Tag: massachusetts

Massachusetts Official Labels ‘Moms For Liberty’ as Neo-Nazis in Police Course on ‘Hate Crimes’

In Massachusetts, a state trooper involved in a hate crimes unit has co-authored a controversial police training course. This course labels the parental rights group, Moms for Liberty, as a “hate group” alongside Antifa and white supremacist organizations. The training is part of a broader initiative by the Massachusetts Municipal Police Training Committee, which educates over 20,000 officers statewide.

Trooper Emily Todisco, who works with the Hate Crimes Awareness and Response Team (HART), is at the center of this debate. Appointed by Democratic Governor Maura Healey, Todisco’s role involves enhancing data collection and information-sharing on hate crimes. Her participation in developing this training has sparked a backlash from conservatives who see it as an attack on pro-family values.

Charlie Misseijer, from Moms for Liberty, expressed concern over the implications of this training. He argues that comparing their organization to neo-Nazis puts families at risk. Misseijer emphasizes the danger of law enforcement materials that construct what he calls a “wholly contrived narrative.”

Attempts to get a response from the police training committee were unsuccessful. Both Todisco and her co-author, Curriculum Specialist Hannah Gianfriddo, were unavailable for comment. This silence has only fueled the controversy surrounding the training’s content and intent.

The presentation at the heart of the issue is titled “Freedom and Hate: Speech, Crimes & Groups.” It aims to inform law enforcement about local “hate groups” and includes Moms for Liberty in its list. The training highlights the group’s efforts to challenge books on race and gender identity and to promote conservative candidates.

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is cited as a source for defining hate groups in the training. Critics argue the SPLC has long lost its credibility by targeting groups that don’t align with its leftist agenda. This inclusion has intensified the debate over the course’s objectivity and fairness.

The training underlines that “hate speech” is legally protected in the United States. Despite no violence being attributed to Moms for Liberty supporters, the course warns of their “active” presence. It advises police to recognize the signs of these groups to better prepare for potential incidents.

The course suggests that understanding these groups’ symbols and missions is crucial for law enforcement. This knowledge is seen as vital for identifying propaganda and harmful rhetoric. Such preparation, the training argues, enables effective community policing.

Inquiries to Governor Healey’s office for a statement went unanswered. The governor’s involvement in appointing Todisco has brought political dimensions to the controversy. The lack of response adds to the frustration of those seeking accountability.

The Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent media outlet, initially reported on this issue. They emphasize that their content is available for widespread distribution. The goal is to ensure transparency and broaden the audience for important stories like this one.

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Feds take down Chinese-operated grow home network in Massachusetts, Maine

An alleged network of interconnected grow houses in Massachusetts and Maine that Chinese nationals operated to cultivate and distribute marijuana is no more after authorities arrested the men behind the “sprawling criminal enterprise.”

Seven Chinese nationals have been indicted in connection with what the feds describe as a “multi-million-dollar conspiracy to cultivate and distribute marijuana across the Northeast.”

The group is accused of smuggling other Chinese nationals into the U.S. to work in the grow homes, found inside single-family properties in Massachusetts and Maine. The workers didn’t have access to their passports until they repaid their smuggling debts, according to a release from the office of Massachusetts US Attorney Leah Foley.

Authorities arrested six of the defendants Tuesday morning, while the seventh, Yanrong Zhu, 47, of Greenfield, Mass. and Brooklyn, N.Y., remains a fugitive.

The group allegedly used a Braintree home as the “base” for the enterprise to cultivate and distribute kilogram-sized quantities of marijuana in bulk. The network of interconnected grow houses also included properties in Melrose and Greenfield, among other locations in the Bay State, Maine and elsewhere, according to authorities.

“This case pulls back the curtain on a sprawling criminal enterprise that exploited our immigration system and our communities for personal gain,” Foley said in a statement. “These defendants allegedly turned quiet homes across the Northeast into hubs for a criminal enterprise – building a multi-million-dollar black-market operation off the backs of an illegal workforce and using our neighborhoods as cover.”

“That ends today,” she added.

