The latest alleged law enforcement misconduct in Mass, Jan. 4-17

On January 12, a journalist shared an audio clip of Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren responding to a question about whether she would support increased funding for ICE. She answered: “Not without more restrictions on ICE. This is an agency that is out of control. And if we don’t get some restrictions in place, they’re going to put more and more American citizens at risk.”

Warren’s vague answer implies that her answer is: Yes, she would support increased funding for ICE under the right circumstances—if the funding was attached to unspecified “restrictions” on ICE. Warren’s office did not respond to a request to clarify her comments.

By now, most people are aware that ICE agents murdered a woman in the street earlier in January. Other recent reporting shows ICE agents choked a 16-year-old boy, stole his phone, and pawned it for cash. They used flashbang grenades and tear gas to assault a vehicle with six children, sending a six-month-old baby to the hospital. They permanently blinded two protesters in one eye each by shooting projectile weapons at their faces. They ate lunch at a Mexican restaurant and then abducted three people who worked there. The list could go on.

Congress voted in July to increase ICE’s budget by $75 billion over four years. That a Democrat is even entertaining the idea of giving ICE increased funding—or any funding at all—under any circumstances is mind boggling. ICE is an evil institution full of evil people, and it needs to go.

A recent YouGov survey found that 74 percent of adult US citizen Democrats support “eliminating ICE as a federal agency.” The poll also found that 43 percent of independents support getting rid of ICE, while 40 percent oppose it. Overall, 42 percent of people said they supported eliminating ICE, while 45 percent said they opposed it. And a recent Economist/YouGov poll found that 46 percent of US adults said they support “abolishing ICE,” while 43 percent said they opposed it. Abolishing ICE is a mainstream position.

It’s noteworthy that huge numbers of Americans have come to the conclusion that ICE must be abolished despite virtually no messaging to that effect by prominent elected Democrats. People are simply reading about ICE’s depravity and seeing it with their own eyes, then deciding that this institution has no place in a civilized society.

And public opinion is not static. There are always some people who can be persuaded. If elected officials—like Warren, for example—were to start regularly calling for the abolition of ICE, they could get those poll numbers even higher. There are many people who are undecided on this issue, and large numbers of elected officials calling for the abolition of ICE would send the message that this is a reasonable, practical idea.

Instead, Warren’s comments send the opposite message: that ICE, despite all evidence to the contrary, is not a fundamentally lawless and violent institution, just one in need of some tweaks. That messaging is going to get people killed.

Here are the media reports of alleged law enforcement misconduct in Massachusetts that I’ve tracked during the last two weeks.

First, here are the incidents involving federal law enforcement, including immigration agents:

• “Gov. Maura Healey called on two airlines to stop chartering flights used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to deport people out of Massachusetts, saying the federal agency’s tactics are ‘disturbing and anti-American.’ Healey made the demand in a letter sent [January 8] to executives at Florida-based GlobalX Airlines and Missouri-based Eastern Air Express. It’s the latest salvo in the first-term governor’s attempt to end federal deportation flights connected to Hanscom Field in Bedford.” (WBUR)
• “A federal judge in Boston has ordered the immediate release of a long-time immigrant ICE locked up under a law that judges keep telling [ICE] they can’t use against people who have been in the country for years - and who a Justice Department official then said could be kept locked up under that law.” (Universal Hub)
• “Earlier [in January], a federal judge in Boston ordered ICE to immediately release a woman it grabbed in December, then had shackled by her wrists and ankles in a hospital for the emergency gallbladder surgery she needed and refused to let her speak to her lawyer or tell the judge how it would ensure she got necessary followup care after a planned transfer to Texas.” (Universal Hub)
• “A US federal judge in Boston on [January 16] gave the Trump administration three weeks to ‘rectify the mistake’ it made by deporting a college student to Honduras while she was traveling home to visit her family for Thanksgiving as he recommended it issue her a student visa. The US district judge, Richard Stearns, imposed the deadline after a lawyer for the administration … apologized for having violated a court order that should have prevented 19-year-old Any Lucia López Belloza from being sent to Honduras.” (Guardian)
• “A federal judge in Boston moved to protect the free speech rights of international scholars who feared retribution for their views, after the federal government tried to deport students for expressing pro-Palestinian sentiments. To prevent retribution against the foreign scholars, the order proposed by U.S. District Judge William Young requires the government to provide ‘clear and convincing evidence’ that any change in the academics’ immigration status is ‘appropriate’ under law.” (WBUR)

