Ice Storm wrap up
Like much of Central Massachusetts, we found ourselves without electricity and therefore heat by 10pm on Thursday night. We were lucky to get our power back up Sunday at 2pm, lucky is relative considering there are many who are still without. All things considered, we did OK right from the beginning. Ice buildup in our area was minimal but travel a quarter mile in any direction and you would find yourself faced with serious property damage and tree loss. A mile up the road, the town of Paxton was mostly unrecognizable, still covered in ice with some parts impassable, as recently as Sunday evening.
Knowing the power was still out I grabbed, eight bundles of firewood on my way home from work Friday night. That lasted us through Sat night, keeping the house at a livable 47 degrees. The funny thing about this ‘disaster’ was [...]
Original post by Brendan
Transparent and opaque are not synonyms
WPD Chief Gary Gemme would make a terrible teacher, not that he’s any better a cop.
Today, the WPD was kind enough to start the trickling out of public records relating to Worcester Police Officer Mark Rojas. Worcester Magazine has the story on a press release about the… uh, press release.
The Worcester Police Department has just released a statement that the department intends to release the records this week, though samples of the records to be released include heavy redactions—including a full page blacked out in one case. In the statement, the department also criticizes the Telegram for “polarizing the debate.”
According to the WPD:
“Under normal circumstances it is not unusual for a request of this magnitude to take months to comply with, and the past several months have not been routine,” the statement reads, discussing the ongoing investigation of court overtime abuse. “While the…Attorney General is reviewing the criminal liability…[WPD] [...]
Original post by Brendan
$900
$900 is the amount I would be fined for leaving the house today according to this proposed ordinance featured in todays T&G.
The ordinance, developed by the Police Department, Worcester District Attorney’s office and city officials, would fine people $300 for carrying knives.
What exactly leads the Worcester Chief of Police Gary Gemme and District Attorney Joe Early Jr. to believe that an individual who as decided to commit manslaughter will be detered by a $300 fine? Seriously, thats the best you could come up with?
Rank and file members of the WPD and DA’s office seriously need to think about distancing themselves publicly from their respective superiors and unions as they continue to make decisions which have little to no impact on their stated goals, but instead foster a sense of contempt and distrust amongst the public they serve. This ordinance is silly and stands to make much of [...]
Original post by Brendan
Cutlery control in Worcester
You’ve got to be fucking shitting me.
Something that was just a running joke less than a week ago is now headed towards actually public policy.
“What we want to do is get rid of the perception that it is all right to carry a knife, and get the message to the young kids that it is not OK to have a knife in your possession,” Mr. Early said.
I was half way through writing up a grandiose explanation of how this logic is inherently flawed, but I did that on WTAG last Monday with Mike Messina and repetition makes me feel like a crazy person. Plus WoMag did a wonderful job this past thursday. So instead I’ll just point out that the problem in Worcester is not ‘knife violence’, it’s that D.A. Early and WPD Chief Gemme are two simpletons who possess such a small, provincial world view [...]
Original post by Brendan
Worcester after dark
The final item in Daily Worcsterias coverage of last night’s city council meeting seems to be a reoccurring theme.
9:00: Police Chief Gary Gemme is advocating for his creation of a Fall Impact Unit - similar to the Summer Impact Unit - by once again discussing how there’s a significant uptick in crime after midnight.
At what point does a member of the council ask the Chief to qualify that ideology? How can we allow blanket statements like that from city officials with no follow up discussion of population density shifts, influx into the city from surrounding towns and even the possibility that there might not actually be ‘more’ crime, but just more people available to report crime that normally wouldn’t involve the WPD? Statistics without supporting material and citations are just opinions. The second largest city in New England can’t afford to develop policy around opinion and [...]
Original post by Brendan