Somerville man nabbed in T attack on teens

Somerville man nabbed in T attack on teens

Joseph Balistreri
By O’Ryan Johnson  |   Sunday, December 5, 2010  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Local Coverage

Transit Police arrested a 36-year-old Somerville man yesterday who they say attacked two teens on an Orange Line train, kicking them and unleashing a tirade of racial slurs, police said.

Joseph Balistreri is charged with two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, two counts of assault and battery, threats to commit a crime, and annoying and accosting behavior for the Nov. 19 run-in.

The victims, 18 and 19 years old, told police they were on the train at Sullivan Square headed to Ruggles Station when a heavyset man in a black leather jacket started yelling slurs at them, according to the police report.

The man then allegedly approached and started kicking the girls, hitting one in the lip and another in the chest. The teens told police he spit on them before he fled the train about 11 p.m.

Cops caught the suspect on camera and released his picture Friday, leading to tips that resulted in the arrest yesterday, police said. Balistreri is being held on $7,500 bail and is expected to be arraigned tomorrow.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1300911

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Somerville cop shot in line of duty

Somerville cop shot in line of duty
By O’Ryan Johnson  |   Wednesday, November 3, 2010  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Local Coverage

SHATTERED: A car riddled with bullet holes is investigated by detectives last night on Gibbens Street.
Photo by Matthew Healey

A decorated Somerville police officer working with federal agents was shot in the chest last night on Gibbens Street when they went to serve a warrant and gunfire erupted, authorities said.

The officer was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was in critical but stable condition last night, a source said. The suspect, who had opened fire on officers, was shot and killed, according to The Associated Press. Police did not release the name of the officer or suspect.

Law enforcement sources said the Somerville officer was connected with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and had been working with ATF agents in recent months. He was with two ATF agents yesterday about 6:30 p.m. when they went to serve a warrant on Gibbens Street.

At some point during the arrest there was an exchange of gunfire, the source said.

Somerville Police Chief Michael Cabral said the veteran officer was the first Somerville cop he knows of to be shot in the line of duty.

“I’ve been on the job 23 years, and I’ve never had to come to come down here for something like this,” he said, addressing reporters with Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone in front of the hospital last night.

Curtatone said he has known the officer and his family for years. Several members of the officer’s family are holding vigils inside their homes tonight and praying for his safe recovery, Curtatone said. A source said two bullets were removed from the officer’s chest and his hand was also injured.

“He’s an extraordinary officer,” Curtatone said. “He comes from a great family. We’re asking everyone to pray for him.”

Middlesex District Attorney Gerard Leone’s office, which is investigating, had no immediate comment. ATF also declined to comment last night.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1293521

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VICTORY for Somerville Youth! The Somerville School Committee Pass Resolution in Support of the Dream Act

Somerville, MA- This Monday night with a unanimous vote, the Somerville School Committee passed a resolution that supports the concepts of the Dream Act which is currently before both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.

"I want to congratulate the Youth Members of Centro Presente and the Welcome Project for their commitment, energy and their courage organizing and mobilizing in support of the Dream Act here in Somerville," said Patricia Montes, Executive Director of Centro Presente. "The School Committee have sent a clear message to politicians in Massachusetts and in Washington that Somerville believes in all of our youth and we believe in their dreams."

"This resolution is not only a victory for Somerville's undocumented students, it is a victory for all Somerville students," declared Warren Goldstein-Gelb, Executive Director of the Welcome Project. "By supporting the aspirations of this group of students, the School Committee is helping to make the schools a better place for everyone to learn."

The School Committee heard testimonies from the students of the youth programs as well as Jose Palma, Lead Organizer of the Student Immigrant Movement, which is promoting the Dream Act across Massachusetts and worked with the students.

"My dream is to reach my full potential through education. I want you to feel my desperation for not being able to do what I want to do," testified Gabriel Maldonado, youth member and Liaison Interpreter for The Welcome Project. "I just want you to understand that I want the same rights that others have. In order for me to keep educating myself, I have to fight for it."

"All I hope is that my dreams don't get torn up apart just because I don't have a piece of paper. I want to be able to accomplish my goals, I want to go to college, be able to study and learn from my peers and become a successful person," testified Kevin Alegria, youth member of Centro Presente's Pintamos Nuestro Mundo, youth program.

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ICE Stalks the Streets of East Somerville, MA.

Somerville, MA- Late Thursday evening Centro Presente received a panicked phone call from one of our youth members informing us that ICE agents were at his house. The agents had come for an individual who no longer lived at the apartment building. Although the person they were looking for was not in the building and they showed no search warrant, the ICE agents had gained entry and were now going to each apartment and asking for people's names and identification, which the understandably scared tenants were providing to them. When Centro Presente staff arrived shortly after the agents' departure, we found a family terrorized by this experience and worried about their future.

This story is all too common for the immigrants of Massachusetts. The immigrant community is frequently unaware of their rights and the limits of the power of ICE. No one needs to open a door for any law enforcement officer if they do not have a search warrant. You do not have to speak to any officer without your lawyer present. What ICE does with alarming frequency is abuse the fact that people are unaware of their rights. Late night knocks at the door by groups of men dressed in black are intimidating to anyone, but even more so to the vulnerable families of neighborhoods like East Somerville.

Centro Presente demands that the agents of ICE respect the rights of all people and stop these outrageous abuses of power. We will step up our existing efforts to ensure that our members and the entire Latino immigrant community are aware of their rights and are trained in the proper response to a visit by ICE agents.

Centro Presente is a state-wide, membership-based Latino immigrant organization that advocates for immigrant rights and for economic and social justice through the integration of community organizing, leadership development and basic services.

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Immigrant group targets police program

SOMERVILLE
Associated Press / October 5, 2010

An immigrant advocacy group announced yesterday that they are starting a campaign against the Boston Police Department’s participation in a federal program that automatically checks the immigration status of people who are arrested. Somerville-based Centro Presente, a group critical of the federal program knows as Secure Communities, said its campaign is designed to educate immigrants and other Massachusetts police departments about a program they say discourages all immigrants, regardless of their status, from cooperating with police. Patricia Montes, the group’s executive director, said the campaign will involve Spanish radio shows, community forums, and testimonies from immigrants who she said have been wrongfully detained by police. Montes is organizing a forum on the issue at Centro Presente’s Somerville offices today with the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts and the American Friends Service Committee Project Voice.

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