Nation’s First Police Department • Established 1854
Volume 38, Number 4 • July/August 2008
PAXCENTURION Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, Inc. Boston Emergency Medical Technicians
BPPA2008SPRINGAWARDWINNERS
Proposed abolition of State Income Tax means layoffs for public employees By Jim Carnell, Pax Editor HERE’S SIMPLY NO WAY AROUND IT: The proposed abolition of Massachusetts’ state income tax, which will be on the ballot this November and is binding, will, beyond any shadow of a doubt, result in layoffs for police, fire, EMT’s, teachers, and public workers around the state. That is an absolute guarantee. The elimination of state income taxes was originally proposed by the former gubernatorial candidate and head of the lunatic libertarian party, Carla Howell. (Not surprisingly, the legalization of marijuana, also supported by Carla and her fellow kooks, is also on the Massachusetts ballot this November). Unfortunately, with the assistance of legions of self-obsessed yuppies and others who simply hate cops, firefighters, teachers and all other public employees, the proposal gained enough signatures and is on the ballot for a majority vote during the Presidential election this November, which is guaranteed to attract a historic turn(continued on page A15)
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See pages A6 and A7 for story and more photos.
Summer 2008 “BLAME THE POLICE” AWARDS
Just remember: “It’s never your fault.” By Jim Carnell, Pax Editor or this issue of the Pax, I started collecting recent media accounts where alleged “victims” and/or relatives of alleged victims interjected their opinion or belief that whatever caused their predicament was somehow, someway the fault of the police. Suffice it to say that my desk is overflowing with yellowing reams of newspaper articles… As we are all well aware, the concept of personal responsibility for ones’ own actions is an antiquated notion which has been discredited since the 1960’s. During that era, the spoiled-rotten offspring of “the greatest generation,” who were sent to college by their doting parents, begat the philosophy that consequences and actions which had previously been attributed to one’s personal actions and behaviors were now to be blamed on nefarious “outside influences.” These outside influences could be anything from the evil U.S. government to religious entities, schools, persons in positions of authority, the bogeyman in the closet, etc. etc. This philosophy soon became popular with those who desired to absolve themselves of responsibility for their own conduct and project the blame upon somebody or something else. It is now considered the official policy of all persons who ascribe to liberal theology, routinely vote
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POLICE SERVICES PRICE LIST If we can’t beat them, join them… and here’s what it costs… by Jim Carnell, Pax Editor Dear Officers, In the current anti-tax, anti-police, anti-public employee atmosphere, the public clamors for “reform”. Question 1, which will eliminate the state income tax and absolutely result in police layoffs, will appear on the November ballot. WRKO’s Howie Carr, the Globe’s Scott Lehigh, the Herald’s Rachelle Cohen, Fox 25’s “Virgin Boy” and the Beacon Hill Institute’s David Tuerck all demand an end to police details. The public, if given the opportunity, would absolutely reduce your pay and benefits. It’s almost like the whole world’s against us, so why bother fighting? Let’s take a lesson from Howie Carr’s “dreaded private sector,” you know, the same private sector that steals millions of dollars in public money through Medicaid fraud, construction fraud, tax cheating, etc. etc. Let’s start charging for all police services, and start making real money! Here’s a prospective price list we can hand out to people requesting police services: Dear Citizen, Police response to actual, inprogress felonies made to 911 will remain free of charge. However, in order to properly and fairly assess costs, all other police services will now incur a fee. Charges will be assessed to the caller’s cellular phone, business or home telephone bill. However, cruis(continued on page A7)
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Union Printworks
Volume 38, No. 4 • Readership 125,000 • July/August 2008 BOARD OF EDITORS
James Carnell, Managing Editor
Thomas J. Nee, Executive Director Ronald MacGillivray, Vice President John Broderick, Jr., Secretary Thomas Pratt, Treasurer
Mark Bruno, Pat Rose, Assistant Managing Editors
EMS Officers John Bilotas, Secretary James Orsino, President Anthony O’Brien, Treasurer Robert Morley, Vice President Len Shubitowski, Chief Steward Bulk Mailing Postage Paid at Worcester, Mass., Permit No. 2226
BPPA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AREA A
AREA B
AREA C
Brian Reaney • Tom Corbett John Bates • Jimmy Carnell Michael Leary • Robert Anthony Bob Luongo • James Warmsley
David Fitzgerald • Michael Sullivan Cynthia Beckford-Brewington Richard McCormack Steve Parham • Atiya Younger
Timothy Golden • Bill Hogan Joe Miskel • Mark Bruno Patrick Rose • Chuck Kelley
AREA D
AREA E
AREA F
Scott Yanovich Robert Butler • Greg Lynch Tim Donovan • Jason Ezekiel Samuel Berte
Michael Harrington • Paul Nee Lawrence Calderone Gerald Rautenberg • Steve Kelley Arthur McCarthy • Angel Figueroa Chris Morgan • Richard Jordan
IDENT. UNIT – John Fitzgerald DRUG UNIT – Paul Quinn YVSF – Vincent Stephens
M.O.P.
