On Wednesday, May 18, 2022, Representative Bud L. Williams, 11TH Hampden District, House Chair of the Joint Committee on Racial Equity, Civil Rights, and Inclusion, along with Representative Mindy Domb, 3RD Hampshire District submitted a letter to Attorney General Maura Healy requesting her office investigate the recent vehicle vandalization of Springfield’s Youth on the Move, Inc as a possible hate crime (see attached letter).
Youth On The Move provides transportation services to people across New England. The company said they specialize in transportation for children, events, groups and social services. Their vehicles are also able to provide transportation access to people with disabilities.
“It makes no sense” says Williams. “This is a business that provides transportation services for individuals with disabilities regardless of the color of their skin, yet someone decided that it was perfectly ok to slash the tires on 47 Handicap Accessible Transport Vehicles. Where is the compassion for those in need of the service? It is shameful!”
Williams and Domb collectively agreed that the incident could have possibly been a racially motivated hate crime because the owner of the company is a Black Female. The fact that the business is located in a community of color, also lends question to the motive behind the vandalism.
Springfield Police Department spokesperson Ryan Walsh reported to MASSLIVE that the Springfield Police Department has no plans of investigating the incident as a hate crime.
Walsh also communicated to MassLive that “There is no evidence of a bias indicator that suggests the vandalism was motivated by any of the criteria of a hate crime.”
Walsh continued in his statement to MassLive that while the vandalism incident was “very unfortunate,” there needs to be “overt (done or shown openly; plainly or readily apparent, not secret or hidden) action(s) that are coupled with a criminal act,” in order to be constituted as a hate crime and investigated as such.
The incident will be recategorized as a hate crime if any discriminatory indicators are found during the investigation, authorities said.
In February, a Maine man was indicted by a federal grand jury in Springfield, Mass., in connection with the Dec. 28, 2020, fire that destroyed the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Presbyterian Church a predominately Black church in Springfield.
Boston and Springfield are listed as having the most hate crimes filed by law enforcement agencies in Massachusetts, according to the 2020 Massachusetts Hate Crimes Report.
Hate crimes are defined as any criminal act which has a bias motive as a contributing factor on account of race, religion, ethnicity, people with disabilities, gender, or sexual orientation.
In a joint statement to the AG, Williams and Domb wrote, “In light of recent events, including the racially motivated murders in Buffalo, NY, and previous events in Springfield (including the burning of a black church in December 2020), an investigation will help us understand and respond to this incident, create opportunities to hold those responsible accountable for their actions, and demonstrate our support for those who were targeted and harmed”.
