Speaker 1: It's Nightside with Dan Ray. I'm WBZ Constance Radio.
Speaker 2: Welcome back everybody. We have a couple of three hours
Speaker 2: left tonight. Last two hours of the show there'll be
Speaker 2: no phone calls because we'll be interviewing twenty twenty great charities,
Speaker 2: big and small, some you've heard of, some you haven't,
Speaker 2: but all of which would be deserving of your support.
Speaker 2: The twelfth annual Nightside Charity Combine. Now I want to
Speaker 2: change to a totally different topic and one that I
Speaker 2: will admit. I know the individual who were about to interview.
Speaker 2: I know how hard he and his family work, and
Speaker 2: I know what he and his family have endured in
Speaker 2: the last couple of years. Speaking of my friend Gary Park,
Speaker 2: whose family owns Gary's Liquors in West Roxbury. Gary Park,
Speaker 2: welcome to Nightside.
Speaker 3: Thank you very much.
Speaker 4: Gary.
Speaker 2: How many hours a week do you your dad and
Speaker 2: your mom, your brother, family members work?
Speaker 4: Would you say, in.
Speaker 3: Total sixty five seventy hours this time of year, it's
Speaker 3: eighty plus hours a week A piece, quite a bit
Speaker 3: a piece, my piece. My parents are both in their
Speaker 3: eighties and they've got to be here at least fifty
Speaker 3: hours a week minimum.
Speaker 4: I mean, so you give them a break. They only
Speaker 4: have to work, they only have to work fifty.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I believed telling them, you know, I'll let me
Speaker 3: retire and you can stay here.
Speaker 5: So but.
Speaker 2: So you have been hit by I would say, a
Speaker 2: string of blatant robberies and robbery attempts over the last
Speaker 2: few years. But the last couple of years. Is that correct?
Speaker 3: Yep, it's shoplifting. It's out of control. It's getting worse,
Speaker 3: and I just don't know what to do anymore. It's
Speaker 3: just out of control.
Speaker 2: Okay, now you're in this. There's a mall over in
Speaker 2: West Roxbury on VFW Parkway. There's a CBS next to you,
Speaker 2: there's a Producies, there's a nice it's it's it's really
Speaker 2: the backbone of a community, a place that people can
Speaker 2: go uh and uh and and shop conveniently. But now
Speaker 2: you have some folks who decided why not go win
Speaker 2: in shoplift conveniently, so the most es go ahead.
Speaker 3: No, no, I'm sorry, sorry, I'm just basically it started
Speaker 3: in the last few years since the pandemic, and it's
Speaker 3: just spiraling out of control. You know, You've got all
Speaker 3: throughout Boston that shoplifting is taking place. And you know,
Speaker 3: you see these on TV and you see clips on
Speaker 3: your social media that this takes place in San Francisco
Speaker 3: and they're just walking in and out of stores. It's
Speaker 3: happening here, and for some reason, it's not being reported.
Speaker 6: When we want.
Speaker 3: Call the police, I mean almost unless it's a large
Speaker 3: amount of stuff, they don't even bother to come down
Speaker 3: because no one will be prosecuted. And it's just, you know,
Speaker 3: heartbreaking what's going on.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, what is going on is that the political
Speaker 2: leaders I do not think are as either aware of
Speaker 2: what's going on or as sympathetic to the circumstances you
Speaker 2: find yourself in. And that's my comment. You don't have
Speaker 2: to disagree.
Speaker 3: I'd like to believe that, but I mean this. I
Speaker 3: mean you see CBS's and Walgreens closing all over the place.
Speaker 3: They're doing this because these places are losing money. This
Speaker 3: isn't just somebody coming in stealing a pack of gum
Speaker 3: or a lipstick or a bottle. These are multiple times
Speaker 3: a day, multiple times a week, big purchases. And then
Speaker 3: you know people say, oh, they have insurance, Well, you know,
Speaker 3: you don't have that kind of insurance. And then you
Speaker 3: have a thousand dollars deductible unless they steal a cat
Speaker 3: strof amount of things that's never going to even take place.
Speaker 3: And even if you do, you have the deductive but
Speaker 3: you barely get anything back and then your premiums either.
Speaker 6: Go up or you get canceled.
Speaker 3: So you know, small businesses like mine, our backs are
Speaker 3: to the wall and we need help, We need relief,
Speaker 3: We need someone to listen, someone to do something. This
Speaker 3: has to stop and it has to change.
Speaker 2: Well, that's we're going to try to do tonight, because
Speaker 2: what I want to do is I want to tell
Speaker 2: the story you sent me some information earlier this week
Speaker 2: and what you went through two weeks, two nights ago,
Speaker 2: Right about nine o'clock on Wednesday night, you were in
Speaker 2: the middle of a situation that to me is incredible.
Speaker 2: You're sitting at the front of the store and in
Speaker 2: walks a gentleman who takes particular interest in whether or
Speaker 2: not you're paying attention to him. What do you notice
Speaker 2: about that person's demeanor that causes you to say, hmm,
Speaker 2: I wonder what's going on?
Speaker 3: Well, shoplifters are like almost like poker players. Everybody has
Speaker 3: like a tell or a thing that they do now. Normally,
Speaker 3: you anybody else walks into a store. You know, you
Speaker 3: walk in, you're looking for your shopping list, you're getting
Speaker 3: a carriage, or you're thinking about where you're going. Shoplifters
Speaker 3: come in and they lock eyes right on you, and
Speaker 3: as they're walking in, they're staring at you as they're
Speaker 3: walking to see if you're watching them. It's like a
Speaker 3: dead giveaway. And almost every single time that's the number
Speaker 3: one thing that you look for. They just keep walking.
Speaker 3: You know, it's not like they say hey and keep going.
Speaker 3: They're watching you to see if you're watching them.