RADIO SHOP / P.D.S.
TURRET
Richie Kelley Chris Broderick
John Kundy P.D.S. – Karen VanDyke
John Conway • Dave Stewart Curtis Carroll
ACADEMY / RANGE EVIDENCE MANAGEMENT
HARBOR
E.S.U.
Jeff Tobin
Hector Cabrera • Francis Deary
Paul Downey
HEADQUARTERS
K-9 / MOUNTED
MASTER AT ARMS
Rheitha Stewart
Kevin Ford • Thomas O’Donnell
Robert Lundbohm • Mike Murphy John Rogers
BPPA COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS AWARDS Bob Butler • J. Broderick • G. Rautenberg GRIEVANCE Bob Butler • Jim Carnell • Brian Reaney Mike Leary • Tom Pratt • Dave Fitzgerald BUILDING Tom Nee BARGAINING Tom Nee • Ron MacGillivray • Brian Reaney Tom Pratt • Dave Fitzgerald LEGISLATIVE Jim Barry MassPULL Jim Barry
PUBLIC RELATIONS Jim Barry PAX CENTURION Jim Carnell • Mark Bruno • Patrick Rose BYLAWS Tom Nee HEALTH and SAFETY / LABOR MANAGEMENT John Kundy ELECTIONS Dave Fitzgerald EDUCATION Tom Nee DETAILS / OVERTIME Brian Reaney • Patrick Rose
TO ADVERTISE IN THE PAX CENTURION
Call the Pax Centurion Advertising Staff at: COMMONWEALTH PRODUCTIONS: 781-848-8224 • Fax: 781-848-8041
EDITORIAL POLICY 1. Opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association. 2. No responsibility is assumed for unsolicited material. 3. Letters or articles submitted shall be limited to 350 words and must be accompanied by the writer’s name, but may be reprinted without name or address at writer’s request. 4. Freedom of expression is recognized within the bounds of good taste and the limits of available space. 5. The B.P.P.A. reserves the right to edit submission and/or include Editor’s notes to any submitted materials. 6. The deadline for printed materials for the next issue is SEPTEMBER 24, 2008. 7. Any article printed in this issue may be reprinted in future issues.
BOSTON POLICE PATROLMEN’S ASSOCIATION Tel.: 617-989-BPPA (2772) • Fax: 617-989-2779 Office Personnel: Annie Parolin • Annmarie Daly
Page A2 • PAX CENTURION • July/August 2008
From the President:
Thomas J. Nee
The perfect storm A
s the economy continues to go south, more and more people are worried about losing their jobs, their homes, their year if they vote to repeal the income tax. pensions. The price of gas is still hovering They promise that they will shrink the state around four bucks a gallon and foreclosures government and Massachusetts will be all are seemingly outpacing the war spending. the better for it. I say if they are successful The silence from Washington has been deaf- we as a profession will be part of the shrinkening, the voting public is sick and tired with age. This proposal is so bad that even Barthe lack of answers from their elected lead- bara Anderson is reluctant to support it and ers. They’re sick and tired of government yet it is gaining momentum. Let me share with you some facts. If this fees and taxes, hell aren’t we all. They are sick and tired of broken promises and they proposal were successful it would require are looking for answers, some say they are the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to looking for someone to blame. The BPPA operate with the same type of budget signed leadership has and continues to be con- into law in 1995 (about 17 plus billion dolcerned with the current trends in the lars). Could you pay your bills or do your economy and believes that it could have a business if you were to lose 40 percent of significant impact on the voting public’s mindset and thought process in November. The BPPA leadership has and Last month, I issued a similar warning and as a result a number continues to be concerned of discussions have taken place with the current trends in the between our members. This is a economy and believes that it very important communication and it is absolutely “NOT” the could have a significant last time you will hear me tell this impact on the voting public’s story between now and November 4th. So to our membership I mindset and thought process must ask that the conversation in November. Last month I continue. On the November ballot, ev- issued a similar warning and ery citizen in the Commonwealth as a result a number of will be asked to vote on a ballot discussions have taken place proposal that comes from the Coalition for Small Government, led between our members. This by one-time Libertarian Party can- is a very important communididate for Massachusetts Governor, Carla Howell. The proposed cation and it is absolutely ballot question, if successful, “NOT” the last time you will would phase out the state income hear me tell this story tax in Massachusetts by cutting it from its current 5.3 percent to 2.65 between now and November percent in 2009 and subsequently 4th. So to our membership eliminate the income tax all together in the year 2010. A similar I must ask that the initiative was advanced during the conversation continue. election period in 2002. In the post-9/11 era, the country was in a similar situation, the economy was a your income? Could you pay your bills or wreck and we were then, as now, in the grips experience the same quality of life you curof a recession. Several months earlier we rently enjoy with the same budget you had had initiated a military