Boston officer once beaten by police named as new commissioner
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[July 14, 2022]
By Tyler Clifford
(Reuters) -Michael Cox, a former Boston
police officer who was once beaten by colleagues who mistook him for a
suspect, was named by Boston Mayor Michelle Wu to lead the largest
police department in Massachusetts.
At a news conference announcing his appointment as commissioner, Cox,
who is Black, said that he was a victim of "unconstitutional policing"
in 1995. He likened the beating incident to other cases of police
brutality that minorities have faced across the United States.
"I was a victim of that, but that's not who I am," said Cox, a Boston
native and a 30-year veteran of the Boston police force who left the
department in 2019 after serving in a variety of roles.
Cox, who has been serving as head of the Ann Arbor Police Department in
Michigan, will become Boston's 44th police commissioner on Aug. 15 and
the third Black man to hold the position.
In a 2020 interview, Cox detailed the events leading to the beating 27
years ago.
While serving as an undercover officer in the Boston
police gang unit and chasing a shooting suspect on foot, officers
arriving at the scene mistook Cox for the suspect. They kicked and
punched Cox, leaving him with head and kidney injuries, he said in the
WBZ-TV interview.
Despite what Cox viewed as the police department's
attempt to cover up the incident, he said he was undeterred in
pursuing his law enforcement career.
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![](../images/071422PIX/news_n25.jpg)
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, acting Boston Police Commissioner Gregory
Long and FBI Special Agent in Charge Joseph Bonavolonta speak to
reporters about the march through Boston by supporters of the white
nationalist group Patriot Front during the Fourth of July holiday
weekend, in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., July 5, 2022. REUTERS/Brian
Snyder/File Photo
"I chose to stay because I believe in policing in a
community-friendly way," he said on Wednesday, vowing to improve the
department's relationship with minority communities. "The reality is
me leaving was not going to help."
Cox is an FBI National Academy graduate and has master's degrees in
criminal justice from Curry College and business administration from
Boston University.
The appointment comes more than a year after Boston's then acting
Mayor Kim Janey fired Dennis White as police commissioner following
an investigation into domestic abuse allegations made by his wife.
White denied the accusations, which date back more than 20 years.
(Reporting by Tyler Clifford in New York; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
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