‘This is our community’
Locals push back on messaging on community violence
Fissures in locals’ approach to violence in Boston’s communities was starkly apparent at a recent press conference held by Rev. Kevin Peterson’s the New Democracy Coalition where residents of the area came out in impassioned protest and frustration.
“Why you are at Bowdoin and Geneva?” a woman who said she lived in the area for 41 years asked Peterson. “We have a plan. We’ve met every week. This is our community. You don’t live here. Why are you at Bowdoin and Geneva?”
The press conference was held at the site of the murder of a 24-year-old last year in a parking lot at the intersection of Bowdoin and Geneva and discussed the concentration of murders in Boston in what Peterson called a “Triangle of Death.”
“What has become so disturbing to us over the last six months is this triangle,” Peterson said during his presentation, gesturing to a map with homicide locations marked.
“A triangle that extends from South Boston into Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan and Hyde Park. Where Black people live, where we are poor, there is violence and death and murder. And we call upon the collective capacities of those who live in the city to address this problem,” he continued.
Community members quickly coalesced around the press conference, alleging Peterson was using pictures of murder victims without the consent of their families and that the reverend “only showed up for the cameras,” among other issues.
“Come here at 3 o’clock in the morning when these families are suffering,” another protesting resident said.
Peterson did not address the residents directly but argued his coalition has hosted an “unprecedented number” of community meetings with around 300 attendees in the last year.
The coalition plans to present results and crime data at an upcoming April 11 meeting, he said.
Peterson said data shows murders in the city rose in the last year and overwhelmingly targeted Black residents from a narrow region of the city. He repeated criticism of the lack of “clear communication” between the city and law enforcement and the community members.
According to BPD data, there were 41 homicides in the city in 2022, compared to 40 in 2021 and an average of 49 across the past five years. Up to March 5, 2023, BPD reported nine homicides, compared to three in the same period of 2022 and an average of 14 over the last five years.
The event became overwhelmed by the residents’ frustrations following the presentations, though several speakers with Peterson stuck around through the contention to have a longer conversation with residents.
“We’re not here to ball up our fists, but to offer an embrace, because at the end of the day —” said Heather Cook, a mother and community activist from the South End, before being briefly cut off. “At the end of the day, we’re all suffering.”