AN AVOIDABLE TRAGEDY
Before any study was completed, there was enough information floating around to lead anybody with an inquiring mind to conclude that the blame for the COVID deaths of 77 Holyoke Soldiers Home residents went right to the top.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not so naïve as to not realize that Bennett Walsh and others upon whom all the blame was heaped were completely without blame. But that blame was shared by higher ups who were much more responsible than those few below, like Bennett, who are currently suffering the career and legal consequences while the higher ups go unscathed.
The Boston Sunday Globe (May 23, 2021) devoted most of five full pages to a report by the legislative oversight committee whose investigation and report went far beyond the report of the lawyer retained by the governor for an earlier investigation that the legislators correctly concluded was incomplete and, in some cases, simply erroneous. Although the legislative report presented a very unflattering view of Walsh that won’t be helpful to him in future efforts at employment, it also made it clear, by the extensive and detailed legislative investigation, that Walsh’s hire by the governor was purely political and that he and his Health and Human Services Secretary, Marylou Sudders, were not blind to Walsh’s shortcomings when they hired him. (The Globe article paints an interesting picture of Springfield’s political landscape that is must reading.) But, more significantly, the report affirmed Walsh’s early request for help after only a few deaths and the much delayed response of Sudders and Baker that caused Soldiers Home deaths to soar.
If you choose to read the Boston Sunday Globe article, you will probably walk away from it with my same summary conclusions: State and local politics leave much to be desired. And there is no way in which Walsh and his medical director, Dr. David Clinton, can be convicted of a crime unless the Governor and Sudders are joined as defendants and even then, Walsh and Clinton would most likely be acquitted. (Full disclosure: I voted for Governor Baker twice.)

BEING BLACK ISN’T EXHAUSTING. RACISM IS EXHAUSTING.
In her above-titled Sunday Boston Globe article (April 22, 2021), one of my favorite columnists, Renee Graham, wrote: “I’m exhausted by white people who say “I’m not racist” or “I don’t see race,” then walk away convinced that they’ve done the hard work of undoing the systemic racism from which they benefit whether or not they recognize it. I’m exhausted when state legislatures pass laws to intimidate protesters or codify voter suppression to deprive Black people of their constitutional rights.
Exhaustion is the dread that tightens in your chest even though Derek Chauvin was convicted for murdering George Floyd in Minneapolis last May. You know that verdict won’t deter the next cop, the next neighborhood vigilante, the next person who calls police because they saw a Black person’s existence as a danger to be eliminated.
Being Black isn’t exhausting. Racism is exhausting.”

NOW THAT TRUMP AND BARR ARE GONE…
As you probably have heard, a federal grand jury indicted the four cops involved in the murder of George Floyd before Derek Chauvin has even been sentenced for his state conviction for snuffing out Floyd’s life with his knee. The federal grand jury also indicted Chauvin’s three police accomplices who haven’t even yet gone on trial for their state charges. They were all charged with violating Floyd’s constitutional rights by depriving Floyd of his rights while acting under government authority. A count against Chauvin alleges he violated Floyd’s right to be free from unreasonable seizure and from unreasonable force by a police officer. Officers Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao are charged with violating Floyd’s right to be free from unreasonable seizure by not intervening to stop Chauvin as he knelt on Floyd’s neck while all four were charged for their failure to provide Floyd with medical care. It is nice to know that our federal justice department is back in action and equally as pleasant to know that justice has a backup when state laws let bad cops go free.

SUFFOLK COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY RACHAEL ROLLINS IS RIGHT In a Boston Globe article written by Marilyn J. Mosby and Rachael Rollins (May 18, 2021), the two described the “public safety benefits of not prosecuting low-level crimes” by relating what happened in Baltimore and Boston. They wrote of Baltimore: “Last year the Baltimore state’s attorney’s office announced it would stop prosecuting the crimes of drug possession, sex work, and other minor offenses. In the 12 months since the policy was implemented, the office has seen an 80 percent drop in drug arrests, an 18 percent reduction in the incarcerated population, and a 39 percent reduction in people entering the criminal legal system. As a result, the office recently made these policy changes permanent, and, in lieu of prosecution, the office partnered with local crisis response and sex work organizations to get people the help and support they deserve.”
They wrote of Boston: “In early 2019, the DA (Rollins) instructed her line prosecutors to presumptively divert, decline or dismiss 15 categories of minor, nonviolent misdemeanor offenses such as drug possession, trespassing, and disorderly conduct. The new policy stressed that the office’s limited resources were better focused on the violent, serious crimes plaguing poor Black and brown neighborhoods, and the county’s 1,300 unsolved homicides….Researchers (from the National Bureau of Economic Research) analyzed 67,500 cases handled by the Suffolk County DA’s office over a 17 year period and found that not prosecuting nonviolent misdemeanors reduces future involvement with the criminal legal system by 67 percent.”
The researchers concluded: “Both Boston and Baltimore have shown that new thinking on policing and prosecution better promotes public safety and protects poor and BIPOC from negative and potentially deadly interactions with law enforcement.”
We hope other law enforcement officials around the country learn from Baltimore and Boston and make similar adjustments.

BLACK, BROWN AND WHITE VIEWS OF THE JUSTICE SYSTEM
In response to the statement that “The justice system has racial biases built into its rules, procedures, and practices, 45% of White people agreed or strongly agreed, while 80 % of Black people and 63% of Hispanic people agreed or strongly agreed according to a nationwide survey commissioned by the American Bar Association.”

WASHINGTON STATE TAKES THE LEAD IN POLICE REFORM
According to an article in The Boston Globe (May 4, 2021), Washington State “signed one of the nation’s most ambitious packages of police accountability legislation…” As reported, “The dozen bills (Governor Jay) Inslee signed include outright bans on police use of chokeholds, neck restraints, and no-knock warrants such as the one that helped lead to (Breonna) Taylor’s killing in Louisville, KY….They require officers to intervene if their colleagues engage in excessive force – a demand inspired by the officers who stood by while Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin pressed a knee to (George) Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes…The bills also create an independent office to review the use of deadly force by police, make it easier to decertify police for bad acts, and require officers to use “reasonable care,” including exhausting de-escalation tactics, in carrying out their duties. The use of tear gas and car chases is restricted, and it will be easier to sue officers when they inflict injury.”

DOES LIZ CHENEY REALLY CARE ABOUT DEMOCRACY?
The above headline in Renee Graham’s recent Boston Sunday Globe article (May 16, 2021) reflects the thinking of many who wonder if Liz Cheney’s condemnation of Trump’s January 6th behavior extends to voter repression. Graham wrote: “If Cheney really cares about democracy, she should fight against the GOP’s aggressive voter suppression tactics. She can start with her home state. Governor Mark Gordon of Wyoming last month signed a new voter ID law requiring “acceptable identification” for in-person voting. State Representative Chuck Gray, the bill’s sponsor, called it a “necessary function … to provide our citizens with confidence that our elections are secure, fair, and valid.” There isn’t a lick of evidence that the last election was anything other than secure, fair, and valid. Of course, that’s not stopping the passage of so-called “election integrity” laws to make it harder to vote, especially in Black and brown communities. This year, new restrictive voting measures have passed in 11 states, and there are dozens more that GOP officials hope will ultimately wind up with a governor’s signature.”
As it turns out, Cheney must not have read Renee Graham’s article or she simply doesn’t agree with it as she recently declined to disagree with the Republican’s voter repression efforts in a CNN interview. ■