inside this week
Grievances aired at meeting on Bartlett Place school pg 3
A&E
business news
GABRIELLE MCCLINTON STARS IN THE TONY AWARD-WINNING MUSICAL ‘PIPPIN’ AT THE BOSTON OPERA HOUSE pg 15
SBA officer looks to expand lending to local small businesses pg 11
plus ‘Disgraced’ on stage at Huntington Theatre pg 16 Thursday, January 28, 2016 • FREE • GREATER BOSTON’S URBAN NEWS SOURCE SINCE 1965 • CELEBRATING 50 YEARS
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Are Hub cops violating rights? FIO data suggests pattern of unconstitutional stops, searches By YAWU MILLER
A cold winter afternoon in 2010 started off like any other. Modesto Sanchez and a group of 14 friends set off to go ice skating at the Kelly Rink in Jamaica Plain. Walking along Amory Street, the group was stopped by four police cruisers. None had engaged in suspicious or illegal activity before or during the walk, Sanchez says. “We were just walking down the street, enjoying ourselves,” he recalls. “They put all 14 of us against a wall.” Sanchez and his friends were searched. “They searched all of us,” he says. “They went through my front and back pockets. Three kids got arrested because they had weed on them.” While the teens who had marijuana were in violation of the law, so too were the officers who searched them without probable cause. In a scenario that teens and youth workers say is all-toocommon, Boston teens are routinely stopped and searched by police despite having committed no crimes. Under U.S. law, police officers cannot search people or their property unless they have probable cause for arrest — a standard that requires police to have sufficient evidence that a crime has been committed. The standard, which is based on the Fourth Amendment’s guarantee of protection against illegal search and
BY THE NUMBERS
149,545 3,533 34,375 58 22.8
Number of entries in FIO database
Number of “reasonable suspicion” searches
Number of stops, frisks, searches justified solely by “Investigate, person” Percentage of persons investigated identified as “black” Percentage of persons investigated identified as “white”
BANNER PHOTO
Demonstrators held a picket line in front of Symphony Hall, protesting predicted BPS budget cuts.
seizure, is meant to protect U.S. residents from dragnet investigations. The amendment has its roots in the 18th century, when British soldiers ransacked the homes of American colonists suspected of harboring seditious literature without first obtaining a warrant. While a police officer can lawfully stop and question a person if he or she has reasonable suspicion that individual has committed a crime, that standard is lower than probable cause. The standard for a frisk is “reasonable suspicion” that a suspect is armed and dangerous. Even under that standard, an officer cannot search the individual, their property or vehicle without their consent. But according to electronic entries in the department’s Field Intelligence Observation Record database, illegal nonconsensual searches are not uncommon.
See FIO DATABASE, page 8
Mayor outlines plans for Boston’s schools
Highlights unified enrollment, early education By JULE PATTISON-GORDON & YAWU MILLER
More than 125 Boston Public School parents, teachers, students and activists protested predicted budget cuts to Boston Public Schools last week, maintaining a picket line as guests lined up for Mayor Martin Walsh’s second State of the City address held at Symphony Hall. Inside, Walsh prepared to set forth his commitment to a number
of policies, some of which the outside demonstrators denounced, including a unified enrollment system that would automatically sign parents up for charter and district schools. Walsh did draw some positive attention for his pledge to sufficiently fund BPS.
Outcry and hope over BPS budgets
Mary Lewis-Pierce, parent advocate and special education attorney who led the protest, said
its goal was to pressure Walsh into prioritizing BPS funding. Spurred by the mayor’s announcement last week of $50 million in cuts to Boston schools, a coalition of parent and student groups converged for the demonstration, including the Boston Education Justice Initiative, Citizens for Public Schools, the Citywide Parent Council, Quality Education for Every Student and Youth
See EDUCATION, page 21
Advocates debate millionaire tax Funds would go to transportation, education By SANDRA LARSON
PHOTO: SANDRA LARSON
Rodney Mohammed, a Brockton health care worker and parent of two young children, testifies at the Massachusetts State House Jan. 19 in support of a proposed state constitutional amendment to add a 4 percent tax on income over $1 million. The new revenue would support education and transportation initiatives.
Supporters and opponents testified at the State House last week on a proposed constitutional amendment that would impose an extra 4 percent state tax on annual income over $1 million in order to generate funds for public education and transportation projects. Initiated by the Raise Up Massachusetts coalition and predicted to generate approximately $1.9 billion in new revenue, the amendment
could go before voters in 2018. “The Fair Share Amendment would provide essential revenue to make much-needed investments across all levels of public education and enhance our transportation infrastructure,” testified Barbara Madeloni, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, at a three-hour hearing of the Joint Committee on Revenue. “In recent years, we’ve seen the divide between rich and poor grow to historic levels,” Madeloni said. “... We think it is fair to ask those who
have reaped the biggest rewards from our economy to pay a fair share toward reversing barriers to success for Massachusetts families.” Other supporters testifying included transportation advocates, teachers, parents, senior citizen advocates, clergy and experts on economics and budget policy. Opposition was voiced primarily by representatives of business and tax watchdog groups. Eileen McAnneny, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, argued that an
See FAIR SHARE, page 10