Boston has spent millions on no-bid contracts for analysts they claim couldn’t track racist demonstrators
New Documents Reveal Extent, Cost Of BPD’s Secret Surveillance Strategy
ACLU
ME + YOU + THE ACLU
Without First Amendment crusaders to catch our backs, journalists—along with educators, activists, and anybody else whose career or passion often requires that they take unpopular public positions—would be no more useful than a Putin fan zine published by the Kremlin.
EDITORIAL: RESIST ICE & BORDER PATROL IMMIGRATION RAIDS
Sadly, appeals to reason don’t stop reactionary media outlets like the Boston Herald from telegraphing the falsehoods being spread by ICE and pals.
FLAW PATROL: HOW LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT USES OVERSEAS THREATS TO MILK OVERTIME
“Increased patrols do not protect anyone ... they are actively harmful to poor and oppressed people who are routinely harassed, brutalized, and surveilled by the police in Boston and across the country."
IMPAIRED LAWMAKING: BAKER, DELEO, AND LAW ENFORCEMENT LOBBY FOR NEW CANNABIS OUI LAWS
In the midst of the media blitz about stoned driving, one might think that at least some outlets would note another story from a couple weeks ago, “Massachusetts banned from using [alcohol] Breathalyzer test pending reforms at state police agency.”
GROSS POINTS BLANK: BOSTON’S TOP COP SHOULD THINK TWICE BEFORE BASHING THE ACLU
BPD Commissioner William Gross has had a bad few days. Last week, ACLU Massachusetts sued the city of Boston for using “a system—nicknamed the ‘gang packet’—which awards points for choice of clothes and social media selfies, and [is] used to designate ...
CAUGHT ON CAM-SHARE: BPD SEEKS ACCESS TO PRIVATE SECURITY CAMERAS, EXPERIMENTS WITH NEW SURVEILLANCE NETWORK
For now, the BPD wants to help officers more quickly locate and access footage. However, if the program expands beyond its small introduction—about 13 locations, according to BPD records—it could develop into a centralized surveillance network.
WHAT PEOPLE (DON’T) TALK ABOUT WHEN THEY TALK ABOUT POLICE IN BOSTON
Of course not all cops are bad. But the fact that people feel like they have to begin all condemnations of corrupt police with that preamble is a testament to just how many rotten law enforcement officers there are, and to the way that many of them take out their aggression on those who point out the obvious, all evidence of their atrocities be damned.
CAPE FEAR: SHERIFF SIDES WITH TRUMP AND ICE, AGAINST CONSTITUENTS AND IMMIGRANTS
As the debate over immigration increases in urgency, the Massachusetts sheriff and his department are about to enter into a cooperation agreement with ICE, which would operationalize local forces to assist Trump’s regime in deporting undocumented people on the Cape.
THEY PEPPER-SPRAYED A 10-YR-OLD
The still-anonymous officer is alleged to have “pushed his finger into” a journalist’s rectum and otherwise assaulted him as the arrests were being processed.
