BOSTON — Boston City Council President Ed Flynn led Wednesday’s meeting off with a hopeful if, in retrospect, ominous plea that “we all be respectful to each other.”
Jabs between councilors and members of the public, F-bombs and even fists flew soon after.
It was clear that no appeal was going to quell the deep and to an extent, race-based tensions laid bare by the controversy around Ricardo Arroyo, who lost most of his support earlier after new information came out about old sexual-misconduct allegations.
Procedurally, little changed by the end of the meeting. Flynn, as he’s able to do unilaterally as council president, formally stripped Arroyo’s committee assignments for the next two months.
The submitted dueling formalized records requests for old disciplinary and court records by City Councilors Frank Baker into Arroyo and Kendra Lara into Baker both were withdrawn.
Little else, aside from a few hearing orders about city pools and the crisis at Mass and Cass, were entered. But this meeting will go down in history for the rancor and fight between opposing protest groups in and outside council chambers.
Councilors Tania Fernandes Anderson, Lara and Julia Mejia account for nearly all of the politicians in Boston still supporting Arroyo after nearly everyone else, including multiple other councilors, the mayor and federal pols all pulled support. Tensions that had bubbled just under the surface for the rest of the meeting flared up toward the end as the topic of redistricting came up, a committee Arroyo had chaired but no longer would for the next two months.
Fernandes Anderson in an impassioned speech spoke of Arroyo and other councilors of color being “held to a different standard” and dropped an F-bomb as she spoke of people being “lynched” as she said the legal system should decide Arroyo’s fate rather than the council.
This, though, was barely an escalation in language from Baker’s comments on his own to-be-withdrawn records request, when he said, with Arroyo sitting quietly beside him, “If a predator continues to roam, the killing field only becomes larger.”
Lara then took aim at City Councilor Erin Murphy’s sister, saying that Darragh Murphy on Twitter had led “racist volatile attacks against councilors of color” and that Murphy wasn’t doing anything about it despite requests. Lara said the sister is “leading a violent, online lynch mob.”
Murphy, speaking to reporters later, said she “cannot be responsible” for any other family members. She added of the council, “We’re just breaking all the rules at the council meetings, yelling at each other.”
Arroyo, for his part, was largely quiet during the meeting, just speaking about his problems with an unrelated hearing order. After the council meeting, he spoke to reporters, saying he’s not dropping out of the DA race and adding that he believes “here was an opportunity seized here” to take redistricting away from him.
Amidst the arguments during the redistricting talk, Flynn had enough of the two groups of protesters who had been sniping at councilors and each other all meeting: some women there in support of Arroyo and the councilors on his side such as Lara, whose office they ended up in before leaving; and a group of anti-Arroyo protesters, who included familiar faces from the anti-vaccine-mandate demonstrations outside Mayor Michelle Wu’s house earlier this year.
Flynn, after a final warning, booted both groups — and the two sides came together yelling insults and eventually scrapping outside, having to be separated from each other by police.
One man was arrested, and the anti-Arroyo protesters said it was one of them. Cops said he was going to be charged with assault and battery.
After an extended recess including Flynn telling all councilors to come back with him into council offices, the council resumed and quickly adjourned, though roving bands of agitators continued to chant at each other and councilors outside in the hallways of City Hall.
Flynn, in a statement after the meeting, said, “As we move forward during these challenging times in our city and country, it is critical that members of the Boston City Council always look to treat each other with respect and dignity, to listen to one another, and learn from each other’s lived experiences regardless of our views and differences of opinion.”
One city council insider told the Herald after the meeting that it was a “sad day” for the body, and that “This is what happens when councilors don’t act as upstanding citizens.”
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