Public Condemnation: James Carnell (Boston Police Union) calls Roxbury Youth in RCC Incident "Scumbag"

James W. Carnell
Representative, Area A-1 Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, Editor, Pax Centurion

We, Concerned Citizens, Community Activists, Voting and Tax Paying Residents of Boston, join together to publicly condemn statements made by James Carnell of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association (BPD Union) and Editor of the Pax Centurion (BPD Union Newspaper).

In the current Jan/Feb Edition of the Pax Centurion (Vol. 41 No. 1), Jim Carnell refers to the young 16 yr. old Roxbury boy who was the subject of a much publicized arrest at Roxbury Community College as a “scumbag”, Carnell further goes on to characterize the young woman who filmed the video, as is her right, as an “intellectually bereft dolt”.

The entire article is fraught with sentiments that are particularly disturbing as James Carnell is a sworn officer on active duty in the Boston Police Department. Carnell’s statements are not at all helpful to the Boston Police Department which has made recent attempts to repair and strengthen its relationship with Black, Latino & Cape Verdean communities.

Carnell’s attitude is indicative of a problem with certain officers that many of us have bore witness to or been victims of for decades. For Carnell to not only be an active duty officer sworn to uphold the law, he seems to display a total lack of respect for it considering the young man who he typified as a “scumbag” hasn’t been through his due process and the investigation of the involved officers conduct is not complete. For a Representative of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association and Editor of a newspaper with a readership of 125,000 to spout these sentiments so freely and without fear of reprimand or public outcry and so consistently over the years use racially charged words and images speaks volumes to the true mentality of many of Boston’s white Police Officers.

In almost every edition Carnell shows contempt for Black Politicians; President Obama, Gov. Deval Patrick, Chuck Turner and others.  Carnell issue after issue uses unflattering terms to describe, immigrants, Africans, Mexicans, Arabs, Muslims, “Homeless Bums”, Welfare Recipients and describes US citizens of Boston who dare disagree or question police policy or actions as “cop haters” “nitwits” “hypocrites” “cowards” or “elitists”. Carnell’s comments could easily be classified as racist and while much of it may be protected by free speech, much more of it borders on hate speech and does the Boston Police Department and the City of Boston a disservice and is disrespectful and potentially threatening to the taxpaying citizens Officer Carnell is sworn to protect and serve.

Recently, The BPPA endorsed District 7 City Council Candidate Tito Jackson. We are asking Tito Jackson to review the statements made by Carnell which overwhelmingly are targeted at the very residents of District 7 who he is currently campaigning to represent and we ask that Tito Jackson publicly condemn those statements. Further we ask Mr. Jackson to have a discussion with the BPPA regarding its intolerant statements and if he cannot negotiate a retraction or apology for those statements we demand that he refuse the endorsement of the BPPA.

– James W. Carnell
Representative, Area A-1
Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association
Editor, Pax Centurion