Video ‘lights fire for justice’
Many hope to have police reform bill passed this session
Police reform proponents hope video footage of Boston Police officers “bragging and celebrating” on the night George Floyd demonstrations turned violent this spring “lights the fire for justice” in the final push to pass reform legislation before the session ends.
But a Boston senator says first lawmakers need to clarify whether state or local oversight boards will have the ultimate authority in misconduct investigations.
“I hope it lights the fire for justice — to show that this is needed,” said The Rev. Bernadette Hickmanmaynard of Bethel African Methodist Church in Lynn. “This signals why we need to have reform and why we cannot continue to have police define the use of force of what’s necessary, appropriate and good for communities of color.”
“They were bragging and celebrating,” she said.
The videos, released in a report by The Appea l on Friday, prompted an internal investigation by Boston Police and another by Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins and has intensified the urgency of proponents to get a bill passed this session.
The Boston Police Patrolman’s Association in a statement Saturday criticized the video release as “contextually deficient video snippets,” that did not portray the dangers officers faced that night.
Gov. Charlie Baker returned a compromise police reform bill to lawmakers last week with amendments that would allow police use of facial recognition technology in certain circumstances and would take police training authority away from the civilian-led Peace Officer Standards and Training commission.
Rep. Russell Holmes, Dboston — who heads the state’s Black and Latino Legislative Caucus and helped draft the initial bill — said he’s “pushing back” but underscored the importance of signing a bill this month.
Baker has threatened a veto and if that happens it’s unclear if the House has the numbers to override it.
“We want to send him back a bill that he can sign. We’re not in place where we can play chicken with the governor,” Holmes said, noting the caucus’s “core priorities” including a licensing system for certifying and decertifying officers is intact.
The Senate is expected to vote on the governor’s amendments on Monday. The bill will then move to the House.
Before that happens, Sen. Nick Collins, D-south Boston, said he plans to file an amendment that would determine what authority has “primary jurisdiction” in instances where municipalities set up local oversight boards — as Boston did last week.
Collins’ amendment would keep officer investigations under local control “unless otherwise determined by the Massachusetts Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission,” according to draft language provided to the Herald. That commission would retain authority on certification, decertification and discipline.
Boston Police Detective Larry Ellison, of the Massachusetts Association of Minority Law Enforcement, said the city doesn’t “need the redundancy” of having two identical investigations carried out simultaneously by nearly identical oversight boards.