Grow house operators allegedly communicated with one another through a list of marijuana cultivators and distributors from or with ties to China in the region, dubbed the “East Coast Contact List.”

Charging documents allege that the network began operating in or around January 2020.

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Massachusetts Woman Records Unidentified Object Falling From the Sky

This week, many strange things have been reported in the skies throughout the United States, and the trend continues.

A woman in Massachusetts recorded an unidentified object falling from the sky near her home.

Pembroke, Massachusetts, resident Colleen McCormack told Boston 25 News that on Wednesday night, as she was sitting in her hot tub, she noticed an object falling from the sky.

McCormack quickly took out her phone and was able to record the object.

She stated, “It looked like it was on fire or something and it was just coming down really fast.”

Per Boston 25 News:

A woman captured a video of an unidentified object falling from the sky in Pembroke Wednesday night.

Colleen McCormack said she was sitting by her hot tub around 9 p.m. when she saw a strangely shaped object in the air.

“I pull out my phone and I zoomed in and it was right about there,” McCormack explained.

She recorded the object headed straight down in an eight-second video.

The FAA said they did not get any reports of debris in the area and was not able to comment on the video, saying they don’t comment on any third-party videos.

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Waste Of The Day: $140 For Taxi Ride Across Parking Lot

Topline: Massachusetts’ Emergency Assistance Family Shelter Program recently funded what might just be history’s most expensive car trip: $140 for a taxi ride of 223 feet. For those quick with a calculator, that’s a rate of $3,314 per mile.

It’s just one example of taxpayer funds spent on “improper and unlawful emergency procurements” while the agency was using $325 million in state funds last year to help address the state’s migrant crisis, according to a recent report from the state auditor.

Key facts: The emergency housing program was originally created to carry out Massachusetts’ “right to shelter” law from 1983, which guarantees housing for families with children or pregnant mothers. 

The program has been overwhelmed with immigrant families in the last few years. There were 3,883 families in shelters in January 2023 but 7,463 families by December 2024. 

The influx forced the state to sign emergency, no-bid contracts with companies that were charging up to $31 per meal to feed migrants on the taxpayers’ dime. One company, Spinelli Ravioli, billed the state 9.6% more than their contract allowed for 493 food deliveries, according to the new audit.

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Democrat councilwoman BLOCKS arrest of migrant who beat up her pregnant daughter

Police bodycam footage captured the chaotic moment a Massachusetts councilwoman attempted to block the arrest of a migrant who allegedly beat up her pregnant daughter.

The intense encounter took place on May 8 in Worcester – about 50 minutes outside of Boston – when ICE agents confronted a crowd of about 25 ‘unruly’ activists as they tried to arrest Rosane Ferreira de Oliveira.

De Oliveira, a 40-year-old Brazilian national, entered the US illegally in August 2022. 

While agents attempted to apprehend de Oliveira, who is accused of assaulting her pregnant 16-year-old daughter, Democrat City Councilor Etel Haxhiaj was seen grabbing ICE officers and shouting at them to ‘get out of our neighborhood.’

Following the dramatic incident, authorities said Haxhiaj  ‘incited aggression towards the police’ and ‘eventually assaulted both Worcester police and federal law enforcement officers on scene.’ 

The Worcester Police Patrolman’s Union also noted that the councilwoman’s ‘behavior also emboldened others to act in this manner,’ as many bystanders were seen filming the moment and also screaming at officers. 

Officials have called for an ethics investigation to take place following the ordeal, as Massachusetts US Attorney Leah Foley warned that her office will look into anyone who tries to interfere with ICE operations, including elected officials. 

‘This conduct poses significant public and officer safety risks. It is conduct that should be vilified rather than glorified,’ Foley said.

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Massachusetts Governor Throws a Fit After ICE Rounds up Illegals on Islands of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard

ICE conducted raids on the liberal Massachusetts islands of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard this week, rounding up around forty people for deportation.

It’s amazing to see this after people from Martha’s Vineyard lost their minds a few years ago when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis sent a few dozen illegals to the island. They couldn’t get rid of those people fast enough.

