Newly released body camera footage shows Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson confronted a denizen of Methadone Mile after her mugging, and was told that her phone was snatched because she was trying to take a photo.
The footage, released by the Boston Police Department following a public records request, captures the moments that immediately followed the councilor’s mugging on Atkinson Street last Saturday night — an encounter that occurred a day after the city’s new plan to address escalating violence in the troubled area was announced.
It begins with Fernandes Anderson leaving a crowd of people and walking up to a cruiser with the officer wearing the body camera, knocking on his window, and alerting him in a sharp tone that a “guy in a red T-shirt stole my phone.”
When asked by the officer where her phone was when this occurred, Fernandes Anderson ignores the question, and states, “I need my phone. I’m a city councilor. I was just taking pictures. I need my phone.”
“Unbelievable,” the officer can be heard saying, before calling for backup and stepping out of his cruiser.
Fernandes Anderson then tells him, “The password is open. I need my phone,” and points to a crowd of people where the incident occurred, saying, “He’s right there.”
The councilor and officer then proceed to walk up to the group, where Fernandes Anderson confronts a woman on the mile, saying, “He was with you,” presumably alluding to the man who stole her phone.
When the officer asked Fernandes Anderson who took her phone, she stated again that the man was a companion of the woman’s, saying, “He was with her.”
“Listen, you was going to be taking pictures,” the woman shot back.
Fernandes Anderson can be heard denying this, telling the woman, “I wasn’t taking pictures. I had my phone out.”
The councilor and the officer then walked further into the area known as Mass and Cass, where tents were pitched along Atkinson Street, trash was scattered everywhere, and a man questioned by officers defended the drug activity that was occurring in full view of at least half a dozen police officers.
Upon entering the squalid scene, the officer presses Fernandes Anderson for more information on the suspect, saying, “You’ve just got to tell me who has it.”
“He has my phone,” Fernandes Anderson responds. “He took it. He stole it from my hand.”
A few minutes after the first officer was alerted, more cops arrived on scene, one of whom asked the councilor, “What, did he he just snatch it from your hand?”
“He just snatched it from my hand,” Fernandes Anderson said. “All I did was take it out so I could try to bring them food.”
To this, one of the officers tells her, “Now you know what you’re dealing with.”
As more officers approached the scene, Fernandes Anderson said the man who robbed her was hiding in one of the tents.
Police then take a more heavy-handed approach with people congregated in the Mass and Cass zone, telling them that their tents, which authorities and city officials have said are being used to shield violence, drug and human trafficking, would be torn down if the councilor’s phone was not returned.
“She was here to help you guys and that’s the thanks she gets,” one officer tells the crowd. “We’re going to start tearing down tents or her phone better show up. You guys better get it together and police yourselves.”
A man on the Mile can be heard trying to appeal for a search to start, yelling, “Yo, where’s the phone at?” Another man then calls for whoever has it to throw it into the street.
The people then asked for a description to help with their search, and were told by Fernandes Anderson that the cell in question was an iPhone.
During this time, an officer can be heard filling in a colleague, stating, “One of the city councilors just had her phone stolen while she was taking pictures. Things might get a little heated over here.”
A woman offered her opinion on the matter, telling the police, “He probably went to go trade the (expletive) iPhone for some kind of drug.”
A man questioned by police defended the drug activity occurring in the area, however, telling officers, “I promise you they will be responsible drug users, not low-life addicts.”
After about 15 minutes, including an unsuccessful attempt to track the stolen phone using a department phone, an officer said he was going to take a report, and can be heard questioning Fernandes Anderson about the robbery.
The video cuts out after more than 18 minutes without a resolution, but according to the police report, a man returned the phone to Fernandes Anderson that night.
Fernandes Anderson told the Herald Thursday night that she was not taking photos the night her phone was snatched, but had taken it out and told the man she would take his picture when he rushed toward her and started to act in an aggressive manner.
“I felt like, let me do a picture of this guy because he might do something wrong,” Fernandes Anderson said. “And I did not. I wasn’t there like flashing or taking pictures. I don’t do social media shaming.”
She added, “I’m clinical, and I’m well aware of this population. I respect people’s privacy, and I know that they should be treated with dignity at their lowest. So I’m not that type of person.”
The councilor said she was familiar with the man who snatched her phone, saying that she visits the Mass and Cass zone often, including for charity work she’s done there and in her past capacity as a mental health counselor.
She is not pressing charges and said the man apologized to her two days later when she ran into him. Her initial reaction was one of worry that the incident left her without a phone, and a way to contact anyone, Fernandes Anderson said.
She also praised the police for their professionalism, saying that they remained patient throughout and handled the population there well — even though she asked them not to write a report.
Fernandes Anderson, this past June as head of the council’s budget process, pushed for a $31 million cut to the BPD budget that was ultimately vetoed by Mayor Michelle Wu.
