The pastor of Greater Love Tabernacle called Michael A. Cox Sr.'s appointment as the new police commissioner of Boston "poetic justice." Cox was reportedly beaten by a group of fellow police officers in the past.

Poetic Justice 

Based on the report with Yahoo News, many people in the Black community welcomed Cox's appointment as police commissioner. 

William E. Dickerson II, the senior pastor of Greater Love Tabernacle, called Cox's appointment "poetic justice." 

The senior pastor was one of those who served on the search committee that recommended candidates for the position.

"We are not going to be defined by our past," he stressed. "But we are not going to ignore our past, either. Because it is inextricably bound to who we are."  

Attacked by Fellow Police Officers

As reported, the former police officer was appointed as Boston's new police commissioner on Wednesday, July 13. 

The New York Times said that Cox was dressed in plain clothes when the alleged beatings happened in January 1995 when the officers mistook him for a homicide suspect after a high-speed chase. 

The attackers proceeded to beat him up on the street. When they found out that he was a police officer, they left Cox for dead. 

Not Giving Up

Cox took action and sued his fellow police officers. He would find himself fighting the legal battle for four years and endured years of harassment and isolation. 

The court reportedly paid him $1.25 million in damages and legal fees. 

Three of his attackers were charged with civil liabilities and fired from their jobs. One has since been reinstated. 

Cox shared that the assault left him with kidney damage. He also said that he suffered from a concussion and PTSD following the attack. 

The police commissioner pointed out that what he experienced was not different from other cases that happened in the past in the country.  

Cox said that he was not going to take his past assault sitting down. He shared that he knew that he had a choice on how to react to it and added that he refused to quit. 

The police commissioner added that he believed in policing the community in a friendly manner. He added that he was assaulted by his fellow officers on separate other occasions while not in uniform. 

Cox said that he knows that the men and women he works with share the same belief in policing that he does. 

The police commissioner became part of the department's command staff for 15 years following his assault in 1995. 

New Challenge

He would later move to Michigan in 2019. Cox faces a new challenge in his office as 60% of police in his department are White. 

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu appointed Cox as commissioner. She vowed to change the city's insular powers when she was elected into office in 2021. 

Wu called Cox's appointment as police commissioner a "pivotal experience in Boston's history." 

She said that this was their way of confronting Boston with "such a stark example of how broken the system is, and how seemingly common this experience could be."

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