Speaker 2: So in this particular, in this particular instance, your instincts
Speaker 2: were this guy might be up.
Speaker 4: You have to know good.
Speaker 2: So you have cameras in the store like anybody else
Speaker 2: would understand the security cameras. And I want you to
Speaker 2: tell the story, but apparently i'll get to the to
Speaker 2: the point. You told me that this guy had a
Speaker 2: couple of tote bags with him, you know, the bags
Speaker 2: that you could just carry by a handle, and you
Speaker 2: had reason to believe that he had put several bottles
Speaker 2: of you know, pretty good you know, expensive brillands uh
Speaker 2: in the in the bags and he saw saw just
Speaker 2: up to the counter and puts what one bottle up
Speaker 2: there to pay, which which you knew was yeah, not reality.
Speaker 2: Let's put it like that. Don't describe what happened.
Speaker 3: So, you know, he comes in with the two two
Speaker 3: very large black carry tote bags, which you know Boston
Speaker 3: you dig about using reusable bags and all this other stuff,
Speaker 3: so it's not totally uncommon, but you know, it's one
Speaker 3: of those things that where so many people are doing it,
Speaker 3: you just have to you know, sometimes you have one
Speaker 3: or two bags, you forget to bring one up. It's
Speaker 3: just something that we have to be careful of. But
Speaker 3: these were really large bags, and we have shopping carts
Speaker 3: for large purchases, and you know, rather than carry some
Speaker 3: heavy bottles and cases beer and I need put it
Speaker 3: in a carriage. But he goes down the aisles and
Speaker 3: I see him on camera grabbing a few things, putting
Speaker 3: him in there, and again not totally I'm not jumping
Speaker 3: right to the gun saying he's stealing. I'm just watching
Speaker 3: so just to see what's going on, I walk down
Speaker 3: on one of the aisles and he brazenly walks right
Speaker 3: up and he's right in front of the Tequila. And
Speaker 3: he goes, which are the better of these two brands?
Speaker 3: And I said, well, you know, they're both very famous
Speaker 3: blah blah blah. And he goes, you know what, I'm
Speaker 3: going to take one of each, grabs one of each
Speaker 3: right in front of my face, walks back to the
Speaker 3: other direction down the aisle. I start to head up front,
Speaker 3: and I said to the cashier, you know, guy's got
Speaker 3: two bottles at Tequila. He's also got two bags that
Speaker 3: have a lot of stuff. I heard them even clanking
Speaker 3: is just make sure that everything comes out of the
Speaker 3: bag boom. I'm standing off to the side. He comes
Speaker 3: up one bottle at Tequila in his hand, puts it down,
Speaker 3: and he says to the cashire, you know, I better
Speaker 3: go outside and ask my friend if this is the
Speaker 3: right one. And he goes to walk out, and I said, hey,
Speaker 3: where's the other bottle at Tequila? And what's all the
Speaker 3: clanking in the bag? Oh, I don't have anything, blah
Speaker 3: blah blah blah. Gives me a little nudge, walks right
Speaker 3: by and goes right out the door. And you know,
Speaker 3: at this point, I know people are saying, you know, well,
Speaker 3: it's Evs. You're crazy. You've got to be careful you're
Speaker 3: going to do this. This happens so often and it
Speaker 3: is so frustrating. I'm not a publicly traded company again,
Speaker 3: so this is coming right out of my pocket, out
Speaker 3: of my family's pocket. It just it happens. It hurts,
Speaker 3: it infuriates you.
Speaker 6: And you know i'd say to people.
Speaker 3: I know you say that, but it's like if somebody
Speaker 3: walked into your house and grabbed all your wife's jewelry
Speaker 3: and said, excuse me, get out of my way. I'm
Speaker 3: going to walk right out the front door. Nothing will
Speaker 3: happen to me, and you're not going to do anything.
Speaker 6: It just gets you.
Speaker 4: So what did I do?
Speaker 3: I went outside, ran after him and tried to reason
Speaker 3: with him, tried to grab the bag. He drops his
Speaker 3: cell phone out there, so I pick up the cell phone.
Speaker 3: Now I think I have a bargaining chip. And I
Speaker 3: said to Amazing, Yeah, you know I know how. You
Speaker 3: know the police might probably do nothing. I just want
Speaker 3: my bottles. Put him down on the ground, I give
Speaker 3: you the phone.
Speaker 6: You go way, that'll be it.
Speaker 4: No, you're not looking at press. You're not looking at
Speaker 4: press charges right, I know it's going.
Speaker 3: To be a waste of time. So, you know, I said,
Speaker 3: just give me the thing. He goes, no, I don't
Speaker 3: have anything. So he takes one bottle out and puts
Speaker 3: it down. I said, come on, look at the bag.
Speaker 3: So he takes the next bottle out. He says, I'm
Speaker 3: not giving you anything. Get away from me. I said, listen,
Speaker 3: just give me the thing. He throws a bottle, hits
Speaker 3: me in the arm, smashes on the ground.
Speaker 7: Boom.
Speaker 6: Happens to be like one hundred and eighty dollars bottle
Speaker 6: that he grabbed off the counter on his way out
Speaker 6: the door. Now, I'm like, this is just unreal.
Speaker 2: So now, and you're also now the victim technically, believe me,
Speaker 2: you're the victim of assault and battery.
Speaker 3: Assault and battery, right, And you know, you know, I'm
Speaker 3: the voice in my head says, you know, all right,
Speaker 3: what are you doing? This could be nuts, but you
Speaker 3: just get so upset. And I'm following him, and I'm saying,
Speaker 3: give me the thing back, give me the thing back.
Speaker 3: And I don't remember. Wednesday night, it was pouring rain.
Speaker 3: I am soaked. I go to reach up and grab
Speaker 3: one of the two bads off of him, and my
Speaker 3: wedding ring slides off my finger. I hear it hit
Speaker 3: the ground. I did grab the bag, but now my
Speaker 3: ring fell off. He's still running away with the other bag.
