GREENFIELD — A pair of racially charged incidents in Franklin County this month — and a slew of highly publicized African American deaths at the hands of police — has thrust to the forefront of public discourse a conversation about laws protecting people from abuse due to their demographic.
Assistant District Attorney Jeremy Bucci said the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office has received dozens of calls this month from people concerned about the recent happenings and the overall political climate of the country. He said most callers have wanted more information about the law and their rights.
Zachary Taylor, a 19-year-old Buckland man, was arrested June 4 when police allegedly found him in a truck in Hawley with multiple guns after he reportedly released a video on social media threatening to kill black people and using a racial slur. That same day, a Franklin Regional Transit Authority bus driver named Steven Connell was taken into custody after he allegedly veered the bus he was driving off Main Street and crashed into a building in an attempt to apprehend a black man and his two sons, who he wrongly suspected of possessing a gun.
These incidents have exacerbated tensions already stoked by the high-profile police killings of black people such as George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Rayshard Brooks in different parts of the country.
According to Bucci, Taylor has been charged with possession of a loaded firearm while under the influence of alcohol, possession of alcohol under the age of 21, and disorderly conduct. The firearm charge is specific to people who have a Firearms Identification Card or a license to carry but drunkenly possess a gun. People who unlawfully possess a firearm are violating a different state statute, Bucci said. He explained the disorderly conduct charge stems from the public disruption Taylor caused in his immediate area due to the police manpower used to find him because he was reportedly suicidal.
Connell, 38, of Gill, pleaded not guilty to three counts of assault with intent to murder while armed, four counts of assault with a dangerous weapon, single counts of negligent operation of a motor vehicle, assault and battery, and assault on ambulance personnel, a civil rights violation and a marked lanes violation.
People have taken to the internet to demand the local arrestees be charged with hate crimes. But Bucci explained there is no such law on the books in Massachusetts. Rather, people are charged with civil rights violations if they target a specific person or people and interfere with their civil rights because of a bias against their “actual or perceived race, religion, ethnicity, nationality, handicap, gender, sexual orientation, gender identify or other identifying characteristics.”
Bucci said Connell, and not Taylor, is being charged with a civil rights violation because he allegedly targeted and attacked specific individuals due to their race, whereas Taylor made threats to black people in general.
“It has be a particular person. So that was the missing legal element there,” Bucci said of the Taylor case, which he said is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Joseph Webber. Bucci is handling the Connell case for the state.
“We continue to investigate any incidents like this,” he said, adding that Taylor will be charged with a civil rights violation if evidence is discovered that he targeted specific people due to a bias against them. “The information that we have right now didn’t satisfy the statute.
“We never encourage hate but a person’s thoughts and feelings are not something that the law reaches, and that is because of the First Amendment,” Bucci went on to say. “No matter how loathsome their thoughts are.”
Bucci said Taylor is scheduled for a Sept. 8 pretrial conference. He was released from custody after agreeing to conditions of release that consisted of a mental health evaluation, agreeing to not possess a firearm, abstaining from alcohol and agreeing to be monitored to ensure there is no alcohol use.
Connell’s next court date was unclear Friday. He was ordered to be held without bail following a dangerousness hearing. Peter Otten, who sits on the FRTA’s advisory board, said Connell has been terminated from his job.
A GoFundMe page has been set up by the victim’s friend and can be found at bit.ly/3dUiVas.
Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 262.