The true story of the “Boston Miracle”

Unfortunately I was not able to hear the presentation given by William Bratton on his recent visit to Trinidad and Tobago. However, last week while at the Harvard Business School I had the distinct honour of hearing a first hand account by Reverend Jeffrey Brown, one the integral players of the “Boston Miracle” that occurred under Bratton’s watch.  In the 1990’s inner city youth violence and crime was strangling and threatening the way of life of the residents of South Boston. In fact they had one of the highest crime rates in the entire US. There was enormous racial tension between the predominantly Irish Catholic police force and the predominantly black inner city youth.

There were cries of victimisation again the youth and the violence kept escalating. In short, the situation seemed hopeless. Sensing the level of despair in their community, the church leaders, led by Rev. Brown and his allies, Reverend Eugene Rivers and Reverend Ray Hammond knew they had to make a drastic intervention. They recognised that the church had lost its relevance to the black youth, who viewed the church as being aloof and not in tune to their needs.

The reverends created something called the “Ten Point Coalition” and sacrificing their lives, took to the street every single night to reconnect to the youth and bring them back to the church. They also worked closely with the police and judiciary to complete the circle of trust. One of the key things they insisted on was the total absence of the media from this process, as they wanted to gain the trust of the youths and they thought the media would send the signal that the church was using as a popularity ploy. Another interesting fact was that the reverends faced enormous opposition from within their church itself, as members didn’t see the church’s role extending to these depths. The outline of the Ten Points were: