Suffolk DA is a dangerous race-baiter
By Jeffrey T. Kuhner
Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins needs to go. She clearly poses a threat to public safety and law and order.
Recently, Rollins has engaged in a bitter public feud with Gov. Charlie Baker. She is angry for one reason: His administration dared to criticize her infamous 65-page policy memo. Known as the “Rollins memo,” it states 15 categories of crimes will no longer be prosecuted—including drug possession, drug dealing, trespassing, breaking and entering, destruction of property, shoplifting and resisting arrest. Secretary of Public Safety Thomas Turco rightly argued in a letter sent to Rollins’ office that her no-prosecute list will lead to higher crime, worsen the opioid crisis, endanger the lives of children and hurt law-abiding citizens.
Rollins’ response: Baker had “disrespected” her. The leftist firebrand called an impromptu press conference, denouncing Baker as a misogynistic bigot. Rollins claimed that none of her male predecessors were ever publicly criticized. After playing the gender card, she then went after him portraying his administration as racist. Rollins said that, since there were no black members in his cabinet, Baker had no right—and lacked the necessary perspective—to criticize policies designed to help “the black and brown communities” that voted her into office. And for good measure, she attacked Baker’s son, A.J., who it was alleged had groped a female passenger on a Jet Blue flight bound for Boston. Since charges were never filed, Rollins accused Baker of ensuring preferential treatment for A.J.—a luxury, she said, most minorities don’t enjoy.
The following day, Baker cowardly (and shamefully) called Rollins to apologize. According to the Republican governor, they had agreed to hit “the reset button.”
Rollins, however, refuses to let the incident go. On Sunday, she held a rally in Dorchester in front of hundreds of community activists, many of them Black Lives Matter supporters, and boasted of how she had neutered Baker and his administration.
“This is an example of when someone slaps you in the face and thinks you’re going to turn away and cry,” Rollins said. “And you take your earrings off, roundhouse kick them dead in the face, and then punch them to the ground.”
This is how a DA talks? Rollins is the district attorney for Boston, Chelsea, Revere and Winthrop. Yet, she sounds like a violent street thug—the very criminals her office is supposed to prosecute and put in jail.
Moreover, it’s not just her tone and gang-banger language. Rollins is not being criticized by Turco because of her gender or race (she is biracial but identifies as black). This is a red herring. She’s being excoriated due to her insane, irresponsible and pro-criminal policies.
Rollins is Al Sharpton in pantsuits—a vile race-baiter, who not only hates whites and cops, but whose no-prosecute list is putting public safety at risk. By refusing to go after heroin and fentanyl drug dealers, she is guaranteeing that more drugs will pour onto the streets, more Americans will die of overdoses and our opioid epidemic will only get worse. Small-business owners will face a rising tide of crime and shoplifting. Residents will see their homes and apartments burglarized and invaded by thugs who now know nothing will happen to them even if they’re arrested. Police officers’ safety will be put at much greater risk because vicious criminals can resist arrest (and assault cops) with impunity.
It is common-sense: The less crimes are prosecuted, the more they will proliferate. Rollins’ soft-on-crime policies will turn Boston into another Chicago or Baltimore.
Yet, she now wants to go one step further. In a recent interview on a podcast, Rollins says the time has come for Boston to have safe injection sites for heroin/opioid addicts. Not only would this cause an explosion in drug use and overdose deaths. But it is a dangerous overreach of her prosecutorial power.
Rollins has no business deciding whether Boston should have safe injection sites. This is a decision for the governor and state legislature to make—not some social justice warrior DA drunk on power. In fact, her no-prosecute list is a gross violation of her oath and a flagrant abuse of her office. District attorneys have prosecutorial discretion, but that applies only on an individual case basis (Is there enough evidence to prosecute a crime? Will a jury convict?). They do not, however, have the right to refuse to prosecute an entire category of crimes. DA’s are elected to enforce the law, not to make or rescind it. Rollins’ memo is not only immoral. It is illegal and unconstitutional.
Rollins needs to resign. Rather than upholding the law, she is openly aiding and abetting criminal behavior. I never thought I would see the day when thugs on the streets and violent gang members would have an ally in the district attorney’s office. Sadly, they have one now.
-Jeffrey T. Kuhner is host of “The Kuhner Report” on WRKO AM-680 in Boston. His daily show airs 6-10 am EST. He can be reached at: jeffreykuhner@iheartmedia.com