Gifts For Worcester

Epiphany Gifts for Worcester

     Giving gifts at the end of year is a tradition around the Western world. It has become secular and commercial. I grew up Roman Catholic and the Church tried to make this end of year gift giving religious.

An attempt was mad to connect the gifts of the three wise men to Christmas day.  Some culture still exchange gifts on the Epiphany.

So in the secular spirit of the Epiphany, I wish the following to people.

1.     To the Worcester City Council I wish a big box of common sense. The schools of Worcester are seeking “private money” for equipment and teachers. At the same time the City Council is taking out a loan for $250,000 to build one dog park.

Common sense tells us that it is the dog owners who should seek a private funds for the park. Common sense says that our children are more important than the dogs.

The Worcester City Council has also allocated $400,000 a year for four horses. Boston has gotten rid of their horses because of the expense.

Some City Councillors have said the crazy idea that the horses will help “community” policing.  Common sense is that there is no community policing when you are 12 feet up on a horse.  

2.     To the pedestrians and drivers of Worcester I wish for a 25 mph speed limit on City streets. There have been too many pedestrians killed or injured in Worcester. A 25 mph speed limit would help and remind drivers that city streets are congested with other cars, pedestrians, and children.

Hopefully there will be no pedestrian deaths in 2017

3.     For Union Station I wish better handicap accessibility. This lack of handicap accessibility is well known to the City Manager. It is especially bad for handicap pick up or drop off at the Interstate bus terminal.

Union Station is built over Mill Brook and its water is damaging the structure. To make this white elephant a modern and sustainable transportation center might mean tearing it down.

 In the meantime as a quick fix the area where the taxis park should be made into a handicap pick up and drop off area. The area around Columbus ‘statue should be made into the taxi waiting area.

4.     To the children in the Worcester Public School I wish that the racist bloggers and other racist people would stop attacking you. You are the value in the heart of this City. These racist attacks not only are hurtful, but it hurts everyone in the City.

People move away and properties values go down everytime the racist bloggers, City councilor, and School Committee members open their foul mouths.

5.     For every human being in the Worcester area I wish for you your human right of good drinking water. It is fairly certain that the amount rainfall for the area has on average decreased from 48 inches annually to 38 inches.

There is a need for some forward thinking people to begin planning for an improved water infrastructure that can adapt to the new reality of Global Warming.

6.     For the police I wish that they can be brave enough to wear body cameras. It would help all concerned.

7.     Wishing everyone good fortune and happiness.

Goimg Back to Electoral College

Going Back to Electoral College

                                            

This year was the second year in 16 years that an USA Presidential Election had a candidate with the most popular votes who did not get the most Electoral College votes. Now there are calls for the abolition of the Electoral College. Its abolition is almost impossible and it will have to wait for a new generation of voters. People working on its abolition are probably wasting their energies.

There is a Gordian Knot entanglement between states and the Electoral  

College.  The Electoral College was created to protect small states. There is no workable definition of a state, except that a state is what the Congress defines it to be. As a result we have hodgepodge of political entities such as Alaska and Rhode Island which are states. Other political entities such as the District of Columbia are not.

At first the Electoral College protected the states with small populations from being dominated by the states with large populations. Of course this creates inequalities. For example the smallest state in terms of population is Wyoming with about 550, 000 residents. Wyoming has 3 votes (electors) in the Electoral College. Montana which also has 3 electors, but almost twice the number of residents.

This proportional inequality is magnified when Wyoming is compared to larger states like California.

The supporters of the Electoral College will sometimes argue that the Electoral College will prevent national voter recounts. The recounts would be limited to individual states. An example of this is the Florida recount of 2000.

Even then in 2000 the Electoral College did not prevent a Constitutional crisis. The Supreme Court ruling has not resolved that issue. For that reason Jill Stein of the Green Party is seeking recounts in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.

