‘ ‘ BE HEALTHY: Taking the first steps to end obe- sity ......A Special Insert FREE Thursday • April 5, 2007 FREE City violence is back on the front burner Howard Manly So far, unity remains an elusive goal. Rev. Bruce Wall has stirred the On Tuesday, the Black Ministerial pot. Alliance (BMA) met with the Boston Not that long ago, Wall was alone, TenPoint Coalition and Davis and later a squeaky voice screaming about the announced that about 50 members of growing murder rate in Boston and the BMA would participate in several calling it a “state of emergency.” efforts in Boston’s worst neighbor- He is not alone anymore. hoods. Notably absent was Wall. “I cannot keep up with the re- Starting on April 14, the BMA quests from the media outlets who said, Boston police officers and want to speak to me,” Wall said in one members of clergy are scheduled to of his recent mass e-mailings. “I do walk through crime-ridden neighbor- not know why my words are resonat- hoods. Trainings for these walks are ing with so many people.” scheduled on April 12, from 8 a.m. The reasons are pretty clear. to 10 a.m. at the Charles Street AME Last week, Curtis Sliwa of the Church in Roxbury. famed Guardian Angels came to The BMA has also pledged to work Boston at Wall’s invitation, and while with Rev. Jeffrey Brown of Boston’s the shootings and murders have not TenPoint Coalition to intervene in beefs stopped, the visibility of the inner-city between rival gangs. On top of that, crime problem is now on the front Tuesday’s meeting also produced what Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa (right) addresses com- and a request from Rev. Bruce Wall spurred Sliwa to propose burner. is being called “Operation Home Front,” munity leaders and citizens at Global Ministries Church in resurrecting his civilian anti-crime patrols in Boston after a 15- More attention means more a program that involves working with Dorchester during a meeting held last Thursday to discuss the year absence, despite opposition from Boston police and Mayor police, more community involvement Boston public schools, MBTA police presence of the Guardian Angels in Boston. A spike in homicides Thomas M. Menino. (AP photo/Steven Senne) and more resources. and BMA clergy to visit the homes of And more politics. youths considered to be at-risk. In another e-mailing, Wall de- Late Tuesday evening, yet another scribed Mayor Thomas M. Menino as meeting occurred between Menino trying to isolate him from other clergy and Gov. Deval Patrick. Though the A tale of two sentences and city officials. Despite repeated in- meeting was private, reports indicate Injustice rears its ugly head in a small Texas town with a sinister past vitations, neither Menino nor Boston that the topic of the meeting was the Police Commissioner Edward Davis recent spate in violence and, more have met with Wall. importantly, how the state and city Howard Witt black Americans in the late 19th and in the heart of the “black” side of this “No matter what the city officials can work more effectively to solve early 20th centuries were staged at starkly segregated town of 26,000. say about me,” Wall said in an e-mail, the problem. PARIS, Texas — The public fair- the Paris Fairgrounds. Thousands And lately, Cherry says, she’s begun “I will keep the door open and continue As it is now, state police are al- grounds in this small east Texas of white spectators would gather to to wonder whether the racist legacy to hope that the Mayor of Boston and ready patrolling streets in Roxbury town look ordinary enough, like so watch and cheer as black men were of those lynchings is rebounding in a the Police Commissioner will soften and Dorchester. And while some many other well-worn county fair sites dragged onto a scaffold, scalded with place that calls itself “the best small their tone, stop asking local pastors crime prevention programs have been across the nation. Unless you know hot irons and finally burned to death town in Texas.” to withdraw from me, and choose to eliminated from Patrick’s proposed the history of the place. or hanged. “Some of the things that happen work with me, and all of the pastors, budget in order to cut an estimated There are no plaques or mark- Brenda Cherry, a local civil rights here would not happen if we were in activists and residents in the City of $1.3 billion deficit, a Patrick spokes- ers to denote it, but several of the activist, can see the fairgrounds from Dallas or Houston,” Cherry said. “They Boston.” Wall, continued to page 11 most notorious public lynchings of the front yard of her modest home, Texas, continued to page 6 Ex-Cambridge chief reflects on his career Serghino René stark. In 1995, the year before Watson came aboard, the city saw A little more than a decade ago, 4,824 part I offenses. Through the Chicago native Ronnie Watson had a first nine months of 2006, Cam- simple mission: to improve the Cam- bridge reported 2,789 such crimes, bridge police department. a significantly reduced pace. In his view, he accomplished that But numbers only tell part of the mission. tale. “I think I have left the police de- The 62-year-old Watson was Cam- partment in better shape than I found bridge’s second African American it,” Watson said. police commissioner. He followed The statistics bear out Watson’s Perry Anderson, who left the post in argument. From 1985 to 1995, 1995. He also holds the distinction before Watson’s arrival, Cambridge of being the longest-serving commis- had 36 homicides. In the decade sioner in the city’s history. But after from 1996 through the first nine 10 years on the job, Watson felt months of 2006 — the most recent ready to move on. crime data made available by the “It’s time for someone new to Cambridge Police Department — the come to the department and use city had experienced 23 homicides, their energy to take it to the next a drop of more than a third. level,” said Watson. In the category of part I crime Watson officially retired last President Bush (left) shakes hands with Tuskegee Airman Medal Ceremony honoring the Tuskegee Airmen held last — a broad measure which includes month. Robert C. Haas, Mitt Rom- Lee Archer Jr. (second from right) as House Speaker Nancy Thursday in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington. Please see murder, rape, robbery, aggravated ney’s former secretary of public Pelosi of Calif. (second from left) shakes hands with Tuskegee our story about the ceremony on pg. 9. (AP photo/Pablo assault, burglary, larceny and auto safety, will become the city’s new Airman Roscoe Brown Jr. (right) during a Congressional Gold Martinez Monsivais) theft — the difference is even more Watson, continued to page 10 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT . XX-XX LLISTINGSISTINGS PPERSPECTIVEERSPECTIVE CCLASSIFIEDSLASSIFIEDS Whatʼs BILLBOARD . XX BUSINESS DIRECTORY . 23XX EDITORIAL . 4 HELP WANTED . ..29-31 XX-XX EDUCATION DIRECTORY . XX CALENDAR . 32XX OPINION . 5 LEGALS . 25-26XX-XX INSIDE HEALTHARTS & ENTERTAINMENT DIRECTORY . .. .. .. 15-18. XX CHURCH GUIDE . .XX-XX . 24 ROVING CAMERA . 5 REAL ESTATE . 26-29XX-XX.