Brookline’s Race Problem (2).
By Jim Conley • Apr 6th, 2008 • Email This Post to a Friend •
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We’re fast approaching the one year anniversary of the May 24, 2007 Brawl at Town Hall, and we’re no further ahead in addressing civil rights in Brookline than we were the day police tried to charge Arthur Conquest with assault, of the verbal variety.
Why so?
It’s simple. Because for once, the victim of racial discrimination, a black man is out front on the issue. And the white posers (at Brookline PAX, in the MCLU and various other organizations) can’t see what’s in it for them. See, only they get to talk about race in Brookline. Only they get to decide the content and extent of the controversy. And only they get to decide how the victims of racial discrimination ought to comport themselves.
Remember Selectmen’s Chair Nancy Daly’s “White Person’s Symposium on Race”? It didn’t happen, for the obvious reasons. What’s instructive, though, is that four white men thought they could lead a discussion on healing racial tensions in Brookline. All four of these whiteys serve in town government*, and they never saw an issue with the racial makeup of the team. Jaysis.
Now, there’s a resolution pending ( Article 31 for the May Town Meeting) to send the Conquest matter to the selectmen’s Potemkin Police Complaint Policy Review Committee. Good idea. Wrong panel.
I’ve been to this group’s meetings and some members are well-intentioned, while others are downright contemptuous. Attorney Douglas Louison is there to shill for the police. And PAX Co-chair Martin Rosenthal is on board to justify the ridiculous proposition that the Brookline selectmen should be the final arbiters of citizen complaints.
Only in Brookline would civil libertarians want to make an appeal process (often involving race) political. I mean after all, an independent review panel would include black members. And we don’t see many black selectmen, now do we?
* The four whiteys that were scheduled to lead the symposium were: Brookline Police Chief Daniel O’Leary, Schools Superintendent Bill Lupini, Human Relations Director Steven Bressler and Town Meeting Member Martin Rosenthal.
Jim Conley is publisher of On Brookline.
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GOTCHA! BY THE WHEREASES!
Wow! What a powerful Resolution! It reads like the “J’ACCUSE” of BU’s presentation on discrimination at the ground floor of the Fuller Building (Comm. Ave. and Essex St.). This is Brookline’s Dreyfus Affair.
Whether this Warrant Article passes or not, it will serve as a permanent record of a stain upon Brookline’s claim as a diverse community. No symposium can whitewash this.