Hey, there! Log in / Register
Suffolk County elects a progressive as district attorney
By adamg on Tue, 11/06/2018 - 10:10pm
Rachael Rollins cruised to victory over Michael Maloney in the race to replace Dan Conley.
Her victory means that, for the first time, three top law-enforcement officials in Suffolk County - DA, sheriff and Boston police commissioner - are black.
Topics:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Rollins
A big win for criminals.
Nope
Do you really think the current DA prosecuted every low-level case that came into his office?
Is that you
Officer Pedrini?
Good Luck Rachael
Good bye Broken Windows, no more harassment of the homeless and young people of color with bs arrests for quality of life offenses like disorderly, trespassing and fare jumping.
She can’t stop the arrests
She can’t stop the arrests only the prosecutorial process.
Hopefully the BPD still do their jobs because everything you just mentioned is still ILLEGAL.
Yeah, cause quality of life is such a problem
Maybe you like the streets smelling like pee. The rest of us don't.
Cause the current system works so well?
How about instead of wasting money on jailing people for low-level crimes, we try using some of that money on treating said offenders and trying to break the cycle? You know, do something different instead of knocking our heads against the wall on a system that doesn't work and only traps people in an endless cycle of court costs/bail/debt or jail/low-work prospects/repeat.
If it doesn't help we can just go back to our current ineffective system.
Hey Doc, what "treatment"
Would you prescribe for driving with a suspended license, larceny and/or destruction of private property.
Also please provide your address, love love to come smash your car windows, seeing there no consequence.
Strawman
Well anon troll, if you smash my car windows, you'd pay restitution (plus I might extra-judicially punch you in the face.) Nobody said "no consequences."
"Treatment" for people addicted to drugs who are committing these low level crimes, along with restitution outside the mass-incarceration system to avoid the endless cycle of useless punishment
So your solution for a drug
So your solution for a drug addicted person who smashes your car window looking for change is to make them pay you back from their readily available income and then physically assault them?
That’s better than them getting arrested?
Think for a minute
No, Anon, I said I'd physically assault YOU, who under your proposal was smashing my windows to prove a point, not the person who needed help. Get it straight.
In which case am I more likely to get my deductible paid back: A) from someone sitting in a jail cell racking up debt who will never get a job, or B) from someone getting help in a treatment program with job placement whose paycheck could be docked?
If, instead, there's someone going around randomly smashing windows for fun to own the libs, the DA can prosecute and jail, but that's the not the typical situation, is it? Wait, are you calling yourself a drug-addled person? Is this a cry for help?
Broken Windows was a con
The sad part is that fixing actual broken windows does help. Good quality, well maintained infrastructure makes us safer. Clean well maintained parks, schools, libraries and public transportation reduces crime.
This theory was used to monetize the justice system. You are not really safe when the difference between jail and freedom is money. So many tough on crime programs spent our tax money locking people up to the point that prisoners are released early to make room. So now they build private prisons that are unsafe for prisoners and workers.
The justice system is not revenge. Increasing public safety requires that we keep learning and changing for the better. Take off the blinders to the fact that many countries have safe streets without mass incarceration.
Well Said!
n/t
That last sentence especially
That last sentence especially! And replace "safe streets" with "even safer streets."
Ha! Good luck getting your
Ha! Good luck getting your windows replaced if the defendant has no ability to pay restitution..see Commonwealth vs. Henry.
maybe people who commit crimes such as shoplifting and/or
vandalism should be made to pay some sort of restitution to the owner of the business and other property, such as residential property in question, such as doing a certain amount of community service to facilitate that.
Restitution is part of Rachel Rollins' platform!
https://rollins4da.com/policy/charges-to-be-declined/
Do people really think she's going to let people walk around and smash things without any sort of enforcement Escape from NY style? I mean, she does have to answer to voters, and presumably wants to get re-elected
Did I say that? Come on.
I also don't think that people who shoplift should get away with ripping off retail/wholesale businesses, either, because each time somebody does shoplift from given retail businesses, the businesses in question are forced to raise their prices, and when shoplifting occurs enough times, such businesses will be force to close, because nobody will want to buy from them anymore. The forced paying some sort of restitution to the owner of a business by shoplifters and/or vandals, through community service or whatever is the best way to go.
To the posters on this board who think that shoplifting is perfectly "normal", you just might want to think again.
If people who think it's the spirit of the holiday on Hallowe'en (or any other time, holiday or no holiday) to vandalize somebody's property, whether it's residential or commercial, they, too, should be forced to pay some sort of restitution to the property owner, as well.
In either instance, it has to be made clear to vandals and shoplifters that such things are totally unacceptable, and have consequences.
serious question
Do you actually think the district attorney has any influence in whether or not the streets smell like pee?
I’ll say this much about Dan Conley
He was potty trained.
Please
Absolutely. Being an asshole, ignoring other people's rights, and theft, are definitely quality of life issues.
Suldog
Agree on 2/3
But "Disorderly Conduct" is an intentionally vague tool/law that's thrown around as a catch-all to charge people with something. I'm of the opinion that it's extremely discretionary, but not extremely restricted in issuing charges.
What's the thinking here?
If the Mass GOP had simply fielded a candidate would the race have been more competitive?
Not at all
No, this was a strong Democratic candidate. Virtually impossible to beat in Suffolk County. Thousands of registered Democrats would have to vote for a Republican and that just doesn't happen in Suffolk County.
I'm thrilled that Rollins won
I'm thrilled that Rollins won but I just want to point out that this totally does happen in Suffolk County-- it literally did last night for Charlie Baker.
