Cop union president Thomas Nee blasts councilor Mike Ross over video criticism

Cop union president Thomas Nee blasts councilor Mike Ross over video criticism
By O’Ryan Johnson  |   Thursday, October 28, 2010  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Local Coverage

Photo by Youtube

Boston police union boss Thomas Nee called City Council President Mike Ross a “fraud” today over his
comments that police use of force captured in a YouTube video was “offensive.”

Ross also called the officers training into question, which didn’t sit well with Nee.

“There were officers holding this man down on his belly, pressing him to the floor. It appears to me the use of force by one particular officer was unmeasured,” Ross said. “If that is the protocol, that should not be the protocol. There has got to be a better way of doing that … It’s offensive to see. It’s offensive for our citizens to watch and its not the way our police should be performing.”

Nee struck back today saying Ross was making political hay out of a policing situation he knows nothing about and passing judgment on an investigation that has only just begun.

“He’s is a fraud that lives a charmed life sitting in a soft chair watching police work on the six o’clock news,” Nee said. “The sheer arrogance of an ambitious elected official to cast aspersions and take an opportunity in an event like this, is not only irresponsible, its outrageous.”

Nee said he hopes Ross will apologize after the case is over.

The video, placed on YouTube Tuesday, shows the arrest Oct. 22 at Roxbury Community College of a 16-year-old escapee from a Department of Youth Services lock up. In it officers appear to strike the suspect in order to cuff him.

Nee said while Ross would not comment on an FBI surveillance video that shows City Councilor Chuck Turner allegedly accepting a bribe he immediately issued a statement regarding the YouTube video.

“He reserves judgment where an elected official is concerned, but he rushes to judgment in a situation that he doesn’t know anything about,” Nee said. “He should reserve his judgment on my members until the facts are revealed. We don’t get to play law enforcement critic on television. We have to deal with it in the real world.”

The Suffolk District Attorney’s office and city police agreed this afternoon to assign a prosecutor to review the arrest.

“Its important for everyone involved that there be independent eyes reviewing what occurred here,” Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley said. “I spoke with (Boston Police) Commissioner (Edward) Davis, who has already initiated what he promises will be a complete and thorough internal investigation.”

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