As an old friend once told me the real motivation for American politics is race and class.  So it is with the Electoral College,

Originally the proposal was for the President of the United States to be elected by the Congress. There was no popular election. Many thought that men without means could not elect a qualified president. Those who argued for a popular election by the people had to settle for the election by the states via Electors who then elected the President in a process described in Article II of the Constitution.

Unfairly women did not have the Franchise until the1920s. No enslaved person could vote. This disfranchisement of Black people continues in the form of not allowing ex-felons the Franchise and by voter suppression.

All of the Anti Bellum slave states supported the Electoral College as the enslaved people were not counted as people in the Federal Census. Our ancestors were counted as chattel. This meant that all of the slave states had very residents. The slaves owning plantation class were relatively few in number.

 Faced with the loss of political power all of the slave states took their horrible irrationality and crimes a step further. They argued that enslaved people were not people when in their respective states, but should be counted as a person in the Federal Census.

Of course the free soil states pushed back and said “no”. From that dispute arose the so compromise that enslaved people would be counted as 3/5 of a person in the Federal Census.

The abolition of slavery by the 13^th Amendment put an end to that particular issue for the Electoral College.

Since the Civil War the Electoral College has been a refuge for the smaller mostly rural states like Wyoming. The United States like the rest of the world is moving to a point that 80 percent of the world population will soon be living in cities.

The material conditions are changing such that not only the Electoral College, but its small states protectors are becoming obsolete and something of an anachronism.

A reasonable person could wonder about the usefulness of the Electoral College and then wonder about the usefulness of small states like Wyoming, Montana, Vermont, and even Massachusetts. 

Gaffney, Lukes, and a Few Dollars More

A Few Dollars More

When thinking about Reverend Sarai Rivera’s church building controversy and the City Council of Worcester, Malcolm X, southern Black churches, and the White Citizens Councils come to mind. The Worcester City Council has given its support for the partial removal of Federal block grant money from the fund to demolish six condemned properties in Worcester. One of the properties is a building owned by Reverend Rivera’s church.

The controversy arises because Reverend Rivera is also a City Councillor.

Reverend Rivera is co minister of the Christian Community Church which is open to all races and serves a mostly Hispanic congregation. Reverend Rivera has been an outspoken critic of the Worcester Police in the past, especially after the police killing of Cristino Hernandez. Reverend Rivera has also shown support for the Black Lives Matter civil rights movement.

To be fair Reverend Rivera has also express support for the Worcester Police, especially in its efforts to remove trail bikes from the streets.

The City Manager has defended his decision to include the property own by Reverend Rivera’s church in the Federal block grant for demolition of condemned properties.

The property met the same criteria as the other properties on the Manager lists.

The appropriateness of the money going to the church was originally raised by a blogger who is known for his racism. A White City Councillor who has been characterized as a racist, brought the issue to City Council.. It was alleged that a person in blackface attended one of this City Councillor’s fundraisers.

It is not the first time this White City Councillor has attacked Reverend Rivera. He wrote offensive electronic posts, as claimed by a Worcester weekly newspaper, against her several months ago. He has attackrd another woman of color when he sought to close Mosaic Center.

Malcolm X said that black coffee loses its essence if too much milk is added. For a long time some people in government and elsewhere said that they were “revolutionaries” or at least progressives. These people I suppose were well meaning, but they misled the struggle for racial and economic justice.

The southern Black churches during the old Civil Rights movement supported its ministers independently of the White community.  It was known that taking the “man’s” money brought ambiguity to whom the ministers were ministering.  A predominantly Black church’s minister was on the board of directors for Mosaic; he abruptly quit the board. It is known that he also serves on at least one committee run by the City with some funding involved. A reasonable person could conclude that instead of ministering to his flock, there is ambiguity in his responsibilities.

 A history of divide and conquer by the racists existed in the old civil rights movement. It seems to be extant in the new Civil Rights Movement. We have learned from the old Civil Rights movement that the strongest organizations have been multi racial organizations. Unfortunately many progressives still have difficulty grasping this; even the right wingers have their “tokens”.

