Just what is going on in Boston City Hall?
Yet another staffer has made the news — and not in a good way.
As the Herald reported, Nasiru Ibrahim, a 25-year-old property management employee for the city, was arrested following a “violent confrontation” with a State Police trooper in South Boston this summer.
Summarizing the police report, Ibrahim was pulled over in a traffic stop, attempted to flee in his vehicle, and tased the officer.
The trooper wrote that he recovered a loaded firearm “equipped with a machine gun conversion device, commonly known as a ‘Glock switch.” Ibrahim does not have a license to carry a firearm in Massachusetts, the report states.
The kicker: the gun had been wrapped in a Boston property management sweatshirt. Way to represent the city.
Ibrahim “was placed on unpaid administrative leave immediately after the city became aware of the allegations against him,” the mayor’s office said.
The question: why was he hired in the first place? Ibrahim had a criminal record that involved a past gun and drug arrest. One would think that would raise a red flag in HR.
Unless flags only go up when they’re waved in resistance. Otherwise, mum’s the word. It apparently was when a registered Level 3 sex offender landed on the payroll of the parks of recreation department. He is no longer in that job, but given the frequency of staffers being arrested, City Hall hiring is overdue for a breakdown and overhaul.
Councilors Erin Murphy and Ed Flynn are calling for “immediate reforms to background checks, sex-offender screening, and ongoing suitability reviews for City of Boston hiring and employment,” according to their hearing order.
This is apparently new ground for the hiring department at City Hall, the lapses showing up with each new mug shot. Jacqueline Cherisme, a housing supervisor with the Boston Public Health Commission, was arrested last month in connection with a deadly April shooting.
Daunasia Yancey, the deputy director of Mayor Wu’s office of LGBTQ+ Advancement, was arrested and charged with assault and battery and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon in April.
“The pattern of incidents in recent months underscores a serious gap in safeguards, suggesting additional cases may exist undetected, and requiring urgent policy reform to ensure public trust and safety,” the councilors’ order went on to state.
That’s the thing that should worry Bostonians: there may be additional cases, and taxpayers are literally paying for them. It’s one thing to series tax dollars be wasted; it’s another to learn your money is going to pay the salaries of City Hall workers who should never have been hired.
Mayor Michelle Wu mentioned the city’s commitment to its reentry services, which provide a pathway for ex-convicts to get hired by City Hall. That’s all well and good, but safety standards shouldn’t take a back seat to an agenda.
Wu is again a master of spin: “We are a city that holds all of our city workers to incredibly high standards,” Wu told reporters.
But not, apparently, in the hiring department.
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