Brookline’s Race Problem (3).
By Jim Conley • Apr 7th, 2008 • Email This Post to a Friend •
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As follow up to the post below, some question why an outside group (like a civil liberties union) would become involved in an incident where police handled themselves in a “rude and discourteous” manner. Except for the racial implications, this would seem to be one of many such cases across the Commonwealth.
But what happened in the lobby of Brookline Town Hall on May 24th is only half the story. It’s what happened after Arthur Conquest was released from police detention—and the next day—that ought to have civil libertarians quaking.
Based on the recommendation of the sergeant nephew to the complaining witness, Brookline Police sought an assault charge against Conquest. The initial incident report contains several false statements made by former ZBA member Lawrence Kaplan, which were vouched for by other sworn officers of town government. Not included in the report were the statements of several witnesses that had Kaplan as the aggressor.
Only because Conquest was in the courthouse that next day—on the advice of an attorney—was the case pulled from the charging docket.
Would that have happened to a white resident of Chestnut Hill? Not bloody likely. Why did it happen to Conquest? Let’s call it what it is — retribution for being uppity. Indeed, the Brookline police officer’s union wrote a TAB op-ed piece which essentially makes this point.
I suppose that the so-called protectors of civil liberties look at Brookline as a community whose progressive stripes make it beyond reproach. But the stripes are an illusion. Our progressive posers have too much invested in a local government that is ineffective in executing most every charge it has been given.
And if means an innocent gets charged every now and then, well that’s the price the rest of us have to pay for the charade.
Jim Conley is publisher of On Brookline.
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Might there be a potential conflict or clash if MCLU (local ACLU chapter) stepped in where PAX only belatedly came to Conquest’s support and even then apparently without Marty Rosenthal’s full (or even partial) endorsement? I would hope that MCLU’s not stepping in is not attributable to personalities and concern with ruffling their feathers. Lt. Burke’s report of October 10th makes it clear that racial overtones were involved not only with the May 24th incident but also with Lt. Burke’s investigation.
I have nothing clever to say, just that if paragraph three is all true, that’s pretty bad.