The young woman is bailed that evening by her parents. They posted $300.00 cash bail. The next day the parents brought their daughter to court for arraignment. Just to make sure the gang bangers get the right girl, press photographers and TV camera crews were told when and where to be by Boston Police and Dan Conley’s media relations machines.
So anyway, here this girl is in court with both her parents. The Assistant D.A., who works for Dan Conley, comes in and asks that bail be set at $10,000 cash. Remember, bail is set to assure appearance in court. Her family already postred bail and she appeared at court voluntarily that day. And she cooperated with the police. In fact she was now a witness and they want her to testify against the guy who gave her the gun.
The girl starts sobbing, the parents feel completely helpless and alone. The judge sets bail at $750.00. The parents don’t have it. (Did I mention they are poor?) The girl is shackled at her feet, waist and hands and taken away. In tears.
All the laws, money, programs, etc. mean nothing if we have incompetent people running the system. What is to be learned here? Obviously the police are not your friends. Say nothing to them. The DA is not your friend either. He is clueless about community relations. He talks about witness intimidation and lack of cooperation. Then when a young woman and a family try and do the right thing he goes and puts crosshairs across their backs.
Excuse me, but isn’t this the kind of case for which the witness protection program was created?
At best the decision to act this way should cause parents to be extremely reluctant to cooperate with the police when it involves their children. At worst they have exposed this young woman and her family to the terror and violence of the blood thirsty gangs that they have shown no ability to control. In addition it cements the rule of the street. Don’t Snitch!
But, Dan Conley wants to send this volunteer witness with no record to the women’s jail with all the hard core female gang bangers who already know that this girl is a snitch.
Thank God poor black people don’t feel the same pain and emotion as middle class white people like me and you and Dan Conley and Ed Davis. I would be pissed if I was this child’s father. But then, I’m white.
BTW. Ed Davis looks and acts more like a Somerville ward alderman looking for the next headline than a big city police boss. Dan Conley is just plain incompetent. And Mayor Menino is old.
The story sounds horrible. But I want to stick up for Davis. He’s been out to community meeting after community meeting, listening to people and being pretty honest, from what I’ve heard him say. He’s got cops out of their cars on foot patrols in neighborhoods where it’s needed. That is a huge positive step in building trust with community members.
of cops generally has been rising for just about thirty years. We now have more cops than we ever have had and the rate of arrests and successful prosecutions has dropped preciptously. On top of that what successful prosecutions the DA’s office has experienced now appears to be railroading innocent people into perjury by perjury and tainted evidence.
<
p>
All of the above is the direct result of our society that decided thirty years ago to be kinder and gentler and to significantly lower the standards for entry level cops. We now have cops that cannot read and write in any language and who cannot run fifty yards. All in the name of celebrating diversity.
<
p>
You get what you get. Perhaps rather than whining, our present society should return to the days when cops were allowed to protect people rather defend the rights of criminals.
<
p>
We keep on re electing the likes of Menino and many of the hand wringers on Beacon Hill. I wonder how bad it will have to get before we actually demand a change. Perhaps Boston needs a South Central Los Angeles. Bet that would get the attention of the Cambridge and Brookline crowd.
How many cops had BAs, let alone MAs 30 years ago?
Anna Banana, Western New England, Curry. All make believe paper mills for the Quinn Bill.
<
p>
Give me a break. Most cops with masters degrees couldn’t write a paragraph with correct English usage, punctuation and syntax—-that made sense. As a matter of fact the dumbing down of America is all pervasive.
<
p>
I once met a Boston cop who could just barely speak English.
Richard Nixon pushed this B.S. back in 1968 and 1972, that our justice system was “coddling criminals.”
Miranda rights have not been a hindrance to cops putting people in jail. The exclusionary rule, which kept cops from beating confessions out of innocent people, as Justice Hugo Black well knew from his days as a judge and prosecutor in Alabama.
<
p>
Criminals are not a class of people, though Nixon and the Republicans campaigned like they were. Of course, they campaigned like that to appeal to voters who thought criminals were a class of people without white skin.
<
p>
And as for this claim:
It’s false. MCRD can not name an example. Maybe there’s some guy behind a desk in the equipment room or administration or detective who’s out of shape, but those aren’t the street cops we’re talking about.
<
p>
There are serious problems with the way state and local government & police have dealt with gang crime, but by adding false information in his arguments, MCRD is not addressing the serious problems.
<
p>
Hey, I’ve seen plenty of overweight cops who’d huff and puff after running down the street, and their skin was as pasty as the powdered sugar on the donuts they love so much.
More and more we see police departments pretending to fight crime by going after “little” people and making believe they have caught Al Capone. I was at a 99 restaurant when the last cop was nabbed by the feds for drug trafficing. On TV the Commish announced, “Cops don’t like dirty cops.” The crowd at the restaurant laughed in unison. Is this Commish out of touch!
<
p>
Ever notice that it is always the feds that nab the cops? Never the cops’ own internal security or state police. How about the Omerta? If only they could clean up their act.
<
p>
So does the Commish understand why the police get less and less respect from the public? I doubt it. Business as usual forever!
<
p>
As for the DA’s office, why aren’t people filing complaints with the Board of Bar Overseers on the actions of these people? Is the Board as corrupt as the people they are supposed to oversee?
It’s all corrupt. ” Nothing is on the level. Everything is a deal. No deal to small.”
<
p>
If you actually knew what went on in district court you would be astounded. The DA’s office and defense counsel are in bed together. “Today we sink your client and tomorrow we’ll let your next client off the hook.” It’s disgusting. Now we see the DA’s office railroading innocent people into prison in ever increasing numbers.
<
p>
This state is heading into very deep water!
This father, or the girl’s attorney, should get Dan Conley (Barney Rubble) and Ed Davis (Fred Flintstone) into a corner and ask them if they are going to protect this young woman and her family from the inevitable blowback from this blunder.
<
p>
Yaba daba doo
while a guy who gets drunk, shoots a Boston police officer and then flees from the scene of the crime (while driving drunk) does no time in jail and keeps his publicly funded pension.
<
p>
Why? Oh, because he was a cop.
<
p>
http://www.boston.co…
<
p>
What message does that send?