Boynton Park Incident, White Privilege and City’s Racism

Boynton Park Incident, White Privilege and City’s Racism

On July 5, 2015 in Boynton Park there was a disturbance of the peace. Whether it rose to the level of a crime is to be determined. What is certain is that the City of Worcester is handling the situation differently than it did for the Worcester 4 Black Lives Matter protesters.  This difference is evidence of what some call “White Privilege” and "unconscious"  racist bias.

At Boynton Park there is evidence that many people, who live mostly in Paxton a mostly White suburb of Worcester, use Boynton Part as a dog park. There is a Worcester ordinance that prohibits the use of the park for this purpose. The mostly White people of Paxton have been violating this ordinance for many years with impunity.

When a park employee tried to advise the mostly White people of Paxton that Boynton Park was not a dog park, some of the mostly White people became angry and exerted their “White privilege” when someone building an unauthorized road block to interfere with the park employees.

When a park employee drove into the park on July 5, 2015, it seemed that some of the dogs somehow escaped control of the owners and began what some could call an aggressive chase of the park employee vehicle. One the dog owner tried to confront the park employee saying “I wanted to talk to him “. That dog owner was a correction officer who seemed to chase after the park employee with his dog. The correction officer said that when the park employee tried to get away, the park employee’s vehicle struck him in the arm.

A City Councillor, Gary Rosen, has defended the dog owners and he wants to allow dogs in the park. Mr. Rosen has also attacked the park employee as being “outrageous”.

Now compare this to the City’s reaction to the Black Lives Matter demonstration of which there is no evidence usable in court that any City ordinance was violated. The City is maliciously prosecuting the Worcester 4 demonstrators for disturbing the peace. Half of the demonstrators are Black. 

The City has not filed any charges for the violation of the City ordinance regarding trespassing in a City park with a dog. The City knows the perpetrators as most of them gave police statements against the park employee. The City has not sought an application for a Clerk Magistrate hearing on the probable cause of Disturbing the peace and Disorderly Conduct as was done against the Black Lives Matter protesters.

Let us see if the mostly White people of Paxton suburbs are treated in the same manner as the mostly Black people of Worcester’s Black Lives Matter civil rights movement.