Boston community leaders condemn The Weekend's violence
Written - Narendra Dudhwa
Boston community leaders on Sunday condemned the violence over the weekend
Eight people were injured in a shooting on Saturday during an early morning Jouvert festival and two more were injured in nighttime attacks
The six boys and two girls who were shot and wounded during Sunday's Juvert festival are recovering
And two more are scheduled to make arraignments Tuesday in Dorchester Municipal Court on weapons charges in connection with their crimes
We need more community police officers, and police need a lot more direct connections, relationships with communities,” said prominent Haitian activist leader Rev. said Dufort Florissant, who heads the nonprofit True Alliance Center
We need police officers to get into the community so they can develop that relationship
The Juvert is a traditional early morning celebration that follows a night of parties and includes a parade
It is preceded by the city's traditional day-long Caribbean Carnival and its parade, featuring marchers in colorful, glittering costumes
On Saturday, Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox indicated in a press conference that the violence of the shooting did not engage the people attending Juvert, but rather resulted from a dispute between two PACE groups
Reports that about a dozen shots were fired occurred at 7:45 a.m. Saturday near the corner of Talbot Avenue and Blue Hill Avenue
which rang out just before 8 p.m., throwing the Jouvert festival on Talbot Avenue into disarray
It is worth noting that there were thousands of people in the parade who were dispersed by the sound of gunfire," the police said in the report
Others called for Saturday's carnival parade to be cancelled, but organizer and mayor Michelle Wu said they wanted it to go ahead