By Michele McPhee
The Boston Herald
With a reduced headcount, an increase in encounters with unpredictably violent suspects and the highest number of shootings since the bad old days of the 1990s, cops have to be increasingly vigilant to keep themselves safe these days.
Especially, authorities say, when there are guys like 17-year-old Jason Barbosa on the streets, a reputed gangbanger who was arrested this month for allegedly intimidating a witness by taking his picture outside a courthouse. In Barbosa’s case, the alleged victim was an undercover cop assigned to the BPD Youth Violence Strike Force.
On Dec. 1, Barbosa, who was at Dorchester District Court facing gun-related charges, allegedly walked past a state trooper assigned to work alongside Boston cops in the BPD gang unit and used his cell phone to snap several photographs of the undercover investigator.
Police officials fear that pictures like the one Barbosa took outside the courthouse that day are being exchanged via e-mail between gang members in an attempt to undermine investigations.
“These types of incidents are a chilling reminder of the need for strong security in our court buildings,” said Jake Wark, a spokesman for Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley. “There was a swift arrest in this case.”
Barbosa is reputedly an associate of a Cape Verdean sect who carved out a territory on Wendover Street in Dorchester, wreaking havoc on their own countrymen and neighbors. He and other alleged gang members engage in blatant brawls at the courthouse, the trooper wrote in his report, referring to the recent fights and shootings that have erupted outside Dorchester District Court.
As the trooper cuffed Barbosa and charged him with assault and intimidation, the teen went ballistic.
"(Racial epithet) need to stand up and grab their nuts! I’m sick of you (expletive) police in the ‘hood. (Racial epithet) need to step off their corners and take action,” Barbosa screamed, according to the report “Sometimes it just comes down to who shoots who first.”
Violence among Cape Verdean youngsters is concerning enough that Mayor Thomas M. Menino and new BPD Commissionor Ed Davis convened an emergency meeting with officials from across the state and Rhode Island this month to brainstorm a strategy to end the bloodshed in that community.
But what is more frightening, especially to law enforcement officials, is that gang members are becoming increasingly savvy when it comes to technology. Boston gangs are recruiting new members using YouTube.com videos. Video games teach teens to slash prostitutes’ throats and blast cops with machine guns.
There is even a Massachusetts-based Web site that lists the names, photographs and personal information of undercover agents and police informants.
“These sophisticated predators are now profiling police,” said Boston Patrolmen’s Association President Tom Nee.
It’s not a matter to be taken lightly. Let’s not forget what happened to Assistant Attorney General Paul McLaughlin, the prosecutor who was stalked and murdered by the gang member he was about to prosecute in 1995.
Copyright 2006 Boston Herald Inc.