“The Medford, Cambridge and Somerville police are all working together,” she said. Officers at the three agencies declined to comment on the case in progress.
LaGrassa yesterday said investigators were not prepared to name any suspects.
There Goes the Neighborhood
While Harris said the recent crimes point to the need for a stronger police presence, others said the violence might be indicative of deeper weaknesses in the fabric of social support.
“I don’t think this rash of violence is anything insidious, I think it’s a result of the way young people are taking out their disagreements with one another,” said City Councillor E. Denise Simmons.
Wysoker said he thought that recent crime in Cambridge ultimately resulted from entrenched social influences.
“I believe that the root causes of this kind of crime are historical and institutional injustices that permeate the society,” he said, citing economic inequity within the community. “And until we solve those problems the crime will continue.”
Simmons said there are insufficient programs in Cambridge that serve struggling residents between the ages of 18 and 30.
“If we have programs, they certainly are not prolific enough,” she said. “What we have found is that this age group is too old for most of the programs we provide...Until we reach that group, we’re going to continue to have a problem.”
While Simmons did not have any recommendations for specific programs that might remedy this situation, she said a solution in sight.
“Very little of what we need needs to be invented,” she said. “It probably exists somewhere.”
Sullivan said one such initiative is already underway.
“We are increasing the number of city jobs available for youth. We are going to be in excess of 700 this year,” he said—an increase of over 50 summer jobs from last year, he added. “We’ve also contracted with a group to work with those aged 20 to 30. We have great resources here and we continue to reach out.”
—Ankur A. Patel contributed to the reporting of this story.
—Staff writer Nathan J. Heller can be reached at heller@fas.harvard.edu.
—Staff writer Andrew M. Sadowski can be reached at sadowski@fas.harvard.edu.