1988 SPECIAL REPORT: Crime in Roxbury ( Boston's Ghetto ) | Real Stories
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- Опубликовано: 10 фев 2025
- Over a dozen young people were murdered or had serious injuries in a string of shooting events that occurred in the summer of 1988 in Boston's predominately black Roxbury neighborhood. The majority of the shootings included drug use, and many of them included young gang members.
"The wave of violence dominated the front pages and evening news for weeks. The Roxbury community was alarmed by the hazardous proliferation of guns and enraged by the inaccurate portrayal of their area in the media.
"Together with NEWSWEEK journalist Sylvester Monroe, WCVB's nightly news magazine CHRONICLE investigated the Roxbury case to learn what drives juvenile gangs and what the locals believe ought to be done to address the issue.
I grew up in Dorchester/Roxbury in 1990 and l used to have to run to school. It was no joke. People don’t realize how crazy it was. We had our own Boyz in the Hood.
Wow thanks for all the love. Even though theses times were dangerous it was so much fun. I miss this Boston. Especially Boston around 1995 or so. Ahh man so much fun.
Facts people really don't know
I went to school in roxbury 98 to like 00 saw a dude get slapped in the face with a razorblade by a chick in the hall
This is 100% accurate 🤞🏽
If a city like boston was crazy in those times, imagine the shit poppin in the other cities around the country
@@kingofhaiti123 l don’t gotta imagine. I lived it. I have family from DC / Maryland and NYC it’s all the same shit. There’s a hood in every state. I’ve seen people get shot with Uzis in broad daylight in Roxbury. Seen people get tossed on trains track from 18 feet platform. Boston isn’t what you think it is. Especially back in the 80s and 90s.
What stands out to me is how articulate these young people are as compared to young people today. None of that mumbling that's so prevalent now.
You’re right, even white folk be talking that whole jive street talk nowadays.
@@rapman5791bingo
It’s cool to be stupid now.
People have been heavily influenced by southern rap music in the past 20 years and the accent incorporated with the latest slang sounds stupid ultimately. It's normally just people who are influenced by mainstream rap music etc. It's not representative of actual hip hop culture or black culture or the young people of today who think for themselves.
We have social media to thank for that
That's me at the Cooper center after-school program back in the late 80s.
It was hard but family values in that neighborhood kept me out of trouble.
Was that you
@@joemorgan636Ubarikiwe..
Grew up here in Roxbury and graduated in 95 from a high school here “Madison” sadly nothing has changed. But I have spent 20 years teaching high school here including at the Burke. I have even worked for Mr. Holland, all in hopes to save one life ❤ By the way Mr. Holland only recently retired but he still does consulting and looking better than ever! 😊
Damn you said Mr Holland he went across generations
well some things have changed , the murder rate came way way down since early 90's
My best friend Ronald went to Madison
The one young lady who was interviewed was in my opinion A BEACON OF TRUTH AND HOPE, and if more young people thought as she did they would get much further in life. She was truly inspirational.
This woman grew up to be something great for our community. I work for her nonprofit organization now, she saved my life. Google Smart from the Start Cherie Craft.
This is when the glorification of gang life psyop really started to take root in the bc.
It was a deliberate act using rap music as a tool to push this violent culture.
Many kids do think exactly like her, and always have, but they're never the ones being documented or talked about by the masses. In general, black americans are only seen through statistics which doesnt tell the entire story at all. That young lady was a perfect example.
I went to catholic school my whole life and straight to college and graduated. I have my career and live/work a great life in SF. My siblings have both done well for themselves as well. There are many many many others who have done the same and we come from urban enviornments we are not from the suburbs.
I have friends throughout every region who are educated and have done very well...some are married and have children some run businesses or have grest careers and live a positive life. Mainstream america doesnt talk about us because again we dont fit the narrative that they want to present. It also doesnt support the negative statistics that do exist but thats a one sided story.
