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Janey: City will likely release redacted Patrick Rose file by the end of the week

Janey

Acting Mayor Kim Janey said today that the city law department should release an edited version of the Boston Police Department's internal-affairs file on former police-union president Patrick Rose by the end of the week - which she said would only be the first step in changing how the department handles criminal investigations into officers, to ensure somebody like him never again serves as a Boston cop.

At a City Hall press conference, Janey said the law department is currently going through the file, which starts with a 1995 allegation that he molested a young child, to protect the privacy of any victims named in it and to ensure it does not affect the Suffolk County District Attorney's case against Rose on five newer child-rape charges.

She said that the next step is for the new Office of Police Accountability and Transparency, which she said would be headed by local attorney Stephanie Everett, to review BPD policies to ensure the Rose case is never repeated. Unlike past efforts, this office will have subpoena power and the right to review internal BPD documents.

"As a mother and as grandmother, I was heartbroken and angry to learn that nothing was done to keep Mr. Rose away from children or to terminate him, for that matter, after series charges were found to be credible by an BPD internal affairs probe in 1995," Janey, who is running to remove the "acting" from her title this fall, said.

Janey said resolving the Rose affair is just one of several steps to increase police accountability, especially in neighborhoods of color where "the fabric of trust between the Boston Police Department and Boston residents has worn thin."

She said her budget for the coming fiscal year will include both another reduction in police overtime and an increase in funding for a BPD cadet program, which she said would provide a new avenue for minority candidates to get jobs as BPD officers.

She added that she has directed BPD Superintendent-in-Chief Greg Long and Chief of Human Services Marty Martinez to develop a pilot program - and to roll it out in three months - to increase the number of cases in which mental-health practitioners respond to residents with mental-health crises and so reduce the number of such cases in which police respond.

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Comments

I would like to see the acting mayor show the same enthusiasm and transparency for appointed BPD Commissioner White.
As a mother and grandmother does domestic violence hit the same nerve...?

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I am looking forward to her mental health pilot program and wish it great success.

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This all makes perfect sense and is totally reasonable. Thank you Mayor Janey.

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Acting Mayor Janey.

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The “it’s ACTING Mayor Janey” crowd is just as obnoxious now as the misogynists who attacked people who dared to call Jane Swift Governor without the very same modifier.

She’s the Mayor; get over it. “Acting” pedantry is pettiness.

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If you want to be accurate, her title is City Council President and Acting Mayor Janey.

Calling her "Mayor Janey" at this point is political propaganda, and saying the use of the actual title is "misogyny" is spiteful.

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Calling her “acting” is adding an unnecessary word to express derision and resentment. Stay petty.

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Calling herself "Mayor" instead of "Acting Mayor" is her attempt to steamroll the election by making it seem like she's inherited the seat from Walsh. She can't even count to 55 properly.

Our city's charter provides for her title: Acting Mayor. If you don't like that, change the City Charter. If you don't think myself (and I'm assuming others) would have said the same in 1993, you're wrong.

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...so very concerned by people saying “Mayor Janey”. I wonder why that is?

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Oh, no, sorry, you wanted to insinuate sexism....maybe racism too?

As I said, white, male, Menino would have been wrong to consider himself anything other than Acting Mayor in 1993 too. I wasn't in Boston that year to know if Menino called himself "Mayor" instead of "Acting Mayor" or to complain on Universal Hub BBS for you to know that though, so I'll excuse your unfair insult to my character.

As I noted, she also calls herself the "55th Mayor". As I discussed previously, there's no reasonable way to arrive at her being the 55th Anything of Boston. But she ran with it because Marty incorrectly called himself the 54th. Why didn't I call out Marty for that? Because Marty was elected directly, this didn't put a shining light on his number being wrong for me to discover. Everyone appears to have gone along with these numbers for years since before Marty too possibly (Menino's long term in office helped bury this numbering glitch)...seemingly longer than I've even lived in Boston (over 20 years). It's like an old wives' tale at this point what number Mayor we're on in this city.

But that doesn't mean we should keep doing it wrong once it's discovered that it's wrong! Correct it and move on. She doesn't get a pass, but it's not because of race or gender...it's because she's an official and it's officially incorrect. Otherwise, what's the point of formality or rules?

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Sure, print journalism is going to type out Acting Mayor Kim Janey, but why is it that every single time a UHub commentor, a Globe/Herald commentor, a Redditor, or a Twitter user types Mayor Janey some guy rushes onto reply, “AcKsHuLlY, it’s ACTING Mayor Janey!”? That is what I call obnoxious in my first comment; it’s the pedantic reply guys who seem to have an active Google alert for anytime Mayor Janey isn’t labeled “acting” and hide behind their oh-so-serious concern for accuracy.

Am I supposed to believe that the same UHub commentor who spread vaccine lies and questioned how white power propaganda can be hate speech is earnestly concerned about how to properly address Kim Janey? GMAFB. It’s taking the opportunity to attempt to deligitimize the Black woman mayor and hide behind the thin veil of “accuracy”; it’s happening all over local comments/social media and it’s going to keep happening until the next inauguration.

Second, no one cares about the 54/55 thing.

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Yes, you're going to have to use totality of a person's comments and actions to determine their motivations. It's okay. We didn't used to determine the entirety of a person's worth from a single statement used out of context like we do online these days.

But she is *legitimately* not the Mayor. She was the one who chose to consider herself as such across a wide media spectrum. Whether someone takes exception to that because they're a racist misogynist or because they care about legitimacy and formality won't necessarily be clear solely from them saying "Actually, she's not the Mayor...". So, don't imply they're a racist misogynist just looking to throw lumps at a black woman in power in response to that factual statement. And sometimes the racist/misogynist can speak the truth even if they're doing it to troll you...with the truth. Instead of attacking them (as would usually be proper if they were doing something racist or misogynistic), you should attack why they have the truth on their side for once. Take the weapon away from them. Demand better from our elected officials.

