By Lisa Kashinsky on Apr 20, 2021 08:43 pm
George Floyd's family is "able to breathe again" after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of his murder on Tuesday, but loved ones, activists and politicians across the country say the fight for justice and policing reform is far from over. "Today is a pivotal moment for America. It's something this country's needed for a long time now," Floyd's nephew, Brandon Williams, told reporters after the verdict was read. "We need change in this broken system that was built to oppress us, that was built against us. … We need police reform, bad." A jury on Tuesday found Chauvin guilty of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, 11 months after the white cop knelt on the neck of Floyd for nine minutes and 29 seconds as the Black man gasped for air. “Today we are able to breathe again,” Philonise Floyd, one of George Floyd’s brothers, said. Chauvin, 45, had his bail immediately revoked and was led away in handcuffs. He’s set to be sentenced in two months and could face decades behind bars, with the most serious charge carrying up to 40 years in prison. “We don’t celebrate a man going to jail — we would have rather George be alive,” civil rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton said. But Chauvin’s conviction serves as “assurance” to the hundreds of thousands of people across the country who marched in the wake of Floyd’s death that “if we don’t give up, then we can win some rounds.” Floyd’s killing last Memorial Day set off waves of protest across the nation and forced a reckoning on racism and policing from Minneapolis to Massachusetts. “The road to equity is long and uneven, but there was justice today,” Rachael Rollins, the first Black woman to serve as Suffolk District Attorney, said in a press conference. “We are a noble profession, and this man does not represent us and the good work we do every single day.'” Rollins stood alongside Boston Acting Mayor Kim Janey, the city’s first Black and first female chief executive, and members of Janey’s Cabinet, including police Superintendent-in-Chief Greg Long, in a show of unity. “While I am truly grateful for a guilty verdict, I know that our work in our city and every other city across America to advance racial justice continues,” Janey said. Gov. Charlie Baker, House Speaker Ronald Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka vowed that work will continue to deliver on the law enforcement reforms lawmakers passed here last year. “We owe it to all those whose lives have been lost to do all we can to successfully implement that law, and sustain its aspirations far into the future,” Baker said in a statement. President Biden noted the “extraordinary convergence of factors” that wrought a conviction he called “much too rare” on Tuesday, and said “we can stop here” as he and Vice President Kamala Harris called to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. “Nothing can ever bring their brother, their father, back,” Biden said. “But this would be a giant step forward in the march toward justice in America.” U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, the first Black woman elected to the Boston City Council and then to Congress from Massachusetts, renewed her calls to end qualified immunity and to “dismantle the systems that create the conditions for police brutality” in favor of “trauma-informed, community-based solutions.” Amid calls to double down on the work ahead, some of the Bay State’s Black leaders also expressed hope. The NAACP Boston Branch said the Chauvin verdict signals “hope that our nation can live up to its ideals and realize justice for Black lives in America.” Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said: "Does the life of a Black man in America matter? A Minnesota jury today said 'yes.' ” Herald staff writers Erin Tiernan and Sean Philip Cotter and Herald wire services contributed to this report.
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By Erin Tiernan on Apr 20, 2021 05:46 pm
Up to 1,000 members of the Massachusetts National Guard have been activated as a precaution in case of "large-scale" protests after Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin’s guilty verdict. Public safety officials said there is “no indication of any public safety risk in Massachusetts," but Gov. Charlie Baker has alerted the Guard to be ready. "The (administration) has been working with our local, state, and federal partners to ensure public safety personnel can be on hand if the need arises," Executive Office of Public Safety and Security Secretary Thomas Turco said. Moments before Chauvin was found guilty on all three counts against him, Baker said in an unrelated press conference that the state stands ready to assist cities and towns and “make sure everybody stays calm and peaceful” should the verdict spark demonstrations. The Baker administration has enacted similar orders calling up the National Guard in the year since George Floyd’s death and as unrest has swept the nation in the wake of continued police killings, particularly of Black men. None have required any Guard operations since June 1 following an eruption of violence in Boston over Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis Police. EOPSS spokesman Jake Wark underscored that point saying the number of guardsmen put on standby “reflects the maximum number of personnel who would be available and not necessarily the number deployed.” State Police Col. Christopher Mason said his force would operate with increased staffing levels in case troopers are called up to assist local police departments. "We are coordinating with our partner agencies on a multi-layered, scalable plan to protect people's safety, property, and rights of assembly and free speech," Mason said. State Police and Homeland Security are monitoring the situation.
