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The man authorities say a T cop beat with his baton speaks
By adamg on Fri, 03/08/2019 - 8:47am
The Globe interviews Anthony Watson, the man a Transit Police officer is now charged with beating.
Two Transit Police sergeants are also charged with helping the cop cover up the beating - something their supervisor determined in part after watching video from the extensive camera network the MBTA has to catch criminals.
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Comments
Who was the man in the white shirt?
The plot thickens the article refers to man in a white shirt who was with the cop who beat this poor guy?
Why would sergeants risk their careers to cover up this beating ? From the sounds of this story beating and falsely arresting homeless individuals seems to be a common practice.
Almost every news story about cops is sad
Almost every News story about cops is horrible, despicable, corrupt, and sad.
They are the new Mafia in Boston and beyond.
They shake people down and beat people up and murder people just like the Mobsters used to.
Everyone is afraid of them.
Mobsters kept the streets safe back in the day but at a price.
Police are the New Mobsters.
I guess someone has to play the part.
I guess we always have to pay a price.
40% of police officer families experience domestic violence
Cops are two to four times more likely to bring that terror home in the form of domestic violence:
http://womenandpolicing.com/violenceFS.asp#notes
We need to fundamentally rethink policing in this country and make serious changes. Every day we wait just adds more victims and causes more people to lose trust in a fundamental institution in our society.
New?
The saying "Police are the biggest gang in America" is at least 4 decades old at this point. They have the strongest "labor" unions in the country, the ONLY ones Republicans won't attempt to bust up. The entire purpose of the police is to protect the wealthy from the poor under the guise of "order." No one else gets to kill people and get a free vacation out of it, then have a grand jury find no evidence to charge them despite clear video evidence that everyone can see.
You gotta respect them, they can ruin your life in a second. Not defending cops or victim blaming with this next statement but, had this guy simply walked away instead of yelling at the cop none of this would have happened. You really have to treat them like they are the Gestapo. A cop's bad day could mean a bad LIFE for you. The flip side of that coin though, is that this event led to busting 3 shitty cops, so his abuse was not in vain. Seems like he is genuinely trying to get his shit together, maybe this exposure will help him in that area.
Wrong, wrong, wrong
First, for every negative story about the police, there are a hundred incidents that occur, every single day, that are honest, helpful, upstanding, and positive. Those don't get reported because they don't sell papers / get clicks.
Second, there are plenty of stories, on this site and elsewhere, about the professionalism, honesty, and bravery of the BPD and other local police.
This is a horrible story, but it's not indicative or common.
100% true. If you see the BPD
100% true. If you see the BPD’s social media pages, it’s full of daily outreach efforts and incidents with remarkable restrain. Adam only reports on the negative things because, well, he needs his clicks and the media needs to monetize.
I agree
I agree, like any facet in humanity there going to be good and evil, there is going to be good who become evil. Let's be all mindful that law enforcement officers and First Responders are equally human who are subject to the same human ferretiz that we all have.
Let the man without sin throw the first stone.
Quite a sad story. Hopefully
Quite a sad story. Hopefully police brutality victim Anthony Watson will get some solace and proper compensation when justice is made. The silver lining of that incident is that there was at least one upstanding officer who decided not to go along with the cover-up and prevailed; that gives me some hope.
That one upstanding officer may have been...
The Chief of Police.
Where is BLM? Victim and two of the officers are black. Hello?
Where is BLM on this? The alleged victim, the elderly officer accused of the beating and one of the two sergeants accused in the coverup are all black. BLM has been very outspoken on these type of incidents when the officer involved was white, even when that officer was later fully exonerated. I hope black lives matter if the officers involved are also black.
Shut up
BLM has even protested for white victims of police brutality, this is just phony outrage over black on black crime in a only slightly different package. it is a fascist talking point.
Interesting
Being an African American living here in our great city of Boston your question definitely has me pondering the question?
I never got into the black lives matter thing I'm not even sure what exactly are there objectives and goals. However I am certainly aware that one of these objectives and goals are to point out police brutality. It certainly look like a clear case of police brutality and Injustice here. Hints would lead anyone to ask this very good question where is Black lives matter now what is their position on this incident.
Those damn MBTA police strike again
I'm an average white guy. I was in my early 30's at the time, taking an MBTA bus from Boston to Waltham, paying by cash as I had not renewed my T pass (this was back in the late 90's before the "Charlie Card" was a thing. I got into a dispute with the driver over the fare (i felt he was overcharging for the extra zone fare). The dispute heated and he called the MBTA cops. They told me I needed to pay the fare that was asked for, or I needed to get off the bus. I conceded my defeat and agreed to get off (on principle I just couldn't give in to paying the extra fare), and said I just needed to get my backpack in the back seat and I would go.