Speaker 3: I stopped because at this point I was sick, because
Speaker 3: I figured I lost my wedding rink. I looked, I looked,
Speaker 3: I can't. I come back in a flashlight.
Speaker 7: I came back.
Speaker 3: Long story short, after twenty minutes. It's in the middle
Speaker 3: of the street, pouring rain. I find it, thank goodness,
Speaker 3: but I come back to the store. I open up
Speaker 3: the bag filled with bottles. Inside the bag is a
Speaker 3: copy photocopy of his nass ID driver's license, an ID card,
Speaker 3: his Social Security card. There's a photo copy of his
Speaker 3: last Boston police mug shot in booking with the crime
Speaker 3: everything on it, and another photo copy of his what
Speaker 3: he got back his personal property when he was released
Speaker 3: recently from the Suffolk County jail. These papers inside the
Speaker 3: bag that he was putting the stolen goods, and I
Speaker 3: just said, you make this stuff up.
Speaker 2: Well, this guy's this guy's live. And there's also you
Speaker 2: told me some drug pair familiar in the bag.
Speaker 3: There was drug pair of the One of my guys
Speaker 3: said that looked like crack pipes or something. I don't
Speaker 3: even you know. And there was little baggies in there
Speaker 3: with stuff, and you know, I think that's the other thing.
Speaker 3: People think, Oh, it's just taking a few things from
Speaker 3: a store, it's not a big deal. They're taking these
Speaker 3: things and they're obviously trading them for drugs or weapons
Speaker 3: or god knows what else.
Speaker 7: And it's so this guy.
Speaker 2: Probably is, this guy's probably homeless. He's carrying his identifications
Speaker 2: in the bag.
Speaker 4: Now you have him.
Speaker 2: You also still have his cell phone. I got to
Speaker 2: break here for a commercial. Okay, but when we come back,
Speaker 2: I when it finished the story, you did call the police.
Speaker 2: You're soaking we and I want to get to that
Speaker 2: in a moment. And then I want to hear from
Speaker 2: listeners and what does this say? Many people are going
Speaker 2: to sit there and I get and say, well, this
Speaker 2: doesn't affect me. I don't own a store, I don't
Speaker 2: live in West Roxbury. Whatever, Well, it does affect you.
Speaker 2: It affects everybody because it impacts the all day of
Speaker 2: life in the neighborhood. The fact that the police are
Speaker 2: not responding appropriately, that you had to wait two days
Speaker 2: for a detective to even show up. And maybe because
Speaker 2: I made a call on that one later today, I
Speaker 2: might have prompted that appearance of this late this evening.
Speaker 4: We'll get to all of this, I promise.
Speaker 2: My guess is Gary Parks, the owner of Parks of
Speaker 2: Gary's Liquor in West Roxbury, the great liquor store by
Speaker 2: the way, that treats its customers extremely well, has a
Speaker 2: great staff, a lot of family members, but also employs
Speaker 2: a lot of people from the community, from the neighborhood.
Speaker 2: And as long as authorities are not protecting small businesses,
Speaker 2: that is one of the first signs, one of the
Speaker 2: first harbingers that that community is going to pay a
Speaker 2: very costly price, that a lot of the businesses will close,
Speaker 2: they'll go away, the quality of life will diminish. It
Speaker 2: is a downward spiral. And Gary had the guts on
Speaker 2: Tuesday to defend his property, defend his store at great
Speaker 2: risk to himself because frankly, the police are not providing
Speaker 2: the protection that his businesses need. And I will say
Speaker 2: this very clearly. I have requested several times in the
Speaker 2: last year an interview with the Police Commissioner to raise
Speaker 2: some of these issues, and I've been told repeatedly by
Speaker 2: his staff that he was unavailable. We will get to
Speaker 2: all of this if you would like to chime in
Speaker 2: on this six one, seven, two, five, four ten thirty
Speaker 2: six one seven, nine three one ten thirty.
Speaker 4: My name is Dan Ray.
Speaker 2: We're coming right back on Nightside with Gary Park of
Speaker 2: Gary's Liquors in West Roxbury. This is an incredible story.
Speaker 2: You talk about blatant, blatant robbery, assault and battery. That's
Speaker 2: the price you have to pay if you want to
Speaker 2: run a business in West Roxbury. There's a lot of
Speaker 2: people who are going to be willing to pay that price.
Speaker 2: We'll be back on Nightside right after this.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: Excite Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: But guess Gary Park, owner of Gary's Lakers in West Roxbury.
Speaker 2: So the purp has escaped. You have a police officer
Speaker 2: who shows up, you're soaking wet. He takes a report.
Speaker 2: You contacted me yesterday, we talked today.
Speaker 4: I reached out to a police.
Speaker 2: Representative who I know who was upset to hear this,
Speaker 2: and shortly after that conversation the detective showed up. Uh,
Speaker 2: you have handed this detective this cortocopia of evidence. I mean,
Speaker 2: the guy's picture, his identifications, his cell.
Speaker 4: Phone, you talking about it, video.
Speaker 7: And everything.
Speaker 4: Where do you think this is going to end up?
Speaker 2: Is this something you have any confidence either that the
Speaker 2: district attorney or the police are going to follow this thoroughly.
Speaker 6: I honestly don't know.
Speaker 3: I mean, and that's the thing, because you know, I
Speaker 3: don't know. I don't know where it's coming from. I
Speaker 3: don't want to blame the police, because you know, when
Speaker 3: the policemen come down, when you call them, they you know,
Speaker 3: they look at you like, hey, if I bring this
Speaker 3: person back, the sergeant's going to say, they're not going
Speaker 3: to prosecute this guy. Let them go, get him out
Speaker 3: of here. Don't waste your time with this stuff. So
Speaker 3: is it high up in the police? Is it the
Speaker 3: DA's office, is it the mayor's office? You know, I
Speaker 3: try to I did a post for a little while
Speaker 3: on social media and I took it down because there
Speaker 3: was some political comments this. I'm not trying to make
Speaker 3: this a political thing. This is a public safety issue.