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By Lisa Kashinsky on Apr 20, 2021 05:15 pm
U.S. Sen. Edward Markey and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez re-energized their push for a Green New Deal on Tuesday, calling on President Biden to go “bigger and bolder” on combating climate change as Republicans decried the progressive wish list as socialism. “We believe that this is the moment that requires us to act big, think big, have a program that matches the magnitude of the problem that we’re confronted with,” the Malden Democrat said in a press conference. The lawmakers’ nonbinding resolution calls for a 10-year national mobilization to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and steer more federal resources toward low-income and minority communities disproportionately affected by climate change. Markey and Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., built on that Tuesday by unveiling their bill for a Civilian Climate Corps that would put 1.5 million people to work over five years on climate-related projects. More than 100 House members have now signed on as co-sponsors of the Green New Deal. But key Republicans, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and U.S. Sen. John Barasso, the ranking member of the Senate energy committee, swatted the proposal away as “socialism.” "The green new disaster is back," Barasso said in a statement. “The Green New Deal isn't about protecting the environment. It's about massively increasing the size of government and dictating how Americans live their lives.” First introduced in 2019, the Green New Deal quickly emerged as a litmus test for Democrats and a weapon for Republicans throughout the 2020 election cycle. Markey — who last year harnessed the Green New Deal movement he helped create to crush then-U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy III and Republican Kevin O’Connor en route to re-election — called it a “winning political issue.” But Biden has so far walked a finer line — rejecting the Green New Deal label in a presidential debate last fall, but essentially incorporating its framework into his $2 trillion climate-focused infrastructure plan. “The amount that we have negotiated that has already been incorporated in the Biden administration’s approach so far is commendable — and we have to go bigger and bolder than that,” Ocasio-Cortez said. Markey said lawmakers are in “constant communication with the White House in terms of the boldness that we want to see in this plan.” But University of Massachusetts Lowell political science professor John Cluverius said, “I don’t think the Biden administration is looking to move any further to the left than they’ve already staked out on climate, because they have to run for re-election in states with lots of oil and gas and coal.” Biden is set to unveil his 2030 greenhouse gas emissions target later this week as he hosts dozens of world leaders for a virtual climate summit.
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By Erin Tiernan on Apr 20, 2021 04:12 pm
Moments before the jury announced it had reached a verdict in the trial against former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin in the death of George Floyd, Gov. Charlie Baker said the state was ready to support cities and towns in case of demonstrations. “We’ve had lots of conversations over the course of the past several days with our colleagues about this,” Baker said, speaking in Ashburton Park outside the State House on Tuesday. “We’ll continue to monitor of channels that we historically monitor around this stuff.” Baker did not say specifically if he expected unrest. “Massachusetts had one bad day all the way through all the activity of last summer — literally tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people peacefully demonstrating here in Massachusetts,” he said. A day of peaceful protests last May 31 where protesters demanded justice for Floyd’s death and that of others at the hands of police, turned into a night of violence with riots, looting and vandalism. The National Guard was called in during the early morning hours of June 1 to shut down protesters. Boston’s new mayor — the city’s first woman and first Black person to lead the majority-minority city — on Tuesday said she was working with law enforcement in preparation for possible demonstrations in the wake of the Chauvin verdict. “It’s important that we recognize that this is traumatizing for many of us that have seen this over and over and over again,” Janey said, noting she was also working to deploy the city’s trauma team. Janey encouraged activists to “stay engaged… regardless of the verdict.” “Even if justice is served in this case it does not mean that the work is over. It is important that we continue to move forward with the racial justice agenda,” Janey said, ticking off the names of Duante Wright and Adam Toledo — two young men of color killed in recent days by police. As the past year of protests unfolded, it became common practice in Massachusetts for Baker to put the National Guard on standby around times of planned protests. He did not address questions of whether he would do so again or if demonstrations were expected with the Chauvin verdict. “We’re obviously going to keep talking to our colleagues in local government and if we need to do some things at their request to make sure everybody stays calm and peaceful, we’ll do that,” Baker said. “But I’m incredibly proud of the way the state has dealt with these issues.” Baker touted his collaboration with the Legislature last session to pass bipartisan police reform legislation, noting Massachusetts is “one of the few states to have actually” done so.
