Aptly speaking at Boston Police Department Headquarters in Roxbury, Boston Mayor contender Marty Walsh will deliver his comprehensive safety plan for the city of Boston which includes objectives like curtailing gang and domestic violence. Public safety has been a staple in both Walsh’s and challenger John Connolly’s campaigns as it connects to so many other issues at hand like education reform, neighborhood services, and police relations.
Walsh will be joined in his address by Genevieve King, Captain and Deputy Superintendent (retired) of the BPD.
Both Walsh and Connolly have made it clear throughout their respective campaigns that they’re striving to emulate and achieve the same cross-neighborhood success as incumbent Mayor Tom Menino who is often cited as “the neighborhood mayor” the way Connolly is the “education candidate” and Walsh the “labor candidate.” And it all starts with education.
To first keep kids from escaping to gangs Walsh intends on implementing longer school days, more innovative afterschool programming, alternative educational options for teens through vocational expansion in all Boston Public Schools, and constant collaboration between the likes of the Boston Police Department, Boston Public Schools, Department of Youth Services, the court systems, job programs, clergy, and other direct social service providers.
In the eyes of both mayoral hopefuls, an end to gang violence and the accompanying lifestyle starts with education.
In respect to domestic violence, education is similarly only part of the solution though a vital part at that. Community policing is equally significant in that neighbors need to keep an eye out for themselves and each other, while working with the applicable authorities to end this kind of abuse. Also needed, from the Walsh perspective, is collaboration between departments, an increase in services like shelters and career services for survivors, a more thorough police training program, and expanded lectures and summits by and for survivors.
As mentioned in his debates with Connolly, Walsh also plans on using the power of the bully pulpit to lobby down in Washington D.C. for stricter gun laws in hopes of keeping firearms off the streets, saying more bluntly that we need to “Isolate gang members to get guns off the streets.”
All of this, of course, requires money which is where Walsh’s education reform will come into play again. He hopes to find and free up funds by allotting the “superintendent the ability to move teachers in and out of the school system. Will sit down with the teachers union to open contracts to get changes made at the table. Will go up to Beacon Hill to work with the legislature to get changes done.”
His plans have the Boston public stirring as he’s closed a substantial gap in the latest polls to trail Connolly by a mere 2-point margin. Stay tuned to BostInno for the latest Boston mayoral race updates.
