Bill Galvin, the Secretary of the Commonwealth, has allowed the Boston Housing Authority to respond to a records request with a demand for 22 thousand dollars. The response gave to requester only 5 days to agree to pay and worst of all the agency refused to see if there were any responsive records. In signing off on the BHA’s extortion letter, Galvin has ripped a giant new loophole in our state’s already dismal records law.
More records nonsense, this time from Worcester, in Massachusetts allowed under Secretary Galvin’s watch.
Massachusetts is missing from the USA Today database because our police face little oversight and our public records law is broken.
Massachusetts has prioritized golf over human life, but don't worry, most lives needlessly lost won't be wealthy, young, or white.
Yale epidemiologist Gregg Gonsalves has labeled the federal mishandling of COVID-19 “awfully close to genocide by default.” Here in Mass, Governor Charlie Baker’s four-phase reopening plans could make the situation worse.
Maura Healey’s Civil Rights Division refused to look at a simple violation or the First Amendment, blocks made by a governmental social media page. Maybe that’s because her office is equally guilty of this violation of civil rights.
The Chicopee Police Department blocked us after our last story. It turns out they’ve blocked 73 other people as well.
In Massachusetts, the records law is routinely ignored because it is completely unenforced—so there’s zero penalty for agencies that either actively choose not to comply or simply don’t care enough to respond to requests. The failure of the records law is critical because right now, it’s allowing governmental agencies to assist ICE under the table and beyond public scrutiny.
This is a critical time in our country. We are witnessing the end of due process and the beginning of indefinite detention in internment camps. Without transparency, we are allowing actors within our local government to support this historically horrifying agenda without consequence.
The Massachusetts Public Records Law is so dysfunctional that after months of appeals there still isn’t any way to get records related to how the Shirley Police Department mishandled complaints made against officers.
The updated Massachusetts public records law is worse than I predicted, and I basically predicted doom.
Police in Haverhill have set a new high-water mark for disturbing use of surplus military vehicles. The department is using the $658,000, 39,850-pound vehicle to intimidate residents in an effort to reduce nuisances. By policy, HPD allows the public to request that the truck be deployed outside of specific homes and in other places throughout the municipality.
Lawrence police are dangerous. There are multiple videos of their officers attacking people for little or no reason. And due to Mayor Rivera’s recent orders, Critical-MA is issuing a travel warning to everyone. If you must travel through this lawless area, we suggest documenting all interactions with police by livestreaming from a device held in plain sight for your own safety.
Massachusetts is now a state where journalists and the public no longer have the right to see any records made by our government for at least two months after we ask for them. There is no way for any media outlet to reliably provide timely and accurate coverage of innumerable matters as a result, and yet not a single outlet has advised the public that we face this critical two-month lag in accessing records.
Marty Walsh now champions fighting the Trump on immigration, but in the past he signaled his agreement with Trump and during his tenure the Boston Police have abused a loophole in the city’s law to work with ICE.
Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Galvin doesn’t seem to care about what the public has to say about access to records in Massachusetts. In a sham hearing Galvin’s surrogate, Steven Shorey, listened to about an hour of verbal testimony and wrote down nothing whatsoever. Questioned about the lack of notes, he clarified that no one from his office was taking any type of recordings.
The most revealing test of current laws regarding transgender rights in Massachusetts is to observe how the state treats transgender people in its custody. In this regard the Commonwealth is failing. For evidence, look no further than the Mass Department of Correction.
The police in Lawrence MA would sooner shoot a motorist than identify themselves. After needlessly refusing to identify themselves despite the state law requiring them to do so the Lawrence police escalated this minor traffic stop to a life and death situation. They beat the motorist and left his injuries untreated.
Baker should be buried in boos until he, as governor, puts an end to the deliberate and dangerous misgendered housing of inmates. His cowardice about the bathroom bill deserved boos too. To the governor and the Globe’s editorial staff—from me, a transgender woman—boo to all of you.
Massachusetts Department of Mental Health now displays 50% less references to a Nazi on their FAQs page where they discourage people with autism from applying.
Our reporting on the ongoing transparency disaster in Massachusetts from last year won one of this year’s Foilies, an award given be the EFF for outstandingly poor transparency.
If the point of “Blue no matter who” is to defeat Trump in the general at all costs then the only criteria you should use to vote in the primary is “who is the most electable candidate”. That means it’s time to embrace Bernie Sanders and get excited that he brings enthusiasm and support from independents with him.
It's bewildering to watch the Democrats place their head on the executioner's block only to be granted a stay of execution by Mitch McConnell.
Why bother follow the law when you’re a police department? Cambridge Police Department doesn’t have a Records Access Officer despite being required by law to have one.
After some discussion with Crit.news the DA’s office has agreed to fix their website to bring it into compliance with the records law
A year and a half later it turns out the premise of my award winner piece was proven correct… the Boston police were quietly assisting ICE in the shadows made by our state’s terrible public records law
My written testimony on Boston’s proposal to ban masks at protests
Michael Wilk, the Chicopee Police Department’s Public Information Officer who runs the department’s social media accounts, has been destroying public records. I have referred this apparent crime to the Secretary Galvin’s Office.
Critical Mass produces investigative reports primarily on issues of transparency and accountability in government in Massachusetts.