 Wikepedia gives the following definition “The Citizens' Councils (also referred to as White Citizens' Councils) were an associated network of white supremacist organizations in the United States, concentrated in the South. The first was formed on July 11, 1954 After 1956, it was known as the Citizens' Councils of America.”

Although the Worcester City Council is not anything like the so called Citizen Councils, they come to mind for this issue. The Worcester City Council to some extent is a representation of the old Worcester. The old Worcester was mostly White and seemingly comfortable to many White people. It was not so comfortable for many Black and Latino people then.

This nostalgia has allowed City Councillors like Michael Gaffney, Gary Rosen, and Konnie Lukes to remain in office. “BlackLabs Matter”.

Councillor  Lukes has recently sought a report of arrest records of recent immigrants to Worcester.  This is a form of terrorism as it has caused much anxiety and emotion distress for many law abiding residents of the City. She could have instead sought a list of hate crimes and harassment of the newcomers to the City in an effort to mitigate the racist Trump effect.

Reverend Riverai’s church’s board should say it did not ask for nor does it at this time want any Federal block grant money for the demolition of the condemned property. It should remain separate from government, especially when in the struggle for justice.

I suppose each generation will have to learn anew the lesions from the old civil rights movement, people with one foot in each camp will eventually mislead us and the bosses’ few dollars will be the downfall of some and the heartbreak for others.

The Racism of a Professional Politician

City Councillor Lukes is a Racist Professional Politician

Konnie Lukes has been a professional politician for almost 40 years. She is also a whining racist. In September 2016 at a City Council meeting she said the following

“We see signs here basically accusing us of being racist. I have yet to hear anybody tell me what I have done that is racist…  Give me names, dates, times.”

Two months later on November 15, 2016 Councillor Lukes voted to harass and terrorize immigrants and refugees. She targeted Muslims and Hispanic people. Lukes voted in favor of a petitions regarding the “financial” and “crime” impact  of newcomers to Worcester.

“…information from the city administration on the financial impact incurred by the city for processing refugees or asylum seekers during the past five years, including the location of housing provided for them and the source of funding for that housing.”

She was the sole Councillor who voted to seek the records of immigrants arrested by City police.

Mrs. Lukes could have sought the positive impact that immigrants and refugees have made to this City, including her relatives. She could have sought the number of hate crimes committed against immigrants. Instead she sought the opposite.

The petitions were made to the City Council by the long time racist bully, Billy Breault.  Mr. Breault is also known for trying to stop a funeral home from conducting the preparation of a Muslim man body for burial.

On November 17, 2016 the racist Mr. Breault tried to get support for his racist bullying and harassment of Muslim and Hispanic people at a neighborhood meeting. Incredibly instead of Councillor Lukes backing off the overtly racist petitions, she doubled down in her support of what some have called Nazis policies.

There was some pushback by many people in the community, including Show Up Against Racism, Progressive Labor Party, and Catholic Worker. These groups and other held signs.  One sign read “Stop Nazis’ Hate and Lies”; another sign read “ No Racist Immigration Laws”.  Inside the meeting some people engaged Mr. Breault and Councillor Lukes in heated discussion.

Councillor Lukes reminds me  of the recent racist rants made by the Governor of Maine, Paul LePage.  Governor LePage has stated that Maine’s opioid crisis is caused by Black and Hispanic people moving to Maine from Massachusetts. He has used the word “niggers” and “cunts” in his rants.

Like Mrs. Lukes, Governor LePage has asserted that he is not a racist, but the people who call him a racist are racist. A reporter in Maine, Gattine, said the followinng

LePage floated the remarkable notion that calling out racism is equivalent to using racist and sexist slurs during his radio interview Tuesday, saying that being called racist is “like calling a black man the ‘N’ word or a woman the ‘C’ word. It just absolutely knocked me off my feet.”

