"African-Americans make up just 6 percent of the state’s population"
And most of them do not vote.
"Patrick struggles to meet great expectations; Governor has faced tests from his black supporters" by Michael Levenson, Globe Staff | July 18, 2010
It was a pivotal moment for Deval Patrick in his complex, evolving relationship with a constituency uniquely invested in his governorship. Eleven months after his election, it was one of the first times he had been so directly and publicly challenged by a member of the black community....
Kim Odom, however, says Patrick has yet to fully deliver on the promise she took away from his soaring 2006 campaign: that, as a son of Chicago’s South Side who knew the pain of violence and poverty, he would bring peace to the streets, jobs to economically battered communities, and a new day for African-Americans across the state....
After nearly four tumultuous years in office, Patrick’s relationship with the African-American community, always close yet complicated, has matured.
Black voters were a vital part of the governor’s political base during his 2006 campaign, which raised their hopes for dramatic change. Many expected the state’s first black governor to produce extraordinary, perhaps impossible, results. And while their hopes have not been dashed, they have been tested.
Jobs are not as plentiful as many had hoped. Black students continue to lag behind white peers in public schools. Violence still rattles certain neighborhoods. Minority-owned businesses struggle to get loans and credit....
Related: The Boston Globe Censors Patrick's Past
Did they know he made money of the predatory lenders in their neighborhood?
That mix of affection and unfulfilled hopes was on display on a brilliant Saturday afternoon last month as Patrick mingled with hundreds of African-American families in Franklin Park celebrating Juneteenth, a holiday commemorating the date in 1865 when the last slaves learned they were free. Patrick spent more than 2 1/2 hours there, mobbed by people clamoring for snapshots or signed portraits....
Some voters at the events say they have not seen the governor since his last campaign, and Patrick has used the meetings to revive the narrative that first endeared him to the electorate....
Yeah, FOUR YEARS LATER he FINDS YOU AGAIN -- just in time for the ELECTIONS!!
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"Urban violence rarely a campaign focus; Activists decry the lack of debate" by Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff | September 4, 2010
Youth violence has not been a significant part of the conversation as the campaign intensifies for the governor’s office. The bloodshed has been overshadowed by statewide issues such as taxes, or health care....
But for those families affected by it, there is nothing more important as voters this fall prepare to select a governor. And so far, youth violence has not received the attention many believe it should. Mothers of homicide victims packed the City Council last month for a hearing on violence, the crowd of more than 200 a testament to the indelible ache of burying a child....
I agree; however, I am offended by such sentiments coming from a lying, war-promoting newspaper that misled our young men and women to their deaths.
The city remains a far more peaceful place than it was in 1990, when the number of homicides peaked at 152. But the number of killings this year is on pace to almost double the low in 1999, when just 31 died....
Does that include the ones the cops just blew away?
Related: Boston Police Plead For Patience
One that I could think of off the top of my head.
Shootings of teenagers are down from 138 in 2006 to 45 this year through the third week in August. But as crime dips and rises, it remains concentrated in the same few neighborhoods in Dorchester, Mattapan, and Roxbury — an oval-shaped swath in the heart of the city that saw 86 percent of the Boston’s shootings over the last five years....
This summer, law enforcement launched a new partnership among city, state, and federal authorities focusing on 200 to 300 “impact players.’’
Also see: Massachusetts Justice: The Guns of Massachusetts
Boston Cops Sweep Sesame Street
The idea is to steer social services to violent young people, their siblings, and other family members in an effort to crush the cycle.
So when can taxpayers get some of that stuff steered their way?
The effort squares with the position of advocates who frame the violence issue in economic terms. Money spent on prevention, they argue, is paltry compared with the escalating costs for police, prisons, and probation.
Unless it is an empire-expanding war.
Then the costs are justified by the fight against "terror."
Also see: State Government On Probation
Boston Globe Probation Office Visit
Didn't $eem to be much of a problem, did it?
But state funding for youth violence prevention programs has plunged with the economy....
Also see:
Memory Hole: Massachusetts' State Budget
Mass. State Budget: Screwing Cities and Towns
They seem to be tossing plenty of tax dollars away while cutting the kids (again).
Among the candidates for governor, Governor Deval Patrick addresses the issue most frequently, often speaking in personal terms about growing up with violence....
Republican Charles D. Baker’s campaign, asked about the youth violence issue, criticized Patrick for local aid cuts but did not offer specifics about what Baker would do if elected.
Timothy P. Cahill, the state treasurer who left the Democratic Party to challenge Patrick as an independent, recalled the anguish he saw at a visit to Dearborn Middle School in Roxbury....
And Green-Rainbow Party candidate Jill Stein said that as a physician, she has seen the ravages of violence. She criticized Patrick for “cutting community youth programs.’’
Program cuts, coupled with a disastrous job market, have helped create the lowest youth employment rate since World War II, according to economist Andrew M. Sum of Northeastern University’s Center for Labor Market Studies....
Well, fortunately for you kids the AmeriKan government is working hard at starting a Third World War and we have military just waiting for you to sign up.
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