Residents grateful as cops go after guns
By Laurel J. Sweet
Sunday, August 15, 2004

Zamara Mejias ought to be playing with dolls and fussing over her hair, but the 8-year-old third-grader is no ordinary kid and this is no ordinary summer.

    ``People are getting killed,'' she said in a deceptively shy voice yesterday at Franklin Field in Dorchester. ``They're shooting each other and fighting. They should all go to jail for 100 years.''

    Operation Neighborhood Shield is working on it - and for that, Mejias and her mom are grateful.

    ``I see (police) around more now and I'm glad they're doing it,'' Roxanne Mejias said of the week-old local, state and federal law enforcement initiative.

    ``They should keep up the good work.''

    As of yesterday morning, 136 arrests had been made and Boston's streets had been swept of 16 guns, including a .357 Magnum, a .45-caliber handgun, two sawed-off shotguns and an Uzi, as well as hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

    ``We've gotten nothing but good feedback out there,'' said Boston police Sgt. Detective Eric Bulman. ``It's nice to see.''

    There had been 45 murders in Boston as of yesterday - six more than during all of last year.

    Nearly 16 years after her daughter, Yvette Hargraves, 21, was fatally shot in the head by a killer who's never been caught, Charlene Hargraves of Fields Corner can't bear to hear that other young people continue to be killed.

    ``You can't watch their every move,'' she said while visiting the Town Field tot lot with her 6-year-old granddaughter, ``but as long as you insist they be where they're supposed to be. . . . Tell them not to sneak off because it's not in their best interest.''

    Randy Grosvenor, 14, isn't opposed to the intensified police presence, but said, ``Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad. They might end up making a mistake and arresting the wrong person.''

    All things considered, however, the patrols make him feel better about living in Boston because, he said, ``I don't want anything to happen to me.''

They're doing good work, and it's an excellent idea. After all, look at how the violent crime problems in England and Australia were curbed by getting guns off the streets.

We need to expand this though. Do you have any IDEA how many children are killed by automobiles every year? We can depend on professional drivers like the brave men and women in out transit system. There's absolutely no need for the average person to have access to a multi ton steel projectile around our children. Let's crack down on that next.

Quoted: They're doing good work, and it's an excellent idea. After all, look at how the violent crime problems in England and Australia were curbed by getting guns off the streets. We need to expand this though. Do you have any IDEA how many children are killed by automobiles every year? We can depend on professional drivers like the brave men and women in out transit system. There's absolutely no need for the average person to have access to a multi ton steel projectile around our children. Let's crack down on that next.

I concur!  Mr & Mrs America, turn them in tomorrow.  All of them!!

Quoted: There had been 45 murders in Boston as of yesterday - six more than during all of last year.

WOW! There have been something like 290 some murders in Detroit so far this year!

Quoted: Quoted: They're doing good work, and it's an excellent idea. After all, look at how the violent crime problems in England and Australia were curbed by getting guns off the streets. We need to expand this though. Do you have any IDEA how many children are killed by automobiles every year? We can depend on professional drivers like the brave men and women in out transit system. There's absolutely no need for the average person to have access to a multi ton steel projectile around our children. Let's crack down on that next. I concur!  Mr & Mrs America, turn them in tomorrow.  All of them!!

I wonder how much they'd take for that .357 and .45 they confiscated...I'm always in the market.

I didn't think anyone in MA was allowed to own a gun?

Gunning for the arsenal: Cops hunt source of weapons
By Laurel J. Sweet
Saturday, August 14, 2004



Cops and federal agents trying to tamp down Boston's deadliest summer in years are beating the bushes in search of ``block guns,'' a phenomenon where firearms are shared by neighbors like cups of sugar - stashed at the ready in mailboxes, shrubs and Thermoses.

    ``Everyone in the neighborhood knows where the gun is if they have a problem,'' said Sgt. Detective Eric Bulman, a special investigator for Boston police. ``It's more common than we'd like to see.''

    Law enforcers are urging parents to do their part if they suspect their child has access to a gun.

