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Boston’s Mass and Cass Engagement Center to close temporarily after violence

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Boston’s Mass and Cass Engagement Center to close temporarily after violence


The Mass and Cass Engagement Middle will shut till subsequent week after a swell of violence in and round it, with the town saying “public security necessitates” the closure.

“Our strategy to the crises centered within the space often called Mass and Cass have at all times been centered on public well being and security,” a spokesman for Mayor Michelle Wu stated in a press release Wednesday evening.

“Proper now, public security necessitates that we shut down Atkinson Avenue, together with the Engagement Middle, for a couple of days. Outreach groups will proceed to work within the space to offer providers to people who want them. We are going to proceed to supply transportation to daytime service facilities in Boston,” the spokesman added.

Atkinson is the guts of the world often called Mass and Cass or Methadone Mile, the place open-air drug dealing and use predominate. Although the Wu administration cleared away the hundreds-strong tent metropolis that sprung up across the space over the previous 12 months, the inhabitants on the streets seems to have swelled again up, notably on Atkinson and particularly across the Engagement Middle, which simply opened up a couple of months in the past in an effort to attach the folks within the space battling dependancy and mental-health points with providers.

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Employees was instructed that the middle could be closed till Monday or Tuesday as Boston Police shut down Atkinson for a couple of days of police work and “decongestion.”

Simply this week, two totally different folks had been stabbed inside the shelter, with three extra occurring within the surrounding blocks over three days. One man was arrested in one of many incidents, and nobody was killed.

“That is only a preview for what we’ll start to see because the climate modifications and will get hotter,” stated Steve Fox of the South Finish Discussion board neighborhood group. “It’s time for us to reevaluate the effectiveness and objective of the engagement middle. Proper now it’s extra of a clubhouse for the sorts of offers which can be taking place inside the Mass and Cass space in addition to the violence that we’re seeing.”

This momentary closure has echoes of the previous “consolation station” there that authorities needed to pull the plug on final 12 months as a result of it grew to become too harmful to function.

One Boston Public Well being Fee worker instructed the Herald that “some staffers are scared to come back to work” within the Engagement Middle given the situations there.

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“You by no means know what’s going to occur,” stated the worker. “Knives, hammers, machetes — they’ve all that of their baggage.”

He additionally stated “drug sellers hand around in the Engagement Middle” to take a load off and scope out what’s happening, after which they make gross sales and ship addicts off to fulfill up with runners.

Neal O’Brien of SEIU 888, which represents the Engagement Middle employees, stated “Staff are frightened to go to work as a result of a few of them really feel threatened” — and they’re frightened to talk up due to retribution at work, he stated.

The Mass and Cass space, within the South Finish or Newmarket a part of Boston, has struggled for years. Significantly after the restoration providers on Boston’s Lengthy Island closed and homeless shelters and methadone clinics centralized within the outdated industrial space, folks from all around the area have congregated there to promote, purchase and do medicine and reside on the streets.

The realm reached probably an all-time low final 12 months when a number of folks had been killed there and a blocks-long tent metropolis flourished. Wu’s administration cleared away the tents, however issues stay.

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The matter of public security at Mass and Cass will probably be a focal point within the present Suffolk District Lawyer race. DA Kevin Hayden’s workplace stated in a press release that he’s “keenly conscious of the quite a few issues related to the Mass and Cass space and we’re working with all of our legislation enforcement companions to handle the world’s many challenges.”

“We’ll proceed to prosecute each time warranted, equivalent to in circumstances of violence or exploitation, however lots of the points related to Mass and Cass is not going to be solved in courtrooms,” Hayden’s workplace stated.

Metropolis Councilor Ricardo Arroyo, who’s operating for DA and beforehand opposed efforts to oust the tent metropolis that developed within the space final 12 months, didn’t reply to a request for remark.



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Boston, MA

‘Absolutely looked real’: Text scam about unpaid parking ticket saturates Boston area codes

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‘Absolutely looked real’: Text scam about unpaid parking ticket saturates Boston area codes


‘Absolutely looked real’: Text scam about unpaid parking ticket saturates Boston area codes

Boston Police are issuing an alert regarding a text message scam about an ‘unpaid parking invoice’ that’s been saturating Boston area codes since Saturday.

The fraudulent message from a Montreal area code, which uses the city’s logo, instructs people to pay $4.35 to avoid ‘late fees of 35$’.

It provides a link to a deceptive .com website that is not the boston.gov website.

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At-large City Councilor Erin Murphy is among the growing list of people targeted by the scam over the weekend.

