BOSTON (MA)
Boston Herald
By: Peter Gelzinis
To hear Rev. Mark Scott speak about his “Clergy Deployment Plan,” you might think he drafted the whole thing over the weekend, as a response to the rogue clergyman, Shaun O. Harrison, who allegedly shot a young drug dealer execution-style — an English High student he was supposed to be “mentoring.”
Truth is, Mark Scott, of the Ella J. Baker House in Dorchester, has been working for more than a year on his idea to have ministers create a partnership with police, social workers, probation officers and street workers.
It’s a back-to-the-future idea — back to the days of the so-called Boston Miracle and operations dubbed “Nightlight” and “Homefront,” when teams of ministers, cops, probation officers and school police quite literally made sure that the kids they were tracking were at home, if not in bed.
The father of probation in Dorchester District Court, William J. “Billy” Stewart, one of the architects of the Boston Miracle, was once asked what happened to the Miracle and the TenPoint-Coalition of black clergy.
“It’s quite simple actually,” Billy replied. “One TenPoint Coalition turned into 10 one points.”
In other words, success bred egos determined to do their own thing. And two decades later we have an anti-gang preacher in the arraignment dock accused of attempted murder and facing a slew of drug and weapons charges.
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