After 40 years of living on her racist sensationalism and riding the wave of racist Trump like bullying, it is likely the time for Mrs. Lukes to step down and retire before she does more harm to the City of Worcester.

In response to Mrs. Lukes racism, many of her opponents are preparing to resists her and Mr. Tump’s fascist policies of mass deportations and Muslim registry. 

Worcester Police Policy Explained

Courtesy Bill Coleman

What’s Up With Worcester Police

In August 2016 Mayor Joseph Petty said that there was no need for City Council to have public hearings on Worcester Police policies as Chief Steven Sargent was already meeting the public at crime watch and other organizations. One of these meeting was on September 26, 2016 at the YWCA where the NAACP hosted the Chief.

During the meeting there was some discussion about the crime watch meetings and other police events being hard to find. Even the Chief could say exactly where on social media we should look.

Another problem with attending the crime watch meetings is that they are not necessarily public meetings. There was a little dust up at the YWCA. A man claiming to be head of operations called the police when people holding signs for the NAACP meeting were told that they could not hold there. Chief Sargent came over and defused the situation.

The first thing we learned from the Chief is that City Council makes the decisions on the type of police policy. Chief Sargent said he could not respond on the issues of “Broken Windows” and “Stop and Frisk”. The policy for Worcester is “Community Policing”. There is evidence, the so called arrest sweeps and quality of life” that at least a modified form of Broken Windows is a de facto policy.

The issue of body cameras was raised.  Police Chief said that there were constitutional issue being reviewed by the Legal Department. He gave no timeline on this issue, although the ACLU has established guidelines for the use of body cameras for the Boston police are using.

In regards to transparency Chief Sargent said that there is being set up a Civilian Academy in which police procedures would be discussed. The Academy is expected to start in February 2017.

Dirt Bike policy was clarified to some extent.  A legal dirt bike on the street gets as citation and likely will be confiscated. The Chief said that these bikes are returned to their owners. A stolen dirt bike rider will be arrested.

There was no clarification of when legal dirt bikes are confiscated from private property.

Affirmative Action was discussed. The Chief said that more Latinos are accepting police positions than are African Americans. He said his department is working to ensure 25 percent of applicants are minorities.  What he did not say was that almost all successful applicant are former military who have preferential treatment over other applicants.

 Some push back came over the issue of school to jail pipeline and the use of uniformed police in Worcester Schools. There are 9 officers assigned to Worcester Schools. Seven officers are in the High Schools and two officers are assign to split duty in the Middle Schools.

The push back came in the form of four teachers, two of who are still teaching.

One teacher asked about the drug screening that is going on at Burncoat Middle School. The Chief said he was not aware of the program. The program was initiated by Governor Baker via the recent Opioid Bill passed last January.

Another teacher indicated that an implicit racism in having uniformed police in schools. The background to this is the inability to have an honest discussion of the police killings in places like Tulsa, Baltimore, or Ferguson. On the surface there is cordiality, but the real issue of race and power are hidden away.   

I have to say the Chief Sargent is personable, knowledgeable, and seeming long winded. He told us stories of the old days when he was mentored by Loman Rutherford, a Black officer. I did not hear much from him that was exceptional.

Events and time will tell if Chief Sargent will make a difference or will be restricted by the material conditions and facts of his job.

PROFILED The Real Dialogs on Race

PROFILED, The Real Dialog on Police Brutality

Last week at least two Black men were killed by the police.  One of the men killed, Terrence Crutcher, was unarmed with his hands up. There is evidence that the second man killed, Keith Scott, was also unarmed.

In Tulsa OK the police officer who killed Mr. Crutcher has been arrested for manslaughter. There is an investigation on going regarding the death of Mr. Scott.  

The authorities in Charlotte have not released the police video and are being somewhat secretive.

