Iran Imposes Sanctions on Boston Police Commissioner

Plus, Harvard rabbi meets with Netanyahu; Ned Phelps; will Trump tackle the deficit?

Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox at the 2024 Boston Marathon, as captured in an FBI social media post. Cox was recently sanctioned by Iran.

The government of Iran has announced formal sanctions on the Boston police commissioner, Michael Cox, naming him as among “American individuals involving in flagrant violation of human rights by suppressing pro-Palestine student protest movement.”

The announcement came in an awkwardly phrased English-language press release from the Iranian foreign ministry. The announcement also listed the chief of police in Washington, D.C., Pamela Smith; the chief of police in New Haven, Connecticut, Karl Jacobson; and the commissioner of the Georgia department of public safety, William W. Hitchens III.

All the police forces named were involved in clearing anti-Israel protests or encampments. The Boston police arrested more than 100 people in April while clearing an anti-Israel encampment near Emerson College, according to press reports at the time. Georgia state troopers cleared a protest in April at Emory College. New Haven police cleared an anti-Israel encampment at Yale University in April. And in May 2024, District of Columbia police made 33 arrests while clearing an anti-Israel encampment at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

The sanctions, which prevent the police officials from visiting Iran or accessing its banking system, are unlikely to have much practical effect on the public officials. But the public signal of support from Iran for the anti-Israel protesters on American college campuses—and against the police—is likely to fuel concerns about official Iranian encouragement and “financial support” for the American protesters, as voiced in a Tuesday statement by the U.S. government’s director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines. 

There’s been overlap between anti-police protests and anti-Israel protests; in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for example, some of the anti-Israel protest groups have also complained about the 2023 police shooting of Sayed Faisel, and one group, the Boston Party for Socialism and Liberation, a communist group, has been heavily involved with both issues. The anti-Israel groups have falsely claimed that American police learn violent tactics during counterterrorism educational missions to Israel.

The Boston Police did not reply to a query about whether Commissioner Cox had a reaction to the sanctions announcement. I haven’t noticed any coverage of this in Boston or Connecticut or even Georgia local news outlets yet, which is fine because it offers an opportunity for The Editors to seize in bringing you trustworthy information that you won’t find elsewhere.