MIRACLE MAN LENDS HAND ON GANGS

Boston Clergyman Advises Toronto To Fight Violence With Intervention

A Boston pastor who took a leading role in combatting guns and gangs
told city councillors yesterday that Toronto must invest in its
troubled communities if it is to avoid a spiral of violence
experienced by some U.S. cities.

Rev. Eugene Rivers, a key force in the so-called Boston Miracle that
saw homicide rates plummet during the 1990s, was invited to Toronto
by Councillor Michael Thompson (Scarborough Centre) and the Greater
Toronto Area Faith Alliance to offer his advice in the wake of
Toronto's record 52 gun-related homicides last year.

Mr. Rivers, whose clerical collar, thick, black-framed glasses and
impassioned, humorous speaking style have made him a national figure
in the United States, helped spearhead mentoring programs and
"re-entry" programs targeting ex-convicts to keep them from returning
to a life of crime.

Those efforts were components of Project Ceasefire, a multipronged
program that made Boston a byword for crime reduction.

But Mr. Rivers stressed that Boston's experience should be seen as "a
model, not a miracle."

In 1999, the city recorded 30 homicides, compared with 150 nine years earlier.

With violent-crime rates simultaneously dropping in many other U.S.
cities, however, the Boston program's real success is unclear. Wider
explanations for the drop cite a decline in the use of crack cocaine,
a huge increase in the U.S. prison population and above all, a shift
in demographics, spelling a sharp reduction in the 18- to 29-year-old
group that accounts for most violent crime.

Last year, Boston's 590,000 residents saw homicides hit a 10-year
high and climb back to 75, even as the rate continued to fall in five
similarly sized U.S. cities and in larger centres such as New York,
Los Angeles and Chicago.

Fewer than one in three of those Boston homicides have been solved,
making the city's record one of the lowest in the country.

The shortfall reflects a "disturbing" lack of confidence in police,
criminologist Sean Varrano of Boston's Northeastern University said yesterday.

Mr. Rivers acknowledged the rising homicide rate in Boston, which he
blamed on a 24-per-cent increase in the number of residents aged 15 to 19.

Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair and other officers will meet with Mr.
Rivers today.

"What he says makes sense," deputy chief Tony Warr said. "But what's
changed down there that [the homicide rate] has gone back up again?
That's what I need to know."

Mayor David Miller praised the visiting pastor's call to reach out to
at-risk youth. "Rev. Rivers reinforced the lessons of what we are
actually doing here through the community safety plan. It reinforced
that we are on the right track."

The mayor stopped short, however, of agreeing that the city should
pick up the $30,000 price tag of Mr. Rivers's three-day speaking
engagement, as suggested by Mr. Thompson and Don Meredith, head of
the GTA Faith Alliance.

Mr. Rivers warned that spending millions of dollars on police
equipment and taking a "lock 'em up crack-heads approach" would not
reduce crime by itself. Instead, governments should work with
faith-based and community groups, and spend money on "prevention,
intervention and enforcement," he said.

He also advocated mandatory minimum sentences for gun offences, while
urging that resources be directed at the most at-risk youth.

Hardcore "thugs" are not interested in peer leadership, he said.

"They're really looking, at a deep level, for fatherhood."