City Manager Can Not Keep His Story Straight

He Could Not Keep His Story Straight

The City Manager, Ed Augustus,  and the Deputy Chief of the Worcester Police, Sargent  met at least one of the protesters from the MLK Day Black Lives Matter protest at Kelly Square that delayed traffic for four and one-half minutes. The Manager and the Deputy Chief proffered the deal that if there were no more of the same protests, then the City of Worcester would not seek criminal charges against the 40 to 50 people who participated in that protest. The Black lives Matter people turned down the deal telling the City Officials that the civil rights movement would not be intimidated by threats of arrests. At that point the City officials said that they would seek charges, although they did not say what charges they would seek.

In the meeting there was no discussion of the reform of the accountability of the Worcester Police to claims of Black Lives Matter protesters of racial profiling and police misconduct.  Over a 12 month period starting in October 2013 to October 2014 there were at least one hundred and thirty four complaints made against the Worcester police by “civilians”.  Most of these complaints were adjudicated as unsubstantiated by the City Police’s Standards Department.   What is interesting is that the number of complaints seems to be increasing.  This might be a sign that the Black Lives protests are mitigating the fear of the so called communities of color to speak of our grievances. Although not racist on its face, the threats of arrest will likely have a disparately racist impact on the community.

The outcome of the meeting was predictable.  The strange public announcements by the City Manager and the Police Chief, Gary Gemme, which preceded the meeting, were not predictable. The Police Chief stated in an article in the Worcester Telegram that he was compelled to seek charges because of a video he saw on Youtube.  A day later the City Manager said that Chief Gemme did not act on his own when he said that he was going to charge the protesters. The City Manager said in his interview that he ordered Chief Gemme to look for something to charge the protesters, because of “public safety” concerns.  The City Manager then said that he had not seen the video because it was locked at Youtube. This raises the question of the accuracy of Mr. Augustus and Chief Gemme statements. How is it possible for Police Chief Gemme to look for something to charge protesters based on a video when the City Manager said that he ordered Chief Gemme to do so before the City Manager ever saw the video? Sometimes it is hard to get the story straight, especially when City Council asks for the “protocols” of protests.

Reviewing the video it is my inexpert opinion there is nothing with which to charge the protesters. I think that the City Council will have to come up with a new oppressive ordinance to charge the protesters, such as “spending too much time in a cross walk”. As with the panhandling issue the City Council will use the pretext of “public safety”.   The poor, the homeless, and racism are issues that the City officials would prefer to keep out of sight.