Speaker 3: This is a quality of life issue. It's just becoming,
Speaker 3: you know, too easy for this to happen, and people
Speaker 3: just just don't care. And there's a huge cost associated
Speaker 3: with this, and it's you know, people just say something
Speaker 3: has to be done.
Speaker 8: You know.
Speaker 6: I even just said that to the detective when he
Speaker 6: came down.
Speaker 3: I said, you know, I understand shop listening is not
Speaker 3: a violent crime, but I said, so is speeding. But
Speaker 3: I said, if you stop enforcing speeding and people are
Speaker 3: running over children in the street, some killing them, I said, well,
Speaker 3: where does it begin? Where does it end?
Speaker 7: You know?
Speaker 2: Well, this guy, this guy engaged in the assault, said Gary,
Speaker 2: this guy engaged an assaulted body.
Speaker 4: He fires a bottle at you. That happened to him.
Speaker 4: You told me your shoulder and your arm, right, what happened?
Speaker 4: What happens if it hits you in the head, it
Speaker 4: could have.
Speaker 3: And again I believed me, and I said, my god,
Speaker 3: I have a wife and kids. But you know, the
Speaker 3: adrenaline's pumping, and you're like that movie. You're mad as Helen.
Speaker 3: You can't take it anymore. And it's just you're just
Speaker 3: so set up, and you know, I just.
Speaker 4: It's it's right.
Speaker 2: I have I have a bunch of calls, Gary, and
Speaker 2: I want to hear from people here. I want to
Speaker 2: start it off with Larry called around. Who's the president
Speaker 2: of the bust and Police Patrolman's Association. I spoke with
Speaker 2: him today about it, and I don't know if he
Speaker 2: did anything, but it was sort of curious that after
Speaker 2: I spoke with Larry and detective showed up, Larry called around.
Speaker 2: Welcome to night Side. I'm told by my guest, Gary,
Speaker 2: Gary Parks. I hope, Gary Park, I hope you heard
Speaker 2: the entire half that he detected did show up late today,
Speaker 2: but Gary is very concerned. And you've heard the story
Speaker 2: that this guy who should be charged with the salted
Speaker 2: battery as well as robbery, may be grand theft because
Speaker 2: it was over well over twelve hundred dollars worth of
Speaker 2: liquor that this guy decided to steal, and all the
Speaker 2: evidences in the bag. Have you heard everything that Gary
Speaker 2: has said here?
Speaker 4: I hope you have, Larry, I have.
Speaker 9: I've actually been listening most of the night, Dan, So
Speaker 9: thanks for taking my call.
Speaker 7: Gary.
Speaker 9: My apologies this is happening to you again, and I
Speaker 9: say again, I hope it's okay to share. This isn't
Speaker 9: the first time you and I have had a conversation.
Speaker 9: I know you had the kids and the bikes that
Speaker 9: come in last summer. They ransacked your place. They grabbed
Speaker 9: everything off the shelves. I know it doesn't do me
Speaker 9: any good to give you my apologies on the behalf
Speaker 9: of the men and women answering the calls out there
Speaker 9: that I represent. But it's a tragedy, is what it is.
Speaker 9: And as you know, I thought we were short four
Speaker 9: hundred police officers over the last three four years, as
Speaker 9: I've been on this radio show many times, only to
Speaker 9: find out from the department's own testimony that this show
Speaker 9: way over five hundred police officers, and that includes the
Speaker 9: class that just graduated a month ago, which has a
Speaker 9: trickle up effect. I'll say in this case, I did
Speaker 9: speak to a detective after I talked to Dan. I'm
Speaker 9: well aware that there's been a draft report written and
Speaker 9: they reached out to you. I'm glad that you're getting
Speaker 9: some FaceTime and hopefully you'll get some satisfaction. But the
Speaker 9: big issue remains the same on our side. Not only
Speaker 9: do we not have truth and sentencing in the court,
Speaker 9: not only are there not ramifications for these types of crimes,
Speaker 9: we just don't have the help to help the citizens
Speaker 9: that own the stores. I mean I've been assigned to
Speaker 9: West Roxbury for the better half of two decades, and
Speaker 9: at one point in time I used to do the
Speaker 9: Christmas walk and beat down onto your shopping plaster, and
Speaker 9: we don't have Christmas walking beats anymore. So I gently
Speaker 9: challenged the department that you know, we do claim to
Speaker 9: follow the community policing model, we just don't have the
Speaker 9: bodies for it. Community troupe. Community policing means police officers
Speaker 9: walking in and out in and out of the stores
Speaker 9: down there during the shopping season. So people that are
Speaker 9: providing for citizens in Boston, like yourself, people that own stores,
Speaker 9: don't have to deal with this type of harassment and
Speaker 9: theft because the mere presence of a police officer keeps
Speaker 9: that away. So I found myself wanting to call in,
Speaker 9: especially after I talked to Dan, and I hoped I
Speaker 9: won't name the detective although I did speak to him.
Speaker 9: Hopefully he's going to be able to give you.
Speaker 7: Some satisfaction, Larry.
Speaker 2: As you probably know, I have reached out to the
Speaker 2: BPD to get commission at Cocks to come on this
Speaker 2: program for most of all of this year on several occasions,
Speaker 2: and I've been told he's got community meetings, he's busy
Speaker 2: or whatever. It's pretty clear to me that he has
Speaker 2: no interest in coming on this radio show, radio station
Speaker 2: and talking to his When I say constituents, he's not
Speaker 2: voted into office, but into the people who he represents
Speaker 2: as the police commissioner. And when you see him, I
Speaker 2: know that you have a good personal relationship with him.
