Faces Hid By Hoodies,
Gunmen Kill 20-Year-Old

Where is our mayor?

What are the aldermen even doing?

This is pathetic, I'm fed up with this city.

Havenlicious, what do the Mayor and Aldermen have to do with this? The Mayor and Aldermen do not create jobs, small business does. Instead of complaining, care to suggest a concrete strategy or point out what was promised but hasn't been done?

I don't understand why you continually emphasize the race of the victims. For white racists the fact that 20 out 22 were African-American will simply confirm their prejudice that African-American culture or genes or whatever is somehow to blame.

For African-American racists the same fact will simply confirm their prejudice that there is a conspiracy to murder young African-American males and that the Mayor or Yale or whatever is somehow to blame.

Is the race of the victims just an interesting fact or is it supposed to spur some particular constructive action or reaction and if so what? Would it not be just as relevant to let us know that 20 of the 22 grew up in a home headed by a single mother or a grandmother, dropped out of school, were raised in households with income levels below the Federal poverty line?

Would it be instructive to know that the killers of the 20 were also African-American? Why is that not stated?

Why is the horrendous circumstance of these murders being presented in the context of race?

In the midst of more violence and tragedy among New Haven's young people ...a young New Haven man and his mother DO THE RIGHT THING, AMEN! Sorry for your loss.

Incidentally, there were a lot of young looking men bicycling around the Elm and Edgewood area near Norton Street, around 10 or 11PM last night as I rode by. I was wondering where they were going.

Perhaps we need to adopt Philadelphia's curfew approach:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/8699795/Fifty-teens-arrested-in-Philadelphia-curfew-to-fight-social-network-mobs.html

Ignoranceisbliss, it is relevant that, nationally, black men aged 15-24 are nearly 19 times more likely to be killed in a homicide than white men age 15-24 are. It is no surprise that the numbers are the same in urban areas in Connecticut.

The things that you mention would be relevant, too, but that kind of information is not available to the press. But we can still draw some conclusions based on racial disparities. For example, in Connecticut, the median net worth of white headed households is $196,000, whereas the median net worth of minority headed households is $3,000. That is a 65-fold gap. So children growing up in minority headed households are much less likely to have the same privileges that many of us take for granted.

It might be interesting for our school district to look up the names of the victims, and learn about their problems navigating the school system to see if policies that affect young black males can be changed. There are many great ideas out there but it takes strong leadership to research and implement them.

The solution is Hamsterdam

Terrible news. To Havenlicious there is nothing the Mayor or any alderman can do about this, not even more police could. Young Black men are intent on killing each other and we in the community need to come up with the solutions to solve it, really thats all that will help in the long run.
@ignoranceisbliss Your name in this case is sorta ironic. Anyway, the race of those murdered is incredibly important. It shows it a trend and not some anomaly. Who cares what white racist do with the info, who cares if someone is racist at all really. Racism isn't driving these crimes, but race is an integral part of them.

Meanwhile.......Where's the mayor? Is he over in Amsterdam tip toeing through the tulips talks about the city's moth balled ID card or is he having dinner with one of the big construction firms and shaking them down for campaign cash? oh, no...he's over at the senior housing pimping them for votes. Nice. If this body were laying on Judwin, you can imagine he would be nowhere else.

Jamara Newell, I agree.

Neighborhoods are only as safe as the number of police who live in them, not the number of police who patrol them.

In fact, given that 90% of officers live out of town, hiring more police could actually make things worse by exporting even more of our families' hard-earned money out of town to what some view as an occupying army.

There is no evidence to show that hiring more officers can reduce crime in a sustainable way.

Laying off half of our police force and replacing patrols with private security patrols (like Yale has done) would save money, and the savings from lower taxes (and therefore monthly rents) could be used to start youth programs and support local stores.

Obviously this city needs some major residency incentives, like what Yale has done for its employees. Simple strategies to train young men for police jobs won't work because as soon as they get a job, they will leave town which just leaves everyone here worse off.

What time was it in Chicago when Limon got the telephone call about the latest murder?

Race is not the driving force behind violence. It's conditions such as poverty, high unemployment, hopelessness,lack of youth supervision and pro social activities, desensitization toward violence, and a proliferation of guns into poor communities that breed violence. Without guns youth would be solving problems without loss of life. The flow of guns continues because there is no real prosecution of gun traffickers in this city. Two persons should be arrested with each shooting. The big question is why is this not happening? This would not be allowed to occur in Madison, Clinton, Cheshire,Branford,or Fairfield.

