Dear honorable mayor and City Council: Thank you for scheduling the special meeting coming 5:30 p.m. Thursday about community safety after the July 4 killing of Xavier Bautista.
The July 8 community meeting was very emotional and difficult, especially for the family members, close friends and co-workers of Xavier. I hope you will reflect on their voices and sentiments as you discuss these issues and recognize that asking folks to repeat themselves is inappropriate and insensitive. The July 8 meeting represented voices not often heard and gave precious insight into how shooting victims felt – particularly the families of victims of gun violence in Cambridge.
I want to urge the council to take seriously its responsibility to come together in consensus and compromise in a way that meets the community’s needs and expectations during this very difficult time.
I have known many families of victims of gun violence in Cambridge and have coached and know many young people who have been charged with gun offenses. I emphasize many on both sides of this crisis. Gun violence is in its own category of crime. Lives are destroyed and ruined. I feel strongly that when perpetrators of gun violence are caught, it is the best possible outcome for them and the community. But criminal justice reform and violence are very different conversations from apprehension and immediate response to gun violence, and these issues should not be confused or conflated. I have long supported criminal justice reform and all types of violence prevention, but these are longer-term conversations.
The ShotSpotter gunfire-detection technology and cameras are tools the police have asked for to respond to shootings and apprehend shooters. Usually, cameras on private homes and businesses are used to catch shooters before they strike again. It takes the police days and weeks to access substandard footage. I do not expect councillors to agree on every nuance, or that I will agree with each of the councillors on this. I do expect that the council can come to an agreement on noise-detection technology and cameras that are managed and controlled in a way that meets legitimate concerns. In the home of MIT, there is no technological challenge we cannot overcome. If you do not like ShotSpotter, suggest a different noise detector to replace it. If you do not like Flock cameras because of potential use by nonlocal law enforcement, use more cameras in public spaces we control and protect, and use them for solving only serious crimes.
I have said much about our “tale of two cities” and believe the meeting (particularly the voices of Xavier’s sister, Victoria Angeles, and Xavier’s cousin, Casey Torres Angeles, should be transcribed and amplified in every way possible. We don’t need speeches or appeasement of interest groups at this point.
Talk to each other, come together and agree on a reasonable path forward that puts safety first, and with urgency.
Anthony D. Galluccio
Trowbridge Place, Cambridge
The writer is a lawyer and youth sports coach who is a former councillor, mayor and state representative.
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