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White Roslindale man charged with harassing Black neighbors

The state Attorney General's office reports it's filed a civil-rights lawsuit against a Roslindale man it says spent several months harassing eight Black people living in rental units next to his property.

John Carey now faces a possible injunction ordering him to knock it off, should a judge side with the state on the civil-rights complaint. He faces a hearing in Suffolk Superior Court on Sept. 9 on the state's request for a preliminary injunction.

According to the Attorney General's office:

The attacks allegedly included calling the residents racist epithets, taunting them, trespassing onto their yard, recording their activities with cameras, calling the police on them, calling inspectional services about the properties they live on, and, overall, making it increasingly difficult for them to live their daily lives in peace.

The AG’s Office alleges that in May 2020, Carey harassed two of the residents from his backyard by giving them the middle finger, shouting racist profanities at them, and holding up a bunch of bananas and jumping up and down, which the residents understood to be a “racist suggestion that they were monkeys.” On another occasion in May, the AG’s Office alleges that Carey harassed one of the residents by yelling racist and inflammatory statements at the resident, including calling the resident a “gangster” and telling him to drop the gun and to stop threatening Carey’s family. The resident did not have any weapon and never threatened Carey.

Carey has yet to respond to the suit, only filed last week.

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Comments

I was born and raised here. We’ve been dealing with this for decades. They will never ever take our side. It’s part of being Black in America.

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The Attorney General’s Office?

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Your feigned ignorance is showing

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The pronoun is very vague. If "they" is Boston or Massachusetts, then way did the AGO file the suit on the behalf of the family? If "they" is the racist next door neighbor, sure, I see it. Maybe it meant to represent a different group.

Conversely, JuniorCV can speak for himself and say who "they" are. He can clarify, and we can go from there. Of course, if it is so obvious, feel free to speak for him.

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This rose to the AG level. None of the others in his social circle or neighborhood condemned it, just ignored it.

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How do you know who did or didn't condemn it?

If you lived near someone like this, who sounds dangerous, would you get directly involved? I think I'd call the AG instead.

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Your first comment seems to say that since the AG filed this suit, Junior can't say that no one will take the side of black people living with racism. You tend to obsess about trees, ignoring the forest fire. Why does the AG need to protect this family? What about the neighbors and Boston Police? What would you do if this was happening across the street? Because it is happening in every neighborhood. I think I can understand why Junior feels alone.

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That was a good answer.

Obviously, my contention is that the move by the AGO’s office is a sign that “they” will in fact take the side of black folk, but if the “they” is a macro thing of Americans in general, I could see the point. That said, we are putting words in Junior’s mouth either way, hence the request for clarification.

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Why is it bad that it's the attorney general rather than police trying to stop this? I thought we're trying to shift governmental services away from the police and into other agencies.

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n/t

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But perhaps when he wrote "they" he actually meant you.

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You are "they".

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We can't let people do this to their neighbors.

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I don't understand why he isn't being charged with a crime?

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Neighbor is clearly a jerk, but jerkiness isn't a crime. I am not a lawyer, but if there's any crime that can be charged, the standard "beyond a reasonable doubt" still needs to be proven.

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Harassment is a crime. Trespassing is a crime. Claiming a Black person has a gun and is threatening can lead to them being murdered by cops, which should definitely be illegal.

Also... This guy isn’t being a jerk, he’s being a vicious racist.

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If, however, the 8 black families are constantly being harassed by Carey, and it includes racial slurs, damage to property and general intimidation of them, then the harasser definitely should be charged with both a criminal act and a civil rights violation.

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