And here are the stories involving state and local law enforcement:

• I missed this one last time: “A Holyoke woman alleges she was wrongfully evicted in 2023 after city police showed up at her door, without documentation, and told her to leave and not return to her apartment, a federal lawsuit says.” (Republican)
• “A Boston police officer is off the job after being accused of choking his ex-girlfriend during a sexual encounter. Police arrested Ricardo Alexandre, of Roslindale, [in December] in Norwood. … Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox said Alexandre was on paid administrative leave and will also face an internal affairs investigation.” (WCVB)
• “A former Boston police officer fired for posts on social media about the January 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol riot, asking the state’s Peace Officers and Training (POST) Commission to decertify Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox and five other high-ranking department officials. Filed on [January 8] by former officer Joe Abasciano, the six POST Commission complaints target Commissioner Cox, Chief of Department Phillip Owens, Deputy Superintendent Sharon Dottin, Deputy Superintendent Richard Dahill, Staff Attorney David Fredette, and Officer Joseph Coppinger.” (Boston Herald)
• “The state commission charged with oversight of Massachusetts police decertified five former officers from around the state, including a former deputy police chief convicted last year of raping a teenage girl while serving as a school resource officer. … The decertifications bring the total to 75 since the POST Commission was created in 2020.” (MassLive)
• “A sexual assault victim is suing the Town of Hopkinton and its police chief [Joseph Bennett] for negligence, accusing them of allowing a convicted sex offender to operate a pizza shop for years, despite a known criminal history. The lawsuit also names Petros Sismanis, the former business owner who assaulted the 16-year-old in a basement supply closet three years ago.” (NBC10 Boston)
• “A former Boston Police superintendent is suing the department and Commissioner Michael Cox over what he claims was an illegal demotion after he uncovered several fraudulent paid details. Marcus Eddings, who has worked in the department since June 1996, filed the lawsuit in Suffolk Superior Court on [January 13], accusing Cox of violating the Massachusetts Whistleblower Act and claiming economic harm resulting from his removal.” (MassLive)
• “A former Stoughton deputy police chief whose certification to work in law enforcement was revoked in December over inappropriate conduct with Sandra Birchmore is appealing the decision. He claims his constitutional rights were violated and the decision was based on incorrect applications of the law. Robert Devine filed the appeal in Suffolk Superior Court on [January 13], about three weeks after the Peace Officer Standards and Training, or POST, Commission voted to revoke his certification.” (MassLive)
• “A Marshfield police officer is accused of driving under the influence after he was involved in a head-on crash that left two hospitalized, including the off-duty officer, on [January 11]. Richard Perry is charged with operating under the influence of alcohol while causing serious bodily injury.” (WHDH)
• “The Massachusetts Peace Officers Standards and Training (POST) Commission announced on Friday, Jan. 16, that it had suspended Hudson Police Lt. Michael Vroom. A spokeswoman for the commission said the reason for the suspension would not be disclosed.” (MetroWest Daily News)
• “Lawyers for former Massachusetts State Police trooper Michael Proctor wrote in a court filing [January 16] that he denies participating in a conspiracy to frame Karen Read for the death of her boyfriend and claimed that his actions as a law enforcement officer were protected by qualified immunity. … Read has sued over supposed civil rights violations during the criminal investigation and prosecutions of her. The case is pending in federal court for the District of Massachusetts.” (MassLive)

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