A Question for Maura Healey Supporters About Playing With Fire

Printed from: https://newbostonpost.com/2022/01/24/a-question-for-maura-healey-supporters-about-playing-with-fire/

Picture Maura Healey reading an 18-minute speech from her computer on a Zoom call with the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce.

It’s Tuesday, June 2, 2020. Eight days before, a black man died in Minneapolis, Minnesota after a white police officer put his knee on the man’s neck for more than eight minutes. Riots ensued. Rioters set nearly 150 fires in Minneapolis. Two people died.

It’s two nights after rioters in Boston damaged 125 businesses in Downtown Crossing and the Back Bay. At least 72 were looted. Some were set on fire.

Comparable riots took place during the previous several days in dozens of cities. About 19 people are thought to have died nationwide.

What does Maura Healey, the attorney general of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, say about this situation?

 

Every one of us has a chance to change society. And working together, we can. Yes, America is burning. But that’s how forests grow.

 

This wasn’t an idle, throwaway comment. She didn’t say it off the cuff. It wasn’t in response to a question, or under any sort of pressure.

These were the final words of her prewritten speech.

Think we’re playing gotcha with words taken out of context?

Here’s how she looked just after pronouncing the words “America is burning” – with a tight smile suggesting she’s confident she’s about to deliver a well-crafted line:

 

Here’s the whole clip:

 

Heck, watch the whole speech if you want. It begins here.

If you do, you’ll see there aren’t too many ways to interpret what Healey said. If her premeditated statement wasn’t an endorsement of arson, it surely belittled it. She made it clear she wasn’t concerned about business owners or cops or bystanders who got in the way. Something important was happening with these riots. And that importance had nothing to do with people whose lives were upended – or, in some cases, ended.

What was (and remains) Maura Healey’s role in society when she said these words?

Why, she was (and remains) the attorney general of Massachusetts – the elected state official entrusted with enforcing the laws of our state.

She’s the 44th attorney general of Massachusetts since independence, and surely the first to suggest that laws that protect the property and lives of citizens of the state aren’t that important when it comes to arson.

We see no evidence that Healey has ever apologized for these comments or sought to withdraw them.

Last week, Healey announced that she is running for governor of Massachusetts. She has more name recognition and far more money in her campaign account than anyone else in the race. When the first public poll comes out, it will show her leading the pack.

That leads to a question, for people thinking about voting for Healey this fall:

Given what she said about burning and forests …

Why should Maura Healey be elected to anything ever again?

 

New to NewBostonPost?  Conservative media is hard to find in Massachusetts.  But you’ve found it.  Now dip your toe in the water for two bucks — $2 for two months.  And join the real revolution.