Before the Blacklives Matter Civil rights movement few if any police officers were ever held responsible for deaths that took place while on duty.

A part of the change has been real dialogs among people that video and social media have created. The old police policies, such as hiding the civilian complaints, are anachronistic and only lead to the further mistrust in the government and its police forces. The contrast between Tulsa OK and Charlotte NC is compelling.

These real dialogs are sometimes initiated by the community. Such a dialog took place on September 22, 2016, first at Worcester State University and then in the evening at the College of the Holy Cross.

The documentary PROFILED was produced over a three year period. It memorializes the effect on the families of the men and women killed by the police.  The documentary was directed by award winning producer Kathleen Foster.

The families in the documentary talked of the loss of their children and the loss by children of a parent. I was especially moved by the six year daughter of a victim of police killing who looked bewildered and sad at the same time. An affect of people who are coming to grips with the unthinkable unconsciously show.

Another emotional part of the documentary was a Puerto Rican mother who was crying. She said that after eight months police department finally released the names of the officers who shot her son dead. The secrecy of the police only added to her grief.

I viewed this poor woman’s agony my mind flashed to the secrecy of the Worcester government and its police department. I thought of the joke of the DOJ so called dialogs perpetrated on us by City Manager Augustus. He has continued in his failure to release the report of a racist incident at City Hall.

After the film screening at Worcester State there was a discussion of the root causes of racism, poverty, and discrimination. The panel consisted of Dr. Henry C. Theriault, Dr. Tanya Mears, Kathleen Foster, and Gwen Davis.

The discussion at Holy Cross was more focused on events on campus. One of which was a silent protest against disparate treatment. Mr. Robert Jones moderated the discussion there.

 Several people from each school said that they help local Worcester groups fight for racial and economic justice.

It is time that the City government and the police chief engaged in real dialog with the residents of Worcester regarding police policy. It is time to stop telling us on the one hand there is no broken window policies when it conducts weekly “sweeps” of neighborhood arresting the so called “undesirable”.

 It is time for the Manager, Mayor, and Chief to stop say there is “community policing” when it hides it policies and finances from the community.

Good Dogs and Their Owners

Good Dogs and Their Owners

The Worcester City Council will hold public hearings on the Master Plan for Dogs in what are now people parks and on dedicated doggie parks. The hearing is scheduled for September 15, 2016, 5:30 pm, in City Hall Chamber.

Right now no dogs are allowed in any City park on leash or off leash. Some people consider this regulation too restrictive. However there are reasons that such regulations were enacted, bad doggies owners.

Dogs as a rule are dangerous and dirty animals. Of course some doggies will disagree; they are likely the good dog owners.

The bad doggies owns clean up the shit that their animals leave behind. I have lived in our house almost 40 years and I only seen one doggie owner clean up their doggie’s shit. Most of the time I find the doggie shit on the lawn.

I image that most doggies owners when walking their dogs in City parks will not pick up their doggies’ shit. Such people are not good doggies owners.

I also know that many people of all races are afraid of doggies. Some like we Black people have been hunted by racists and their dogs. Other people especially children have a natural fear of dangerous animals. Even dangerous doggies  on a leash which is barking and acting aggressively.

When a doggies is barking and acting aggressively a good own will make the animal heel and shorten his leach and move away from the people being frightened. Sometimes even good owners will instead argue and say “Oh he does not bite”

There are about 900.000 reported doggie bites a year in the United States. This is more than auto accidents in the United States. It is likely doggie bites are under reported. There is around 700 doggie bites in Massachusetts a year.

In 1997 the City of Worcester found out it could not make all of the doggie owners pick up their doggies’ shit. Nothing has been done to ensure that ALL of the doggies’ owners will pick up their shit. This will mean unsanitary conditions in the parks meant for people and sitting on the grass and picnics.

There is no plan to stop the doggies, even with good owners, from frightening and terrifying people, especially children. These people who are afraid of doggies will eventually be driven out of the park.