MA governor
Is an odd case in this Democratic city and state - along with the incumbent himself, who would be drummed out of the Republican party almost anywhere else outside New England so fast you'd swear he was never a member to begin with.
Baker
Baker is one of the biggest fundraisers for the Republican National Committee and for Senate he supported Diehl, who chaired Trump’s 2016 Massachusetts campaign. He was also a no show at the Women's March, the protest against Trumps executive order against immigration and a no show at the March for Our Lives. Baker is no moderate.
Are you sure?
I'm just talking about Suffolk county. Did Baker win Suffolk county or just lose by a little and romp in the rest of the state? If Baker did win Suffolk county then I stand partially corrected, but remember that Gonzalez was not a strong Democratic candidate, you missed that caveat in my comment so my "theory" that a strong democratic can't be beat by a Republican in Suffolk county still stands.
Just barely
He just barely won Suffolk county, but he lost in Boston so I don't know, toss up.
https://www.masslive.com/news/boston/index.ssf/2018/11/2018_massachusett...
Baker lost in Boston, look at
Baker lost in Boston, look at the election result map
He barely lost
And as someone else hinted at, this is not a Boston job, but a Suffolk County job. Baker made up ground in the other 3 municipalities.
Really?
Do you know who was DA before Conley? Care to hazard a guess which political party he was a member of?
different time
and also his democratic opponent probably wasn't a strong candidate.
My point being
If the candidate is good enough, a Republican could win in Boston. Maloney was not a strong candidate, nor was he a Republican.
In his prime, Ralph Martin could have been elected mayor of Boston. Most likely he could not have beaten Menino, which is why he never tried it (in addition to getting along with most politicians in the area overall.)
The MA GOP is the equivalent
The MA GOP is the equivalent of the Washington Generals or Boston Shamrocks to the MA DC's Harlem Globetrotters.
They can't even be bothered to run candidates to keep the majority of positions from being unopposed.
Part of the Independent Party's agenda in MA was to keep candidates from running unopposed. But they gave up before even getting started.
Really should be that there's an option to vote to leave a position vacant. Make it so that candidates needs at least 50% of the vote so that patronage candidates can't just cruise into office and a pension because no one bothered to run against them.
To be fair
Greg Henning was all but a Republican (in votes and donations) prior to his run for DA as a Democrat. Presumably because he knew that running as a Republican DA wouldn't fly here.
I read
That she's not going to prosecute larceny under $250. Now, I'd be more than happy to deal with that myself without the help of the state, but I don't get to have a handheld firearm.
So...do I need to petition the feds to start printing $251 bills?
That's not really how it works
People will still get arrested for larceny under $250 and they will still spend time in a cage until they post bail or are released. Also, the victim will still be made whole in some way. She will just stop using the courts time to deal with this in most cases. Obviously, if Frank steals $249 of stuff every Tuesday at noon, he will likely spend some time in a state prison for this pattern of theft.
A new crime bill passed a few
A new crime bill passed a few months ago. It’s now larceny under or over $1200, destruction of property under or over $1200... etc..
Don’t worry no one wants any
Don’t worry no one wants any of your crap
What makes me uneasy about Rollins' policy
Is the order she communicates it.
I think I agree with her intent. People should not be saddled their entire lives for a couple of minor crimes.
However, her list of crimes she won't prosecute by default comes first. Then in the fine print, she mentions she may seek restitution, or actually prosecute for extreme cases.
If I'm the victim of shoplifting, or assault, or even tresspass, I'd feel alot better if my concerns came first, and the criminal's concerns came second. At least in the rhetoric, she explicitly says the opposite.
Agreed
The framing on her website could be improved.
If I'm the victim of
If I'm the victim of shoplifting, or assault, or even tresspass, I'd feel alot better if my concerns came first, and the criminal's concerns came second. At least in the rhetoric, she explicitly says the opposite.
Eh, I'm not so sure. Seeing someone locked up for life (or some unreasonably long time) is not going to make me feel any better about having been robbed. And if it means some 15 year old kid is going to have his life ruined by spending many years in jail and being unable to get a job because of his criminal record, that would actually make me feel worse. What I want is something that's going to mean fewer people considering robbing me in the first place. The current "tough love" system costs us a lot of money without really achieving that goal. I'm ready to try something new.
Nobody says that a shoplifter, a trespasser, or a vandal should
be locked up for life. First of all, a 15 year old kid is a juvenile, in which case it generally doesn't go on 15 year old kid's record permanently.
By the time a kid is 18, however, s/he is an adult, and deserves to be tried for, charged with his/her crimes as an adult, and sentenced accordingly. Sorry to say..people who rape, rob, murder and assault need to be taken off the streets for awhile. An adult who commits first degree murder, or an armed robbery, assault or rape that results in a murder should also be locked up for life, with no parole. That's where I draw the line.
The point is what crimes should 18 year olds be charged for?
Are you under impression that "people who rape, rob, murder and assault" are taken off the streets for awhile? Because right now, it depends on how much money they have for bail and lawyers. That's the problem with the current system. Revenge does not make you safer. I don't care what criminals actually deserve. I want to feel safe. Helping people helps. It takes a ruthless person to give help and support to someone that has done something wrong and hurtful. But if it helps everyone live in a safer world then I will help them. I won't bother to link supporting research and statistics since you never bother to read them. I am sure you will just launch another tangent.
You think DTX is sketchy now
.
That's more the Mayor's problem
Than anyone else. Innovative cities come up with innovative ways to make things less sketchy. The DA can help, but really the Mayor has to be the one to change things.
"Government has to fix it"
Aaaaaaand that's why it sucks.