Boston Blotter: Sheer Disregard of Everything Edition

We usually run the blotter in the evenings, but the headlines say it all and make us angry:
--"Shooting on Crowded Bus, Slaying Stun Dorchester" [Globe]
--"One Killed, Two Wounded in Separate Boston Shootings" [AP]
--"Teen Shot on Bus as Angels Watch Over Hub" [Herald on the first shooting]
--"Man, 27, Killed As He Hid From Gunmen" [Herald on the second shooting]
--"Tonight's Shooting Incidents, One Fatal, One Critical" [BPD News]

In short, a young man was shot in the head on a packed bus going through Dorchester. It happened between 3:30 and 4:00 pm (we read varying reports of the exact time), so whoever shot him didn't care if they accidentally hit anyone else. The man is not expected to live, and the shooter/shooters are still at large. Another shooting that left one man dead took place in Dorchester after the bus shooting.

We're not trying to frighten anyone or turn Bostonist into the local nightly news by following the "if it bleeds, it leads" principle. Boston isn't one of America's most dangerous cities. That dubious honor belongs to St. Louis.

But something is deeply wrong with this spike in shootings, especially among teens and young men, with several unlucky people caught in the crossfire (Quinntessa Blackwell and Chiara Levin among them). The guns must get off the streets - what happened to just settling scores through barroom brawls? Or even duels that left innocent people out of it?

The Globe has an opinion piece that discusses the positive points of drawing up truces between gangs, referencing the truce between the Heath Street and H-Block gangs. One line from the piece sums it up nicely: "Like others from all social backgrounds, these youths are not skilled at avoiding conflict and mediating disputes. By participating in the truce process, they get an opportunity to deal with conflict without resorting to violence."

The only challenge in all this is informing the gang members that a truce should be the first option before they resort to guns. And that's going to be awfully difficult to achieve once a revenge cycle gets started.