Council to Urge Action Against Violent Robbers

If and when the culprits in the recent string of face trial, they may have, in essence, the entire Charlestown Neighborhood Council testifying against them.

 “I think they ought to get whacked hard,” said Council Member Bill Galvin.

At Tuesday’s meeting, the council approved Galvin’s request that the assembly send a letter that could be called a “community victim impact statement” to the judge presiding over the case once he or she has been identified.

Galvin called the violent robberies “some of the most outrageous” acts he had heard of in Charlestown, and said that he would be willing to offer his own time to testify against the suspects.

“If I had a bat in my hand and I saw that going down, I’d be out there whacking them in the head,” Galvin said. A moment later, in response to a comment from another councilor that such an act would get Galvin himself arrest, he added: “There isn’t a jury in Boston that would convict me.”

The council may have the opportunity to write its letter in the near future.

At a public safety meeting in December, police said that they had that they believed to be behind the robberies. One of the subjects had already been arrested on unrelated charges, police said at the time.

Ed Grace, chairman of the council’s public safety committee, said that police told him before Tuesday’s meeting that the department had secured warrants for the other two suspects.