The state’s Democrat Governor Maura Healey is not happy about this. She is demanding more information from ICE, which is ironic because if she was willing to work with them, she would probably know a lot more about what they are doing in her state.

FOX News reports:

Blue state governor sounds off about ‘disturbing’ ICE operations on affluent liberal islands

Massachusetts Democratic Governor Maura Healey is sounding off about her frustrations with ICE’s latest operations in her state, saying she found it “disturbing” to hear about the arrests of some 40 illegal immigrants in Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard.

ICE, working with several other federal law enforcement agencies, conducted a series of immigration enforcement operations in Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard on Tuesday. An ICE statement said “around 40” individuals were arrested as a result of the operations, including an MS-13 gang member and at least one child sex offender.

ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Boston acting Field Office Director Patricia Hyde said that “ICE and our federal partners made a strong stand for prioritizing public safety by arresting and removing illegal aliens from our New England neighborhoods” and that “operations like this highlight the strong alliances that ICE shares with our fellow law enforcement partners.”

Healey, however, took a very different tone about the operations. The governor said that “it was very disturbing, needless to say, to wake up to that news about that activity on Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket,” according to the Boston Herald.

“Local police chiefs have zero information about what’s happening in their communities. We at the state level have zero information about what’s happening in communities. And that needs to change. We need to get answers. We need to get clarification from ICE,” said Healey.

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“Reduce the Need for Personal Vehicles”: Top Massachusetts Democrat Wants to Limit How Many Miles Residents Can Drive or Drive at All, Because ‘Climate Change’

Massachusetts Senate Majority Leader Cynthia Stone Creem (D) introduced a bill this year to create a commission with the goal of reducing the number of miles driven by residents in their cars because of ‘climate change’, with an ultimate goal to “reduce the need for personal vehicles.”

The 82-year-old Creem wants the state government to promulgate regulations that could fine residents for driving too much and force them into riding public transportation, using bikes paths and walking.

Excerpts from Bill S. 2246:

(b) No metropolitan planning organization shall approve a Regional Transportation Plan or Transportation Improvement Program developed pursuant to 23 CFR Part 450, and the department shall not approve a Statewide Transportation Improvement Program, unless the plan or program, including any mitigation measures interlinked to individual projects within the plan or program, provides a reasonable pathway to compliance with the greenhouse gas emissions sublimits for the transportation set pursuant to section 3A of chapter 21N and to the statewide vehicles miles traveled reduction goals established by the secretary pursuant to section 81 of this chapter.

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(f) The department may promulgate rules or regulations for the implementation of this section.

Section 81. (a) To relieve traffic congestion, improve air quality, and promote compliance with the greenhouse gas emissions limits established pursuant to chapter 21N, the secretary shall, in consultation with the secretary of economic development, the secretary of energy and environmental affairs, and the secretary of housing and livable communities, set a statewide vehicle miles traveled reduction goal for the year 2030 and for every fifth year thereafter. The vehicle miles traveled reduction goals shall be incorporated into: (i) the greenhouse gas emissions sublimits for the transportation sector set pursuant to subsection (b) of section 3A of chapter 21N; and (ii) the roadmap plans published pursuant to subsection (b) of section 3 of said chapter 21N.

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The council shall assess and report on strategies and plans necessary to reduce statewide vehicles miles traveled through the establishment of an equitable, interconnected, accessible and reliable network of non-personal vehicle transportation options and through land use policies that reduce the need for personal vehicles. The plan shall facilitate: (i) compliance with the greenhouse gas emissions limits and sublimits set pursuant to chapter 21N of the General Laws, with emphasis on compliance with the emissions limits and sublimits set for 2030; (ii) attainment of the numerical benchmarks for vehicle miles traveled set pursuant to section 81 of chapter 6C; (iii) the development of compact, walkable neighborhoods; and (iv) advancement of access to, and affordability of, non-personal vehicle transportation options.

