Boston Family Tries to Battle Looming Danger of Violence and Drugs

Thursday evening is family time at the home of Antonio and Carolyn Benson, a time reserved to discuss schoolwork or chores. But one Thursday, Benson gathered his boys, ages 5, 8 and 11, in the living room and reviewed what to do when they hear gunshots.

“I told them that no matter where they were, at home or in a car, they should get down on the ground; that they shouldn’t be looking around or curious about what’s happening,” said Benson, in the even tone of a parent telling a child to look both ways before crossing the street.

The sound of gunfire is not yet that common on the quiet street in Boston’s Dorchester section where Benson grew up and now tries to rear his boys to manhood. But there are other troubling sounds, sounds of a distant storm.

There is talk about the two teen-agers shot up on Greenwood Avenue last winter, and, closer to home, talk about the bullet that went through a neighbor’s window down the street.

There are whispers about the Greenwood Gang, a group of teens believed to be dealing drugs a few streets over, and the Junior Greenwoods, a gang of boys younger than 11-year-old Victor Benson, in a rush to mimic the hard ways of their older brothers.

“They do bad things, like robbing ladies,” Victor explains with a nervous smile.

It is boys like Victor and his brothers, Giovanni and Stefon, who are key to which side will win the inner city wars. Tony and Carolyn Benson envision their sons as “aware young black men,” future professionals who can save their community from chaos. “Me and my dad want me to be a lawyer,” says Victor, who then lists other goals more common for a boy his age: an artist, a football player, a track star.

“When I grow up I want to be a police officer,” Giovanni pipes in. His father winces when the 7-year-old assumes a combat shooting stance and makes gun noises.

It is a reminder for Tony Benson, a 28-year-old schoolteacher, that these days his boys are at risk as potential fodder for the drugs, the gangs and the associated dangers of the street.

“I don’t have a lot of fear for myself, but I am afraid that something could happen to one of my boys,” says Tony Benson. “I’m afraid we’re going to lose a lot of our kids in this generation.”

The Bensons do their best to keep their sons from temptation. Victor and Giovanni are in a program that sends them to school in the affluent suburb of Weston. After school and on weekends, they are kept busy with activities like junior track, basketball and family outings.

“We’ve got to have alternatives for them; we try to keep them in programs,” says Carolyn Benson, who works in the state Department of Social Services. “I try to be with my kids, know where they are and who their friends are.”

Victor turns quiet when asked about going out alone. For the most part, his time is structured, but sometimes, in the summer, he rides his bicycle around the neighborhood. “I get a little nervous about going outside,” he says. His eyes go wide when asked what he would do if recruited by a gang.

“I’d run,” he explains patiently. “If you join a gang, you have to do something bad. And sometimes when you join a gang and you want to get out, they shoot you.”

Each day at school, where he teaches English, social studies and reading to 11- and 12-year-olds, Benson is reminded of the dangers of the city.

“We have kids who come from homes with drug addiction or alcoholism and they grow up too quick,” he says. “I see young men out there who are searching for strong male role models. When they don’t see that at home, they look to somebody who is strong, somebody who’s making it, and that’s the drug dealers.”

Despite the stray bullets, the gangs, the drugs and the crime, the Bensons want to stay in the neighborhood where they both grew up.

Tony Benson has tried to make their neighborhood safer. He persuaded some drug dealers hanging out on his street to take their business elsewhere. He also tried setting up a Crimewatch program to combat a rash of burglaries. But after a few meetings, “folks got disinterested.”

“People are busy trying to maintain their own life and their own families,” he says. “They just don’t have time for anybody else.”

“If it becomes unbearable, I’d like to move to a place that’s quiet with a yard and homeowners on the street,” says Carolyn Benson. “But I don’t want to live in a suburb. I’ve lived my whole life here.”