Pete Buttigieg pushed to probe MBTA on night of looting, cruiser torching in Boston

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is being pressed to probe why the MBTA shut down several stations, stranding hundreds last spring, after a Black Lives Matter protest that later turned violent.

A group of Boston lawyers on Tuesday sent a letter to Buttigieg and the Federal Transit Administration, asking that it conduct an “immediate compliance review” of the T.

Lawyers for Civil Rights specifically asked the FTA to immediately review whether the T is in compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits any agency that receives federal funds from discriminating on the basis of race, color or national origin. Many of those stranded were minorities.

The request came after the lawyers’ yearlong investigation of the MBTA’s policies and procedures governing when it may lawfully suspend public transportation services.

“It was pretty shocking to us to learn that the MBTA doesn’t have written policies and guidance detailing when it is lawful and appropriate to shut down transportation at stations, except for weather and maintenance,” said Nina Garcia, one of the letter’s authors.

She added: “The fact that stations were shut down after this major Black Lives Matter protest really suggests that this overreaction was based on the race and identity of the protesters and their affiliation to Black Lives Matter.”

The May 31, 2020, gathering took a violent turn with stores being looted, a Boston police cruiser torched and an officer even shot at. The Army National Guard was called in to help keep the peace and remained downtown for a week.

In a statement on Tuesday, MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said: That night, “in coordination with local officials and local law enforcement entities, the decision was made to close some stations when, in the opinion of the Transit Police Incident Commander, outside activity posed a danger to the safe operation of the station and transit activity.”

He added the near-riot posed “significant risks to riders, T employees and critical T assets.”

But Lawyers for Civil Rights argued that rather than keeping people safe, the closing of several key stations only put them at risk.

“Rather than ensuring the safety of the peaceful Black Lives Matter protestors,” the letter said, “the unnecessary shut-down endangered protestors and other transit-dependent people who were forced to navigate through the heavy police presence by foot.”

Erin Tiernan contributed to this report.

 

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3uLHUnM