Gang crime and mayhem ended in Chicago immediately after last summer's Gang Summit with Jody and Dr. Dave! Remember? Now, Old Blightey is getting the Boston Tune-up!
"It's easy to say that the approach won't work here because of this difference or that difference," Kennedy said. "The one thing we've learned is that the differences don't make a difference."
Now, who can argue with that?
In our Hegelian politico/activist/agenda media world of nonsense, Harvard anthropologist turned criminolgist David Kennedy arrives at the perfect conclusion posed by his inquiry and gets public money for his Gang Summits Erase Urban Misery series and travelling show.
David Kennedy convinced Chicago's last non-cop Superintendent Jody Weiss to call a gang summit. Weiss did and shortly reaped its harvest, took his unused vaction days, and found another job.
Murders and gang violence? You Betcha! Still here and burgeoning. David Kennedy has a book coming out in October that is sure to get him plenty of face-time on PBS and more than a few low decible chats of NPR. Not only that David Kennedy has crossed the pond with his Hug-A-Thug methodology and will pick up Pounds and Crowns and Guineas, but not his heart away, from British tax-payers and riot victims.
Get a load of this!
Britain's Cameron has just recruited the Los Angeles Police Department's former commander, William Bratton, to be his adviser on anti-gang tactics. Bratton previously commanded the police in Boston and New York, where his tactics were credited with greatly reducing gang-related bloodshed. Cameron and Bratton are expected to promote ideas pioneered 15 years ago in Boston by Harvard academic-turned-crime fighter David Kennedy.
Kennedy's "Boston strategy" seeks public meetings of police, probation workers, welfare providers, community residents, and a target audience of gang members. The discussions have been credited with delivering sharp drops in gang-related killings in Boston, Chicago and Cincinnati.
You see David Kennedy is a trained Hegelian scientist and, therefore, can not lose an argument or a future booking. In Cincinnati, murders and crime continue just like it do here in Chicago, and Dave's methods only fail because of someone else. Pure John Dewey!
I hear tell, that there is yet the odd bit of murder and mayhem in the Queen City on the Ohio River. Nevertheless . . .
A new book by the nationally known criminologist who helped develop Cincinnati's gang violence crackdown says he found dedicated, enthusiastic activists here - but that the city's politics were more petty here than anywhere else.
David Kennedy's "Don't Shoot," to be released in October, delivers a behind-the-scenes look into the creation of the Cincinnati Initiative to Reduce Violence. It tells tales that didn't come to light at the time about the personalities involved and the process toward setting up the program.
To demonstrate, Dr. Dave points to people who thought that he and his program were full of it and to the very good hearted folks agreeing with him and who applauded him and his efforts anyway. There. Hegelian inquiry. If one inquires, it concludes nicely on ones own terms and conditions. Failure is not an option; nor is it a possibility in the Hegelian World built by John Dewey. Listen to President Obama's every utterance on anything - e.g.! Listen to Dr. Dave in AP feature!
"It is now absolutely demonstrable that there is a better way to do this. There is a 15-year history in the United States in city after city after city. We don't think that London can fix its gang problem. We know it can fix it," Kennedy said.
While England has been slow to address its growth of gang culture, the gang-infested capital of Scotland — Glasgow — has already imported the Boston method.
Karen McCluskey, a director of Scotland's Violence Reduction Unit, in 2008 held her first Boston-style mass meeting with gang members in a Glasgow courthouse. She said gang members were shocked to learn the wealth of intelligence police held about them, appeared unaware of the range of help on offer, and were shamed by stories of how their behavior had terrified their neighborhoods
McCluskey said her colleagues were skeptical that American anti-gang techniques could be imported meaningfully to Scotland, then watched Glasgow's gang-related violent crimes fall 46 percent in the past three years because of them
It can work? That was 2008.
In 2011, why only two weeks ago gangs, shamed by the intelligence shared with them about their misdeeds, lit not only Glasgow, but London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Shiney Sheffield.
Way to go Dave! Make mine a Boston!
We Chicago Rubes enjoyed Dave Kennedy's summit with our home-grown cads, bounders, blackguards, miscreants and scamps and are thoroughly delighted with our resultant Chicago Arcadia! Demonstrable, Old Chap!
Not.
Dr. Dave gets paid anyway.
http://communitypress.cincinnati.com/article/AB/20110814/NEWS0108/108150310/Book-calls-Cincinnati-politics-pettiest-?odyssey=nav%7Chead
