The Head of the Boston Police Union Was Molesting Kids for 20 Years. The Department Knew. And Did Nothing.

Every single officer involved in the cover-up needs to be held responsible. This is why we say the whole system needs to be torn down.

You see that picture right there? That’s Patrick Rose – a career police officer in the Boston Police Department and the longtime head of the Boston Police Union.

Right there, in 2016, he was testifying against body cameras for his officers. The whole career he fought against any measure imaginable that might hold police accountable for the misconduct of any form. But the whole time, from 1995 until this morning, the Boston Police Department knew he was molesting children.

I don’t mean that they heard he was possibly sexually assaulting children. They investigated it themselves over 25 years ago, DETERMINED IT TO BE TRUE, then hid it, kept him on the force, and eventually made him the head of their entire union. Even the statewide child welfare agency investigated this, determined it to be true, and decided instead to protect him, and not the children, as well.

And guess what happened? For 25 more years, he molested and sexually assaulted children all over Boston. And did so with the implicit blessing and protection of the Boston Police Department and statewide childhood welfare agency.

While Patrick Rose has just been arrested on 33 counts of molesting at least 6 children between the ages of 7 and 16, it’s expected that more victims will come forward. He preyed on these children. Even after the Boston Police Departments’ own internal investigations determined that he was molesting children, they literally still sent him on calls involving minors.

On December 1st, 1995, Sergeant Detective John McLean of the Sexual Assault Unit filed a criminal complaint against fellow officer Patrick Rose for indecent assault and battery of a child under 14. Internal affairs opened up their own investigation and determined themselves that they had “sufficient evidence to support the allegations.” And still, nothing happened. And Patrick Rose continued to molest that every child. And immediately began molesting other children as well. For generations this continued – all through his time as an officer and eventually as the head of their police union where he was the single most prominent face and spokesperson for the department.

This is an abomination. Heads must roll. Every single officer, supervisor, investigator, judge, and state agency who had any connection whatsoever to this must be held to account. The city and state, no doubt, will spend tens or hundreds of millions of dollars of the taxpayer’s money to settle with these victims, of course. But none of that is enough.

And it’s why we reject the theory of a few bad apples. The whole tree, hell the whole damn orchard is poisoned. When an entire department that has sworn an oath to protect the citizens of a place instead does all of this instead, it’s beyond redemption. It’s all rotten. We aren’t a few tinkers away from fixing this. That department and other departments across the country aren’t a few training videos away from getting this right. Hell – the officers who killed Daunte Wright and George Floyd WERE THE TRAINERS. They were the supervisors.

I’ll close with this thought. I’m calling for widespread accountability with this decades-long child abuse scandal in the Boston Police Department. Notice that I didn’t say “justice.” Yes – I am calling for justice, but that’s waaaaaaaay more than sending this one officer to jail. Justice is deep and wide. Accountability is holding every person involved in this scandal responsible for what they did. Justice is far more complex.

Let me name just a few of the people I know to be responsible here so that they aren’t nameless as this moves forward.

Former Boston Mayor Martin Walsh, who now works in the Biden administration as his Labor Secretary, hid every record on this case during his entire time as Mayor. The new Mayor of Boston, Kim Janey, a Black woman, has ordered them released later today.

The list of officers and supervisors who knew about this and did nothing is long but includes:

Sergeant Detective Eileen Vanderwood

Captain Detective Melbert J. Ahearn

Internal Investigations chief Ann Marie Doherty

Former police commissioner Paul F. Evans

Former police union president Thomas J. Nee

Judge Thomas Drechsler

All of them knew and chose to protect their friend and colleague over the children he was harming. It’s despicable. I’m committed to fighting back against this for the rest of my damn life. We all should be.