Editorial: Councilor Fernandes Anderson learns first-hand Boston cops are vital

Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes-Anderson was mugged by reality over the weekend.

What was taken: her phone, and any pretext for portraying Boston Police as anything less than vital to public safety.

As the Herald reported, Fernandes Anderson was robbed during a Mass and Cass walkthrough early Saturday night.

According to a redacted Boston Police report, an “unnamed victim” approached a police officer around 7:43 p.m., and reported that an unknown white man stole her phone. The victim was Tania Fernandes-Anderson.

Why the redaction? As Fernandes Anderson posted on X Monday: “I asked that I remain anonymous on the police report. Somehow information always gets leaked. How is this keeping victims of worse crimes safe? Then the Media writes their version. Stop your propaganda. I have children for crying out loud. Front page for a stolen cell phone?”

No, not for a stolen cell phone. Front page for a Boston City Councilor who proposed sweeping budget cuts to the BPD turning to those very police for assistance after a crime had been committed against her.

Back in June, Fernandes Anderson headed the City Council’s budget process and advocated for reductions in the police budget and approved $31 million cuts to the department budget. Mayor Michelle Wu shot down that move.

Two months later she’s on Mass and Cass asking for police assistance.

What if officers had not been on scene? The possibilities of what could have happened to Fernandes Anderson are too grim to contemplate.

Thank God she’s OK, but the Boston Police must be thanked as well.

Mass and Cass is dangerous, littered with needles, garbage and crime. Earlier this month, Wu said conditions around the area had reached “a new level of public safety alarm.”

She added that first responders, health professionals and outreach workers regularly encounter crowds of more than 200 people, an “untenable” situation exacerbated by the drug and human trafficking and violence.

It’s a dangerous blight on the city, and yet the BPD sends officers there every day. Boston cops arrest drug dealers, administer Narcan to save the lives of overdosing addicts, and step up to help crime victims.

Such as Boston City Councilors who sought to cut their budget.

Fernandes Anderson’s brush with crime came hours after gunmen opened fire at the J’ouvert parade in Dorchester. Police Commissioner Michael Cox said that officers stationed at the parade rushed toward the gunfire and started applying tourniquets to the wounded.

When shots ring out on Boston streets, our police officers run toward the mayhem. When drug dealers infest Mass and Cass to sell their deadly poison, our police officers are out there, amid the needles and garbage, making arrests.

And when innocent bystanders have their property stolen by muggers, Boston cops spring into action.

As Fernandes Anderson learned first hand, when it hits the fan, you find a police officer and ask for help.

This is why we need police,  why we need them fully funded, and why they are owed debts of gratitude and respect.