“At first glance, absolutely looked real. Could easily scam people,” said Murphy. “Almost everyone I talked to, they got it or someone in their household got it.”

Murphy said she’s heard directly from people who were tricked by the message and compromised their banking information.

“It’s scary to know that someone was able to send that many text messages out, and they were targeting Boston phone numbers,” she said.

Boston police are still trying to figure out what phone database the scammers accessed and exactly how many people received the text message scam.

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“They definitely got a lot of people, and the amount, $4.35, a few people said that was the fee they paid at a parking meter,” said Murphy. “It directed them to a website that looked very similar to the city of Boston website.”

Boston 25 News spoke with a handful of people who received the fraudulent message.

Some said they too almost fell for it.

One person said they didn’t own a vehicle and knew it was a scam right away.

The message has some grammatical errors and uses a ‘$’ sign after the number 35.

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Boston 25 News called the phone number it came from, and it went directly to a voice message in French.

“Don’t feel embarrassed if you did pay it,” added Murphy. “Let us know so we can help track to make sure there’s no fraud going on or no money taken.”

While city officials recently announced a significant drop in violent crime and other serious crimes, one of the crimes that remain on the rise is financial fraud.

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Boston, MA

Army Drops Second Conference Game in Hard-Fought Contest Against Boston

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Army Drops Second Conference Game in Hard-Fought Contest Against Boston


The Army Black Knights (6-8, 0-2 conference) went east to try and record their first conference win of the season when facing off against a perennial Patriot League powerhouse Boston University (7-8,1-1), but they dropped their second contest in as many games, losing 71-63.

It’s been an up-and-down campaign for Army.

They have dominated some of the lesser opponents on their schedule, while also getting blown out when stepping up in class, and losing some shootouts to teams who are roughly on the same level as them.

That brought Army into their first Patriot League matchup against Colgate (4-10, 1-0) with a 6-6 record, but after dropping that contest and now losing to Boston, they now sit two games under .500.

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The first half against the Terriers was a shootout.

Army got out to a hot start, taking an 8-2 lead just under three minutes after tip, but once Boston found their footing a bit, it started to turn into a back-and-forth affair.

The Black Knights were able to take control during the middle portion of the first half, getting out to a double-digit lead at the 9:37 mark. But a strong four-minute stretch to close things out saw the Terriers erase a six-point deficit and head into the locker room up, 40-35.

This was a lead Boston never relinquished.

Army tried to nudge back in front at multiple points during the second half, going on a 9-0 run to make it a three-point game with roughly 14 minutes left and fighting back to get within one point with 7:14 remaining.

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But, it wasn’t enough for them to win their first conference game of the year.

Senior guard Jalen Rucker led the way for Army in the scoring department, putting up 17 points on 7-for-18 shooting from the field and 2-for-5 from deep. He was joined in double figures by fellow starters Ryan Curry and Josh Scovens, who both had 13.

Michael McNair led Boston with 17 points of his own. Miles Brewster was the only other starter for the Terriers to score double-digits, but Ben Roy and Ben Palacios added 12 and 10 off the bench respectively.

Army was dynamic from deep, shooting 42.3% (11-26), but they struggled from the floor overall in comparison by going 40.7% (24-59).

Boston was able to outlast the Black Knights by shotting 50.9% (27-53) from the field and 39.1% from 3-point range (9-23).

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Army will try to secure their first Patriot League win of the season when they welcome Loyola MD (6-7, 1-1) to Christl Arena on Jan. 8 at 6 p.m. EST with the game broadcasted on ESPN+.



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Boston, MA

Death investigation in Charlestown after man found shot in 7-Eleven parking lot

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Death investigation in Charlestown after man found shot in 7-Eleven parking lot


A man was found dead in the parking lot of a 7-Eleven in Boston’s Charlestown neighborhood late Saturday night, according to police, who say he had been shot.

Boston police announced Sunday that there is a death investigation underway at 140 Main Street after officers responded around 10:33 p.m. the night before to a report of a pedestrian struck there and found an adult male lying on the ground in the convenience store’s parking lot.

Further investigation revealed the victim had been shot, police said, and he was pronounced dead on scene by Boston EMS. His name has not been released.

Police haven’t shared more information about the incident at this time.

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The Boston Police Department’s homicide unit is actively investigating what happened, and anyone with information is strongly urged to contact detectives at 617-343-4470. Anonymous tips can also be called into the CrimeStoppers tip line at 1-800-494-TIPS, or texted to CRIME (27463) with the word “TIP.”



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