Boston Mayor Wu Under Fire Over City Employee Crime Wave, Multiple Arrests

A series of high-profile arrests and scandals involving Boston city employees have sparked calls for immediate reforms to Democrat Mayor Michelle Wu’s hiring practices, the Boston Herald reports.

The Boston City Council on Wednesday advanced an emergency order and will hold a hearing on reforming the city’s hiring practices. Recent incidents — including the hiring of a sex offender in the parks department and a violent altercation involving a city employee and a state trooper — have raised questions about the city’s background check procedures, according to the Boston Herald. .

“These failures highlight unacceptable gaps in background checks, sex offender screening and continuous monitoring,” said City Councilor Erin Murphy, who co-sponsored the measure, according to the outlet. “I’m filing this emergency hearing order today calling for immediate reforms to the City of Boston’s hiring and employee review processes.”

Among the most alarming cases is that of Robert M. Claud, a Level 3 sex offender — the highest risk category — who was hired this year as an equipment operator for the city’s parks department, according to the Boston Herald. Claud, whose employment ended on Aug. 12, has two convictions from 2013 for indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 years of age and one conviction for open and gross lewdness and lascivious behavior.

The controversy escalated on Aug. 22, when news broke that city employee Nasiru Ibrahim had been arrested weeks earlier, on July 30, according to WCVB 5. Ibrahim allegedly tased a state trooper and tried to flee during a traffic stop, the outlet reported. Police also discovered a handgun wrapped in a sweatshirt inside his vehicle despite Ibrahim having no license to carry in the state.

The city is