Speaker 4: Let him know. I'm doing this with great reluctance.
Speaker 2: Because you know, I have police officials in my family,
Speaker 2: and I hate to call into disrepute the work of
Speaker 2: anyone within the police community. But after five or six
Speaker 2: entreaties that I've made this year alone and never challenged,
Speaker 2: once I heard this happen, I said, that's the last straw.
Speaker 2: I can no longer not be honest with my audience
Speaker 2: and also be honest with myself and not give Gary
Speaker 2: an opportunity. I've given Gary opportunities before to talk, and
Speaker 2: he's been very reluctant, but he was so upset today
Speaker 2: I felt this story.
Speaker 4: Has to be told.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I won't take up the call as times too
Speaker 9: much more. But Tom Gary, you really should organize the
Speaker 9: people that are on your Blockdad. You should reach out
Speaker 9: to your elected official. I know they're concerned about it.
Speaker 9: I deal with them on other topics, whether it be
Speaker 9: at City Hall and at the State House. But squeaky
Speaker 9: Wheel gets the grease and I'm sure you know that
Speaker 9: in business. So if i'll be I'll be speaking. Yeah,
Speaker 9: if I can be of assistance to you personally, please
Speaker 9: let me know. I'll be speaking to Captain Mike Haggerty
Speaker 9: up at the station over the weekend. He's the new
Speaker 9: captain up there.
Speaker 7: You probably know him.
Speaker 9: He's a neighborhood guy. But but it's a shame and
Speaker 9: a lot of it starts with prosecution and having enough
Speaker 9: bodies on the street to maybe persuade these people not
Speaker 9: to be in the neighborhood. You know, I love to
Speaker 9: quote the theory of broken records, excuse me, broken windows.
Speaker 9: It's one of the policing police readings when Bill Bratton
Speaker 9: was the commissioner here and I was a young officer.
Speaker 9: But it's a it's a pretty simple theory. You know.
Speaker 9: You know, you rebuild enable heard you fix the windows
Speaker 9: that are broken, because if you don't, eventually you have
Speaker 9: more severe damage. You have minor low level crime which
Speaker 9: turns into higher crime.
Speaker 7: And we all know this.
Speaker 9: We all know this to be fact. So if you
Speaker 9: want to stop this type of behavior, hire more cops,
Speaker 9: put them in uniform, follow the community policing strategy, put
Speaker 9: them on their walk and beat so they're coming in
Speaker 9: and out of your store and hopefully persuading this type
Speaker 9: of element to go elsewhere. So I thank you for
Speaker 9: the time, gentlemen. But Gary, I'm so sorry that you're
Speaker 9: dealing with us.
Speaker 7: Thank you, Larry.
Speaker 4: I appreciate it very much. Thank thank you for joining us.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much. Have a great met welcome, have
Speaker 4: a good night, very Christmas.
Speaker 2: All right, Gary, stay right there, we get full lines.
Speaker 2: I want to listen to people. I've call it from
Speaker 2: West Roxbury, Worcester, Millis, Beverly, Wealthleet.
Speaker 4: We'll get them all in.
Speaker 2: My guest is Gary Park, a victim of assault and
Speaker 2: battery and a major theft last Wednesday night, two nights ago.
Speaker 2: Simple as that it's not something that anyone should be
Speaker 2: subjected to, particularly a business person who's trying to basically
Speaker 2: provide for his family, for his employees, and for his community.
Speaker 2: We'll be back on nightside right after this news break,
Speaker 2: and you're on.
Speaker 1: The night's side with Boston's News radio.
Speaker 2: My guess is Gary Park, the owner of Gary's Liquors
Speaker 2: in West Roxbury. I'm the victim of shoplifting, actually the
Speaker 2: victim of assault and battery and then grand theft. Uh
Speaker 2: and with at this point, and this is not the
Speaker 2: first times, as Larry called her own mentioned Gary, I
Speaker 2: just want to give my listeners a chance to ask
Speaker 2: you questions or or or just commiserate, because I think
Speaker 2: that people need to be heard on this.
Speaker 4: Let's go next to Mike and Beverly. Mike, I'm going
Speaker 4: to ask everybody to be kind of quick tonight.
Speaker 7: Go ahead, Mike, Hey Dah, I am all.
Speaker 10: Right for this guy. Go over to the situation. But
Speaker 10: I have to do with soft on crime policies. Had
Speaker 10: to make it by analytical thing.
Speaker 8: But it's so true.
Speaker 7: That's what they do.
Speaker 10: And I'm sorry. You know, these smart healing and all
Speaker 10: the administration wanted to keep these illegals. Yeah, they have
Speaker 10: to fund their money somehow, and that's what they do.
Speaker 7: I'm sorry.
Speaker 2: If that's your point of view, that's fine. I'm not
Speaker 2: going to challenge you on that. All I'm gonna say
Speaker 2: is I want to bring it down to the street.
Speaker 2: Level here, because someone who's providing a service to the community,
Speaker 2: whether it's a drug store, a pharmacy, a grocery store,
Speaker 2: or or a liquor store or shoe store or a barbershop,
Speaker 2: should not be subjected to criminal elements in order for
Speaker 2: them to conduct business.
Speaker 4: That's all, Mike.
Speaker 2: And at that level, if those people cannot be protected,
Speaker 2: who is going to be protected in our society?
Speaker 10: Yeah, but that's that's what they do. The datistic attorneys
Speaker 10: and the judges don't want to contest them because they
Speaker 10: let them out all the silver things. And that's how
Speaker 10: and that's how they work.
Speaker 4: All right, fair enough, Ike, appreciate you, Cal, Thank you
Speaker 4: very much, Thanks Michel. All right again, I.
