WBUR's Tiziana Dearing did a really useful, timely, informative/baffling interview with former Federal Judge Nancy Gertner yesterday, regarding qualified immunity for police officers. I say "informative/baffling" because the more you know … [Read more...]

Update: Here’s a comment from Adam Chapdelaine, Town Manager of Arlington. As mentioned below, he’s had some recent experience navigating the civil service and collective bargaining systems vis-a-vis police: Two major thoughts on S … [Read more...]

Sorry for the radio silence. I've had ... a lot going on. Will say more later. Too long, didn't read: The MA Senate has created a police reform bill called the Reform, Shift, + Build Act. Among many other needed reforms*, it includes an … [Read more...]

Well, this is one of the longer things you’ll see on BMG. I hope you’ll agree it’s also very much worth it. At jconway’s suggestion, I reached out to State Rep candidate Joe Gravellese, who is running in the 16th Suffolk district — … [Read more...]

In the last month, seemingly every Massachusetts political establishment leader has made a statement against racism. The MA House has just passed a bill making Juneteenth a state holiday. Good for us, let’s pat ourselves on the … [Read more...]

Happy Juneteenth to everyone. It's wild that we seem to have just discovered this "holiday", but in any event, I strongly support replacing Columbus Day – or our "Evacuation Day", heh – with this day. Today is real. In other news ... I … [Read more...]

In recovering from the COVID-19 devastation, we are at a fork in the road. The economic need for heavy government investment is more stark than ever; and the choices that we make for rebuilding -- green or "brown" – will determine whether … [Read more...]

We've been saying it here since forever; Charlie Pierce told us in February; nothing has changed since then, except that the conventional wisdom seems to be crystallizing: Joe Kennedy has no real reason to run for Senate. He's failing the … [Read more...]

The Boston Police Department budget is absolutely massive, dwarfing every other department other than schools. ACLU Massachusetts lays it all out in a series of charts.  These numbers have always been public knowledge. It's just that now, … [Read more...]