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NAACP head cites 'dragnets' targeting blacks

Boston police released numbers yesterday that showed a dramatic drop in crime, including a 76 percent decrease in shootings overall and a 50 percent drop in homicides, since Operation Neighborhood Shield was launched early this month in response to a wave of murders and other violent crimes. Boston Police Commissioner Kathleen M. O'Toole said the figures show that the Police Department's new anticrime initiative in the city's most troubled neighborhoods is working. However, some black leaders have said that the recent major anticrime police effort is unfairly targeting hundreds of young black men, many of whom are innocent. "They feel they have become the victims," said Leonard Alkins, president of the Boston branch of the NAACP. "A number of people in the community are concerned about the dragnets that are going on, the police that are being turned out into the community like storm troopers. For every one criminal they may find, there are a lot of young males and females of color who are being stopped unnecessarily. You're not hearing about that." Mayor Thomas M. Menino called the program "a model for the rest of the country." [more

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