I like doggies. I think there should be a doggie park built on City property near Coal Mine Brook. This piece of land was proposed by Manager O’Brien to be a park with a bike path to Regatta Point. It has not been a people’s park and so people without doggies will not be driven in fright out of the park, as would be case elsewhere.

Since Coal Mine Brook will be a doggie park only the doggies owners can easily impose a clean-up your shit rule and people without doggies will not have to put up with the doggies’ dirty mess.

It was not that long ago the City of Worcester CLOSED Worcester swimming pools with the pretext that it did not have the money to maintain the pools. Of course the children of the City who increasing Black, Hispanic, and immigrants suffered.

With doggies in the people parks some children will be frightened away from them, especially when the parks adjoin a playground.

Today the Worcester City Schools are overcrowded with up to 34 students in some classrooms. The City schools are begging people for money.

It does not  make any sense for the City to consider building 5 doggies only parks at a cost of $400,000 each when the Worcester Schools go begging?

I think one doggie only park at Coal Mine Brook as a pilot would be sensible. I do not think that spending $2,000,000 on doggies plus annual maintenance is sensible.

It seems that Mr. Rosen, the doggies owners champion, has become further color blind and failed to see the larger picture.

Zero Pedestrian Deaths

Zero Pedestrian Deaths

The City of Boston Massachusetts has recently lowered the speed limit for streets in its “urban areas” which include business districts and residential dwellings with less than 100 feet between dwellings for a distance of at least one-eighth of a mile. The reason for this law is to reduce accidents and pedestrian deaths.

The Boston City Council and Boston representatives in the State House were concerned about drivers using local Boston road as short cuts around State and Federal highways.

In Massachusetts during the last three years of record keeping there have been 75 pedestrians’ deaths by automobiles. The issue also affects Worcester. The last pedestrian death in Worcester was Patricia LeMay who was killed on July 14, 2016.

 Governor Charlie Baker signed into law an amendments to Bill H 4331 which allows cities and town to lower the default speed limit from 30 miles per hours to 25 miles per hours in urban areas. This means that the Worcester City Council can bypass the entire Home Rule bureaucracy and by majority vote lower the speed limit for most streets in Worcester to 25 miles per hour.

Worcester too should strive to have zero pedestrian deaths or death of bicyclists or children at play.  Lowering the speed limit not only reduces the number of accident, but it also increases the likelihood of pedestrian survival.

Most pedestrians are relatively poorer people or disabled in some way or both. Getting City Council to do something against drivers might be like trying to get Congress to pass gun control. No driver wants to give up the right to make pedestrians get out of his way.

I am reminded of the complaint against a City boss who was accused of using profanity and a racial slur as he was exiting the City Hall garage.

To some extent it is also a racial issue as even Trump acknowledges there are racial economic disparities. Besides not having cars and walking, many poorer people live within the definition of urban areas as found in the Bill H. 4331.

 Given these facts on the ground, it is unlikely that the City Council will enact an emergency ordinance like they did with the dirt bikes. I am pretty sure cars kill more people than dirt bikes. The dirt bike riders were mostly Hispanic young men.

 Dirt bikes are certainly a nuisance, but the way the ordinance was enforced raises civil liberties issues.

  It is also unlikely that a champion will come forward on this speed limit issue like Councillor Rosen has done for the doggies owners.

The first step for safer reduced speed streets in Worcester is to have public hearings by City Council. The councilor this task would naturally fall to is Councillor Toomey, Chair of the Public Safety Committee. However given the social economic class of motorists as a group, no one in City Council will do anything.

Many in City Council will repeat the mantra, “The City police is doing a good job. We should not question what they do. Chief Sargent meets with crime Watch groups. We are not racist”

This is the time to lower the speed limit in urban areas and make the effort to attain the goal of zero pedestrian deaths. 

The End of the GOP and the Rise of the Greens

The End of the GOP and the Rise of the Greens.

