A regulation from 2004 permitting the Somerville police to grab property with out charging {that a} crime had occurred and to designate sections of town as vulnerable to gang loitering moved nearer to repeal on Monday.
The regulation was adopted after a wheelchair-bound woman was raped at Foss Park by members of the ruthless MS-13 gang in 2002. The gang, a goal of former U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling, have been known as “vicious and cruel” in sentencing paperwork as they’ve been jailed in latest months.
But Somerville’s regulation, state Sen. Pat Jehlen, D-2nd Middlesex District, stated, “has never been used.”
“This is moving in the direction I would like to see,” Somerville City Councilor Willie Burnley Jr., informed the Herald after the state Senate’s casual morning session when the physique despatched S.1596, a invoice which might repeal Section 327 of the Acts of 2004, to the House for consideration.
Section 327, an Act Relative to Public Safety in Somerville, can be fully stricken if the invoice passes the House and Gov. Charlie Baker indicators it. The act looking for the regulation’s repeal got here to the Legislature with the approval of the Somerville council and former Mayor Joe Curtatone.
According to Burnley, town has been working to enhance policing for years and eliminating the division’s capacity to grab belongings is simply half that reform.
“When we talk about (asset forfeiture) there is a lot of fear-mongering, saying we’re leaving that money in the hands of the cartels,” he stated.
“Well, New Mexico did away with that statewide just a few years ago. I don’t believe Breaking Bad is a documentary. That state still has law and order,” he stated.
Burnley stated a gang registry hooked up to the regulation is an antiquated software with out actual oversight that additionally should go.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”