Outgoing Boston City Council President Ed Flynn defended his father’s “record on race relations” within the wake of criticism that’s been leveled at former Mayor Ray Flynn as a part of a brand new documentary recounting the 1989 Stuart homicide.
Flynn stated that whereas he hasn’t seen the documentary, a collaboration between HBO and the Boston Globe launched earlier this month, he’s conscious of what he described as his father’s previous constructive management on racial justice points.
“He tried to bring the city together, especially during difficult and challenging times in Boston,” Flynn instructed the Herald, of his 84-year-old father. “I’m proud of his record on race relations.”
Ray Flynn, who was mayor from 1984-93, is praised early on within the three-part collection for serving to to heal a metropolis mired in what his former chief mayoral advisor Neil Sullivan describes on digicam because the “persistent racial violence” that continued years after Boston’s “desegregation controversy.”
Sullivan factors to an occasion the place the previous mayor Flynn, then a state consultant, “came flying down the stairs and physically broke up” an altercation on the State House steps, the place a Black man was attacked.
Ray Flynn can be stated to have benefited from his previous expertise taking part in basketball, which one commentator Ron Hill stated helped the previous mayor join with the boys at a gymnasium he ran on the time in Mission Hill, considered one of Boston’s conventional majority-Black neighborhoods the place the Stuart homicide befell.
“I had a good working relationship with Ray Flynn until the Stuart case happened,” Hill stated within the documentary.
The early reward heaped on former Mayor Flynn turns into persistent criticism for the rest of the collection, for his and the police division’s “unquestioning” acceptance of a narrative given by Charles “Chuck” Stuart, who orchestrated the killing of his pregnant spouse, Carol, however blamed it on a random black man.
Chuck Stuart instructed police a roughly 6-foot tall black man acquired within the automotive and instructed him to drive into the Mission Hill “projects” as a part of an tried theft, earlier than taking pictures his spouse within the head, and him within the facet.
The accusation set off an intense manhunt, inflaming the town’s racial tensions, as described within the documentary, which later reveals that police batted away an early tip that Stuart requested a longtime buddy to assist plan his spouse’s homicide, and didn’t query members of the family who suspected or have been conscious of his involvement.
Leadership at City Hall, together with Flynn, the District Attorney’s workplace and the police division have been confined by their mindset as “white, Irish Catholic” males, opines former Herald reporter Michelle Caruso, which made it tough for them to imagine it “could be anything other than what Chuck said.”
Rather, two black males, Alan Swanson and Willie Bennett, have been wrongfully accused of the crime at totally different factors of the investigation. Both have been arrested for unrelated crimes, however have been reported on the time as being prime suspects within the homicide, though neither was ever charged within the Stuart case.
Chuck Stuart, after being implicated by considered one of his brothers for the homicide, dedicated suicide by leaping off the Tobin Bridge. Police officers and then-Mayor Flynn held a press convention that morning, naming Stuart because the perpetrator and stating that the story he gave police was false.
The accusation prompted a “racial over-reaction,” author Howard Bryant states within the documentary, saying that the prime suspect in these instances is normally the accomplice.
Two days after the collection concluded with a message stating that the town and police division had by no means supplied the Bennett household a proper apology, Mayor Michelle Wu and Police Commissioner Michael Cox held a press convention to problem a public apology to each Swanson and Bennett.
Swanson was finally week’s occasion, however Bennett, who served 12 years in jail for an armed theft that occurred at a Brookline video retailer every week earlier than the Stuart homicide, didn’t seem. His members of the family accepted the apology on his behalf.
While former Mayor Flynn didn’t apologize publicly on behalf of the town, it was reported by numerous retailers, together with the Herald, on the time that he had supplied a non-public apology to the Bennett household.
“I do know my father’s commitment and leadership on racial justice issues, not just as mayor, but throughout his life as a sports coach as well has been very positive,” his son Councilor Ed Flynn stated.
While he’s happy with his father’s document on race relations, Flynn stated, “I also know that it takes everybody working together, respecting each other, and there’s a lot more work we have to do in the city.”
Flynn, whose 2-year time period as Council president ends this month, stated for his half, he’s labored exhausting to convey range into not simply his workers, however has challenged the town and administration to “be as inclusive as we possibly can.”
“Race relations are something that’s never solved, but it’s something that you have to continue to work on, and you can do that from listening to people, talking to people and from your personal example as well,” Flynn stated.
Tomorrow, Part II of Ed Flynn’s look-back at his tenure as council president. He will tackle the media Saturday at 3 p.m. 106 Union Wharf.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”