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Boston Globe
17-07-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
John Lawn, Watertown state lawmaker, pleads not guilty to drunken driving charge
Lawn, wearing a checkered navy blue suit, did not speak during his brief arraignment in Boston Municipal Court in downtown Boston. A judge said he cannot drive, and set Aug. 1 for his next court appearance. Lawn told responding officers that 'I am a state rep,' and that he was coming from an event at the State House when he was arrested, according to According to a heavily redacted report Boston Police released Wednesday, officers found Lawn sitting in his heavily damaged GMC Yukon near the corner of Beacon and Bowdoin streets after a bystander flagged down officers. Advertisement The bystander told police that he saw Lawn's SUV strike another vehicle on nearby Hancock Street, and drive away. He said he followed Lawn's vehicle, which ran a pair of stop signs before stopping at a red light near Beacon Street, according to the report. The bystander told police he got out of his car and tried to speak with Lawn, but that Lawn drove off when the light turned green. Lawn later stopped on Bowdoin Street, where police said his SUV had 'extreme damage to the passenger side front wheel.' Police said they also found pieces of his SUV's passenger side bumper on Hancock Street. Advertisement Police said Lawn's eyes were glassy and bloodshot, and his speech was slurred, according to the report. 'You know what I'd rather do, I want to take an Uber and go home,' he told police when asked to take a breathalyzer, according to WCVB. In a statement Wednesday, Lawn called the incident 'completely unacceptable,' said he 'deeply regret[s] and take[s] full responsibility' for his actions. 'I make no excuses,' he said. 'I am committed to taking the necessary steps to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again. To my family, friends, and constituents, I have let you down, and for that I am deeply sorry.' Lawn has represented parts of Newton, Waltham, and Watertown since 2011, and has served as chair of the Legislature's powerful health care financing committee since 2021. Matt Stout can be reached at
Boston Globe
27-01-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
We have a need for speed… cameras
Advertisement More principled objections have included the possibility of disparate enforcement if cameras are located in predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods; concerns that police would deploy the cameras in a way designed to raise revenue instead of addressing genuine safety concerns; and some research suggesting that red-light cameras can result in more of certain types of accidents. The governor's proposal, which came as part of her budget and requires legislative approval, includes safeguards to address some of those concerns. First, the cameras would only be used for speeding, not red-light violations; the state would limit how many cameras each municipality would be allowed; and towns and cities would have to 'ensure social and racial equity in the implementation' of their cameras. Personally, I don't need convincing. As I wrote last month, As the Globe's Matt Stout Advertisement That's a minor quibble, though. Overall, Healey's proposal would be a big step in the right direction. It builds on two more limited automated enforcement laws the Legislature approved recently, one that allows camera enforcement of bus lanes and another that allows cameras on school buses to catch people illegally passing stopped school buses. On Rte 2A near Commerford Road, Concord, a sign asks drivers to reduce speed. David L. Ryan/Globe Staff There's also a more philosophical objection to camera laws like those, and it boils down to values: Do we want to live under so much government surveillance? Even if each individual camera law is a reasonable response to a real problem, do they all add up to excessive intrusion? There's no empirically right or wrong answer to that question. The real solution is to make the tradeoff between safety and surveillance unnecessary. Hopefully someday, when there's a better way to control speeding (like, say, well-behaved self-driving cars), those cameras won't be necessary. For now, though, there's a growing consensus that they are . This is an excerpt from , a Globe Opinion newsletter about the future of transportation in the region. Sign up to . Alan Wirzbicki is Globe deputy editor for editorials. He can be reached at