When most other races think of black people they think of single moms, deadbeat dads, gang culture, etc etc...but they dont even make up the majority of black people. Those problems do exist, but just as the video stated, the rest of us and our real culture is overshadowed by that negativity that people on the outside looking in are so much more interested in.
The early 90’s…back when kids were still smart enough to hide their faces when discussing crime 😌
Haha ya really
These days kids gleefully display themselves committing crimes on social media, and think it’s cool! Yet cry like babies and turn on anyone they can if trouble comes their way, they will rat out their mother if it saves their ass
😂😂😂😂 yooo people keep saying if we had social media back in the 80s & 90s we'd be doing dumb shyt on camera. This proves that theory wrong. We didn't want our dirt discussed by anyone including those who were in on the caper.
The difference is that crime isn’t criminalized nowadays. It’s par for the course. They know they won’t get busted and even if they do ole Release ‘em Rollins will nolle prosequi that case so quick they are back on the street before the paperwork is finished at B3. 🤷♂️
real shit
I grew up in Boston right off Blue Hill Ave I appreciate the good the bad the ugly of what the city taught me and the experience I received
Me too .. I went to the grover Cleveland before movibg to Ohio
I remember the movie “Blue Hill Ave” showed me all I needed about Boston
I grew up in Dorchester, Roxberry, and JP. I left Boston in 1989. Many memories. Most were good but plenty bad as well. The Bean! If you know you know 💪🏾
Omg I am the first Girl Scout in this video!!! 😮😮😮😮😮
No you ain't
Here you go
🧢
I grew up in Roxbury near Humboldt ave (Raiders). My parents tried their best to keep us active in stuff and away from the negativity around us. When the school year was over, they sent our asses to Georgia for the summer .😂
@@Wise_Pito you forgot Corbet st (Ray dogg and his crew)😂. I live in Atlanta now since 99 but Boston will always be home.#617
I hope
You let the heads in Georgia know what the real about Roxbury
I’m from Boston, grew up in &0s/90s . Humboldt Ave was the area that was always referenced as the worst. Egleston square was number 2
@@Footeloose617Ray Dog Ain’t From Corbet Tho He’s From Four Corners
@@TejandreGlockzisn’t 4 corners like multiple gang in one that make up 4 corners like
The path , bowdin hawks , and etc
Vesta rd & Bloomfield st is that a hood or nah
4 corners is just one big hood
I can't believe the lady in red was only 17. People were so mature back then
Her name is Cherie Craft, and she is a founder and ED for a Nonprofit, Smart from the Start, Inc.
Black denial. She doesnt want to admit our children were out of order.
One of the issues we faced was early denial that kids were going down hill.
Due to a lack of resources hoarded by white supremacy
"What is love..? *nods head side to side*
Thank you for this. I love retro report. Favorite one was the one about the vanishing black family. That report alone needs to be shown to all so we can do start to change the narrative
I'm 46.
I live in Houston now.
Boston around 88 to 91....was WILDIN' !!!!
Crack. Guns. Gangs.
Intervale. Castlegate. Humboldt Ave.
It was no joke.
It was OUT OF CONTROL.
Swervin Mervin Reese.
Im sure there are others who can back me up on this.
The late 80's early 90's in Boston was CRAZY.
Facts
I’m 44 and now live in Maryland. Family is from Roxbury those days Boston was nuts. When I say Boston people here think I came from money Lol
they banned super soakers when i was a kid
I live in houston at the same time.Same situation.Same thing in los angeles, same thing everywhere, crack central, no different from boston or anywhere else.At that time of the era, los angeles was off to a charts at that time, also
Man, seeing all these old tapes and footage is a trip. Cool channel. Thank you!
The Home Of New Edition. When there's no jobs & resources in the community. Kids going to find some way to make money💵
I love this piece, very well done. showed all sides… The good the bad and the ugly. Back when journalist actually gave a shit.
Born & Raised In Roxbury & although it can be tough it’s still so much beauty here & history ❤ Home
0:25 Can’t tell who’s interviewing who at the start.
All I can think of is Gangstarr and EdOG right now.
Art depicts life 📻🎶
Legends
Guru from Boston dj premiere is from Houston
Bobby Brown and the NE guys from there too
Not Me I Think Of Murder And Gang Activity
@@Prboxer407Never Seen Him In Any Boston Hood Growing Up
Nothing has changed much. Now their kids and grandchildren are wreaking havoc on the streets of Boston.
I grew up in Dorchester and Roxbury. Let the truth be recorded and told through our eyes....
You know Frankie Hicks
I grew up in Roxbury....Madison Park and when I tell you the city was crazy in those days is an understatement! I was young, but unfortunately participated in gang activities. Moms moved me down south in October 91.
I lived near Humboldt and Ruthven in the late 70's early 80's as a kid growing up. A lot of great memories
Do you have any Miami stuff? That’s where I’m from.😁 thanks for the Content. I like the Old school stuff.
Yeah, especially Overtown😂
@@lucidlioness3253 yep that’s where I’m from.😁😁
@@lucidlioness3253 do one on Newark, East Orange & Irvington
Yes sirskiii , Liberty city in the house
One called Haitians and Cubans in Miami
That woman lied right into the camera. No gangs! Wow!
I was growing up here around these times. People dont get it was gangland central. Very very dangerous. Poor too back then.
You don’t really hear anything about Roxbury anymore.
Can't believe people say "black ppl from Boston don't have the accent"... Lol
The black people themselves say that. They seem to so badly want to separate themselves from the stigma associated with being from boston. Boston is known as a white city, even tho it's less than half white, and has communities of every ethnicity. It's like people around the country know nothing other than the white boston, because of how movies, sports, and the media portray it... I've seen people make fun of black people for being from boston, saying they grew up in a white community, even tho there are some sizable predominately black communities around boston and the rest of massachusetts, and have been that way for many decades.
However, I meet black people from boston with the accent constantly.
most of us who are younger don't talk with the accent.
lol..yeah that lady says "we have POCKS (parks) " lol!!
It's so crazy looking at this and seeing yourself as a child, it was definitely real growing up back there
@@mattymatt6970 I agree with you. They should just be proud of the accent like New Yorkers who speak with almost the same exact accent.
Lol I just had so many memories come watching, This my aunt Teresa? Rochelle worked at the Burke for decades.😂😂😂😂
I subscribed to your channel quick thank you for the archive
Kids don’t play outside like that anymore. 😮
A lot of these kids in this video are STILL out here sellin crack in Roxbury. That’s where all the old heads be hustling still now at 50-60-70 years old lmao. When this is all you know since a kid it’s hard for it to go away. And Roxbury is still one of the poorest neighborhoods in Boston to this day!
Actually Queensbridge in queens is the largest housing project in the USA
It wasn’t at that time (80s-90s) At that time you had a couple that were larger than QB but they were later torn down.
Yessir!!!
No, QB is ONLY the largest NOW. Some of the first projects in America were in Boston. And QB projects is only “the biggest” in terms of OCCUPANCY, but not square footage. Some projects in Boston back in the 80’s and 90’s stretched 5-6-7 city blocks. Some took up whole sections of the neighborhoods b
Same for Miami. QB is only the biggest because other projects like SCOTT PROJECTS in Miami got tore down.
I enjoyed the metro girl Sherry interview I grew up in JP and went to Metco in the early 90s it definitely had a positive impact on my life I went to Hingham graduated from UMASS and now my kids live in the Suburbs. Boston was definitely all about Adidas back in the days. This was a cool look back
Marco. Your parents must have been cops or a principal. Metco is a program that shouldn’t exist
This where New Edition came from... Bobby, Ricky, Mike and Ralph were from the Roxbury projects and Ronnie from the Cathedral projects.
This where New Edition members grew up right??
More documentaries need to be set up like this. It's always fixated on the negative nowadays. It should be set up to where the ones watching, which alot of times are the ones who are invested in the topic can be shown a different side of the coin. The possibility of a way out
@ 20:41 gotta love what he said. Deep thought here. A real goal to reach.