And if you don't correct it every time she or someone else says "Mayor Janey" or "the 55th Mayor" or some variation, then it becomes an acceptable and accepted standard...a truth. A prime example of that is how we ended up with the number 55. When someone got it wrong, nobody corrected it...now it's going to be insane to untangle it to get it right because of how pervasively wrong it is.

If she'd not chosen to call herself the "55th Mayor" (the 55th *is* important here, because it *explicitly* declares mayoral lineage from Walsh as 54th), then you'd have much more of a point if someone kept saying "That's right, you're just 'Acting Mayor' and don't you forget it".

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But she is *legitimately* not the Mayor

Stay mad bro. Working overtime writing unhinged screeds to deligitimize an accomplished Black woman is not a great look.

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The world is like that now. Just one way that being woke is more important than caring about the truth.

It should be possible to do both.

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And if you don't correct it every time she or someone else says "Mayor Janey" or "the 55th Mayor" or some variation

"If you can't be a good example, you'll just have to be a horrible reminder."

- someone watching someone else die on a quickly forgotten hill

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It's almost comical how Janey is pushing the "I'm the 55th Mayor of Boston" act. Just compare her old letterhead (page 72) against her new letterhead (page 24), stapled together in today's City Council packet.

Sure the tactic makes sense politically, but if you want a competitive election this fall, it should be called out.

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Misogyny? I said “‘Acting’ pedantry is pettiness.”

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Isn't Matt O'Malley City Council president right now? That's what it says here: https://www.boston.gov/departments/city-council/matt-omalley

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I'm glad she'll release these records.

I'm saddened that she has to make EVERYTHING about race.

Look, I understand there are serious issues around race. But Rose was a BPD and city level failure, impacting everyone in the city, of all colors. And especially the child victims, whatever their skin tone.

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whatever their skin tone

I know you mean well, but yikes.

Look, I understand there are serious issues around race.

And they'll go away faster if white people stop trying to shut them down every time it's brought up. Ask yourself what does greater harm: to listen to concerns about race even if you ultimately conclude there isn't a problem, or to stifle discussion because it makes you uncomfortable?

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As much as I would like to believe Janey. It won't change a single thing.

The past 2 years have proven that most police forces are corrupt as shit.

The only way to fix this is to clean house and get rid of everyone. You leave anyone behind, they will taint the new recruits. Its all or nothing. You won't be able to weed out the bad ones... so they all have to go.

But it wont happen and in 20 years we'll be repeating this story again with some other horrific act because "we didn't do enough".

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The real news here is that Janey made this happen less than a month after becoming mayor. Can you imagine Walsh doing anything similar? He was moved to Secretary of Labor for a reason: he knows how to work with the good ol’ boys!
Of course that’s not all bad: he rode the wave and made Boston’s biking infrastructure happen. Roads are still dangerous (smart phones) but it’s night and day from what we had with Menino.

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Janey left holding the bag by the bagman in DC with bags of shit in his past. And the fact that it's not all over the New York Times or CNN.

Why?

I think because Team Biden knew that Walsh was a buffoonish thug with a ton of shit in his past, but the unions wanted him and now he's literally blown up in their face. 4 months in. You can also add that I can guarantee he knew about Pat Rose.

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Is there anyone on Team Biden without a ton of shit in their past?

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much as Walsh has! Mayo Pete is a close second.

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It puts the poop behind them.

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Were I a conspiracy guy, I’d note that this is a sufficiently light controversy that can make Janey look good. Dredge up some past incidents of a disgraced former police officer, add in the odd hook of him being “promoted” while ignoring the reality that he was never promoted at his day job, and you have the recipe for making the acting mayor look more “mayoral.” Let’s not forget that Rose was first accused during the reign of St. Thomas of Readville, meaning people sat on this info for, well, so long that Rose sexually assault the child of one of his victims.

I mean, it’s like the Globe and the Janey campaign are in cohoots.

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You're kind of on the mark about the Globe and the campaign.

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Who are you? Are you plugged in into some rumor mill of Mass politics?

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I'm just a retired limo driver with a few friends in tech and politics.

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What I really like about it, is how it completely ignores the role of the entire Boston Police Department, an organization made up almost entirely of people trained in investigation of crimes, did in completely ignoring and/or covering up the evidence here, in order to throw some shade on one city councilor and the local newspaper who are actually working to put this out into the public. You have to admit, that's a pretty impressive conspiracy for Janey to have convinced them to sit on this for a couple decades!

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Rose was arrested last year. Somehow no one noticed the earlier stuff until after Walsh leaves. And once again, the big allegation happened in the Menino era. 25 years of nothingness.

And to be clear, my conspiracy is more about the Globe trying to run the town than Janey trying to be elected mayor, but this is definitely a big favor to her.

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Normally I'd say this is all on Walsh. And it mostly is. And the original sin on the Rose affair started under Menino don't forget.

That all said, this all mostly came out publicly last summer. And Kim Janey was the Council President then. Did she do anything about this then or inquire about the records? Doesn't seem so. So, although she's doing the right thing here, she still should be held accountable for her lack of action when she had power to subopoena the records or put this into the public realm. And like most politicians at the time, she did nothing.

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The city will try to hard to make reforms but they will have to bargain changes with the unions. Will be an interesting battle.

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And this is why nothing will get done. To clean house, you gotta fire people.. good luck with the union that is so corrupt that it protected a child molester, you think they are gonna bow down and let half their brothers be let go? Nah.. they'll fight tooth and nail.

BPA is corrupt, they'll fight it until the bitter end to protect their 'brothers'

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Did she release anything?

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