The Boston Herald reported this week that families of three black murder victims feel as if their cases have been neglected for reasons related to race.
The families of three black murder victims in Dorchester, Roxbury and Mattapan — where police stats show homicides are less likely to get solved than the rest of the city — told the Herald they don’t believe their loved ones got the attention they would have if they were white or from out of town.
“I feel like because we’re black, our murders here don’t get solved,” said Melissa Andrade of Dorchester, the sister of Edmund Andrade, who was 23 when he was killed in April 2001. “A white person, their murder gets solved so quick. When it’s a black person here, it’s just like they don’t care. It’s just like, it’s another black person, whatever.”
Yet Andrade said much of the blame falls on the community, where a code of silence discourages witnesses from helping cops.
Read the rest of the article, which comes on the heels of a special report showing that Boston lags behind the nation’s average for solving homicide cases, here.
Mayor Martin J. Walsh has appointed an advisory group to help the Boston Police Department solve murders in light of the findings.
