Mt. Hopeless asks an illogical question as no one seemed to be upset over the dealer getting shot as much as the fact that shots were fired in our neighborhood again and that it will be only a matter of time before someone, most likely an African American child, gets hit by a stray bullet meant for some rival drug dealer. But for that matter it could be anyone who gets hit: bullets can travel a long way.

We work with the police to make this neighborhood safe and free of drug and violent crime. We are not perfect and neither is the Police Department or the individuals who work in that department. In fact, we are all deeply flawed individuals. Myself more than most. Yet we must work together.

We can't accept any more inflammatory comments with impossible to prove allegations that do nothing to advance our cause.

Please make nuanced, well written comments that contribute to what we as a community are trying to achieve: a neighborhood free of corruption, political pandering, and the drug trade and the attendant crime the drug trade brings.

I'm only leaving Mthopeless's comment up as an example of how not to comment.

As I know you are an avid reader of this blog, I urge you to make comments that support and advance our cause, not cause divisions.

So feel free to contribute, just not quite like that.

"Divide and conquer" is the theme song of those who wish us to fail.

why are you people so upset over someone getting shot...he was prob a drug dealer anyway. im upset he actually lived...and the police in this area are NOT here to protect...sure when they HAVE to if something is thrown uncontrolable in their face. but for the most part i know 2 of which are big coc heads and are looking for the next big score....hows that for feeling safe mount hopers?

ProJo covered the shooting Friday. Providence police say man, targeted before, shot in leg

01:00 AM EDT on Friday, August 24, 2007

By Gregory Smith

Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE — A man who escaped being shot on Pleasant Street in Mount Hope about three weeks ago was shot there yesterday morning, the police said.

Eighteen-year-old James Goddard, of 2 Carver Court, who was outside munching a sandwich made by his mother, was wounded in the leg, but escaped serious injury when someone in a passing car cut loose with a handgun, according to a police report. A witness said about eight shots were fired.

“Mom, I got shot in my leg,” Goddard called out as he ran back into his apartment. A relative drove Goddard to the emergency room of Miriam Hospital, where, Maj. Paul C. Fitzgerald said, he was treated for a single gunshot wound.

In a case of bad aim or mistaken identity on Aug. 1, Kevelin Davis, 29, of 19 Pleasant Court, was shot five times in the vicinity of 61 Pleasant St., in a drive-by shooting like yesterday’s. Goddard, who was standing near Davis that night, is believed to have been the shooter’s intended target, Fitzgerald said yesterday.

Police officers marveled at the fact that Davis survived his wounds, because he had been shot with a 45-caliber handgun. He was hit once in the arm and four times in the back, the police said at the time.

When he was taken for treatment, a hospital employee found that Davis had bags of crack hidden between his buttocks. Davis was charged with drug possession, and after he was released from the hospital, he was turned over to federal authorities because he was in violation of his probation on a federal firearms charge, according to the police.

As for Goddard, he was on the sidewalk, across the street from McCann Place, shortly before 11:30 a.m. when a dark-colored vehicle with a broken headlight drove down Pleasant. He told the police that “the vehicle looked shady,” and he began to run away. As he ran, the shots were fired, he said.

His mother, Jeanne Wilson, 50, of 10 Pine Grove St., Pawtucket, told the police that she had made a sandwich for her son and that he ran back into the apartment within seconds of having left.

The police determined that the car that carried the drive-by shooter yesterday was apparently stolen on June Street, Wanskuck.

gsmith@projo.com

Trouble on Grand View?

Was it just hyper-active teenagers expending residual summer energy on the street at 9:00 p.m.? Perhaps. If it were not for this series of shootings in our neighbourhood; if it were not for the proliferation of open-air drug dealing on Grand View and Tecumseh, I would have simply opened my front door and asked the kids to tone it down, get out of the road, stop shouting and hollering, and racing mopeds up and down the street. But I did not know if I was dealing with over-the-edge teens or with crack heads...I was afraid. Not a great feeling. I called the police. I have no idea if they responded, but the noise did die down after a while. The whole episode left me feeling down-right sad and uneasy about the skittishness invading our neighbourhood. I know my neighbours. The vast majority are good, responsible people. Now this new invasion. And I am more than a little uneasy. Are the police on the side of law? Or on the side of expedience? Just a question.