That was fly
Awesome content
The whole hood is Dominican now, blue hill is like little DR or little Haiti, Jamaica etc…if you’re an American blk person in the hood and you don’t speak Spanish creole or patois lol, you in trouble and it’s almost like you’re the foreigner. I’m in the A now, love it here💯
Hence the murder and crime has gone right down
@@enosger right, just more drugs and prostitution. Meaning walking hookers outside and drug zombies, illegal immigrants, fentanyl etc…🤷🏽
I Corinth. 15:33 “Bad company corrupts good character. “ 👀👀👀😳😳😳🤔 "Roxbury, the Bury, but not the fruit y'all, don't make me act like where I'm from because it's brutal" -Boston's Ed O.G. n the Bulldogs "I got to have it" 1993 That Bobby Brown song "Don't be cruel "at the end, wow
Love My City even more #Timeless 3'$ & trees u Hurd ‼️👌👌👌
I grew up in Roxbury. My grandmother still lives on Regent street in Roxbury near Warren gardens if you know you know.😂😂😂😄💯😄😄💵😜🤦🏽♀️👆🏽👆🏽👆🏽
Any updates on any of the families? Would love to see ! The 80s were the best years!!!!
Mission Hill projects in the 80s was legendary 😳
There are nothing but North Eastern/Wentworth college students (specifically a lot of Indians) living in that area where the projects were gentrified and rebuilt into duplex homes. That church and liquor store are still there, but now the city just tore down that old building next to it and are constructing now.
@@bthegreatbstill a dangerous area… People still get shot and robbed in that area and it is still gang activity but you’re right it has cleaned up somewhat
@@jackmeeellleee4896 near the Tobin community center? Or near Roxbury crossing?
Shell toes gold ropes and kangos them was the days
I grew up in Swellesley in the 70's, the metco kids where great and they were happy to be able to get out of the bury during the school day
8:50.. “ I reither be in heaven right now instead of here” with a grin 😳😔 grim
That was a heavy line 😔
@@waxdominioni3303 especially when you can relate 💯
I grew up selling craxk on these streets miss those days
Still love my city. But it come a time in everyones' life, when it's time to move out. Have to make a better living for yourself.
From someone born and raised in WV, this almost seems like another country.
people always say boston is sweet this and that but boston is a dif type of timing out here
West Virginia? Y’all got y’all own problems 😂😂
Brings back memories Boston is the essence. Adidas gold rope chains you wouldn’t know unless you grew up here and lived through it. RSO Ray Dogg back then know as Benzino now and New Edition was supreme you could see any of them on the streets back then it was unreal. The murder rate was crazy back then a lot of Queens bridge people from New York up here also it was insane. They were all in orchard Park projects . That Dude God was all up in there he had Boston on lock also he had business all throughout the city call Crown he had this barber shop on warren street. I used to go to back in 1988 I was 13yrs old get the crazy designer hair cuts before the Feds raided all his spots and shut it down.
No one takes Boston serious bro😂
We think preppy when we heard Boston
Heard Detroit cats in ordrabs projects sell dope 2
@@davidscott3726y’all be killing me you thinking of Boston today but apparently back then it was completely different
Boston is and was softer than a baby's azz.
Roxbury Was crazy back in the day so many street gangs within walking distance from each other . Boston was the first city on the east coast to have street gangs . What was so scary for many back then gangs didn’t bang for their neighborhoods. They banged for the streets they lived on. Streets that were right next to each other were at war against each other.
That's any city 🏙️
@@SouthwestPhilly215_ no it’s not
@@moemarsh69 guess you never left Boston , Philly , BMore , NYC been crazy since the 60's do your diligence
@@SouthwestPhilly215_ of course I have and Boston was different every street gang was named after some sports team. Well most of them and one thing was for certain if you was caught not wearing adidas that was your a$$ .
Boston dudes stay claiming this as fact. It's simply not true. I'll say y'all were the first to associate your gangs with pro sports teams. But first on the east coast with street gangs?? Gangs Of New York is based on real life events dating back to mid 1800s.
