for food inside a Chinese takeout on Dorchester Avenue. On Saturday, 20-year-old Tyrone Hicks of Dorchester was shot dead less than a mile away on Dorchester Avenue.