With a busy class schedule and the significant amount of time a trip into Boston can take, it is understandable that some Tufts students may not be aware of the city's noteworthy crime wave causing worry only a few miles away.
The geographical distance may be small, but the socioeconomic gap between Jumbos and the residents of Dorchester is enormous.
As true active citizens, we should keep in mind the plight of all our neighbors, and be aware of what is going on all around Boston.
A recent spate of murders - last Friday night 18-year-old Dwayne Graham of Hyde Park was shot in the head on a city bus, and the following night a man was shot in the back near Franklin Park - has brought the homicide count for 2007 thus far to 16.
At this point last year, only 10 people had been murdered in Boston.
So what can we as Tufts students do about these killings?
Not very much, admittedly, but we should make sure that the representatives and senators we support in the State House push for generous funding for crime prevention.
The Boston police are facing a crucial shortage. According to an article in the Boston Globe, in January of 2006 the City Council President had requested an additional 300 officers, and over a year later only 140 had joined the force.
All of these numbers on crime and police make the joint announcement to increase funding for crime prevention from Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and Governor Deval Patrick yesterday afternoon of increased anticrime initiatives very, very welcome.
We would much rather see an additional $550,000 put in the city coffers to hire more police than a plea put out to volunteers to help patrol their own neighborhoods.
This latter solution was put forward by Boston Councilor at Large Michael F. Flaherty on Wednesday when he suggested that neighborhood crime watches should be put together and target the areas of Grove Hall, Uphams Corner and Dudley Square.
Citizens should not be responsible for preventing murders on their streets, outside of a duty to refrain from criminal activity themselves. That is the job of a reliable, well-supported police force.
It is for precisely this reason that we are slightly wary of the independent arrival of a citizen anti-crime group known as the Guardian Angels.
The crime watch organization is currently operating in cooperation with the police of various American cities, and they began working on their own initiative in Boston only several hours before Graham was shot last Friday.
Synchronizing crime prevention efforts with a citizen group only adds another task to the plate of the already-overburdened Boston police.
Additionally, the government funded force should not feel comfortable handing over such weighty duties and responsibilities to a completely independent group.
The solution to crime problems in Boston is better police organization and more funding, not outsourcing.
We strongly encourage Menino and Patrick to keep on the track they are on. The mayor, however, also needs to spend some time focusing on what is wrong with his city - and he should forego superficial optimism to placate citizens.
This weekend at Palm Sunday services, Menino attempted to offer church-goers reassurance. He said, "Let's not focus on the negatives."
In order to fix Boston's problems, however, the mayor and the citizens must maintain realistic expectations in order to hasten viable solutions.