This generation could never understand
My sister used to live on intervale st right next to the soccer field She threw a house party once n a Dominican she didn't even know shot and killed someone at her house. The dude that died and the dide that shot him weren't even invited. Back in 2013
I was born and raised on Normandy, left to live near Franklin Park... then moved backed on Fernboro St in 2010...I think I remember that happening.
@@sheilawilliams7271 Wow i lived on Normandy up until 2012
I grew up in East Boston my mother grew up in Roxbury in the 40s It use to be a place that you could leave your doors unlocked she would tell me same thing with East boston, Dorchester and Chelsea, now its a dump and i moved to NH.
East Boston is fine. If you don't like liberal yuppies maybe but there's alot of conservative working class Hispanics there carrying on the working class spirit left by the Italian and Irish
@@musicalmelodies3595 facts Roxbury is better but not safe in certain areas still
Never understood why people left their doors unlocked when it takes a couples seconds to lock it lol
It’s not a dump. Especially not everywhere. It’s just not safe. NH has its trashy element too.
@@ericrowland3246 Because they didn’t have to. There’s a lot you don’t understand, huh?
I was one of those little kids.we move accordingly
I knew that new edition or Bobby brown song was comin… very cool!!!!
Thank you!
Roxbury is turning into A expensive neighborhood now. Love Rox❤
Noke dont make no money like Adidas 😂😂😂😂 I wonder where he is now at the 7:30 seconds
Where you think?
My Family served his time and is out now, served 22 yrs. It takes a real HOMO to laugh at someone making poor decisions in life. BITCH
I went to Boston Technical High School in Roxbury
9:05 real friends do this, we act like it ain’t a spiritual warfare but we know it is.
If you know boston streets shit gets real here talk to the OGZ who been thru it all they will tel u how it was in the 70s,80s, 90s but the 60s? Racism was wild
Aint that where NE grew up?
They grew up in Orchard Park Projects
Yep! Orchard Park projects ❤
Who’s NE?
New Edition @@ritzkola2302
Where New Edition is from
Why do they think gangs is the way to go instead of building up their community? I don't get these people at all.
New endtion bobby brown. Mike rapah live there's back in day same thing was bad
Damn you’re right I forgot that’s where they are from
and they made it out
that is a very intelligent young lady
Hey!!! Is that Bobby Brown I saw??
He was a super star at this time.
He was on his way to stardom then. He was in a d out of the hood. New Edition and a white group was practicing in the same building over at Warren and Winthrop St early mid 80's Bobby and then wasn't taking music that serious then. Hahaha.
This is super dope I grew up on Crawford st 139 Crawford t in Roxbury
I’m from Cambridge up the street I was a kid in this era
Some things never change
I was just thinking this while watching, nothing new under the sun
sad to say but nothings changed just higher rent...
I went to the Martin Luther King Jr. Middle school and one day I was skipping and actually got jumped by intervale lol,I lived in Boston 4 like 6 years,Roxbury, dorchester,Mattapan, Dedham and Roslindale but I'm from Springfield....I used to live in the academy homes and on Dennison st. In Roxbury also...I used to go to the blue hill ave.boys and girls club,played for the upper Roxbury, north dorchester baseball league,but overall it was wild sometimes, 3 for the stripes baby!!
Excellence at tearing up your community
Yeah but the crack thing didn't help
@@blast4me754 Yes the crack era destroyed a lot. If you research black community you'll see we were trying to build while white people tour just wanted to destroy it. Then crack came and now the gangs we had to protect each other became gangs for selling drugs. It goes a lot deeper than just the drugs
I'm making movie that's gonna top box charts about home boston to NY to Cali etc... me 80's baby all in mind from here bread in these streets
Vanderbilt’s Posse ? 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
I wish this dude used my music for background cause what he got up there is depressing😂
I could never comprehend why the Natives of Roxbury insist on Burning down their own neighborhoods... and filling the streets with crime. The song "In Da Ghetto" Made famous by Elvis tells a story of one child...but we are wayy beyond that.
