Overshadowed perhaps by all the attention focused on Newton’s municipal elections has been the story about West Newton resident Jabari Asim, the West Newton resident who was issued a citation for unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle when he actually was at his desk in Boston.
An sssistant clerk magistrate declined to issue a criminal complaint against Asim on Sept. 8 and Asim told WGBH’s Jim Braude that he is still waiting for an opportunity to meet with Mayor Warren and Police Chief Howard Mintz about it.
I haven’t seen any reporting indicating if those meetings have taken place or not yet but urge the TAB to follow up on that.
Meanwhile, Mintz told earlier the TAB that his department would not appeal the case but stood by the officer involved.
He said an internal review of citations issued by Helms found “no evidence that he is treating any particular group unfairly.”“I would say that the officer acted appropriately and that’s why disputes have to go to clerk magistrates,” Mintz said.
If, given the facts as they have been presented to the public, Chief Mintz believes that Officer Helms “acted appropriately” in this case, then Chief Mintz is unfit to lead this department.
With recent racial profiling cases all over the USA coming to light, is it too naive to think that we are truly inclusive and “color blind” even in Newton? I think that Professor Asim will be waiting a long time for a face-to-face with Mayor Warren and Chief Mintz.
Jo-Louie – Curious comment. Why?
This puzzles me. Professor Asim had multiple types of evidence that proved he was not driving the car (not even in Newton) that he took to the PD the day he received the ticket in the mail. It should have been dropped then, but it wasn’t. But now the case has been dismissed after a hearing and the Chief still stands by the statement of the officer who swore under oath that he saw Professor Asim as he drove by while the officer was sitting perpendicular to the car at a stop light? He just drove by, but the officer had the time to notice that the driver looked at him and to decide that he looked nervous because he turned back to face the road as he kept driving. Then he got the plate number, ran it and saw the car was registered to Professor Asim who has no license and mailed him a ticket. But still he swears it was Professor Asim.
That’s why!
Is the Newton PD risking legal trouble by not admitting it was wrong and apologizing to Prof. Asim?
@Nathan,
I think the Newton PD already risked legal trouble by permitting a specious case to go forward. The bar to have a complaint issued in district court is very, very low – especially when the complainant is law enforcement. Reasonable suspicion is all that is necessary. The officer had a suspicion; it was certainly not reasonable. As to the chief’s remark about letting disputes go forward to the clerk-magistrate to sort out, well that might fly when it’s private individuals who do not know the law. When it comes to a police department which has a duty to have well trained officers who know and understand, in theory and practice, what is a reasonable suspicion versus what is simply a hunch, that answer just doesn’t sit well with me. There are times to double down – this wasn’t one of them.
Thank you, Lisap. I hope there is still time for the Newton PD to do the right thing.
I hope so too, Nathan. It’s amazing what can be accomplished when people just sit down face-to-face and listen to each other. Avoids a lot of needless problems. 🙂