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Rubber Boston Police Baby Buggy Bumpers
By Brett on Wed, 08/13/2008 - 12:00pm
Reckless driving bounces off them, sticks to you. Boston area press have failed to follow up on a Boston Police officer striking a baby carriage in Jamaica Plain, in a crosswalk, during First Thursday. BPD's strategy: refuse to disclose anyone's names, blame the mother for walking in front of the cruiser, stonewall, and hope everyone forgets about it. The E-13 Captain's Message rings a little hollow at the moment.
So, Mission Accomplished. It's been almost a full week, and The Globe, WCVB, WBZ, and the blogging community have all moved on to the next Shiny Thing. None of the press had the brass to grill BPD Media Relations about their questionable-at-best reporting of the severity of the collision. They can't even be bothered to follow up in any form, now that BPD can't hide behind the "under investigation" excuse. We still don't know the name of the officer, and whether he was reprimanded or issued a citation. Well, we know what's really deserving of reporter's attentions. In the Globe's defense, they had the most comprehensive story, being the only ones to bother to speak to a witness. Speaking of witnesses- this happened during First Thursday. So where are the first-hand accounts? C'mon, folks! Step forward!
Also, where is Mr. John "Slow DOWN Boston" Tobin in all of this?
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Comments
Accountability and integrity
Great post Brett. Thank you.
Accountability and integrity are the two most important factors in keeping the public trust. That trust is essential when it comes to our police force. Neither Menino nor Davis have demonstrated these characteristics in many of a series of recent events. Instead of working to maintain the public trust, they choose to curry the favor of the organizations they lead at the expense of the public trust.
What's with all the fish around here lately?
Well, we know what's really deserving of reporter's attentions.
What kind of a red herring is that!? You're going to bash the Globe for not following up (it's only been 4 days..) on a story by pointing to its RESTAURANT CRITIC for having covered a story on the import of jamon iberico de bellota (the kobe beef of hams)??
Are you f'in kidding me??
Any news from the BPD
on the David Woodman investigation?
it's a comparison of effort
...look at the in-depth reporting that we get from our restaurant critics about some rich guy in Wayland buying a ham from Spain...compared to what happens when there's a major incident in a BOSTON community.
Why do we get such comprehensive coverage on a food story, but not about actual, real, honest to god community news in the Globe's back yard?
Also, it's Wednesday, and the baby was hit last Thursday. Unless I'm missing something- it's been 6 days, plenty of time for BPD to have finished its report, decided on action against the officer, and for the Globe to have covered all of this.
Are you sure?
The baby was hit on Thursday. The Globe covered it with a story on Saturday, the 9th. It has been 4 days since it was in the paper (the very thing you are decrying, which is why the 6 days since the incident is not as relevant to your complaint about the paper which is what I initially addressed). The earliest it was covered seems to be WBZ's story nearly 24 hours after it happened (i.e. not "Live, Local, Late-breaking" on the 11 PM news Thursday). Based on the lack of immediacy given to the story by the press when the story actually happened, I'm guessing that the police report may be more accurate than you're giving it. The witness statement may be a tad more hyperbole than reality. We don't know since it seems that this didn't raise *any* red flags with the news when it actually happened (which sorta speaks to it being more like the police report than the witness statement). The mother (still unnamed to the public) hasn't made a press statement to make it known that this injustice was brought upon her child...or even who she is. The police didn't give the Globe the name of the driver, the mother, nor the child.
I don't recall which side of the drunken news director fiasco at the airport that you were on, but this may be yet another case of the police report being accurate and those involved trumping it up a bit to make it sensational (and you bit on it). I don't think it'd be the first time a cop was involved in a minor accident and some in the community started acting like he went on a crazed rampage instead.
I'm not defending the cop in this case (because we don't know what happened yet), but I'm pointing out that you, on the other hand, have already assigned yourself judge and jury on something where the facts were already stale before *any* of them were even known. You talk as if reporters can just magically find these things out and put them in the paper, but they've been given less than nothing to go on...36-48 hours after it happened.
My point is to ask you: "what if it happened as the police described in his report and the witness is unreliable"? What would the police investigation, response, press reporting, etc. look like in that reality? A bit like what you're describing now that has upset you since you feel that it went down differently on Thursday?
Last Thursday
The incident in question did indeed happen last Thursday. I was coming out of a restaurant on Centre Street and saw the flashing blue lights at the intersection in front of the Purple Cactus. I then opted not to take that route home.
I'm not pointing fingers at anyone. Everyone has a right to question how media decisions are made. However, I feel that sometimes people who have never worked in media find it very easy to criticize the media without having a working understanding of how decisions are made regarding what makes it into a newscast or newspaper.
how long should the investigation take?
It's been five days since this was published by the Globe.
We don't know if the Globe or Herald have followed up but we do know that if they have followed up, BPD has had nothing to report.
Isn't that the point... that BPD has had nothing to report? It's not a complex situation. Officer drives cruiser around corner and hits baby carriage knocking baby to the ground and carriage ass over tea kettle.