I knew they was gone have Adidas all up in here. Told them cats they wasn’t on no NBs back then.
BEAN TOWN 💥💥💥
They should a did Mission Hill projects instead of op but maybe it was too dangerous for them to go
This is a sad story in many ways. A lot of times these businesses like McDonald's don't even be wanting to hire black folks then and now.
Come on,now? U have to be joking right?? ANYONE who wants to work in 2023, can, regardless of race, color or creed,it's comments like that, that are keeping people from trying, discouraging
@@bretcappola6904 it's not discouraging. It's not like I'm saying don't apply don't try. You making it seem like that
@@projects325 I just have no sympathy for the man who plays the,oh I'm black so my life is harder than yours,I'm oppressed,it's crazy the only people in the united states' that are oppressed are the guys stuck in the system, RIGGED SYSTEM,of the prison industrial complex, I here it so much and get into this debate every time,the blacks who went through bussing in the seventies had it bad, the blacks in the south back in the 50s 60s and even 70s it was really bad for them, and they all were just good God fearing people,,,then obviously the blacks forced into slavery sold by there own people,Leaders, had it absolutely horrible, I feel for them, horrible times in history that happened not only to the African Americans, but genocide in Armenia, and and Kosovo, in the damn 90s, fuckin Irish blowing each other up over, catholic,or protestant,the poor Jews in WW2,, I can on till I'm blue in the face, but to sit here and listen to someone try to say that a black kid can't go to any mickey D's and get a job making fries is one of the most rediculus comments I heard in a while, u must live in a pretty affluent white suburb and not be really tapped into the city
@@bretcappola6904 Dude? I really don't care what you have to say so flush it elsewhere m'kay, pal? 🫡🤨
@@projects325 than don't post your idiot comments about places even like even McDonald's won't hire black people on the comments of a story about Roxbury, have u ever even been there? The stuff you say tells me no, definitely not after dark, lol, probably too scared
I want to know where the Reds are.
mattapan roxbury dorchester jp south end all dangerous in the 90s
I was in Shirley max with a bunch of these dudes,i recognize so many faces
You know Jason Meeks
@@franklinhicks639 probably,does he go by that?
freshman year at burke highschool, Mr Holland was there
I wonder if those shoes are still up there?
Mite as well be don’t nobody wear adidas no more 🤷🏽♂️
Any more Boston videos etc 🥺
ruclips.net/video/2ddQmOstuPg/видео.html
The guy with the white hat in the beginning looks like my uncle ralph anderson lol. My family from Boston
Where are they now?
Pushing up daisies
@@lucidlioness3253nah not all of us! Some of us made it ❤
New Edition is on stages with Bobby Brown till this day,projects torn down made into townhouses and high rises,but we still have crime just like other places, but not as dirty or abandoned
@@kc4811 that’s right! Let me know lol
They became doctors and lawyers living a great life in Boston
Pop quiz,,,, what gang in Boston has the most smoke??????? The winner gets a adidas track suit and a pair of top tens, your choice of colors to match your starter jacket reppin your crew(sponsored by harry the greeks)
Columbia Point
@@scottd7222 it was greenwood in the max, everyone was trying to get at them
what happened to gangs claiming sports teams?
@@LuisRamirez-vv4dk they still do in Boston
@@bretcappola6904damn 🤦🏿♂️🤦🏿♂️🤦🏿♂️
Side streets, Parks, Projects, Apt Complexes, Triple Deckers, & Flags!
1988 is like disneyland compared to 2023
No, it's not this city is maaad quiet compared to the 80s and 90s there's barely any kids outside
8:48 wow that whole part with touched me. You said pray together, best way to be. Hope everything panned out right for you ms. Im old enough to be your child or grandchild most likely. Wish woman today spoke like this today.
14:00 this girl was very intelligent as well. I would've tried to wife her 😂😂😂.
people form the hood spoke better english back then. Zog really has done a number on this community.
I know that house with the piano in it.
still trying leave Boston one day