Where do some of the people posting on this site come up with your facts? some of your posts are at best laughable and at worse stupid.
with regards to law enforcement living in the city. how can you blame police, fire and other city employees for not living in the city, please explain and try not to use hate filled claims of racism and a lack of human compassion as the reason why employees choose to live outside of the city. Maybe they compromise with their spouse so neither has to have a long work commute. Just a thought. by the way i am 100% (and you can fact check this) people would complain the cops no matter where the cops live. i bet people would complain if the cop lived in the ville and patrolled the tre or the cove and patrolled westville or whatever. 100%
with regards to selling guns in the city. i agree those who sell guns illegally should be sought after obviously. however those who are purchasing the guns, firing them indiscriminately into crowds and at their fellow man bare 99%of the blame.
programs programs programs enough. i am not old and i will tell you i had programs like little league, football, soccer and this thing called a park where we would go and organize our own game in the neighborhood. shocking i know but we did things on our own. oh and for the non athletes there was band, this wacky place called the library, and dare i say chilling in the park.
just saying. peace out.

Very sorry to hear about this kid. All this hanging out on the street late at night and riding bikes late at night, especially in some neighborhoods in New Haven, is maybe not such a good idea....Just a thought, but why do you even need to be out there at that time? More often than not that's when the problems occur.

Apparently some people have short memories about the story of "bummy jack." This is in response to the comment that was made by bjfair regarding how guns are "trafficked" into the city of New Haven.

Let me jog your memory. Bummy jack is a career criminal, convicted felon who is from our community. He was on the way to sell his gun to an undercover, confirmed by ATF recorded phone calls, and shot the gun off while he was waiting to complete the transaction because he was high on PCP and clearly not thinking straight. The shot-spotter technology picked up the gunshots and police responded to the scene. Police observed bummy jack with the gun, and bummy jack pointed the weapon towards police. Bummy jack attempted to flee, was shortly apprehended and viciously fought with police. The gun was recovered. Without knowing any of the facts of the incident, a protest was lead against the officers based on a grainy video that was taken via cell phone at the end of the struggle. I remember the commentary to be "how can we be sure the gun was bummy jacks, this is New Haven, guns are found everywhere." So quick to unfairly question the officer's who almost died getting bummy jack under control.

Thats when the feds stepped in and revealed their involvement and the existence of audio recordings of bummy jack stating his intent to sell the gun. Federal agents with the ATF adopted the case against "bummy jack" knowing full well the danger he poses to society and that New Haven courts would probobly not give him a long enough sentencing for his crime.

Bummy jack was not from guilford, Madison, Branford or clinton. He was from New Haven. There is no conspiracy theory behind it and no matter how much money we throw at social programs, it will never take the place of parents taking care of their kids.

There are 11,955 people out walking the streets with Felony Failure To Appear warrants out for there arrest. Yet only 1,130 have been issued and a mere 773 have been served.

BFair - Typically, you mentioned everything but the two most important factors: parental accountability and human decency.

Funny how everyone was so focused on the 16 year old who decided to jump one person but this poor kid gets no attention. THIS is just one of the reasons new haven is fxcked up smh

BJ has it right. It is not about race but economics. I recently returned for a short visit to Oak Bluffs (Martha's Vineyard)where our President is vacationing. The town was filled with African-Americans and other cultures but there was no fear of violence. When you don't have to worry about money and you have a loving family, violence generally is a non issue. These families were beautiful and enjoying family time on a beautiful island...I'm sure they work hard to be able to enjoy this time away, I know I do.

I see economics are the major problem in my classroom. The kids with working families and a supportive family unit are much more likely to do well, and want to do well in school. They are prepared and generally responsible because it is stressed at home. Those who are barely surviving and have families that are part of the welfare system and just hanging on and do poorly. You do not have to be a rocket science to see that. Yes, there are exceptions.

I can't help but remember a parent of 9 boys from a variety of fathers. They all came to our school. She loved to come in and yell at the teachers for one thing or another. She was poor, under-educated, overwhelmed and the boys were ruling the roost. She was trying to get an education but of course, as one who has gotten and education and raised a family of 2, I feel that choosing to get an education after bringing 9 children into the world is a almost impossible. Who raises the children while you are in school? Studying? Who is paying the bills? Oh,that's right, we are. So, now, what's my point....economics. A parent needs money to raise a child, I don't mean "rich", just able to provide basics...more that welfare provides. Then, maybe, kids wouldn't be riding around on bikes after mid-night killing each other with guns!

22 by August. This is outrageous.

Once again I am reading all the blogs both pro and con in regards to who's fault all these killings seem to be blamed.
First of all the NHPD ,the mayor and the alderman don't have access to the most obvious places that some or most of these guns can be found.The individuals who do have access are the PARENTS of the many shooters we have seen committ these shootings.Instead of calling for heads to roll on the NHPD or the political administration why don't ALL you bloggers issue your challenges to ALL parents to become aware of what is going on in or around their homes.This may require the parents to have the balls to routinely search their childs(that is what these shooters are) rooms for guns or other weapons.Right now we get "not my son" when potential threats are recognized. Yeh right !! Parents...Please look around and maybe save a life.It may be the life of your child that you save !!!!

Its sad to see that every time a teenager is killed in new haven, the first thing they mention is "He was african american or "black". Us parents need to open our eyes and realize that our kids are killing each other and all we do is complain about our race. "INSTEAD OF COMPLAINING ABOUT PEOPLE METIONING OUR RACE LETS FOCUS ON FINDING A SOLUTION"