You'd think the press would ask some questions like, why is the investigation taking 5 days? When will you have a statement? If not then, we're going to report the BPD is dragging it's feet.
I was there
running around Centre Street for First Thursday. I must have arrived at the corner (where City Feed is) just moments after it happened, because a woman holding a toddler was sitting in the not-yet-open-for-business City Feed crying. I don't know who she was. Everyone was standing around looking concerned. But that was all I saw.
Huh?
I'm a little confused. This happened a little after 7:30 PM in the evening on Thursday. How was City Feed "not yet open"?
Do you happen to remember where the cop and his cruiser were at?
city feed JUST opened a Centre street location
It's sparkly new, and substantially larger than their location near Stony Brook on Boylston.
From what I saw when I was there 2-3 days ago, there were people milling about, a ton of staff that looked kinda 'buddied up' in pairs, possibly with old staff hauled back to help train...and a lot of shelves being stocked. If they weren't open to the public, they were probably stocking, noticed something going on, and let the mom and kid in.
The new store is looking pretty good- the competition for both quick prepared food and market stuff will be well appreciated, as JP has a lot of sit-down, but not much on-the-run stuff save so-so Chinese, Real Deal (brand new) and pizza. Harvest is the only place with decent produce for miles, so they had no incentive. The added space will help with the old City Feed's problem, which was that it had too eclectic a selection. They don't have quite as much space as Harvest, but they're in the same league now.
Harvest shouldn't be trembling in their boots, but hopefully it will give them incentive to continue improvements; about the only thing they have going for themselves is a larger space, and slightly easier parking. City Feed is definitely going to cut into their customer base...
setting Kaz straight on City Feed
now that you set Kaz straight on City Feed, do you want to take another shot on the topic at hand... or would we all be better off letting sleeping dogs lie?
Okay
I don't get through that area very often. I had read a while back (a blog/website in fall '07?) that they were going to move to a corner on Centre St. I had assumed they would have happened by now, which is what confused me. I see now that Rhea was talking about it not yet being opened "for business" as opposed to their store hours for the day.
I'm still hoping to hear if she saw the cruiser and officer when she passed by.
New shop
Cityfeed opened this past Monday. Thursday they had a partial opening where people could wander in and see the place but not buy anything.
There were several police cars and a bunch of commotion. I was there on Thursday at around 7:30 as well.
Been wondering as well.
When faced with this type of incident, I always have to assume the following perspective: what would Menino, Tobin, Consalvo etc. be saying if this was "some young punk" (without a badge) who had hit the baby? I can almost hear their pontifications now: calling for jail time, prosecution to the fullest extent of the law, and all the rest of it. "She was in the crosswalk...the infant was struck with such force that he fell out of the carriage..this is an outrage of recklessness" and so on ad nauseam. I can imagine Menino talking about raising the driving age or stiffening penalties for not stopping for pedestrians in a crosswalk.
But all we're actually hearing from Menino now, because it was a cop, is deafening silence.
The case of the "bodybuilding fireman" got about forty times more attention than this, despite the fact that Mr. Arroyo- a fire inspector- committing disability fraud is nowhere near as important as the issue of police officers driving recklessly (see McNally)- public safety officers actually endangering the public safety. In my humble opinion.
another case forgotten
...I had completely forgotten about McNally. I suspect if you talked to the Boston public, they wouldn't remember the crash even happened. Here's a better link to a story about the crash- it shows the sheer severity, and also names the cop that did it to her:
http://wbztv.com/local/Ann.Marie.McNally.2.772656....
A clean bill with the full backing of BPD, and not even so much as a slap, despite the fact that the State Police placed full blame on the incident on him in their investigation:
boston.com...no_charges_in_a_deadly_cruiser_crash/
It's interesting to examine the justification for the risks the officer took, and the direct result. Also:
At the same time, Conley told Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis in a five-page letter that the death of Ann-Marie McNally should lead to changes in how the department trains its officers - including the driver involved in the crash, Officer Jesse Stots - to drive during emergencies.
Who says it was forgotten?
You may not like the outcome, but there certainly was a detailed investigation into the accident - and as I'm sure you're aware, the DA basically said McNally was completely not at fault, but there wasn't anything he could do because of case law involving police officers responding to emergencies.
It is forgotten IF
there is not any further done to improve intersection sight lines, signalling, implement training recommendations, etc.
MA and Boston are far too willing to throw up their hands and say "couldn't be helped" and go no further when it maybe could not be helped, but could be prevented from recurring if some changes were made.
My father used to take pictures of all the "dangerous intersection" signs for the OR state lawyers that used to depose him as an expert witness. They framed them and hung them in their offices because they thought they were highly amusing in their blatant declaration of culpability and denial of responsibility.
If you saw something, say something to a Globe reporter
David Abel, who wrote the initial Globe story about the accident, writes he wants to do a follow-up:
[email protected]