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My grandfather dedicated his life to
serving as a firefighter, which caused me to develop an immense
respect for the work of our public safety officials. I am a long-time
supporter of the Fraternal Order of Police. I strongly support
measures to halt firearm trafficking, to support our police force and
put more police on the streets, to reform corrections and supervised
re-entry, and to reduce recidivism rates.
I support the police and firefighters’
right to organize. Many of our most valued police officers are not
adequately compensated for their service and are denied their paid
time off. The training programs for continuing education for police
officers are not adequately funded for those that want to get a degree
in higher education. Too many of our firefighters don’t have proper
equipment, and their protective gear is inadequate. Firefighters need
to be more involved in the procurement process.
I support measures that make our
prosecutors more effective. In 2003, I drafted a senate bill and sent
it to Governor Romney to strengthen notary regulation and assist the
attorney general’s office in prosecuting fraud. Romney enacted a weak
version of the bill as an Executive Order. Senator Sue Tucker took a
more commonsense approach by creating criminal penalties for those who
use the state office of “public notary” to commit fraud and a private
right of action to enable those injured by the fraud to sue fraudulent
notaries, which will conserve the resources of the Attorney General’s
office. I have been a strong and influential advocate on Senator
Tucker’s more sensible legislation.
I support measures to increase funding for
victims’ support, and I have zero tolerance for domestic and sexual
violence. When the Romney Administration rewrote the regulations at
the state Registry of Motor Vehicles in violation of the
Administrative Procedures Act and tried to force right wing Real ID
policy on the Commonwealth, I was among the first to discover that it
discriminated against victims of domestic violence. I designed an
effective ad campaign to advocate for victims of domestic violence and
formed the core group of plaintiffs to sue the Romney Administration
over its unlawful discriminatory policies.
Much of the crime and violence in our
cities is tragically being committed by young or juvenile offenders.
Every positive measure that helps keep kids out of gangs and off the
streets will help keep all of our communities safe. I strongly
support before and after school programs, which provide kids a place
to go and constructive activities. Simply rotating offenders through
the criminal justice or juvenile justice systems is obviously not the
answer. Furthermore, 85% of people released from prisons suffer from
drug addiction, which is why we need on-demand treatment facilities.
In order for law
enforcement to be most effective, I believe there must be strong ties
between local police and the communities they protect. I am a
co-founder of the Brockton Civil Rights Task Force on Civil Rights and
Public Safety to build public-private partnerships to reduce
recidivism, participate in the development of diversionary programs
and work toward social justice. I also supported the “Banned in
Boston” program, a public-private partnership to create an improv
forum for dialogue between local police and young people. I strongly
support community policing initiatives and opening lines of
communication between community groups, police and DAs’ offices to
ensure that the justice system is fair to everyone, while giving
police and prosecutors the tools they need to keep our streets safe. |
