OPPONENT: ROLLINS’ ‘CRAZY’ PLAN COULD BE ‘DANGEROUS’
Retail group, DA criticize decline to prosecute’idea
Suffolk District Attorney candidate Mike Maloney said his opponent’s “decline to prosecute” list of 15 crimes she won’t touch is “crazy” and could prove to be “dangerous for the community.”
He said Democrat Rachael Rollins’ hands-off list of offenses fails to take into account the victims of those crimes.
“If a person is harming the community then that person needs to be held accountable,” said Maloney, an Independent facing Rollins in the Nov. 6 general election. He also challenged her to a debate.
Maloney said he is “extremely concerned” with the list and that “some cases merit incarceration.”
“I think it would be dangerous for the community to incorporate blanket statements — it’s reckless,” he told the Herald yesterday.
Rollins, who beat four candidates in the Democratic primary for DA, lists 15 criminal offenses on her campaign website that she says she won’t prosecute if elected — including resisting arrest, drug dealing, larceny under $250, shoplifting, disorderly conduct and trespassing, as the Herald first reported yesterday.
The Massachusetts Retail Association also lashed out at Rollins’ list of offenses saying it could backfire on consumers.
“You’re taking away from the store owner the ability to protect themselves,” said Ryan Kearney, general council at the association, adding retailers in the state lost an estimated $1 billion in stolen merchandise last year.
“It has to be paid for somehow,” he added.
Rollins did not respond to mul-
tiple requests for comment yesterday. She said, in part, Thursday she is proposing “tailored solutions — including restorative justice practices — that best serve everyone and truly make our communities safer.” She added on Fox News this week: “I believe that we are spending too much time on petty crimes that are clogging up our system and costing us more money.”
Boston police Commissioner William G. Gross expects to speak with Rollins about her decline-to-prosecute list early next week, according to a department spokesman.
Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey, head of the state’s DA association, said victims come first.
“We are mindful that convictions can have a drastic impact on employment, educational opportunities and even military service for many young people — but criminal behavior can have a drastic impact on the citizens who have been made victim through no fault of their own,” Morrissey said.
Retired professor George L. Kelling, co-author of the “broken windows” theory of community policing, an idea that cracking down on minor offenses prevents major crimes, questioned the would-be DA’s approach.
“The goal of the broken windows theory was to strengthen communities,” he said, including not leaving eyesores in plain sight. “It’s not about prosecution. It never advocated arrests. But at times, one has to prosecute and with repeat offenders, it’s probably a good idea.”
Mayor Martin J. Walsh did not join in the criticism of the candidate’s list.
“I think we just have to give her an opportunity to pull together her team before she moves forward,” Walsh said.
Maloney, a defense attorney, said he plans on meeting with police and going door-to-door in Suffolk County leading up the election.
“The job of the DA is to protect the community,” he said, “and incarceration is a necessary component to fulfill that duty.”