Want to know the top news to follow this week? GBH News’ assignment editor Matt Baskin joined GBH’s All Things Considered to dive in.
He and Arun Rath brushed up on the major stories, including the swearing-in of Massachusetts’ new governor, legislative issues on the state’s radar and two big protests in Cambridge and Stoughton. What follows is a lightly edited transcript.
Arun Rath: So new year, new governor. Maura Healey has taken office since we last spoke, we should probably start there. This is her first full week. What are we looking at?
Baskin: Well, you and I have talked in the past about how much relationships matter in politics. No duh. When it comes to Maura Healey, we've spoken about the importance of the kind of relationships she builds with Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.
But what will be most vital, I think, is how Healey works with the state Legislature. They're back in session now for the next two years, and it'll be interesting to see how Healey's priorities dovetail — or don't dovetail — with those of legislative leaders.
Our State House reporter, Katie Lannan, is doing some work on a piece right now about what's on the Legislature's agenda. There's a whole host of stuff the House and the Senate will be dealing with. There's a push from some quarters outside Beacon Hill to make it legal for Massachusetts teachers to go on strike, it's illegal as it stands right now.
There's also an ongoing effort from some groups when it comes to “right to die” legislation. Massachusetts residents voted against a ballot initiative to legalize physician-assisted death back in 2012. And even though it lost, it stayed on the state's radar late last year. Just last month, actually, the state Supreme Judicial Court ruled that doctors who provide aid in dying to the terminally ill could hypothetically be charged with manslaughter. That's given advocates and legislators something new to chew on as they go about navigating this.
Also on the agenda are some real bread-and-butter issues: health care reform, early childhood education, the sort of initiatives you might not be surprised to see from a Legislature controlled by Democrats working under a Democratic governor.
Rath: So, Matt, one story that's really on my mind right now, probably because we have an interview about it in today's show, and that's the police shooting of a young Bangladeshi man in Cambridge. We had coverage of protests over the last couple of days and tell us a bit about how we're covering that. This is a tricky story.
Baskin: It is a tricky story. You're talking about the case of Sayed Faisal. He was a UMass Boston student, 20 years old, and he was shot and killed last week on Chestnut Street in Cambridgeport, just a couple of blocks north of the Charles River. Police were called because someone reported a man who turned out to be Faisal sitting outside, cutting himself with a big, nearly foot-long knife. It seems pretty clear he was going through some sort of mental health crisis.Officers claim that Faisal came at them with the knife. They initially tried to subdue him with what's called a "sponge round," and then fired at him with live rounds when he didn't stop.
The local Bangladeshi community is furious. They, along with other residents, have protested the past couple of days in pretty big numbers. And they're calling for more information on how all this went down.
And there's a lot at play here. Cambridge has a reputation, of course, as a progressive city — and progressive when it comes to law enforcement. You've heard from elected officials there that this is a moment to verify that reputation in terms of how the investigation plays out. And there's also the ethnic and the religious angle. Faisal was Bangladeshi — and as some people know, some people maybe don't — Bangladesh is largely a Muslim country. And some people see this as yet another incident where a person of color, a religious minority, has died at the hands of police.
In terms of our follow-up as a newsroom, we'll be keeping an eye on how the Middlesex County district attorney's investigation goes. And we'll be keeping tabs on how the community is processing this. There's a meeting in Cambridge about Faisal's death scheduled for Thursday night, where the city's mayor and the Middlesex DA Marian Ryan will be in attendance. We'll have a reporter in attendance as well.
Rath: And finally, before we wrap up, you mentioned protests. There's a separate protest apparently happening in Stoughton this evening involving the town's schools. Tell us what that's about.
Baskin: I'll keep it short, but basically the district has implemented a neutrality rule banning flags and banners that are political. Some students and teachers are frustrated because it covers things like pride flags, stuff showing support for Black Lives Matter, so on and so forth. I should add that, also covered under the policy: stuff like “thin blue line” flags, things that are pro-police that some see as the more right wing.
There are some Stoughton high school teachers who've actually faced discipline for putting pride flags up in their classrooms, and that sat poorly with teachers and with some students. So they're organizing a protest this evening. Some of them are making the case that there's nothing that's not neutral, quote unquote, about showing support for the queer community. We'll be looking to hear what they and what the district have to say.
