Yesterday's Shooting

As most folks in Fitchburg probably already know, an 18-year-old was shot in broad daylight in the middle of the street.

The Sentinel and Enterprise bobbles along in its story for awhile before getting to the inevitable possible connection to gang activity on the part of the victim (click here. Lengthy sidenote: Back in our journalistic days our stuff was in the Sentinel from time to time. End disclosure. Now, it's obvious to assume a gang connection when an 18-year-old is shot in the middle of the day. The gang stuff is buried in the story. Additionally, this morning the story was second fiddle to the U.S. Olympic hockey team. Someone smartened up this afternoon and put the shooting story first, but man).

All this is positively dripping red meat for the folks who feel Fitchburg isn't safe (if you look around the comments, you'll see some earlier reaction). While we'll throw in a "let's see what happens" caveat, we'll say this for now:

Enough appears to be enough. It might be time for someone to take a tough stand. Someone needs to stand up and say Fitchburg is done putting up with this. Someone should demand resources, police officers, whatever, be targeted to eliminating gangs in the city. Or make the gangs so miserable they don't have time to shoot people.

In places like Boston, the over-reaction includes gang forces sweeping the city streets. In places like Lowell, the city manager rolls out city inspectors to fine the hell out of the two- and three-family houses these gangs use to live and operate in. The owners eventually get the hint and clear out the problems.

We're not the ones who can make these changes happen, we can only demand that someone in authority take up the cause. We'd like to see a full-out effort on these gangs. Police know the story, they need the green light and the resources to make it happen. We'd like to see city inspectors nail every trash infraction, abandoned car, sagging porch, leaky faucet, whatever. It's time to not just say "we're winning the fight," but to go out and win it.

It won't happen overnight, but it has to happen over a series of days and nights, so kids aren't shot in the streets anymore.