Somerville police reforms clear Senate, head to House
A law from 2004 allowing the Somerville police to seize property without charging that a crime had occurred and to designate sections of the city as prone to gang loitering moved closer to repeal on Monday.
The law was adopted after a wheelchair-bound girl was raped at Foss Park by members of the ruthless MS-13 gang in 2002. The gang, a target of former U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling, have been called “vicious and cruel” in sentencing documents as they have been jailed in recent months.
But Somerville’s law, state Sen. Pat Jehlen, D2nd Middlesex District, said, “has never been used.”
“This is moving in the direction I would like to see,” Somerville City Councilor Willie Burnley Jr., told the Herald after the state Senate’s informal morning session when the body sent S.1596, a bill which would repeal Section 327 of the Acts of 2004, to the House for consideration.
Section 327, an Act Relative to Public Safety in Somerville, would be entirely stricken if the bill passes the House and Gov. Charlie Baker signs it. The act seeking the law’s repeal came to the Legislature with the approval of the Somerville council and former Mayor Joe Curtatone.
According to Burnley, the city has been working to improve policing for years and eliminating the department’s ability to seize assets is just part that reform.
“When we talk about (asset forfeiture) there is a lot of fear-mongering, saying we’re leaving that money in the hands of the cartels,” he said.
“Well, New Mexico did away with that statewide just a few years ago. I don’t believe Breaking Bad is a documentary. That state still has law and order,” he said.
Burnley said a gang registry attached to the law is an antiquated tool without real oversight that also must go.