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Nov 30, 2006 6:31 pm US/Eastern
Keller: Rev. Eugene Rivers Defends His Record
by Jon Keller
BOSTON (CBS4) ―
One of Boston's best-known anti-crime activists has come under fire recently for his own conduct. But Reverend Eugene Rivers, one of the most visible figures in the city's war on crime, is breaking his silence and fighting back.
Rivers has received national acclaim over the years for helping form an anti-crime coalition of ministers with police and politicians, even appearing on the cover of Newsweek magazine a few years back.
But it's a recent rash of negative publicity that has the Reverend fighting mad.
"I am not leaving the Ella J. Baker house. That is a fiction."
Reverend Rivers categorically denied published claims that he's giving up his role at the the Dorchester social-service center he founded due to what he labelled bogus stories of mishandled funds and criminal activity there.
And he vehemently rejected allegations in the current Boston magazine that he ordered the beatings of two young men he wanted to intimidate.
"That is a lie, that is a lie, and the story has these unattributed sources, this is slander," said Rivers. "I have been working, serving the children of Boston for 18 years. In 18 years no one has ever heard or circulated these kinds of charges."
What's going on? Rivers says the criticism is backlash from city leaders who rejected his plan to hire gang leaders to help police crack down on escalating gang violence.
"It will take more than Celtics tickets and pizza to get them to take the city seriously," said Rivers.
"The city has to make a decision whether or not black life deserves to be protected like all other forms of life in this city. Because I think I got in trouble by forcing the issue that there needed to be a real strategy...The lives of defenseless poor children who are threatened every night on the streets of the city were not a priority. That's a fact."
In a statement released Thursday evening, Boston magazine says it stands by its story and its sourcing, and claims Rivers repeatedly declined verbal and written requests for comment.
One thing seems certain: We haven't heard the last of this controversy, or of Rev. Eugene Rivers.
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