I "love" how the quality of life in some neighborhoods is

valued more than the lives in others. Seems people in the parts of Boston that are the poorest, suffer from the most crime, and are predominately Black don't matter as much as the property damage in other parts of the city.

Fear lives here
December 15, 2005

A QUADRUPLE HOMICIDE in Dorchester Tuesday appalled residents and rocked an already-teetering Boston Police Department. The city's murder toll now stands at 71, the highest since 1995, and law enforcement officials appear incapable of getting a firm grip on the situation.

Efforts by the Boston police to develop useful intelligence on gang activity and revive crime-fighting partnerships with state and federal law enforcement agencies are not bearing fruit. The information that reaches City Hall and the public is often vague or out-of-date.

.....

Just hours before the shooting deaths of four young men in a basement living room, Mayor Menino told Boston business leaders that the city's budget could not absorb an increase in the police patrol force from the current 1,300 officers to the 1,500 on duty five years ago.

Menino and the city's taxpayers may need to bite the bullet on this. But first, police commissioner Kathleen O'Toole should redeploy as many officers as possible to Dorchester, Roxbury, and Mattapan, where 85 percent of the city's violent crimes occur. The department has been slow to pull officers from safer sections of the city for fear that misdemeanor crimes, such as property damage, might escalate and diminish the quality of life. But that theory is shot when bodies start arriving at the morgue in groups of four.