Dorchester shooting adds fuel to city’s gun violence crisis

Bay State Banner
with Yawu Miller
December 22, 2005

While many in Boston were trying to make sense of a shooting last week that claimed the lives of four young men, gunned down in a Dorchester basement recording studio, members of the city’s hip hop community are questioning the violent themes that have become commonplace in rap music.

Jason Bachiller, Jihad Chankhour, Edwin Duncan and Chris Viera were shot in the basement of Duncan’s parents’ Bournside St. home, triggering a man hunt for suspects in the shooting, which left no eyewitnesses.

All four victims were graduates of Wakefield High School and three were members of an up-and-coming rap group called Graveside.

Coming toward the end of a year where gun violence has increasingly dominated headlines and public discourse in Boston, the quadruple homicide in a more affluent section of Dorchester has driven home the image of crime gone out of control.

While police have concentrated on the city’s so-called hot spots, bringing in police, ministers and street workers in an effort to prevent violent incidents before they happen, police officials said the Dorchester shooting was an unpredictable act of targeted violence.

Federal law enforcement officials have joined the search for suspects in the shooting. Saturday, police recovered the Ford Escort believed to have been used as a get-away car by the shooter, but no one has yet been charged.

At a monthly performance staged by local hip hop and spoken word artists and fans at the Jorge Hernandez Cultural Center in the South End, some in attendance said the violence portrayed in mainstream rap music could have a negative influence on many young fans and artists.

“In my head there’s a line between hip hop and violence,” said Jesse Winfrey, who performs with the group Reality. “People forget that line exists because now the music is associated with violence.”

Particularly in the mainstream rap music that is played on local stations, violent lyrics and street credibility are valued over positive messages. Witness the performer 50 Cent, who survived a volley of bullets in his life as a drug dealer and starred in a film glorifying his checkered past.

But many hip hop artists eschew violent lyrics. Some at the Jorge Hernandez event, titled Critical Breakdown, said hip hop is unfairly tarnished by its association with violence.

Hip hop artist AfroDzak says many artists contribute to the negative image, blurring the line between the violence in their lyrics and committing actual acts of violence.

“Young people feel like it is necessary to align themselves with that stereotype when they make their music,” he said.

Art-imitates-life scenarios unfolded in 1997 when rap artists Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls were both gunned down in murders that to date are unsolved. Both had violent lyrics in their raps.

Many in the hip hop community say that the rappers are merely expressing what they see happening around them, that the violence in their raps is simply indicative of the violence they witness in their communities.

“The lyrics that people are writing by-and-large represent the reality the young people are living in,” said Eric Wissa, one of the coordinators of the Critical Breakdown event. “People shouldn’t get upset about the music, they should get upset about the conditions the music is reflecting.”

At the same time, the Dorchester homicide victims did not lead overtly disparate lives. All four attended a suburban high school. Both Chankhour, who was visiting the rap group members, and Viera, lived in suburban communities.

Some of the lyrics their group recorded included depictions of gun violence. Group members bragged of packing heat in one of their raps.

In contrast, at Critical Breakdown the message tended to be more positive. Even swearing was prohibited.

“As emcees, we have to reflect on the messages that we put out there,” said Ernesto Arroyo of the group, The Foundation. “We have to step up and look at life and make sure the words we put out are reflective of that.

“But at the same time, we have to stop blaming the victims. It’s important to recognize that violence has been there before hip hop.”

Arroyo and others interviewed by the Banner said public policy should be focused on providing teenagers with constructive alternatives to crime.

“Young people are asking for more jobs, better education — the basic necessities that make for better lives,” said Wissa. “Political leaders shouldn’t waste time pulling shirts off shelves.”

“We’re losing people left and right,” agreed Ruth Henry, a teen activist. “Looking for answers in a “Stop Snitchin’” tee shirt or some hip hop lyrics is like trying to put a Bandaid on a bullet wound.”