Speaker 2: Prefer people talk with Gary uh and if you want
Speaker 2: to ask any questions, that's fine. Alex and Millis Alex
Speaker 2: next on Night Side with my guest Gary Park.
Speaker 6: Go right ahead, Alex, Hey Dan, Hey, mister Parks. I
Speaker 6: enjoy coming to your store about I live in Millis
Speaker 6: because you have a good selection of you know, my
Speaker 6: late dad, you still love the the uh you know
Speaker 6: uh wines from Greece and the other liquor. I wanted
Speaker 6: to ask you were there were there any customers, uh,
Speaker 6: you know that we were there that could have witnessed
Speaker 6: this happening. Maybe you mentioned it, but I tune in late.
Speaker 3: No, I mean there were customers. Yeah, this was up
Speaker 3: at the front of the store, but I mean we
Speaker 3: have sixty cameras throughout the store, so I I in nausey.
Speaker 3: I got to watch the sky fill up his bag.
Speaker 3: But you know, it's just it's just an awful, awful
Speaker 3: feeling to watch this happen all the time.
Speaker 6: So yeah, and if he was prosecuted, you know, it's
Speaker 6: like you have to waste your time. You know, they
Speaker 6: give him a slap on the wrist. Am I correct?
Speaker 3: Well, I think that's the problem, you know there, unless
Speaker 3: it's over twelve hundred dollars, you know, they don't really
Speaker 3: even prosecute, and you know, you call the police, and
Speaker 3: you know, it takes hours to come down because again
Speaker 3: it's not a it's not a blazing emergency, but it's
Speaker 3: come to the point where there are you know, really
Speaker 3: no consequences for this. So it's becoming a rampant, rampant
Speaker 3: thing in all businesses. People are just walking in, you know,
Speaker 3: and CBS and Walgreens, they're auto. The employees aren't even
Speaker 3: allowed to do what I did. They just walk right
Speaker 3: out the front door. And it is just it's got
Speaker 3: to stop.
Speaker 6: There has to because I'm wondering if if your store
Speaker 6: was in the suburbs like say Wellesley or Western or
Speaker 6: you know, it doesn't matter, you know, any suburb, you know,
Speaker 6: the police would react a lot quicker. I'm not trying to,
Speaker 6: you know, say that the Boston police don't do their job,
Speaker 6: but I.
Speaker 3: Think, yeah, yeah, no, no, you know, and we're I'm
Speaker 3: in you know, West Roxfory Chestnut Hill, it's called I mean,
Speaker 3: this is one of the nice the city, and you know,
Speaker 3: there's a great neighborhood, great everything. But you know, and
Speaker 3: this isn't you know, guns or anything. This is just
Speaker 3: shop lifting that's out of control. And you know, the
Speaker 3: police they do come down. I get the total sense
Speaker 3: that they're frustrated, you know, because they'd love to do something.
Speaker 3: But it's almost you know, you know, it's like you're
Speaker 3: not going to arrest somebody for jaywalking. It's nothing's going
Speaker 3: to happen. And I think that's the problem. Now, there's
Speaker 3: just no real consequence for this, and I don't even
Speaker 3: give you a slap on the rest of they just
Speaker 3: say go.
Speaker 2: They're ultimately ut consequences though, Gary, I know of a
Speaker 2: family who was running a small grocery store in Dorchester
Speaker 2: and this goes back twenty years or so. And then
Speaker 2: the reason you know the family was my son went
Speaker 2: to school with the owner son and he was the
Speaker 2: victim of an armed robbery and was shot to death
Speaker 2: in Dorchester in the middle of the morning. And so
Speaker 2: what happens is that you know, they know they can
Speaker 2: get away with this, and that twelve hundred dollars, I mean,
Speaker 2: that's a huge amount of money. You couldn't steal twelve
Speaker 2: hundred dollars from most small grocery stores.
Speaker 4: You couldn't. You couldn't possibly carry out.
Speaker 2: You could basically pick the most expensive products and you'd
Speaker 2: have all you could do to carry out as much
Speaker 2: as you could. So that basically gives people absolute carte
Speaker 2: blanche going to any grocery store that you want and
Speaker 2: pick out meats, you know, whatever you can grab and
Speaker 2: just head for the door if no one's now. And
Speaker 2: of course in pharmacies you have the other complication is
Speaker 2: people are gonna pull drugs.
Speaker 4: Maybe this this is out of control.
Speaker 2: San Francisco has finally, finally decided to tighten things up.
Speaker 2: They turned out their mayor, they recalled their district attorney,
Speaker 2: and there are some reformers there who are basically trying
Speaker 2: to bring San Francisco back. Boston is not as bad
Speaker 2: as San Francisco, but it's getting there.
Speaker 8: Uh.
Speaker 2: If people don't want to it will be there sooner
Speaker 2: than we expect. If they do, don't, don't move quickly, Alex. Thanks,
Speaker 2: I got to move because they got a bunch of
Speaker 2: mother callers. Thanks Alex, talk to you soon. Six one, seven, two,
Speaker 2: five four ten thirty one line there six one seven,
Speaker 2: nine three one thirty one line there, ed Joe and John.
Speaker 4: Getting you in.
Speaker 2: Trust me on that. Anyone else who wants to give
Speaker 2: it a shot, you'd have the numbers. No calls after
Speaker 2: ten o'clock. We're going to be doing our twelfth annual
Speaker 2: night Side Charity combine right after the ten o'clock news
Speaker 2: Back on night Side for final calls of the year,
Speaker 2: coming up right right here on WBZ Nightside.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Way live from the Window World
Speaker 1: night Side Studios. I'm WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: Okay, gonna try to get everyone in which means everyone
Speaker 2: has to tighten. Let's go to Eden, Worcester, ed next
Speaker 2: on Nightside.
Speaker 7: Welcome, Hi Dan.
