Cambridge Targets Pockets of Hidden Violence

Two murders, 11 rapes, 165 robberies, 348 aggravated assaults. There were 526 violent crimes in Cambridge last year alone.

About 10 times a week, every 17 hours, violence strikes the city.

For the most part, it is a silent disease. Since the rampant drug-related violence of the '80s is gone, what remains is largely hidden from public view.

Now Cambridge's violence happens behind closed apartment doors and in dark alleys, long after citizens have gone to bed.

But hearing the word around town, one would never guess that crime is half what it was 20 years ago.

This is because the Cambridge Police Department (CPD) is, in a way, a victim of its own success. Because of increased publicity and reporting levels, each time violence becomes public these days--as it did six weeks ago in a series of bizarre armed pack robberies involving two Harvard students--it makes big news.

"There's always a problem," says Frank Pasquarello, the CPD spokesperson. "No matter where you go, there will always be crime."

The good news is that violent crime in Cambridge fell 13 percent last year. Reported incidents of rape fell 51 percent; robberies fell by 21 percent.

This year, the news is even better: Serious crime is "nominal," police reports read. Violent crime is already down another 12 percent from last year's levels. But that still means that by the end of March, violent crimes had already been reported in Cambridge 105 times.

Despite the positive trend, much remains to be done, and CPD says they can't do it alone.

A picture of Cambridge's average violent criminal, police explain, would depict a teenage male under the influence of drugs or alcohol--and therein lies the biggest hope for further reductions in violent crime: early intervention programs.

In addition, many of the violent offenders in Cambridge are not city residents, making preventive measures more difficult to develop and less likely to stamp out crime.

Chalk Outlines

Cities the size of Cambridge average six murders a year. Cambridge's average is roughly half that. Precisely because they are so rare, each individual murder in Cambridge is indicative of a larger problem, police say.

Last Christmas Eve, a brawl erupted in the CambridgeSide Galleria parking garage. Police still don't know what led the two groups involved to begin fighting, but the episode ended when Gary M. Chatelain, 20, of Roslindale, Mass., was shot and killed (please see sidebar).

The incident, police say, indicates two larger trends.

First, the crime capped a year of increased violence at CambridgeSide, including fistfights, assaults and robberies--including a robbery that happened earlier that Christmas Eve. Two different gang-related brawls at the mall a year ago led to the arrest of a dozen Boston youths.

Too often, police say, the youths involved in the CambridgeSide incidents are members of Boston gangs. Therein lies the second problem.

Much of Cambridge's violent crime, while it is in Cambridge, is not of Cambridge. That is, the perpetrators--and occasionally the victims--aren't residents of the city.

"If you look at the booking sheets and where they come from, it's outside the city," Pasquarello says.

In fact, at the Galleria, three of every four juvenile arrests is a Boston youth, police say. Citywide, 60 percent of those arrested are not of Cambridge.

Part of the reason is the youth early-intervention programs already in place in Cambridge.

Cambridge runs five youth centers, scattered throughout the city.

"We do education, intervention, and prevention," says Diane F. Scott, program director for the Willis Moore Youth Center, which sees about 100 Cambridge students each week.

The centers stress non-violence and run weekly workshops on topics from drug and violence prevention to SAT prep courses and basketball games, Scott says.

The city's youth programs are effective at keeping Cambridge's kids off the street, Scott says. But that doesn't do anything for the hordes of out-of-town students.

Cambridge is a very accessible city, officials say, and that contributes to youth crime.

"We have a train that runs right through Cambridge," Pasquarello says. "You can get in and out of Cambridge in a short amount of time."

Because of that, much of the crime is focused around the city's big T stops: Harvard, Central and Porter.

An even bigger contributing factor, police say, is the area's attractive--and extensive--social scene. It may not be the Big Apple, but Cambridge attracts students and youths from around the Boston-area.

"Cambridge is a city where you really never sleep," Pasquarello says. "You could come in at 3 o'clock in the morning on a Friday or Saturday night and it looks like 4 o'clock in the afternoon."