                                                        Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka

The Green Party seems to be the only viable electoral party in the center left.

The Green Party US is moving to the left. At its 2016 Convention it adopted not only an anti-business, but an anti-capitalism platform. A surprising and bold move for the Greens in the USA.

This anti-capitalist platform is likely to mean a furious fight for the hearts of the Greens. Although the Greens have always rejected any corporate contributions, unlike the Republicans and the Democrats, there are many in the Greens who do not have a clear anti-capitalist agenda.

Does the anti-capitalism platform mean that the Greens will want communism or something less, such as the so called social democracies of Western Europe? Perhaps a third way will come about. We will have to see what develops.

In many ways this future struggle within the Greens has the same feel as that which occurred in the late 1960s in SDS. The split in SDS was over how to defeat capitalism.

 The Greens nominated favorite and native daughter to Massachusetts, Jill Stein. For Vice President the Greens nominated Ajamu Baraka, human rights activist. Mr. Baraka is somewhat like Tim Kaine; neither overshadows their respective Presidential candidate.

                                                       Cornel West and delegates

At the Greens Convention was a good number of former supporters of Bernie Sanders. For the most part they were younger and more enthusiastic than the longtime Greens. Former Sanders supporters have made their presence known to the Green-Rainbows in Massachusetts.

It was not clear whether the former Sanders supporters at the Greens Convention were actual delegates or just unofficially attendees.  This seems to bode well for the Greens who will likely pick up many younger former Sanders supports and increase its draw as a political party.

The labor vote has not come easily to the Greens. This might have been due to the ties of labor bosses to the Democratic Party. I suppose at some point the Wall Street bosses friendship with the Democratic Party could lead to Labor’s defection to the Greens.

The Democrats under President Clinton destroyed the safety net and signed bills that led to mass incarcerations. Hillary Clinton has paid only lip service to Black Lives Matter.

During the 1930s the Black vote went from the Republicans to the Democrats when we Black people saw that the Wall Street bosses had no plan to end the Great Depression and racism. It is likely something similar will take place in the future.

The Democratic Party was a coalition created by FDR to nullify the Wall Street bosses. Those bosses caused the Great Depression of the 20^th Century and the Great Recession of the 21th Century. Today the Democrats are in bed with Wall Street once again while pretending to be pro- labor.

Like Kucinich in 2004, Bernie Sanders has proven himself to be fake.

The Republican Party has split into three parts, fascist, libertarian, and the Charlie Baker moderates. It is no longer a coherent entity.  Only the fascists have the potential for growing, blaming immigrants and using racism. The Libertarians are just in the wrong century. The moderate Republicans are moving into the Democratic Party where they are being openly courted.

Like the Know Nothing Party of the 1800s the GOP is disappearing. It seems that the Greens are becoming the new FDR coalition.

The Muck of Racism

The Muck of Racism

Modern day racists have grown sophisticated. They are able to hide their racism behind political correctness and the pretext of law. We have seen this in Worcester.

The mainly White dog park people are treated better than the mainly Hispanic dirt bike park people.

This type of so called color blind racism has reared its ugly head in Dudley MA where the Town has blocked the practice of a religion. It is, to almost everyone, clear that the underlying cause of the Town’s opposition to an Islamic cemetery is racism and anti-Islamic prejudice.

However, an activist in the Muslim community found it hard to accept that the people of Dudley could be as racist as the media depict them. She felt that the people of Dudley were actually concerned with traffic.

I mentioned to her that the traffic in a fairly large cemetery like Hope Cemetery had no issues and that a small cemetery such as is proposed for Dudley would likely have no traffic issues either.

She finally said that if the cemetery was for Swedes or Jews the Town was not likely to have opposed it.

