Many students in the area may be familiar with the Mission Hill Problem Property Task Force (MHPPTF). For those who are not, it is a group of elected officials, residents and members of local universities which exists to intimidate and harass students. Consider the following points:
Discrimination: The MHPPTF defines a clear group of individuals whom it targets — students. A simple reading of the MHPPTF’s “Welcome Guide for New Student Residents” makes it clear that students are the target of the group.
Harassment: Any students who decide to have a few friends over and play some music on a Friday night very well may pay for it. Rather than encouraging neighborly behavior — that is where your neighbor knocks on your door and asks you to turn down the stereo — the MHPPTF has a designated Boston Police Task Force that will go to your apartment, intimidate students into letting them inside (constitutional rights be damned), and ID people.
Intimidation: Again, rather than encouraging students to work with their neighbors, they threaten students with legal action if they have parties. From their own guide, they refer to citations, eviction, arrest and disciplinary action from the universities. The universities are fully complicit in this, as they regularly lecture students about having any “parties” on Mission Hill.
In the famous tune “Ya Got Trouble” from “The Music Man,” a politician attempts to build support for his election by turning a pool table into a town crisis. So it appears that City Councilor Michael Ross and his thugs at the Boston Police Department have attempted to ensure their political power by convincing the Mission Hill community to hate students, rather than work to build neighborly relationships.
Students are an important part of the Mission Hill community, keeping rent prices high and local stores in business. They deserve to be treated as such, and should not be subject to the harassment of a Boston Police task force who will give no regard to their constitutional rights. Furthermore, the non-student residents of Boston are not above speaking to their neighbors and asking them to adjust the volume level.
The most disgusting part is that rather than defending their students, the university is complicit in this scheme. Students should demand that Northeastern University’s relationship with this group end now.
– Greg Kerr is a junior computer science major.