The other murder last year is at least a symptom, perhaps a result, of the city's long hours.

Early on the morning of Sept. 18, Collin Burton stopped at Central Sqaure's Hi-Fi Pizza on his way home from a night in Harvard Square. According to police reports, after an argument with the occupants of a green Ford Bronco, Burton banged his fist on the jeep's hood. The Bronco's passenger fired once into Burton's chest. He died the following morning.

Burton's murder highlights one of Cambridge's trouble spots: Central Square. It has long been a favorite area for robbers and drug dealers. In fact, several drug-related shootings were reported in the area in the weeks leading up to Burton's death.

Roughly half of the unprovoked aggravated assaults last year happened in and around Central Square.

And both of the top two drug arrest hot spots highlighted by CPD are in Central Square.

CPD's Special Investigations Unit has moved aggressively into Central Square in recent years attempting to curtail drug violations. The increase in arrests is partly because of that.

CPD's new program of "Park and Walks" is also helping.

By cutting back on the public use of drugs, police say, they can help prevent a wide variety of crimes, especially in light of the fact that a fair amount of violent crime is alcohol- or drug-related.

Behind Closed Doors

Rapes in Cambridge are infrequent, and becoming more so, say police. Reported rapes decreased by more than 54 percent last year, and so far in 2000, there have been no "stranger rapes"--that is, all reported rapes have involved two parties who already know one another.

But police struggle with rape statistics.

By its very nature, rape is a private crime. The FBI believes that a significant portion go unreported each year.

The same is true of domestic crimes: Often only one of every three crimes is reported, the FBI believes.

It is a crime with no boundaries. Abusers cover every part of the socioeconomic, racial, religious, sexual orientation and age gamut possible.

Cambridge usually has three incidents a day resulting in a domestic crime report. Since the 1980's, reports of domestic crime have been steadily increasing, up four percent last year.

And believe it or not, police are happy with that.

"We're trying to get people to report this," Pasquarello says.

The increased reporting represent changes in the times and mores of the community. What two decades ago was considered an issue for the people to resolve themselves is now very much in the public eye.

"What happened 10 years ago, was no one would call about domestic violence," he sighs.

Last week, Harvard students sponsored a weeklong series of events, part of the national Take Back the Night movement, to bring attention to the issue of domestic violence and sexual assault.

"The reporting [now] is completely different," he says. "People aren't afraid to call the police."

Cambridge's high population density both encourages domestic violence by placing people in close quarters, and makes it easier for neighbors to overhear fights and report them to police.

Domestic violence, however, is a crime, that is easily contained, and therefore easily ignored. Violence from domestic situations rarely spreads into the wider community, and arrests are almost always made on-scene.

In fact, it is one of the most silent crimes the city has. And, unfortunately, it is something here to stay.

"You'll always have someone stealing your car, you'll always have a housebreak, and domestic violence," Pasquarello says.

The key to minimizing it, police say, is to stop it immediately. If the abuse continues, it inevitably becomes worse--and can have life-threatening consequences.

Cambridge offers a variety of services, both for the abused and the abusers (please see sidebar).

A city task force, a roundtable of concerned community members, and the Cambridge Women's Commission all are wrestling with the issues of domestic violence.

Transition House, a Cambridge shelter where women can stay for up to 12 weeks, is the cornerstone of the city's response to domestic violence.

The House also coordinates special training and support groups out of a location on Pleasant Street for women looking to enter the work force or go back to school.

"Most women stay in an abusive relationship because of economic reasons," says Yzesrose SaintDic, director of Transition House.

To that end, the House offers education, so abused women will see that they have the option of leaving the relationship.

In addition to a hotline for battered women--which logs about 1,000 calls a year from city residents--it offers a separate hotline for teens.

Outreach workers start early, with counseling sessions in many Cambridge schools. Two counselors visit Cambridge Rindge and Latin School each week to help people in abusive relationships.

"We provide boys' groups for perpetrators and girls' groups for the victims," SaintDic says.

