BOSTON COP BEATS UBER DRIVER, STEALS CAR
An off-duty Boston Police Department officer appears to have had a doozy of a ride home from the North End this morning.
According to a police report obtained by DigBoston of events that began at 2:45am, two responding officers answered a radio call “that a taxi driver had been beaten by a passenger at E 1st @ Farragut Rd.” in South Boston.
It all started when the driver “picked up a white male … who was with [another] unknown white male at 200 Hanover St.” in the North End.
He then “drove the unknown white male to Charlestown and was then asked to take [the second white male] to E 2nd in South Boston.”
But when they arrived at that address, the “suspect stated they were in the wrong location.”
The “suspect then stated ‘[You] think I’m stupid you fucking spic’ and told the victim to continue driving.”
With the car stopped at E 2nd and M Street, the report says “the suspect began hitting the victim.” The Uber driver said he then removed his seatbelt and exited the vehicle, only for the suspect to begin “chasing the victim around the motor vehicle.”
With the victim “attempting to stop passing traffic to assist him,” an “unknown black male” lent a hand. “When the victim went toward the male that stopped to assist him, the suspect entered the [victim’s]” car and drove off.
The victim then entered the vehicle of the assisting black male “and they followed the suspect,” who was driving the Uber toward Farragut Road, “where the suspect stopped.”
Once outside the stolen taxi, the suspect “approached both the victim and the male assisting and stated to the black male ‘[What] do you want you fucking nigger’ and began swinging at both parties.”
In the process the “suspect knocked the victim to the ground and began hitting him and the assisting male attempted to pull him off. They all struggled until the suspect observed blue police lights coming in their direction.”
The suspect then “stopped fighting and began to walk away.” At which point two MassPort police officers “arrived on the scene and the suspect walked away.” The Uber driver pointed at the suspect, but according to the police report he made an “escape” up P Street.
The driver refused medical attention, while “officers drove the area searching for the suspect to no avail.”
We may be able to help. City records show the BPD employs an officer with the same name as the suspect in the report, and who lives in Southie right around the corner from the location where the Uber driver first tried dropping him.
The Dig contacted the BPD regarding this incident, and a public relations representative declined to comment on the matter, or to confirm or deny inquiries about the identity of the suspect as an officer. He noted they are working on a statement, and said to check bpdnews for updates.
UPDATE: The Boston Police Department has released a statement. It omits quite a few details from the report, but here it is anyway …
Boston Police Officer Placed on Administrative Leave after Being Charged with Assault & Battery: At about 2:45am, on Sunday, January 4, 2015, officers from District C-6 (South Boston) responded to a call for a ride share driver stating that he had been assaulted by a passenger in the area of E. 1st Street and Farragut Road in South Boston. On arrival, officers spoke to the victim, an Uber driver, who stated that he was in the process of dropping a passenger off in the area of E. 2nd Street in South Boston when the passenger began yelling at him and accusing him of trying to drop him off at the wrong location. Victim further states that the suspect physically assaulted him when he stopped his vehicle in the area of E. 2nd and M Streets. In an effort to escape the suspect, the victim states that he exited his vehicle. Once outside the vehicle, the victim states that he watched as the suspect got into the front seat of his car and drove off. The victim, who was aided by a passing motorist, followed the victim to E. 1st Street and Farragut Road where the suspect stopped and exited the victim’s car. The suspect fled the area before police arrived. The suspect was later identified, located and placed under arrest.
Officers arrested Michael Doherty, 40, of South Boston and charged him with Assault & Battery and Using a Motor Vehicle without Authority.
Doherty, a 16 year-veteran of the Boston Police Department, has been placed on Administrative Leave pending the outcome of the charges filed against him.
The Boston Police Anti-Corruption Unit is actively reviewing facts and circumstance surrounding this incident.
DIG STAFF
- 17 hours ago
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White thugs at it again 😉
culture of violence where were the parents
they should go back to europe
Well, I am sure they will strip him of of badge, pension and prosecute him like they would anyone el- hahahah I couldn’t even finish it. The arrested officer will investigate himself, don’t you worry.
“placed on administrate leave pending investigation” = paid vacation while we hope this dies down in the news, then we’ll find he did nothing wrong
Fvck the Police
Got that right — you and I would be sitting in jail on A/B and GTA charges.
On a totally serious note though, putting all sarcasm and irony aside, my (very few) encounters with police over the years have almost always been neutral or even positive, so I have been in general agreement with the ‘few bad apples’ position that many people have, and have had some skepticism of the way that many others seem to view the police as having a widespread problem of a culture of violence and cover-ups by default.
However, with the frequency and severity of the accounts that I have been seeing over the past few years of over-the-top police behavior with no repercussions, I am starting to lose faith in the ‘few bad apples’ paradigm, even though I do not want to 🙁
Unfortunately it’s not “a few bad apples” it’s “a lot of bad training” The entire system is corrupt, and needs to be systematically destroyed before building a new system. This guy might be one of the small% of actual douche bags, but the higher % that thinks they are doing the right thing is what needs to be dealt with.
Do you know of any systems that have been ‘systematically destroyed before building a new system’ without going through a phase of major unrest?
It seems to me that incremental improvement of a system is more likely to work that systematic destruction, which I would imagine would create a fair amount of chaos in a society that seems to me to keep getting less and less able to do much that requires actual thought and problem-solving, but seems to only be able to function when things are spelled out so simply that no pre-requisite knowledge or vaguely difficult thinking is assumed for anything.
I can easily imagine that introducing more community policing, citizen review boards and the like could, over the course of a generation, change the landscape of policing as after a generation, any idea can go from being unheard of to the only known possibility in the minds of the masses.
bring him to the BBQ
Spot-on, and well put, Sir!
Again…..Bravo! Cool headed reasoning beats knee-jerking every time. Fifteen years ago, i never thought so many divisions and chasms would poison how we view our fellow citizens, and i never thought those charged with keeping the peace would be instigating violence at such a clip, but here we are.
i agree 100% with your ideas and approaches, i just don’t know why or how it had to get to this. There have, and will continue to be people who act horribly towards PEOPLE with different skin pigmentation. Let’s (if nothing else) make sure they don’t collect a check as Peace Officers. i would love to remove these barriers wholesale, but there are some very stubborn brick walls impeding that path.
The quote says “Divide and Conquer”. Welp, as a society, we have sure accomplished the division part. If we do not regain a measure of sanity, we may achieve the conquer portion as well. We need to be citizens, rather than idealogues or nationalists, and we should recognize that the greatest resource we have is each other, especially in a time when our “leaders” are more interested in 1% of us, due to corrupt funding, and general lack of concern for consequence.
1960 — “Love is our most fundamental resource” —John Fitzgerald Kennedy
2008 — “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.” —Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)
If i would voice anything about the 2 opposing quotes, i would say the most important thing we could achieve, is to reach for the ideal of the 1960 quote, and reject the nation division words from the 2008 quote, which continue today. Bravo to the peacemakers and uniting voices.
Be Well, Everyone,
—d