Speaker 5: I think you really nailed it there in your last
Speaker 5: comment when you brought up San Francisco. The problem here
Speaker 5: is who is not doing their job. You know, Gary's
Speaker 5: doing his job, You're doing your job. The people who
Speaker 5: aren't doing their jobs are the governor, the mayor, the
Speaker 5: attorney general, and the district attorney. And you've got to
Speaker 5: replace them. There's just no other And you know, I
Speaker 5: was listening to you in the eight o'clock hour and
Speaker 5: I'm really struck how that story and this story are
Speaker 5: really the same story. It's a group of unaccountable politicians
Speaker 5: who think they should rule over us, who think we're
Speaker 5: just their peons, and we're just their serfs, and they're
Speaker 5: there to issue orders and we're there to obey. And
Speaker 5: until you replace them, nothing is going to improve. And
Speaker 5: I think the only other thing that Gary can do
Speaker 5: is move his business out of Boston.
Speaker 3: I can't I have a liquor license for the city
Speaker 3: of Boys and I am you know not only do
Speaker 3: I I love it here. My family's been here for
Speaker 3: eighty coming up to eighty three years and the same place.
Speaker 5: No again, I mean has fundamentally changed. And I don't
Speaker 5: think they would. I don't think you'd be treated this way,
Speaker 5: you know, a generation or two generations ago. I think
Speaker 5: they would take their complaints seriously. These people know this
Speaker 5: is happening to you. It isn't that they don't know.
Speaker 5: It's that they don't care as unusu as that is.
Speaker 5: Or you understand and accept that.
Speaker 4: Ed, you have.
Speaker 2: Identified the problem spectacularly, but the solution, UH does not
Speaker 2: work for this gentleman who want to know very well. Okay,
Speaker 2: and again there is the issue of the licenses for Boston.
Speaker 11: Uh.
Speaker 2: And and also he is a man of principal ED.
Speaker 2: And it's one thing to say, well, I'm just going
Speaker 2: to run away. If everybody runs away, Boston becomes San Francisco.
Speaker 3: I love Boston, you know.
Speaker 5: I don't think it's I don't think it's worth losing
Speaker 5: your life over, or having an employee or a customer
Speaker 5: lose their life over. And I think we are on
Speaker 5: that trajectory here.
Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 2: I hope by doing this show tonight, we can change
Speaker 2: that trajectory.
Speaker 4: And I got to run.
Speaker 2: I got three behind you. I'm Merry Christmas, my friend.
Speaker 4: Thank you, have a great night.
Speaker 2: Let me go to John and Wellesley. John, you're next
Speaker 2: on nights. I can run ahead, John, you're there. Okay, John,
Speaker 2: we're getting tied on time. Here, go right ahead.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 12: But the fish rucks from the head, as we know,
Speaker 12: at the lower level, the mayor, the U, the d
Speaker 12: A failing to prosecute crimes, judges that that that rack
Speaker 12: up very ridiculously low bail. Higher up, you've got the
Speaker 12: governor and the legislature who grandstand by passing legislation that
Speaker 12: makes it except mentionally more difficult for citizens to protect themselves,
Speaker 12: but who do nothing to address the issues from which
Speaker 12: they need protection. The first duty of government is to
Speaker 12: protect its citizens of this, But ultimately it's the voters
Speaker 12: who have failed, because we the voters, keep putting, and
Speaker 12: I'm not speaking for myself personally, keep putting the same
Speaker 12: people back in office who do the same things and
Speaker 12: enact the same policies and refuse to change them.
Speaker 2: Well, John, I think you have nailed it. Let's let's
Speaker 2: keep growing here tonight. And I appreciate you called, and
Speaker 2: I just want to hear I want.
Speaker 12: To hear your to your your to your guest. I
Speaker 12: hope all things change for him.
Speaker 2: We do too, That's why we're doing this today. Thanks John,
Speaker 2: talk to you soon. Let's keep rolling here. We're going
Speaker 2: to get everybody, and I promise we got five minutes.
Speaker 2: That means okay, Joe and West Roxbury. Joe, first call
Speaker 2: from West Roxbory, go right ahead, Joe.
Speaker 11: Taking my call. I wanted to give a shout out
Speaker 11: the guy real quick. My brother is actually a cash
Speaker 11: inside of Gary's. I'm actually outside waiting for them now,
Speaker 11: you know, I gotta say now his family. Yeah, they've
Speaker 11: been here since the nineteen forties in this store. You know,
Speaker 11: I don't think for any reason they should ever have
Speaker 11: to move.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 11: It's just like, you know, I voted for an s
Speaker 11: ib George, which I think would have been a great
Speaker 11: pick for this city, but the rest of the city
Speaker 11: apparently wanted Michelle Wu in there. And I think this
Speaker 11: has everything to do with politics, especially with policies like
Speaker 11: not handcuffing juveniles and things of that nature. You know,
Speaker 11: there was an incident, as you mentioned before, with the mopeeds.
Speaker 12: And the scooters.
Speaker 11: They were all out, they grabbed a bunch of stuff.
Speaker 11: They left out of here, and the police advised Gary
Speaker 11: and said, they, you know, we can't even handcuff them
Speaker 11: because Michelle Wu doesn't want us to handcuff juveniles unless
Speaker 11: they're violent. And I think that's appalling it.
Speaker 2: You know, I guess what your definition of violent is
Speaker 2: If going into someone's store and ripping things off the
Speaker 2: shelf and then fighting with owners when they try to
Speaker 2: recover their property. I consider that to be violent, but
Speaker 2: maybe others have a different definition.
