The community experienced loss and grief beyond its imagination with the shooting death of Police Officer John A. DiNapoli, but that cannot compare with the despair it will feel when it must bury an innocent child. Incoming Police Chief Anthony R. Scott begins work May 21, and he's already promised a community policing program that should discourage some gang activity. Hampden County District Attorney William M. Bennett and his staff have chipped in with increased funding, expertise and manpower. Those efforts are vital and more of the same is needed, but police officers and prosecutors cannot succeed alone. The community needs to declare its own turf war against the gangs.
Police say they get little or no cooperation from witnesses and victims, who often fear retaliation.
Fear may be the greatest weapon that members of the rival Latin Kings and Flatbush gangs have against the community. That time has come. After dozens of shootings this spring, members of the community should say they have had enough. Until the public cooperates with police and reports crimes, the gangs will have the advantage. However, arrests alone won't do the trick.