By Gal Tziperman Lotan
Children trick-or-treating in Dorchester’s Codman Square tomorrow night will hopefully have only ghosts and ghouls to fear.
The Reverand Bruce Wall, the pastor at Global Ministries Christian Church in Codman Square, said he aims for a homicide-free night by having 1,000 unarmed community members patrol the streets and stop violence they see.
“It’s a shame that we have to go to this length, but we need to be doing this, and not just on Halloween night,” Wall said. “We’re making sure that when we pick up the paper on Saturday, it reports no homicides.”
Wall said the campaign became more urgent after three children, two 11-year-olds and a 12-year-old, were injured in a shooting at the Academy Homes I affordable housing complex in Roxbury Oct. 18.
“There is an overall concern that the children in the streets of Boston on Halloween night are safe,” Wall said. “We also have registered sex offenders living all around the area, and we don’t want children knocking on their doors.”
Though Wall said he expects fewer than the 1,000 people he originally aimed for, many people in the community have expressed their enthusiasm and are eager to join him, he said.
“I have not received any negative responses,” he said.
A night without violence is possible, Wall said. There were no youth homicides in 1996 through 1997, Wall said, and only 31 total homicides in 1999 compared with 67 in 2007 according to local media reports.
Wall said he attributes the surge to the lack of cooperation between elected officials and the community.
“The city has yet to acknowledge that the violence is as bad as it is,” he said. “Politically, it’s a sign of weakness. I’m looking for more courageous leadership.”
Alycia Aiello, a middler behavioral neuroscience major, said she plans on trick-or-treating in Gloucester, Mass., with her boyfriend and his 2-year-old child.
Aiello said she would not trick-or-treat in Boston because she wouldn’t know which neighborhoods were safest.
“[In] my hometown, I know everyone,” she said.
Along with patrolling community members, there will be an increased police presence tomorrow night, said Elaine Driscoll, Boston Police Department (BPD) director of media relations.
“It’s routine procedure on Halloween to increase patrols around the city,” Driscoll said. “We like to have a high visibility.”
Driscoll commended Wall’s initiative.
“We think it’s great that he’s increasing community vigilance,” she said.
The BPD will also be hosting seven events for children around the city, including movie screenings in Roxbury and a costume party in Jamaica Plain, according to BPDNews.com, the BPD police blog.
To offer children another trick-or-treating alternative, Wall’s Global Ministries will join with the Codman Square branch of the Boston Public Library (BPL) and the Salvation Army Boston-Dorchester Jubilee House.
Chris Strunk, the children’s librarian for the Codman BPL, said the library will show a movie from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. tomorrow. Strunk said he has tentatively decided on showing “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.”
Children can then travel across the street to Global Ministries, where Wall said there will be games and candy, as well as free school supplies donated by the Boston Project, a community service organization based near Codman Square.
Three blocks down Washington Street, the Salvation Army Jubilee House will have more Halloween games, Wall said.
Back on Northeastern’s campus, freshman finance major Rishi Soni said he was considering joining his friends for trick-or-treating in the Back Bay and Cambridge.
“If I go, I’d be going with friends,” he said. “The free candy is good, too.”
Soni said he thought Wall is on the right track to improve the neighborhood.
“The reverend’s got the right idea,” he said. “It sounds a lot safer.”
Lynne Thorton, a first-year graduate student, said if she was raising children in Dorchester, she would allow them to trick-or-treat.
“I assume that up to a certain age I’d accompany them and it wouldn’t be an issue,” she said. “When they got older, as long as I knew the area, I suppose it would be all right.”
Evan Lowney, a third-year law student, said he would probably not go trick-or-treating in Dorchester.
“My girlfriend is a social worker,” Lowney said. “She works in Dorchester. It’s getting bad.”
