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City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson reportedly robbed near Mass. and Cass
Fernandes Anderson was visiting the area ahead of a City Council vote when her phone was reportedly stolen.
Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson’s phone was reportedly stolen Saturday while she visited the area known as Mass. and Cass.
Fernandes Anderson was there by herself, in an unscheduled trip to learn more about the area, The Boston Globe reported. She was visiting ahead of a vote on Mayor Michelle Wu’s recently-unveiled plans to authorize police to clear tent encampments. Mass. and Cass, where the crises of homelessness and substance use disorder collide, has been the subject of growing public safety concerns this summer.
At around 7:40 p.m., after exiting her truck on Southampton Street, Fernandes Anderson walked toward nearby Atkinson Street. A man ran up to her, told her not to take any photos, tore the phone from her hands, and ran away, according to a police report obtained by the Globe.
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Boston police did not respond to a request for information Monday morning.
Fernandes Anderson spotted a nearby police cruiser and alerted an officer. That officer saw a man in a red shirt and black pants running into the crowd on Atkinson Street, the Globe reported. Extra officers were called to the scene, and they entered the mill of people and tents on Atkinson Street, saying that tents would be searched if the phone was not returned.
About 30 minutes later, a man stepped forward and gave the phone back to police. The phone was missing its protective case. The man said he found it on an electrical box close by, Fernandes Anderson told the Globe.
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In a social media post Monday morning, Fernandes Anderson said that she asked to remain anonymous on the police report, but that her involvement in the incident was leaked to the press anyway. She took issue with coverage of the incident, calling it “propaganda.”
After Wu raised the alarm about deteriorating public safety in the area earlier this month, multiple officials called for police to execute warrant sweeps at Mass. and Cass.
On Friday, Wu and BPD Commissioner Michael Cox announced their support for a “major phase change” regarding the city’s handling of Mass. and Cass, and Atkinson Street specifically. While hundreds gather there every day, a relatively small number of people actually live in tents and tarp structures. Instead, officials said, people who have housing of their own come to the area to prey on others.
A large amount of criminal activity, from storing weapons to human trafficking, routinely takes place out of sight inside the temporary structures, according to officials. As such, officials are focusing on clearing out the tents and restoring Atkinson Street to a functioning vehicular roadway open to travel.
The city has identified and is working with the people who would be displaced by this, and is making up to 30 new shelter beds available to them nearby. That facility is meant to be temporary, as officials stressed it would not be a “revolving door” and would only be used until Atkinson Street is “stabilized.”
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The ordinance containing these plans is set to be taken up at this Wednesday’s City Council meeting. Members will need to hold a hearing and vote on the ordinance.
As such, Fernandes Anderson decided to come to the area for the first time and see what conditions were like there herself, she told the Globe. She said she visited Clifford Park in Roxbury earlier Saturday before heading to Atkinson Street.
Fernandes Anderson told the Globe she was “collecting information” and taking photos. She thought about asking the nearby officer to step out of their car before the robbery but decided that it was safe enough to proceed.
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