BOSTON — Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn has demanded the city drop its signature "safest major city" line, telling Mass Daily News in a written statement that Boston "is no longer the safest city in the country" — a flat rejection of the line Wu has used everywhere from a June 9 Instagram post commemorating fallen officers to her March 2025 testimony before the U.S. House Committee on Oversight.
Flynn's demand landed after a bloody start to summer in Boston. Mabinty "Binty" Janneh, 32, was killed on the summer solstice itself — Saturday, June 20 — dragged hundreds of feet beneath a stolen SUV down a Mattapan sidewalk. A second homicide in Dorchester followed two days later, the city saw three reported shootings inside 24 hours, and the Boston Herald editorial board declared accountability itself "another victim" of the rampage in a Wednesday lead.
"We must acknowledge the significant increase in crime and violence throughout many Boston neighborhoods," Flynn told MDN. "Contrary to media reports and comments from city politicians, Boston has significant public safety challenges and we are no longer the safest city in the country. We have seen a sharp increase in violence and crime in Boston and we should not be bragging about Boston being the safest city in the country when random violence, and open drug dealing remain rampant throughout many neighborhoods of the city."
Flynn, a former probation officer at Suffolk Superior Court before he was elected, had earlier Wednesday tweeted a milder version of the same point — a photo of the Herald editorial board page paired with his own one-paragraph addendum on accountability and survivors of crime. The full statement he sent MDN went considerably further than the tweet.
We must acknowledge the ongoing and escalating crime and violence in our city and especially support survivors of crime. Common sense accountability and respect for survivors of crime and their families must be part of our overall public safety plan. pic.twitter.com/FblWrlAdzP— Ed Flynn 愛德華費連 (@EdforBoston) June 24, 2026
A zero-tolerance, treatment-first platform
Flynn's platform threads a center-lane needle that has been hard to find on the current Boston City Council. He paired a zero-tolerance posture on dealing, trafficking, and violent assaults with a serious call for addiction recovery infrastructure — a position grounded in the years he spent as a probation officer at Suffolk Superior Court before he was elected.
"There must be zero tolerance for drug dealing, illegal drug use, human trafficking, and assaults," Flynn said. "At the same time, we need a treatment-first approach for those struggling with addiction, with greater access to detox and behavioral health services that address the root causes of substance abuse. As a former probation officer, I have seen firsthand how this approach can help individuals recover while making our neighborhoods safer for residents and visitors alike."
On violent crime, Flynn was sharper: "We must hold those accountable for their criminal behavior. If convicted for any type of violence, a prison sentence is warranted."
That line lands in the middle of a story Boston is already arguing about. Ibraim Matos, 37, of Hyde Park — charged with murder in the killing of Mabinty "Binty" Janneh, 32, of Dorchester, on Saturday — had been the named defendant in fifteen criminal cases in Boston Municipal Court over seventeen years and had served only 53 days of actual incarceration on conviction sentences, court records reviewed by MDN show. The Suffolk County District Attorney's office dropped, diverted, or suspended most of his serious charges, including a 2012 loaded firearm case and a 2020 felony strangulation.
'Boston Police Officers are not supported by elected officials'
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Flynn — a retired Navy veteran and former Council President — closed his statement with a defense of Boston Police that puts him in open conflict with City Hall.
"Boston Police Officers do an exceptional job throughout the neighborhoods but we are dangerously understaffed," he told MDN. "Boston Police Officers are not supported by elected officials."
The Boston Police Patrolmen's Association — the rank-and-file police union — made the same case the morning after the Dorchester Monday-night killing, posting on X that Boston's officers had run through 189 incidents in 24 hours, including 12 aggravated assaults, 15 larcenies, three auto thefts and two robberies.
Increasing levels of violence should have everyone concerned. In addition to last night’s homicide, BPD Officers responded to 189 incidents over a 24-hour period including 12 aggravated assaults, 15 larcenies, three auto thefts and two robberies. We need more cops. https://t.co/jzqMdPisaT— Boston Police Patrolmen's Association (BPPA) (@BostonPatrolmen) June 23, 2026
That charge sits over a real situation. Wu's FY27 budget, filed this spring to close a roughly $48 million deficit, froze hiring across most departments. The City Council, meanwhile, voted in May to keep its own pay raises — and Wu's $43,000 mayoral raise — even as her budget moved to cut $12 million in grants, including services for veterans, firefighters, and police.
A bloody start to summer
Flynn's demand landed in a week that put real-world pressure on Wu's signature talking point:
- Saturday, June 20 (summer solstice): Mabinty "Binty" Janneh, 32, of Dorchester, was killed in Mattapan when Ibraim Matos's stolen SUV drove down a Blue Hill Avenue sidewalk and dragged her several hundred feet.
- Sunday, June 21: A man was shot near 1636 Hyde Park Avenue at about 6:25 p.m., the Boston Globe reported — one of three reported shootings in 24 hours that spanned the weekend.
- Monday, June 22: An adult male was shot dead at 6 Selden Street in Dorchester — Boston's second murder in 48 hours.
- Sunday, June 15: A triple shooting in the South End wounded three people just steps from a playground.
- Thursday, June 12: A pre-dawn stabbing in Mattapan, a shooting in Roxbury, and a knife fight outside the Boston Public Library — three violent incidents inside 24 hours.
- Monday, June 9: Two people were found stabbed inside a Mattapan home, one clinging to life as BPD homicide rolled to the scene.
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It's not just murder
It's not just the bloodshed. On the very Wednesday Flynn tweeted his rebuke, a Roxbury McDonald's reopened its dining room with Boston Police, Suffolk County DA staff, and four nonprofits stationed permanently inside — the city's chosen fix after teens with loaded guns, working over workers with their fists and smoking weed in the booths, forced the immigrant-owned franchise to shutter its dining room entirely.
Across town, the Prudential Center — Boston's flagship mall — has spent the past year as a serial target for organized retail crime, with thieves walking out of Canada Goose, stripping Alo of armfuls of merchandise and leaving 20 empty hangers behind, and in one case a 71-year-old viciously beaten on the property. Earlier this month, Boston Public Library staff at Copley were dodging projectiles and shutting off public seating after a man started doing drugs on the Dartmouth Street steps and another hurled a water bottle at library workers. And tents have been going up across Boston Common and the Esplanade as the city's tourist season opens.
That, Flynn argues, is the picture the "safest major city" line refuses to see.
Mayor Michelle Wu has used the "safest major city" line for more than a year — on Instagram, in congressional testimony, and at year-end public-safety briefings. Photo: City of Boston.
Wu has used the "safest major city" line for more than a year. In a June 9 Instagram post commemorating fallen Boston Police officers, she wrote: "Boston is the safest major city in the country because generations of public servants have dedicated themselves to protecting and serving our residents." She used the line in her March 5, 2025 testimony before the U.S. House Committee on Oversight, in her State of the City address two weeks later, and at her end-of-year public safety briefing in December.
A December 2025 GBH analysis found the per-capita homicide claim did not hold up. Through September 2025, San Francisco, Honolulu, El Paso, Fresno, Omaha, Tampa, Orlando, Salt Lake City and Mesa all ranked safer than Boston by that measure.
Flynn was elected to the Boston City Council in 2017 and served as Council President from 2022 to 2023. He represents District 2, which covers South Boston, Chinatown, the South End and Downtown. He is a retired U.S. Navy veteran and a deployment veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
His statement ran nine sentences and ended where the safest-city pitch will not: "We should not be bragging about Boston being the safest city in the country when random violence, and open drug dealing remain rampant throughout many neighborhoods of the city."
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