Unfortunately for him, however, writing a mass of tickets to cars parked near the State House may not prove to be the best way to protest possible cuts to a law that requires extra pay for police officers who go to college - he was suspended for two days and could face additional disciplinary action, the Herald reports.

The Massachusetts Appeals Court today threw out the conviction of a man police found with an illegal loaded gun, ruling police improperly went after him in his girlfriend's apartment building even though the pair raised suspicions when they barred the door in officers' face in an apparent escape bid.

The court ruled that two Boston officers investigating a Mission Hill break-in early on the morning of Sept. 2, 2006 didn't have sufficient cause to enter the building after they questioned the man as he and the woman walked along Darling Street to her residence at 30 Darling St.

According to the decision, the couple went inside the building as police looked at his Mass. ID card, then he went up the stairs while she stayed at the door.

The court ruled the man did not match the description given out by a police dispatcher for the break-in suspect and up until the point the two tried to leave, they did nothing to give police any reason to suspect they had just been involved in a crime. The court allowed as how people walking around Mission Hill at 5 a.m. could raise suspicions - as could the manner in which the pair left the officers and then locked the building door. But:

Nonetheless, the combination of those factors did not accumulate to a level of reasonable suspicion that the defendant had committed, was committing, or was about to commit, a crime. Nor did that combination equal a reasonable belief that the defendant was armed and dangerous.

Therefore, both the rush into the building and the pat frisk that revealed the gun, violated the man's constitutional rights, the court decided.

The ruling follows:

City Councilor Sam Yoon, who wants to replace Menino, says the city needs a better youth-violence prevention program to keep teens from getting gunned down on Boston streets. In a statement, Yoon says:

"I am heartbroken and angry at another teen shooting, and I know we can do better. We must have the political will to make youth violence prevention our top priority, or else we risk losing a generation of youth."

At budget hearings earlier this week, Yoon called on Police Commissioner Ed Davis to crack down on overtime in the police budget and use the saved money for violence prevention.

Yoon says the city needs "a clear protocol for how to respond in the hours and weeks after a homicide – the most critical time to intervene in retaliation."

Today's shooting comes a few days after another teen was murdered on Tonawanda Street.

Yoon's complete press release:

The Boston City Council holds a hearing Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. to consider the mayor's and police commissioner's plan to dismantle the Boston Police mounted unit. There's a rally beforehand on City Hall Plaza.

BPDNews is offline because of "the site owner reaching his/her bandwidth limit."

Maybe now would be a good time to consider moving the site to a server actually run by the city instead of some discount ISP? Surely somebody in the city IT department knows how to set up and manage a Web server, no?

In the meantime, there's always Boston Police District A-7, although they only cover East Boston.

Packy Connors, no less, the Herald reports, adding a top cop chalked it all up to "a personality conflict" between the lieutenant who ordered the underage-drinking sting and the lieutenant working a detail that night.

Like integrating it with the 911 center and using it as a sort of crowdsourcing intelligence resource, as Deputy Superintendent (and cyber-doyen) John Daley explains:

@Boston_Police.

The commissioner denies the rumor in a memo to Boston Police:

... This rumor is false. I am personally proud to have the opportunity to lead this extraordinary organization and I look forward to our future successes.

Boston Police let Andy know that while they are now monitoring followers on Twitter, if he really needs help, he should still contact them the old-fashioned way.

Check this out. It's how I know there was a crash, with injuries, involving an MBTA bus at Park and Washington streets in Dorchester and a fire at 30 Pleasant St., also in Dorchester, this afternoon.