Boston has seen a large surge in violence within the last year. Consequently, there have been more make-shift memorials erected in memory of the victims.

City officials are considering restrictions on the make-shift memorials (via Boston Globe):

For some residents, they are powerful symbols, akin to gravesites, where friends and relatives often pay tribute and tend them faithfully for years. But officials increasingly worry about sites that have become large gathering spots, littered with beer bottles and, occasionally, evidence of gang rivalries and simmering rage.

If known gang members are gathering at these memorials, doesn't that just make it easier to arrest them?

Some feel that the city's proposed restrictions on memorials could backfire (via Boston Globe):

Clementina M. Chery - founder of the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute, an outreach organization for those bereaved by homicide - said that the memorials give family and community members a way to express their grief and that removing them too early could create "more chaos than anything."

"If it's removed forcefully, the family is going to put it back up; there's going to be a tug of war," she said. "Memorials are a way of healing. When that is interrupted, it delays the healing process."