    ``They should take some action before a tragedy happens,'' Bulman said. ``They're just death instruments out there.''

    Firearms are entering Boston by plane, train, automobile and express package services. Black-market handguns are fetching between $150 and $900 on the street. Thomas D'Ambrosio, group supervisor for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said gun traffickers and mules won't think twice about selling to a child.

    ``If a 13-year-old can come up with the required amount of money,'' D'Ambrosio said, ``he gets the gun.''

    Since Operation Neighborhood Shield was unleashed a week ago, 14 firearms, including an Uzi and two sawed-off shotguns, have been confiscated.

    Police have made 130 arrests and seized a Chevy Impala equipped with blue lights and a siren.

    Authorities are investigating several wellsprings for illicit weaponry and the news isn't pretty.

    Straw purchases continue to be an issue. In the past few months, a gun was recovered from a trash bin in Watertown that was tied to 21 firearms that a Dorchester man had family and friends buy in South Carolina.

    ``The firearms were being purchased in a mom and pop-type pharmacy and being brought to the streets of Boston,'' police Detective Robert Fratalia said.

    To date, fewer than 10 of those guns are accounted for by police.

    Anyone who has a gun they want to turn in, who knows someone who possesses a gun illegally or knows where a block gun is being hidden is urged to call police at 1-800-494-TIPS or the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives at 1-800-ATF-GUNS.

    ``Maybe I'm naive,'' said ATF spokesman James McNally, ``but I think people who are even a little shady don't want their kids involved with guns.''

Come on...
Yes cars kill more people then guns do.  But!  I'm not against the cops pulling over every lowered impalla with hydrolics in the "not so nice neighborhoods" ... nor taking away every "illegal", "unregistered", or "stolen" gun they find in thier not so legal searches.  I obviously never want this to happen to me... that's why I don't ever have a "stolen" or otherwise illegal gun in my car.  Now if they are going around and breaking down doors and taking away evyerone's big 5 home security special then we have a problem.

Perhaps they should have been more exact in their wording, but I think (I hope) all the "confiscated" weapons were stolen, or illegal... (2 sawed-off SGs and an Uzi)

***EDITED TO ADD***    The block gun thing makes me wonder....

That's all well and good as long as they're taking them off of  crack dealers that didn't have to pay for their  guns but when they come to my house it'll be a different story. I've got too much money invested in my firearms to just hand them over.  If they try this shit on Middle Class Americans they'll have a blood bath on their hands and it won't all be our blood either.  If you shoot or murder someone you should pay a price but messing with people for simply having  something is total bull shit. That dog won't hunt in this part of the country.

Quoted: Quoted: They're doing good work, and it's an excellent idea. After all, look at how the violent crime problems in England and Australia were curbed by getting guns off the streets. We need to expand this though. Do you have any IDEA how many children are killed by automobiles every year? We can depend on professional drivers like the brave men and women in out transit system. There's absolutely no need for the average person to have access to a multi ton steel projectile around our children. Let's crack down on that next. I concur!  Mr & Mrs America, turn them in tomorrow.  All of them!!

You can take my Land Rover when you pry the steering wheel from my cold dead hands! Ill give it to you Grill FIRST!

Danm thet mentioned SC.

Quoted: They're doing good work, and it's an excellent idea. After all, look at how the violent crime problems in England and Australia were curbed by getting guns off the streets. We need to expand this though. Do you have any IDEA how many children are killed by automobiles every year? We can depend on professional drivers like the brave men and women in out transit system. There's absolutely no need for the average person to have access to a multi ton steel projectile around our children. Let's crack down on that next.

Great idea!  When the soccer moms turn in their Expedition, Excursion & Tahoes I'll turn in my guns Airsoft toys

As long as the cops are taking away guns from people who shouldn't have them to begin with, I have absolutely no problem with that.

Is this the Boston projects?  Where HUD tried that "No guns in public housing" thing during the Clinton years?

Quoted: Gunning for the arsenal: Cops hunt source of weapons By Laurel J. Sweet     ...   Black-market handguns are fetching between $150 and $900 on the street.   ...