I turned to do just that, and that's when the cops grabbed me and literally threw me to the ground outside. (Later I would be told that "I raised my hand to strike the officer" -- as I turned *away* from him????) My glasses hit the ground and the lenses fell out. (They later recovered them for me, pointedly telling me that they didn't have to do that, but they did. They made it seem like it was a major imposition on their part.) I seem to remember a bloody nose, though I can't be sure. Before I knew what had hit me, I was handcuffed and pepper sprayed. (I of course was instinctively trying to resist arrest - I really didn't understand what was happening to me, it all happened so fast.) Then I was taken to the Dorchester MBTA Police station, forced to go through a strip search (!!), childishly teased by the roomful of cops, put in a cell for the afternoon, and was given a runaround about posting bail (I wasn't carrying that kind of cash on me - I think it was $50 - and they at first didn't want to let me go to an ATM to get it, finally they did.)
I appeared in court the next day, and the judge pretty much dismissed the charges. The cops weren't there. I was glad they weren't - I have to say that to a large degree, I understood what a rape victim must feel like having to face her/his attacker. I was truly terrified that I would have to see them again. This was my only experience ever in dealing with being arrested, and I really felt that I had been abused. But I had no idea how to explain that, even in court.
I'm glad that this guy had the courage to speak up. I didn't at the time. I'm so angry that they beat him with no cause - and believe me, pepper spray is no bargain, but it's not a beating. And yes, I know in my rational mind that the large percentage of MBTA cops are responsible and helpful people, but I can't really ever trust that after what I was put through. Every time I see a T cop, to this day, I can feel a knot in my stomach.
I don't doubt that in the Watson case, the victim's color had a part to play in this (I hate to say that, but it's the system all the same.) But I'm an average white guy, so I guess the T police are equal opportunity assholes.
I don't talk about this incident often - I'd rather just put it out of my mind. And I'm not looking for comments on my situation really - I just want to say that Watson is not the only guy to have been abused by the T police. He fell asleep drunk, I felt I was being cheated out of a made-up fare. And yet we were beaten, sprayed, and humiliated by a bunch of cops looking for action. You know what they say about one rotten apple...
Thanks for reading.
Arrested for a fare dispute?
Can the MBTA police arrest you for a fare dispute? You have a story to tell so contact the media and maybe one of them will expose the practices of the police. Why would they strip search you?
Well...
The arrest - or, to start with - the call to the police in the first place - was because I was not only getting rather angry at the bus driver (though never physically imposing), but I wasn't doing what the driver has asked - pay the fare or get off the bus. Seeing the driver's point of view, he just wanted to get rid of me and get the trip moving. I totally understand that. What was truly bothering me was that there seemed to be at least 2 different "versions" of the fare - at one point the bus driver himself seemed to acknowledge that by claiming I owed different amounts at different points in the discussion. This was only getting me more frustrated. And even asking the busful of passengers was no help - seems they were content to pay whatever the driver asked for, even if it wasn't always the same. So odd.
Anyway - as I mentioned above, the "crime" I was actually arrested for was a made-up charge of attempting to strike one of the officers. It would seem that at the moment I turned to go get my stuff to finally get off the bus, I must have moved my arm in such as way as to seem threatening. I can't quite see how that could have been, and of course that wasn't my intention - but either the cop truly felt in danger, or - more likely - it was a convenient excuse to why they then literally threw me off the bus and onto the ground. (I think they were simply tired of my arguing - understood, lol - but could only solve that with a violent move to get me out of the bus. But then they had to justify it after the fact.)
The strip search (only down to my underwear I believe - it's tough to really remember at this point) felt like a frat prank, to be honest. I'm an overweight guy, and I'm sure they knew it would be even more humiliating than usual to make me get virtually naked in front of them. I can't think of any other reason why they made me do that. The room seemed full of cops, and I was hearing little odd jeers like "are you with the f-ing ACLU or something?" (Clearly a dig as to the fact that I was fighting a bus fare.) I really was made to feel like I was some filthy little criminal - it was all very out of proportion with the actual incident. I do remember a few of the cops that were dealing with the actual booking process were very kind to me - but most were pretty nasty. You would have thought I had murdered the bus driver, for god's sake.
All in all, it was a very confusing, invasive, disrespectful and emotionally hurtful process. Guilty before presumed innocent. The fact of an arrest itself should be humiliating on its own terms - but I felt these cops were having their fill of alpha male bullying with me, and making me feel much more humiliated than necessary, and not doing their professional job of keeping the peace. It was horrid and frightening.
This happened about 20 years ago. I feel that I wanted to post about the incident here in light of the current story - but I honestly don't think that trying to take my case to the media is worth all the trouble that would really bring. And as I alluded before, even in our #metoo world, the whole thing felt so violating to me that I'm not sure I really want to face it all again. But I felt safe sharing it with this community. Maybe someone at the T will see this. And maybe they'll just ignore it. Whatever. But remember that even in the current case, there was major publicity about the incident way before the victim spoke out. Not so in my case. Maybe I'm just trying to rationalize all of it. But no, what I really want to do is to just move on with my life, and have nothing to do with a T cop again, ever.
But sincerely and truly, thanks for the response and the sense of concern. Much appreciated. ;-)
Your Welcome
Thank you for sharing your story. I wonder how many more riders have been arrested and humiliated by the Transit Police.