Published June 24, 2010
NPR’s Tovia Smith reports on the Boston Police Department’s latest tactic to combat gang violence — shame. Earlier this month, I asked whether fliers that look like “wanted” posters might infringe on alleged gang members’ constitutional rights. People I spoke with about the story were outraged that more people weren’t, well, outraged.
From the NPR story:
Bishop Filipe Teixeira, who works with kids in Boston, says the fliers will make those pictured into targets, putting them and others at even greater risk.
“You don’t shame a brother. . . . By shaming me, you make me more angry, more upset and more violent,” Teixeira says.
Teixeira says the fliers also raise questions of due process. They look like “wanted” posters. There are no names — only mug shots — and instructions to call police with any information about the young men who are “known to associate with criminals and gang members.”
But none of the 10 faces an arrest warrant.
“Anytime you have guilt by association as a kind of smear campaign, especially when done by a police department, which has the power of the state behind it, it should raise alarm bells as a matter of civil liberties and fairness,” says Carol Rose, head of the Massachusetts Civil Liberties Union.
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