Speaker 11: Joe, Well, I mean it's I used. I was a
Speaker 11: Democrat for almost thirty years. I'm forty years old. I
Speaker 11: literally just switched the Conservative the day that Trump was
Speaker 11: shot at two hours before that even happened, I was
Speaker 11: switching that party on the city of Boston, dot go
Speaker 11: and uh, you know throughout later, Sean and well, don't
Speaker 11: you know it just reiterated my decision. He had told
Speaker 11: me a year ago I would be a Republican. I
Speaker 11: would never believe. Well, but that's where we're at now.
Speaker 11: And yeah, a lot.
Speaker 2: Well guess what I think I think the country's moving
Speaker 2: in that direction. I hope that Boston wakes up. Simple
Speaker 2: is that Joe, I.
Speaker 4: Got two more.
Speaker 7: I got to get in well.
Speaker 11: I appreciate your time and shout out to Gary. He's
Speaker 11: a great guy and he's a big run equationment this year,
Speaker 11: so I hope something happened bet him.
Speaker 4: Thanks Joe, Welcome Maryay Christmas.
Speaker 2: Let me get two more in here real quickly, Frank
Speaker 2: and Clinton. We're going to end with Susan and West
Speaker 2: Roxby in a second.
Speaker 4: Go ahead, Frank, how you man?
Speaker 7: Hi Gary, Sorry that happened to you, But I just
Speaker 7: got two quick questions. Why can't you hire a bouncer
Speaker 7: out of your own park? It was the money for
Speaker 7: the saft of everything. And I have big signs we
Speaker 7: we do have the right to inspect all bags, police
Speaker 7: have all bags open or hide a cop for a
Speaker 7: cop to be there.
Speaker 3: But you know I have the signs up, I have
Speaker 3: the cameras up, and I could have ten bouncers here.
Speaker 3: But you know they won't do anything. And you know
Speaker 3: you see them on TV. They walk out of these stores,
Speaker 3: they grab the stuff and if it's under a certain
Speaker 3: amount of money, there's nothing going to happen. They know
Speaker 3: there's no consequences. But you know, this is a really
Speaker 3: nice store. This isn't like you know, the wild West.
Speaker 3: But it's shoplifting that's become crazy.
Speaker 7: And it's you know I retail and it's running rampant.
Speaker 2: Well, and how many bounces do you how many bounces
Speaker 2: strength do you have in your store?
Speaker 9: None?
Speaker 7: Because it's a right big big store.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well it's a big big store.
Speaker 2: And then on a smaller store, whatever the additional cost
Speaker 2: of a bouncer or details they're going to be carried on,
Speaker 2: that's going to be carried on to customers, the same
Speaker 2: customers who are paying taxes that should be funding a
Speaker 2: police department adequately. Frank, I appreciate you, Carl. Gary will
Speaker 2: take your suggestion into consideration. I got to get one
Speaker 2: more called in from West Rogins. Welcome, Thanks Frank, good night.
Speaker 2: Let me go to Susan in West Roxby. Susan's going
Speaker 2: to wrap it up here with Gary Park of Gary's Lakers.
Speaker 11: Go ahead, Susan, Okay, Hi, real quickly.
Speaker 8: Gary's so sorry to hear this happened again. I know
Speaker 8: that area very well. My family's been in West Rocks
Speaker 8: for since nineteen fifty one, and again I've seen some
Speaker 8: bad element in that area. I have seen the change,
Speaker 8: even aside from your store. If you go into the CVS.
Speaker 8: Everything's locked up.
Speaker 6: You can't.
Speaker 8: You know, you have to ring the buzzer.
Speaker 4: I saw that.
Speaker 8: Yes, yeah, it's disgusting.
Speaker 4: And you know I was in I was in a
Speaker 4: target early a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 2: They had men's socks locked up in order to buy
Speaker 2: a pair of men's socks.
Speaker 7: You had.
Speaker 8: It's insane. Everything, the odorant, laundry deterged. And you know
Speaker 8: that's n clock village. This it's a very beautiful, you know,
Speaker 8: part of the city, like you said, Chestnut Hill westa Obrey.
Speaker 8: Of course you shouldn't have to sell your story. You
Speaker 8: stay there. Hopefully get the protection, get these bombs out
Speaker 8: of here and off the street, because it's infuriating, it
Speaker 8: really is.
Speaker 2: Also, you may have to get involved politically, Susan, because
Speaker 2: uh oh, I feel like this stuff, well call the action.
Speaker 2: There's a there's a lot of people who feel that
Speaker 2: have been given license to do exactly what was done
Speaker 2: to Gary, Susan. I got to wrap it up with
Speaker 2: Gary Merry, Christmas will talk.
Speaker 8: Soon, okay, right, thank you, and I'm very happy, Hanikah, thank.
Speaker 6: You, thank you.
Speaker 2: That was going to be my next uh wish to you.
Speaker 2: Gary I know for you, to you and your family.
Speaker 2: We'll keep on top of this, and I hope that
Speaker 2: someone in the city is going to be sworn enough.
Speaker 2: My pleasure, my absolute pleasure. I have this microphone, and
Speaker 2: if I don't use this microphone to help people, then
Speaker 2: I shouldn't have the microphone.
Speaker 3: It's I think they're out there listening, you know, not
Speaker 3: just me. All these businesses we need help. We really
Speaker 3: really need help. I mean desperately.
Speaker 2: I am there for you, and I'm there for other
Speaker 2: people who are trying to do the right thing in
Speaker 2: their community. So Gary, we'll talk soon. Please say how
Speaker 2: do you folks? Boy you're okay?
Speaker 3: Thank you, Merry Christmas, thank you.
Speaker 4: Thanks.
Speaker 2: When we come back right after the ten o'clock news,
Speaker 2: we wrap up a year, another year of night Side
Speaker 2: with my two favorite hours of the year, the night
Speaker 2: Side the twelfth annual Nightside Charity combine, Sit back, boy,
Speaker 2: yourself a glass of wine. I think you can very
Speaker 2: much enjoy what you hear in the next two hours.