Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Mumbling On

From the Boston Globe:

Mayor seeks help from hospitals on violence

City officials huddled this morning with leaders of Boston's hospitals to seek their help responding to the spike in Boston's gun violence.


Menino wants the hospitals in Boston to do more??? I'd say their response to Boston's gun violence has been nothing less than phenomenal.

The fact that Boston Medical Center, the largest 24-hour Level 1 trauma center in New England, is in such close proximity to the neighborhoods where most of the shootings are taking place is the main reason the death rate for gunshot victims in Boston is as low as it is today.

Imagine what the fatality rate for gunshot and stabbing wounds would be in the city if EMT's had to make a 30-minute drive (both ways) to transport victims to the nearest community "hospital". Or if all the shooting victims in Boston had to be flown by chopper to Portland, Maine for emergency surgery.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino and the city's Public Health Commission want medical centers to provide more services to victims of violence and their families and to start programs to prevent youth violence.


Not that I should have to repeat myself, but if you want to prevent youth violence...LOCK UP VIOLENT YOUTHS!

Personally, I'd look for assistance in this department from our politicians, police, prosecutors, and judges. But, unfortunately, we've had the displeasure of seeing what a bang up job they've been doing for us, as of late. The way I see it, Mumbles must have had his list narrowed down to post offices, nail salons, hospitals, and muffler shops.

Hospitals seemed like the next logical step, I guess.

At the Parkman House meeting, Menino noted that minorities make up a disproportionate number of victims.


Oh, yeah? Well, they also make up a disproportionate percentage of the violent scumbag population in the city. You know, the people who are actually doing all the shooting and stabbing here. But, then again, addressing the actual problem has never been the mayor's strong suit. It's so much easier, after all, to blame it all on the guns (and t-shirts, pay phones, etc.).

For instance, while African Americans are about one-fourth of the city's population, they are nearly three-fourths of gunshot victims. Also, 80 percent of gunshot and stabbing victims live in six heavily minority neighborhoods, the city says.


What is it exactly that Menino's expecting the hospitals to do? Start letting more white gunshot victims die to balance out the numbers a little?*

"This is unacceptable, and it affects us all," Menino said in a statement.


Yeah, it affects the people of Dorchester and Roxbury, in that they might get mugged, beaten, stabbed, raped, or killed on their way home from work. It affects you, Mr. Mayor, in that your poll numbers might start to decline as a direct result thereof.

Same difference, right?

*That's called a "joke", people. I don't think that's what the mayor has in mind here. Now, it might be, but I don't think so.