The Boston Police Department continues to receive harsh criticism for getting caught off guard on July 2 when nearly 100 members of the Patriot Front marched through downtown streets and assaulted a Black artist.
In the eye of the storm is the Boston Regional Intelligence Center (BRIC), long denounced by activists for racist practices, according to a weekend report in the Boston Globe. Experts on policing and local activists told the newspaper that a bias toward focusing on Black gangs – while paying scant attention to white nationalist groups – is a key factor.
Here's some of the Globe’s reporting:
“Anticipating threats like the Patriot Front march is the whole reason institutions such as BRIC exist, according to Keith Taylor, a former sergeant in the New York City Police Department who now teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “’It’s a big problem when law enforcement is not aware of an oncoming threat to the citizens of the jurisdiction they’re responsible for,’ he said.
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“BRIC’s database of gang members is overwhelmingly people of color, suggesting law enforcement has made limited inroads into white gang activity. As of late July, whites account for 10.5 percent of entries into the database, according to Boston police, although some may be white and Hispanic. More than 86 percent of those listed are Black.
“On the day of the Patriot Front march, police records obtained by the Globe show that the proportions weren’t much different. Boston police reported field interrogations and observations of 46 people: 69 percent were Black. Of the 11 people identified as white in the FIOs, eight were said to be of “Hispanic origin.” Not a single “field observation and interrogation” was issued on July 2 against a member of the Patriot Front, the Globe reported.
“It’s not surprising that an institution that has shown us time and time again that they have a problem with racism is of course not going to pay attention to white supremacy in this way,” Fatema Ahmad, executive director of the Boston-based Muslim Justice League, told the Globe.
The apparent inaction to respond to the white supremacist group was likely to increase anger over an incident at the march, as reported by the Bay State Banner, a Black newspaper in the Boston area.
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“Marchers in masks, khakis and polos with the insignia for the white supremacist group Patriot Front, made their way through the streets of the city before several assaulted artist and activist Charles Murrell III who has stated to media outlets that he confronted the group. Murrell, a Black man, appears in a widely circulated Associated Press photo being pushed by metal shields by group members.
“There was at least one witness to the attack who called 911 and noted a lack of response by the operator, and a noticeable lack of police on-scene. Law enforcement has since claimed they were “caught off guard” by the group’s action.”
That has drawn strong rebukes from city officials, including Councilor Ricardo Arroyo.
“Patriot Front is a domestic terrorist, white supremacist organization. Three weeks ago, you had one of those founding members of their organization arrested in Idaho,” Arroyo said, alluding to the arrest of dozens of Patriot Front members for a conspiracy to riot at a Pride festival in Coeur d’Alene in June. “We’re being told that we had zero intelligence on that?’”
You can get more perspective about the July 2 march in an interview with activists by Amy Goodman of Democracy Now as reported at Raw Story.
