Former City Councilor Chuck Turner, who soon will be released from federal prison after doing time for bribery, has started a new blog on social justice issues called “Chuck Turner Analysis.”
Turner, who represented part of Jamaica Plain at the time of his 2009 conviction, will be released to a halfway house in Boston in July, he said in email conversations with the Gazette from prison in West Virginia.
“I am thrilled with the thought of returning to family, friends and the community,” Turner wrote in an email intended for the community in general. “I certainly have missed you all and look forward to being able to participate in the ongoing struggle to improve the quality of all of our lives. This time away from the day-to-day struggle for justice has given me an opportunity to reflect more deeply on our situation locally, nationally and internationally.”
Turner is sharing some of those reflections on his new blog at chuckturneranalysis.wordpress.com, which debuted on May 12.
“As you will see, I continue to have confidence in our ability to improve the quality of life for us all through organizing in the pursuit of justice,” he told the Gazette.
The blog features a lengthy essay on “Creating a New Boston, Designed to Include Us All.” Its introduction is about “Freeing Ourselves from Plantation America and its Corporate Masters, the 1%.” In it, he writes about such issues as racism, wage slavery, the Boston Redevelopment Authority and Boston’s “Pac-Man like quality of gentrification.”
Turner also writes about the Boston Marathon bombing, expressing sympathy for the victims and saying he hopes it unites people against violence around the world.
Turner previously blogged on another site called “Support Chuck Turner” that recently became inactive. Turner told the Gazette that site was maintained by supporters who lost the rights to it. It appears that outside supporters are maintaining his new blog as well.
Turner has been serving a three-year prison sentence since 2011 for accepting a $1,000 cash bribe from an undercover FBI informant and lying to investigators about it. Turner, who is African-American, has maintained his innocence and frequently claimed to be the victim of a racist conspiracy against black officials. He represented the council’s District 7, which includes parts of Egleston Square and Parkside.