They really should leave race of of this...

Quoted: Come on... Yes cars kill more people then guns do.  But!  I'm not against the cops pulling over every lowered impalla with hydrolics in the "not so nice neighborhoods" ... nor taking away every "illegal", "unregistered", or "stolen" gun they find in thier not so legal searches.  I obviously never want this to happen to me... that's why I don't ever have a "stolen" or otherwise illegal gun in my car.  Now if they are going around and breaking down doors and taking away evyerone's big 5 home security special then we have a problem. Perhaps they should have been more exact in their wording, but I think (I hope) all the "confiscated" weapons were stolen, or illegal... (2 sawed-off SGs and an Uzi) ***EDITED TO ADD***    The block gun thing makes me wonder....

I agree in that I really have no problem with cop's removing guns from felons, kids, etc. I simply don't see it as the answer to the multi-faceted societal issues that are causing the crime problems. I also worry that the trend towards blaming inaminate objects for complex sociological problems is picking up speed and favor in our society, actively exacerbating the very problems they are suposed to be preventing.

“Banning" objects because some people misuse them is simply another mechanism by which we allow individuals to abdicate self responsibility. I simply wory that the idea that "getting guns off our streets" is the best answer to crime problems will add fuel to the drive to ban them altogether.

Quoted: I simply wory that the idea that "getting guns off our streets" is the best answer to crime problems will add fuel to the drive to ban them altogether.

I agree.  But it's all in the wording.  Don't drink and drive!!!... so... I can't drink my Big Gulp driving home?  That's the problem... no matter how you word it someone will misrepresent the reasoning for it.  "Getting guns off the street"  -- WRONG!!!   "Take back illegal guns"... perhaps...  "Kill those that misuse guns".... perhaps better... there's no great way of saying it.... stop illegal firearm use... ? But some consider it wrong to defend yourself with a firearm.  "better you get beatup and robbed then kill some poor inocent man that just needed some money .... {for his drug habbit}.

Allow me to add some context.

Ten or so years ago there was a fairly major crime sweep in the neihborhoods that are being discussed in these articles. Around 200 very bad boys went promptly to the crowbar hotel.

Well now it's ten or so years later and most of these fellows are being sprung at the same time. They're returning to their old stomping grounds looking to get their businesses back in order only to find that a new generation is running things and are not about to step aside. Hence, the gunfire.

As always however, these nitwits couldn't (as a clever ARFCOM member said in another thread) hit the ground without the benefit of gravity. So several kids (innocent or not) have been wounded.

I just want to convey that these are not random searches in suburban America. These places are some of the worst Boston has to offer, though not all of anywhere that's mentioned. Really it's just the isolated pockets of housing projects and the immediate environs.

In addition, the unspoken goal here is to get a response from what the local police call the "impact players". LEO here knows that you can't really eliminate crime in a densly populated, poor urban environment, so what they're actually doing is putting so much heat on the pimpin and drug dealin that the local bad guys put the kybosh on shootings of their own accord. This isn't my opinion of the situation, this was all in the local news.

The same thing goes on in what is referred to as the "theater district" which is just the red light zone in the city itself. The pimps, dealers and ho's are allowed (for the most part) to ply their wares. If there is an armed robbery however or something of that nature (or even the DNC) then the police come down on the place like a ton of bricks.

There was also an interesting side effect to all this. About three weeks ago, several neihborhood representatives, amost all female by the way, had an absolute "Bill Cosby" in a press conference. They called out the local scumbags. Which, I know, is not all that much but for around here it's a sea change.

Now before anybody goes calling me any names, I vigorously support 2A, hell I'm still a part time dealer of death and destruction (all legally of course). I just wanted to get across that the guys being pulled off the street as a result of the stupendous (local, state, FBI and ATF) presence are deserving of the treatment.

As far as the press goes for the "getting the guns off the street" mantra, the number of arrests has gotten much more play than the guns. In fact that first article was the first time I've seen it mentioned.

Okay, well, my fingers are tired now.