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By Erin Tiernan on Apr 20, 2021 02:40 pm
Massachusetts is “ground zero” to some of the toughest gun-control laws in the nation, but lawmakers are aiming to crack down on assault weapons manufactured here. State Rep. Marjorie Decker introduced a bill Tuesday that would ban Smith & Wesson and dozens of other gun manufacturers across the Bay State from producing assault weapons. “Assault, military-style weapons manufactured right here in Massachusetts have been used to kill and slaughter children and people across the nation from Parkland to Aurora to San Bernadino to Las Vegas and too many other communities,” the Cambridge Democrat said. John Rosenthal, longtime gun-control advocate and founder of Stop Handgun Violence Now, said a gun from the Springfield gun manufacturer was used in the Columbine, Colo., shooting 22 years ago Tuesday, where 15 people died and 24 were injured. Smith & Wesson did not respond to questions. It has become one of the largest manufacturers of assault weapons in the nation, boasting big sales gains amid the pandemic. Jim Wallace, executive director of Gun Owners Action League, criticized the bill as “ignoring the common denominator in all these mass shootings.” “It’s not the gun, it’s the person and they are all suffering from severe mental health issues,” Wallace said, calling for better wraparound mental health services. “Even if you take this particular thing away from them, they’re going to find another way to do harm.” House and Senate Democrats on Tuesday filed “An Act to Prevent Mass Shootings,” which would bar the manufacturing of assault weapons in the state for consumer sales. The bill would allow continued manufacturing for the military. State law currently prohibits the sale, possession or transfer of assault-style weapons and large-capacity feeding devices with 10 or more rounds for most people. State Sen. Cynthia Creem, another architect of the bill, pointed to a “loophole” in earlier gun-control efforts that left out manufacturing. “We often speak proudly of our tough gun laws in Massachusetts including our ban on assault weapons, however, we cannot ignore the fact that assault weapons built in Massachusetts are being exported and used to murder our fellow citizens and law enforcement officers in other states,” Creem said. The Gun Violence Archive has logged at least 45 mass shootings in the past month. Lonnie Phillips, whose 24-year-old daughter Jessica died nine years ago after she was shot six times in the deadly Aurora, Colo., theater shooting, made a heartfelt appeal to lawmakers on Tuesday. She said: “These weapons are made in your state, but they can’t be sold in your state so, in effect, Massachusetts is exporting bloodshed to the rest of the country.”
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By Rick Sobey on Apr 20, 2021 10:15 am
The proposed millionaires tax in Massachusetts would “adversely impact” a significant number of small business owners, ultimately hampering the state’s economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new study published by Pioneer Institute. A proposed state constitutional amendment would add a 4% surtax to all annual income above $1 million. If the surtax passes, it would apply to as many as 13,430 of the state’s pass-through entities — which are often small businesses structured as S corporations, sole proprietorships and partnerships. “Promoters of the surtax always point to its impact on some nebulous ‘millionaire,’ ” said Pioneer Institute Executive Director Jim Stergios. “The tax will impact many more people and small businesses, and through them, tens of thousands of employees.” From 2010 to 2018, the number of pass-through employers in the state grew by 11.3%. By 2018, they accounted for 57.1% of Massachusetts’ private sector workforce. “The past year has been a historically difficult time for a lot of ‘Main Street’ business owners in Massachusetts,” said Nina Weiss, who wrote the Pioneer report with Greg Sullivan. “This is a time when we should be prioritizing the resilience of the state’s economy and getting people back to work, not raising taxes on small businesses.” The millionaires tax could also deter future entrepreneurs from starting businesses here, they write in the report. Lawmakers this session are likely to advance a ballot initiative that would propose a constitutional amendment to impose the surtax. Proponents of the tax — who call it the “Fair Share Amendment” — say the measure could bolster education and transportation funding by $2 billion. “The Pioneer Institute’s latest missive rehashes an old argument for why multi-millionaires shouldn’t pay their fair share of state taxes,” Raise Up Massachusetts, the coalition behind the amendment, said in a statement. “It’s either intentionally designed to mislead or the Pioneer Institute is confused. The Fair Share Amendment wouldn’t increase the taxes of any businesses, only a few multi-millionaire business owners. “The Fair Share Amendment is simple: taxpayers with total income of more than a million dollars in a single year would pay an extra 4 percentage points on their second million, and every million after that,” the coalition added. “Whether their income is from salaries, stocks, bonds or a ‘pass-through entity’ is irrelevant to the current or proposed tax rate. Owners of S-corporations and other pass-through entities would continue to pay income taxes only on their business’s profits, after subtracting all its costs.” Residents could vote on the ballot question in November 2022.
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