Department of Justice, Real or Fake

Department of Justice Discussions, Real or Deceitful

The City Manager of Worcester Massachusetts, Edward Augustus, has arranged to have the Department of Justice (DOJ) attend some public discussions purportedly about race relations in Worcester. The public discussions are nominally under the direction of the City Manager’s Committee Against Bias and Hate. The reasons given for the public discussions are the so called racial tensions in the City regarding police misconduct and safety at North High School.

Although good people there, the Manager’s Committee on Bias and Hate has not taken any position that opposes the City government ever; it serves at the pleasure of the City Manager.  It was absent regarding the issue of the killings by the police of unarmed low income people, especially young Black men.

These discussions will be held every Monday from May 18, 2015  through July 13, 2015, except for May 25^th  which is Memorial day. The public discussions will be from 6 PM to 8 PM at various locations around the City.

Several of the public discussions seem to be unrelated to racial tensions or are of an organizational nature. The May 18, 2015 public discussion is about organizing how the discussions should take place. I am always wary of meetings to discuss meetings. The July 13, 2015 public discussion is about what to do with the contents of the public discussions. This should have already been determined that the City Manger would use the contents to improve the City.  By the time of the last public discussion the budget process for fiscal year 2016 will have been completed.

The public discussions on social media and representative government seem far from the mark of what are issues for the City.  The June 8, 2015 public meeting on Public Safety and the June 15^th meeting on Youth and education are on issues that City Manager and School Department have found more challenging in terms of race.

There are some rumblings among some of the groups that are in the Black Lives Matter civil rights movement that the Department of Justice should be petitioned to investigate the Worcester Police and its lack of transparency and the allegations that the City Manager and Chief of Police are maliciously prosecuting Black Lives Matter protesters.

The people with whom I spoke want direct talks with the City Manager and the Police Chief and the City Council on the issues that plague the City. These public hearings with the DOJ are a potential roadblock to such direct talks. Yesterday the Police Chief, Gary Gemme, said that he had fourteen new positions of supervision and that he wanted at least five “minority” to fill these positions.

How the Chief of Worcester Police arrived at these numbers is somewhat of a mystery as there is no transparency or direct talks with the public or public interest groups. The Chief’s credibility comes into question given the several discrimination cases based on race by officers within the Worcester Police Department.

Also mysterious is the action of District Attorney (DA) Joseph Early who recused his office from the prosecution of the Worcester Police officer who was caught on tape beating a shackled prisoner. The rationale offered by DA Early of conflict of interest is not credible as a “legal wall” had been erected between departments in the DA’s office in similar situations. It also does not explain why a Special Prosecutor could not have been appointed.  The case has been passed onto the Attorney General’s office of Maura Healy. The Attorney General’s office is good at civil cases, but weak in criminal matters involving the police. This might be the opening moves to a cover up of the Worcester Police misconduct. However I have an open mind on the ability of Attorney General to get a conviction in this case.

In a few months we will know whether these public hearings are real or fake.