Man pushing wheelchair killed in Mass and Cass hit and run
By adamg on Fri, 01/20/2023 - 11:52pm
Update: The man was pushing a wheelchair, not in one, when he was hit and killed, the Suffolk County DA's office reports, adding police have identified a "vehicle of interest."
Live Boston reports a driver hit a man in a wheelchair on Melnea Cass Boulevard near Massachusetts Avenue, dragged him down the road, then drove off, leaving the man to die, sometime before 11 p.m.
Lots of BPD at Mass & Cass for an accident. Saw a news cameraman walking up after this. He sad someone was “dragged pretty far”. @StacoS @universalhub pic.twitter.com/bxynYN3Wsh
— Shamus (@ShamusJP) January 21, 2023
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A reminder
Let this serve as a reminder that despite the constant crime panics about this area (including on this site), and the constant dehumanization of people without homes in general (including on this site), studies routinely show that homeless people are considerably more likely to be on the receiving end of violence than they are to be perpetrators of it. They are also much more likely to be on the receiving end of violence than the housed.
When the city determines that it is fine to repeatedly throw people’s only belongings into the dumpster (often including peoples documents, which sets back other municipal efforts to house people) it should be no surprise that private citizens see those peoples lives as less than. The state has shown it views these people as acceptable targets for violence.
This cannot be emphasized strongly enough.
n/t
Also, disabled
People in wheelchairs or with other disabilities are seen as being disposable. How dare they take up room in the street, moving more slowly and inconveniencing drivers.
Twitter still works. Mass and
Twitter still works. Mass and Cass still broken.
This is not a “Mass and Cass” issue
Thursday morning: Hit and run on pedestrian, Prince and Comm Ave, Newton, around 6:45 am
Assault by motor vehicle is epidemic. Nothing causes me to despair for our culture more than the knowledge that so many drivers have no problem injuring another person and just driving off. (I witnessed a mid-morning hit and run on a bicyclist last fall, yards away from where a ghost bike had been recently installed at the intersection of Huntington and Mass Aves.)
EDIT: I removed my reference to a second incident that turned out not to be local-see comments below.
It's both and then some.
A bad stretch of road during Golden Hour that winds through a high concentration of addicts, inebriates, and those underserved by mental healthcare.
This is everyones fault.
Google Can Be Your Friend But Also, Check Your Data
This person being hit is terrible and exemplifies the near lawless nature of our own little Hamsterdam.
One thing. The hit and run you point out "In Southie" was in South Boston, South Boston Virginia. https://www.wbtmdanville.com/2023/01/20/south-boston-police-searching-fo...
That hit and run is horrible as well but as someone who in the effort to save money endured mid-90's South Boston, I know there is no Old Halifax Road in South Boston.
Yikes
The there are 2 obvious indicators that this was a “different Boston” that I missed. I will correct my previous comment. Though this doesn’t change my fundamental point, that these incidents regularly happen everywhere.
They Do Happen and It Is Terrible.
I wasn't trying to be mean.
It just if there was a hit and run in South Boston, this page would have had it first. The Globe would have had run it below a story on the low number of POC on their editorial board, sorry I meant to say a story on the lack of period products available in the mens' rooms at Gillette Stadium.
The Herald would have run it on their homepage and blamed it on Biden not stopping drugs in El Paso.
Didn’t think you were being mean!
(In your first comment, that is). I totally should have caught the difference.
The Boston Globe
As of 8:30pm on Saturday has a headline towards the top of the front page about someone killed in a skiing accident in NH.
I scrolled through the entire page and found nothing relating to this homicide.
I don't hate the Globe but they care much, much more about people getting lost while hiking in the White Mountains as they do local fatalities of marginalized people. Shameful.
But they do have a story
Whether or not it is on the homepage, they've had a story on the website under the Metro section since at least mid-morning.
Similarly, the Herald has a story under "local news" but it's not showing up on their home page.
You have a valid point that a choice has been made to either exclude or not include this story on the homepage. I just mention that they do have a story posted to avoid someone getting the impression that they haven't covered the story at all.
It is true
I too saw it this morning. But the fact it didn't make it 24 hours on the front page when they seem to give extensive coverage to hiking mishaps is pretty telling.
They almost never cover the murders and stabbings of people in parts of the city where it's not uncommon.
Hopefully the Globe will follow up on this story. They could profile the person killed, pester the police about the investigation, ask the Mayor what she's doing to reduce these sorts of homicides.
But given how quickly they dropped the initial story, I'm not optimistic. They will however keep running a few dozen pieces of non-news commentary and editorials.
Indeed
I had two close calls in that very area yesterday. One when I was crossing Massachusetts Avenue at Albany Street (on my way to the gym), a driver proceeded into the occupied crosswalk while running the red light by making an illegal right turn, and they had to stop short for me and several other pedestrians (before continuing to run the red), and again on my way home about an hour later on Albany Street at East Concord Street, by another driver who also ignored the No Turn on Red.
The Mile
The Street Without Joy
The driver is still out there. Driving.
What a horrible way to die.
And yet
A driver who almost certainly lives in a home killed someone who probably doesn’t and people are responding to it with further demonization of homeless people.
Old Halifax Road
in Southie?
South Boston, Virginia 24592
lack of enforcement
I work within a block of this intersection and see many cars (4 or 5) speeding through the intersection after the light turns red (not just hitting the gas at the yellow) and I've never once seen anyone pulled over. Once I saw a BPD officer hanging out at the gas station, as they do every day, and reported a car in middle of the intersection that appeared empty and causing a traffic jam. He simply told me it wasnt in his district and was unwilling to do anything but continue to look at his phone.