HOW HIGH WILL the numbers of murders have to climb before Boston's black community can live in peace and safety? This Easter, Darlene Rogers became the seventh black victim since January in a series of murders the Boston police say are not related.

Whether or not the murders were committed by the same person, they are related in that they have plunged the local black community into an atmosphere of fear and distrust. These feelings are aimed especially at the police, who have responded to the violence against black women with much less enthusiasm than they have to similar crimes against life and property involving whites. The media has been no help either; until the most recent murders press coverage has often slighted or distorted the facts.

We cannot tolerate or ignore this violence; in the name of Darlene Rogers, Desiree Etheridge, Daryal Hargett, Caren Prater, Gwendolyn Stinson, Andrea Foye, Christine, Ricketts, and those who knew and loved them, as well as those who fear for their own lives, we demand renewed and unceasing efforts by the police and informed individuals to find and convict the murderers of these women.