The Islamic Society is suing the Town in Land Court, challenging the interpretation that a Special Permit is needed to change agricultural land to a cemetery. The Islamic Society is arguing that a Special permit is not required by the State statute,

The Town’s argument is that a Special Permit is required. However the Town is also arguing it has the right of first refusal for the sale of the property. For this reason it argues the Islamic Society has no “standing” and cannot even apply for the Special Permit.

The Town’s pretext has now become that it did NOT deny the Islamic Society a Special Permit. It only informed the Islamic Society it was not legal for the Islamic Society to apply for the Special Permit. The Town informed the Islamic Society of this technicality eight months AFTER it had made its application.

It took the Town lawyer that long to come up with its color blind regulation.

The ACLU has entered the case based on the First Amendment guarantees against government interference in the practice of religion. Although it is bringing its case to Federal Court. The right to religious freedom is also found in State statutes and ironically in the by-laws of Dudley MA.

When I was on the Board of Directors of the Civil Liberty Union of Massachusetts the ACLU lawyers brought a lot of resources to a case. Recently the ACLU defeated the Worcester ordinance against panhandling. It is unlikely Dudley will be able to match the forces amassing against it.

The Islamic Society proffered a settlement of a cemetery with reduced acreage of 12.5 acres. The Town rejected this offer and now the Town is in court.

It might make better sense for Dudley to take another look at this compromise. If it does not it will likely have to pay millions in legal fees. The lawyers who overturned Worcester’s panhandling ordinance sent the City a bill for one million dollars.

More importantly Dudley might be able wipe some of the muck that its racist actions have brought to it.

Body Cameras For Worcester Police

Body Cameras for Worcester Police

Several years ago Chief Gemme, now retired, announced that the Worcester Police Department was investigating the policy of the use of body cameras for on duty patrol officers. Like with most “policy” issues in the City of Worcester the investigation was conducted in secret.

Advocates of the policy of using body cameras pointed out that body cameras protect both the public and the police officers. The information provided by the video is considered indisputable, unlike oral testimony. 

With body cameras the actions of a member of the public is clearly shown and this protects police officers from false or unsubstantial complaints. Also the actions of the police is clearly recorded protecting the public from poorly trained police officers or officers who are racist.

Body cameras are used in at least 42 large departments nation-wide and many more smaller departments.  Boston is initiating the use of body cameras on a trial basis this year. Leicester MA and the Brookfield already use them.

The overall results have been that the number of complaints made by the public are down and the number of arrests is also down. Both statistics point to a reduction of frivolous activity by the public and police. Such interactions over what many of us would call frivolous often leads to escalations.

The City Council has essentially abrogated it duty and responsibility to set policy for the Worcester Police Department. The City Manager and City Council are just rubber stamps for whatever the Police Chief and his cronies tell them.

There is no transparency in terms of complaints by the public. There is no significant external oversight over use of funds. Several City Councillors have passed resolutions in effect saying “support the cops, right or wrong”

A group of residents are petitioning the City Council to have public hearings on changes to Worcester Police policies. The petition will be given to the Worcester City Council at the August 16, 2016 City Council meeting.

Hopefully if approved by City Council, the public hearings will real and honest. The hearing should not be like the joke of City Manager Augustus’ hearings in 2015 in which the police chief did not appear and the notes were lost.

The ACLU has come up with a set of rules, a policy for the use of body cameras by the police. The Boston Police Department has adopted 80 percent of the ACLU’s proposals.

These proposals include when the cameras should be turned on or off, who gets access to the videos, verification of the cameras’ operation, etc.

These proposals certainly could be used as a basis for the City Council establishing a body camera policy for the Worcester Police Department. The City Council should also conduct an audit about any money received via grants for a pilot program for body camera use.

I been to a lot of City Council meeting and seen a lot of petitions describing good policies for the City. I have seen that most of these petitions were filed or thrown away. The petition regarding changes to Worcester Police policy is too important to be ignored.

Given the tensions between the public, especially people of color and the poor, and the police, there is a real need for the protection of our rights.