BOSTON – An extortion indictment that recalled an earlier era in Boston labor history reportedly prompted Mayor Marty Walsh's hiring of a former federal prosecutor to aid an ongoing investigation of a City Hall tie to the case that broke open this week against several Teamsters union members.
Four members of Charlestown-based Teamsters Local 25 were arrested Wednesday on charges connected with the attempted extortion of a television production company last year, according to Carmen Ortiz, the U.S. attorney for Massachusetts. Among those charged are Mark Harrington, 61, of Andover, the union's secretary-treasurer, she said in a statement. The company was reportedly producing Bravo network's "Top Chef" reality show.
Reports of depraved violence and unspeakable affronts to the dignity of human persons now dominate the 24-hour news cycle. From the intentional destruction of a commercial airliner by Russian-backed rebels to widespread beheadings and crucifixions in the Middle East, it appears as if the world is fast becoming a blood-soaked battlefield — a nihilistic wasteland commanded by the whims of brutish dictators, angry mobs, and murderous sects. While the world is appalled at these recent atrocities, and while we share a common sense of outrage, the West remains apathetic to their causes.
A cursory glance at recent world events provides more than ample evidence that the social order under which we have existed for generations is yielding to a new tide of barbarism that threatens to swallow the entire civilized world. Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this violence is the significant support it appears to garner among Western youths (a recent poll suggest that in France, ISIS holds a 16-percent approval rating). Our purported age of hope is quickly becoming an age of despair, and while a full frontal assault on the civilized world is underway, the battle for the preservation of civilization is not yet lost. Although the restoration of international order may appear an insurmountable task, under the leadership of a confident and secure West, such a revival is not only possible, but likely.