The assessment shall include, but not be limited to: (i) the present condition of, and future needs for, non-personal vehicle transportation infrastructure and services, including, but not limited to, bicycle paths and lanes; bicycle sharing stations; pedestrian paths; bus, ferry, subway, and train services; transportation demand management programs; and microtransit programs ; (ii) the present status of, and future needs for, land use policies that reduce the need for personal vehicles; (iii) suggestions for optimal locations for new, expanded or improved non-personal vehicle transportation options in urban, suburban and rural areas including, but not limited to, low-income and moderate-income communities; (iv) discussion of programs and policies that may incentivize residents to adopt non-personal vehicle transportation options; (v) discussion of present and projected future costs and methods of financing those costs; (viii) recommendations to assist local governmental and private sector officials in expanding access to non-personal vehicle transportation options and in planning and developing compact, walkable neighborhoods; and (ix) identification and discussion of current policies and recommendations for policies, laws and regulatory actions that may facilitate reductions in vehicle miles traveled.

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Massachusetts City Manager Blocks Police from Working with ICE

The City Manager of Worcester, Massachusetts, has issued an executive order banning his police department and other city agencies from cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Manager Eric Batista’s executive order came on the heels of the release of police body cam footage of the arrest of Rosane Ferreira-De Oliveira, who attempted to interfere in the legal actions by ICE agents.

Batista issued the order on May 16 to warn city officials and members of the city’s police department against working with ICE. The order states that “municipal employees shall not participate in an operation led by a federal agency solely for the enforcement of federal civil immigration laws.”

Employees, the order says, “shall not inquire about immigration status nor shall immigration status impact the treatment of a resident, victim, suspect, arrestee, 911 caller, or other member of the public with whom a Municipal employee has contact.”

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Worcester Police Union Demands Investigation Into City Councilwoman for Assaulting Officers, Inciting Mob to Block Arrest of Illegal Alien Accused of Attacking Pregnant Woman

The Worcester Police Patrol Officers’ Union is calling for an ethics investigation into City Councilor Etel Haxhiaj following a chaotic incident during an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation last Thursday.

The union alleges that Haxhiaj incited a crowd and assaulted both local and federal law enforcement officers attempting to detain Ferreira de Oliveira, an illegal immigrant accused of violent crimes, including assault with a dangerous weapon and assault on a pregnant woman, Boston 25 News reported.

According to reports, approximately 25 individuals gathered in a Worcester neighborhood to protest the arrest and attempted to block the unmarked ICE vehicle. Haxhiaj is accused of participating in the protest and physically confronting officers on the scene.

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Massachusetts Lawmakers Consider Bills To Set Tighter Controls On Intoxicating Hemp-Derived Products

Massachusetts legislators this session are looking to take hemp-derived intoxicating products—which contain the same active ingredient as marijuana but are not regulated the same way—off shelves in gas stations, convenience stores and vape shops across Massachusetts.

The hemp products, which are generally edible and intoxicating like gummies or candies, have already been declared illegal in the state by several state agencies but continue to pop up in certain stores outside of dispensaries. Most of these products come from out of state.

Some business owners who sell the intoxicating products argue that the state agencies haven’t settled the matter because hemp is legal federally—through a loophole in the 2018 federal Farm Bill which legalized hemp. Hemp and marijuana are the same plant, but this law removed hemp from the classification of marijuana as long as it contains less than 0.3 percent THC— the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis—by volume.

Four bills have been filed on Beacon Hill to bring any consumable hemp-derived products like edibles, concentrates, tinctures, oils and capsules, under the purview of the Cannabis Control Commission or give local boards of health oversight to remove these products from stores other than dispensaries. Hemp products that are sold in dispensaries like CBD gummies are already regulated by the commission. These bills would specifically target intoxicating products being sold outside of dispensaries.

“[Hemp products] face no additional tax impositions, no host community agreements, no recall process, no FDA testing requirements, no age limits,” said Rep. Dawne Shand, a Newburyport Democrat, at a Joint Committee on Cannabis Policy hearing on Wednesday. “The intoxicating hemp industry makes a mockery of cannabis laws.”

Shand, a member of the committee, is pushing a bill that would prohibit intoxicating hemp products from being sold without an endorsement from the Cannabis Control Commission.

Rep. Michael Soter, a Republican from Bellingham, has two bills that would address hemp-derived products.

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