The city's Dating Violence Intervention Project is now a national model for similar programs.

"We pretty much invented that idea," SaintDic says.

On the Street

Early on the morning of March 26, 1997, Nicole Fernandes, Randy Williams and Mark McCray, all homeless, lured Helena Gardner, 19, to an abandoned trailer in East Cambridge after promising her a drink.

Police say Fernandes bound Gardner to a chair and then whipped her before bludgeoning her to death with a sledgehammer while the other two men watched.

Then they set the trailer on fire.

All three were arrested, and both Fernandes and Williams were convicted of murder. McCray still awaits trial.

The incident sent shockwaves through the community, but it only underscored what police already knew: homeless on homeless violence is one of the biggest issues facing the city.

While homeless people make up only one-half of one percent of the nation's population, CPD reports that the homeless account for 10 percent of the arrests in the city. However, most of arrests of homeless do not involve violent crime.

More people--461, in fact--listed as their home address the Cambridge and Somerville Program for Alcohol Rehabilitation (CASPAR) homeless shelter on Albany Street than any other address.

Beyond that, though, 17 of Cambridge's top 20 repeat offenders say they are homeless.

Much of the homeless violence is alcohol- or drug-related, police say.

"They fight over beer and they'll fight over some spare change," Pasquarello says.

The large homeless populations of Harvard and Central Square competing for space, food, and money means violence is all-but inevitable.

"It's part of life when you have a large homeless population that congregates in an area like Harvard Square," Pasquarello says.

Homeless youths tend to cause more trouble than homeless older adults, police say.

"If you're up in the Harvard Square area, the pit area, you're always going to have the kids up there causing a problem in the late evenings, early morning hours," he says.

Two serious slashings last year in front of the CVS and Store 24 in Harvard Square and another three assaults on the Cambridge Common underscore the importance of dealing with these issues.

"It's usually homeless against homeless; it's very seldom homeless against people walking down the street," Pasquarello says.

While that fact doesn't lower the importance of the crime, it does make it harder to raise public awareness. What is a fact of life in one world is seldom heard of in another.

To many Cantabrigians the tribulations of the homeless are as far removed of those people in third-world countries.

But, police stress, recognizing a problem with homeless violence is not an attack on the Cambridge's homeless--just the opposite, in fact.

"One possible solution may be more services," one police report reads.

Substance abuse, prevalent in the homeless community, is one of the root causes of violence across the board--not just in the homeless population.

"The population we work with in CASPAR is under the influence of alcohol and drugs," says Gail E. Enman, CASPAR's executive director. "That fact can be a contributing factor, lowering inhibitions and leading to overreactions and violence." focus

Enman also says homeless women are particularly at risk, as witnessed by the Gardner killing.

"[Homelessness] puts women at particularly high risk for sexual assault and abuse," she says.

" It's not violence the average passerby needs to be aware of," says Enman. "We don't have to fear for ourselves."

Nonetheless, it is not a problem the man on the street should ignore.

"We should be empathic towards the people who are beating each other," she says.

CASPAR, working with several other social service agencies and city departments, has implemented a variety of programs aimed at reducing homeless violence.

"It's helped that we've had increased street outreach," Enman says. "We try to see people where they are. If they're at the Y, we're at the Y."

The increases in outreach programs followed a presentation last November on the status of homelessness in Cambridge.

The report listed a score of recommendations, many of which have since been implemented, including increases in the capacity of the Albany Street shelter.

Nonetheless, Enman says, the steps taken are not enough. Homeless violence "continues to be a topic of concern," she says.

Through its outreach programs, CASPAR sees thousands of people each year in both Cambridge and Somerville.

It runs 19 different programs ranging from street outreach to shelters.

The big picture shows how safe Cambridge really is. Most of its crime rates are far below the national average. An online news survey rated Harvard the safest urban Ivy League, mostly due to Cambridge's crime rate.

"Anytime you have a crime everybody's upset of course," Pasquarello says. "If you look at it overall, the city is a relatively safe city to live, work in and hang around in."