BOSTON — It's an area plagued with open-air drug use and homelessness, a stretch known as 'methadone mile.' for the first time, we're hearing from the sheriff whose deputy was assaulted there, two months ago.
A look at Atkinson Street today shows that it's clear. But two months ago, Suffolk County Sheriff Steve Tompkins says it was an open-air drug market where anything went.
On August 1, a correction officer was beaten there as video from a nearby business captured the attack. Since then, major police sweeps were done as Atkinson Street was cleared of homeless people, drugs users and dealers.
"To this point, and hopefully it continues, it's been very quiet," said Sheriff Tompkins. "You can actually eat off the streets."
Sheriff Tompkins says city, state and federal leaders pitched in immediately after the correction officer was attacked, though underlying problems haven't gone away.
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"It's almost like a traveling camp," he said. "So they're not here any longer, but they're a few blocks from here."
Crowds are seeking addiction treatment at clinics in the area around Mass Ave. and Melnea Cass Blvd. known as 'methadone mile.' The sheriff tells Boston 25 News that crowd is now being pushed further into other neighborhoods.
"The fight continues," he said. "We really have to find a way to wrap our arms around this homeless situation and the opiate situation."
Tompkins backs the city's idea for a recovery campus on Boston's Long Island, an idea that led to a legal dispute with the city of Quincy and continues because the bridge connecting shore to island could add to traffic in a congested area of North Quincy and Squantam.
"'Let's throw them all on a bus, let's get them out of sight,' might be an answer to some people. I don't think that's the answer," said Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch.
While both cities battle it out in court, Sheriff Tompkins says this didn't happen overnight; fixing the problem will take time.
"To this point everybody has still been engaged, and so we are still working mightily on addressing this situation," he said. "But I believe that if we don't continue to have that clarion call to everybody, you know how things go, they fall off."
On Wednesday evening at Roxbury Community College, not far from Mass Ave. and Melnea Cass Boulevard, Sheriff Tompkins, District Attorney Rollins and Police Commissioner William Gross spoke with residents at a public meeting about these issues and others.
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