My Impromptu Conversation with Worcester Manager Augustus

      Courtesy Bill coleman

My Impromptu Meeting with City Manager Augustus

I met City Manager Augustus for the first time on Saturday October 24, 2015. I was standing outside of the Belmont AME Zion Church in Worcester. Mr. Augustus walked by on his way to the NAACP forum on education. As most people know by now I am legally blind with only reduced sight in one eye. For that reason I did not recognized the City Manager. I said to him “I think I know you”.

Mr. Augustus identified himself and then to my surprise he said “You are Gordon Davis and you write hateful things about me”. I thought that politicians would have had thicker skin and not get upset about thinks written about them.

I responded that I never wrote any thing hateful about him. I challenged him to cite one example of any hate speech or even anything personal about him. Mr. Augustus said that he could not at the moment think of anything hateful that I had said about him.

I said that I thought he was maliciously prosecuting the four BlackLives Matter protesters. He said that the courts would decide the issue. Then he went into this monologue about how Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. went to jail and that protesters should go to jail. 

My wife reminded me as we stood talking to Mr. Augustus not to lose my temper. So Mr. Augustus and I started a back and forth on the issue.  Mr. Augustus said that the protesters disturbed the peace, because the truck driving was “inching into the protester”. I told Mr. Augustus that the truck driver’s “inching” was a form of assault. Mr. Augustus said that the driver was provoked by the presence of the protester. I told Mr. Augustus that provocation was not a defense for assault.  You can not hit or threaten so one because he calls you a name. You can not claim that there is a disturbance of the peace because people hold a sign saying “BlackLives Matters”.

The issue of the lack of prosecution of the dog owners in Boynton Park was brought up by my wife. She said that the City knows the name of the violators and that they provoked the City Workers.  The City brought charges against a City worker driving a truck in Boynton Park, but not against the truck driver at Kelly Square. Mr. August said that it was different, but did not give an explanation how it was different.

Mr. Augustus offered three different rationales for the City seeking charges against the protesters. The first was that the City offered the protesters a deal that amounted to extortion; don’t protest again and the City will not seek charges. The second is that the Police saying it saw a video. The third is Mr. Augusts’ comment that protester should go to jail like Dr. King.

I think that the defense attorneys for the protesters should call on Mr. Augustus and Police Chief Gemme to testify under oath on November 9. 2015, to get evidence on how they formed the decision to seek charges against the protesters. This information should be made public. I think a jury might see the malicious prosecution by the Manger and the Police Chief. Evidence of this possible malicious prosecution could be dispositive and help a jury understand the case better.