I'm a middle-aged white guy from Danvers. I'm getting this out of the way up front. Blaming the police for what clearly is a breakdown in societal values is a red herring. Danvers is not an incredibly diverse town. However, I am certain that if the entire police force were Asian, we would not see the violence, murders, and gang activity we see in Dorchester. Furthermore, dare I say that I don't believe we would see any difference from the crime levels we currently experience, regardless of the racial makeup of the police captains at hq. There are many cases where people need to stop pointing fingers and start pointing thumbs when trying to solve a problem. As someone on the outside looking in,I have seen these same editorials, headlines, and "solutions" for as long as I have been reading a newspaper. The cycle is violence, community outrage, community meeting, clergy gets involved, somehow police are somewhat to blame, community heals. Read 60 days' worth of newspaper articles from 25 years ago and see if you can detect a pattern that differs from the one outlined above. The real problem is the family unit being destroyed in areas of lesser means. Children out at night with little (if any) parental supervision, greater than 85% of households being single-parent households, dependency on the state to provide monetary support to live, and then passing down these values to the next generation. This, and only this, is the cycle that needs to be broken to heal a community. A focus on diversity in the police ranks will do very little with these systemic problems as a backdrop.

Maybe they should treat the gang bangers like terrorists. Because they are! And stop blaming the police and white people for thugs with illegal guns.

Cyst'em: The mama pajama rolled out of bed, and she ran to the police station When the papa found out, he began to shout, and he started the investigation It's against the law, it was against the law What the mama saw, it was against the law.

It is unfortunate that this is not only a city wide conversation, but also a state wide discussion. there are urban pockets statewide experiencing the same problems. I believe overly heavy handed politcial correctness has scared away a broader discussion; I think white people are reluctant to participate for fear of stumbling into a racial morass. For example, did well meaning aspects of the fight on poverty contribute to the breakdown of the black family? Black families had been historically much more grounded in what is now described as "family values". Did the structure and rules of government anti-poverty programs of the sixties and seventies have the unintended consequence of eroding those values? To be clear, I am not saying these programs were not needed, they were. I am saying as they were structured, they may have perpetuated behavior that undermined people they intended to help. A black police captain isn't going to do anything to offset this.

So, poverty is the problem. HOw do you solve it? By the way, I suggest you pay a visit to Chinatown, or Lowell, or Lawrence if you wanrt to se Asian crime.

The real question is: is the BPD solving more murders than it has in the past, when it's record was dismal?

Well said Moe, Some of these crimes happen in early morning hours - where are the parents? Why cannot we even ask what the heck a kid is doing out all hours? Parents must be held accountable and until they are, nothing will change. Being a single parent is no excuse.

Why no information about the surviving girl? Is she talking? Is she under protection? She probably should be. I imagine her memory is probably fading fast.