Rollins rolls over criticism by playing victim
Michael O’Keefe has a point.
O’Keefe is the veteran district attorney for the Cape and the Islands.
In May, he predicted that public safety and the quality of life in Suffolk County would deteriorate under the lenient “social justice” policies of newly elected Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins.
O’Keefe made his remarks in an unusual op-ed piece that ran May 28 in the progressive Boston Globe.
It was unusual because not only was O’Keefe critical of a law enforcement colleague — although he did not mention Rollins by name — but it ran in a paper that is generally sympathetic to Rollins, an African American.
The paper followed up with an extensive look (July 6) into Rollins’ practice of declining to prosecute a series of “low level” criminal offenses to stop the incarceration of “poor people and black and brown people.”
That well-documented story was researched and written by two of the paper’s top veteran reporters.
In it, the reporters showed that some of the “low level” defendants Rollins let walk after plea deals included, for example, a man who bashed a young woman’s head in while she was walking her dog at the Navy Yard in Charlestown, causing brain injury.
Rollins reduced the charge from a felony to a misdemeanor — despite a plea from the victim — because the man had no prior record and had an alleged mental disorder. The victim, meanwhile, suffers from vision and speech impairment, hearing loss, vertigo and other serious medical issues.
“I hear this victim is unhappy,” Rollins told the paper. “I own that.”
That is but one extreme example of criminals Rollins has let walk. She has listed 15 criminal violations that she will either downplay or drop. These include arrests for breaking and entering, drug possession and distribution, shoplifting, larceny, receiving stolen property and driving without a license.
While district attorneys routinely dismiss cases that do not warrant a trial — and a criminal record — Rollins is the only district attorney who has advertised the crimes she will not pursue in court. It is like an open invitation for criminals to pick up $250 in shoplifting while vacationing in Boston.
Rollins is also the first district attorney to claim to represent the criminal in court as well as the victim.
Meanwhile, there are shootings — let alone stabbings — almost every night in Boston and neither Rollins nor Boston police Commissioner William “the Hat” Gross appear able to do anything about them.
And Rollins, as angry an individual as you will find, plays the victim. She regularly seeks to shut down criticism by accusing critics of racism and sexism based on her being a woman of color.
Rollins is not the first black district attorney of Suffolk County. Ralph Martin was, from 1992 to 2002. Nor is she the first female district attorney. Martha Coakley was Middlesex County district attorney from 2000 to 2007.
Sometimes Rollins’ bluster and intimidation tactics about race and gender work, however, as it did with Gov. Charlie Baker. His administration backed off commenting on Rollins’ law enforcement approach after Rollins pulled out the race card.
It also worked against The Boston Globe following a guest appearance on the Jim & Marjorie WGBH radio show last week when Rollins accused the two Globe reporters of the July 6 investigative piece of being “rumor mongers” and of “Willie Hortonizing” the story.
Willie Horton was a black convict who committed a heinous crime while out on furlough under the Dukakis administration. The GOP used the racially charged incident against Michael Dukakis in the 1988 presidential campaign.
While the Globe ran an obscure WBUR story about one author not crediting another on tobacco regulation last Tuesday, it failed to run a story about Rollins’ heated and controversial remarks on race and gender made on WGBH the same day.
These included nasty remarks made against two reporters as well as the paper, which has treated Rollins with kid gloves.
In short, Rollins, flashing race and gender cards, intimidated the paper just as she intimidated Gov. Baker. Nobody wants to be called a racist, especially progressive Boston Globe editorial writers.
Despite running an office with 300 people and with the power to throw you in jail, Rollins continues to play the victim, claiming she would be treated with more deference if she were a white male district attorney.
“If I had male genitalia, I would be on the cover of Time Magazine right now,” she said.