campaign in Af- in 1995. Of course you couldn’t. Let me ghanistan and Iraq, there was a great sense give you a visual of what this tax rollback of American pride, of trust and confidence might look like. First of all 14 BILLION in our government that we were on the right dollars will immediately disappear from the track and we would get through that very state revenues. Sam Huff, a private policy difficult time period. Seemingly that period consultant, who studies the state budget, of trust and confidence is long behind us. recently reported that if every state worker During the campaign of 2002, the identical in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts question proposed in 2008 received little or were laid off immediately the state would no attention in the media, yet it received 45 realize 5 billion dollar annual savings. That percent of the vote. Recently, the Wall Street being said, what do you think will happen Journal, CNN and many other major me- next? Where do you think they will look to dia outlets have shown interest in the ballot find the other 9 billion dollars? Quinn Bill, question and quite honestly are showing pensions, health care, paid details. If you signs of support for the initiative. Carla own a home how much do you think your Howell and the other proponents have be- real estate taxes will be? I’ll tell you right gun promising the taxpayers of Massachu- now the increase will border cause for a setts an average savings of $3,600.00 per (continued on page A15) 617-989-BPPA (2772)
Message from the Vice President:
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It’s almost Sept. 11th again
Ronald MacGillivray
Grievances and discipline
he term “grievance,” when talking about our workplace, relates to any dispute concerning the interpretation, application or enforcement of our Collective Bargaining Agreement. Many grievances are discussed at length… some are settled at the District level with the Captain or Com-
more than likely have accepted it as many officers, with lesser charges pending, have been forced to do of late. The BPPA and the City share a panel of arbitrators who I think provide the best combination of smarts and common sense, as well as years of experience, that are avail-
Department’s offering of “termination” forces any officer to accept whatever the counter offer is. Discipline will no doubt continue to be unbalanced, simply because it is allowed at the highest but when In some cases, discipline has turned into a life altering sentence… level, arbitrators where an officer’s family is ruined. Loss of health insurance occurs point out the Department’s at around 30-plus days with the threat of mortgage payments extreme shortgoing unpaid shortly thereafter. Abusive discipline can simply be sightedness in described as discipline that is destructive, not only to the individual countermanding their findbut to the Department with the residual after effects. That is not ings (i.e. termination reversed to say that reasoned discipline excludes termination if justified… to 1 day or no but over-the-top, “grieve it” discipline has become the rule. t i m e ) … i t ’s time to take a mander… some have more merit than oth- able. You win some and you lose some hard look at the victims of such careless deers… and of late some involve officers that based on an unbiased determination of the cision making and not let it happen again. are offered discipline that redefines the word facts… except if you’re the Department in FMLA “extreme.” There is a section of the CBA discipline cases where the imposition of disThe Department of Labor will be releasthat covers the concept of “just cause” dis- cipline can not be questioned… result, furcipline which seems to be missing from the ther litigation at the Superior Court and/or ing a draft outline summarizing proposed changes to the Family Medical Leave Act Department’s edition, especially the part the Appellate Court. and a more definitive understanding given about the appropriateness of the penalty. You Make the Call… the extent of litigation since the implemenThe Department’s rendering would give one Accept or Fight it tation back in 1995. The overall modificathe impression that it reads… “just cause I say so.” Let’s deal with a fictional case: Internal tions being sought by the current adminisThe concept of “Progressive Discipline” charges could include any combination of tration are said to be favorable to the emworks well at the district level where fair Conduct, Neglect of Duty, Unreasonable ployer. One of the more relevant changes and reasonable decision-makers prevail, re- Judgment, Truthfulness or Conformance to affecting our membership being sought by alizing that accepted discipline is the most Laws: the employers was “intermittent leave.” Emeffective discipline. There tends to be a betThe offer… 18 months… counter of- ployers would like to lengthen the amount ter understanding of the workplace at this fered down to 9 months in abeyance with 9 of time that employees may request under level for obvious reasons. There is also a months to serve with additional noose tight- the FMLA (i.e. eight hours)… currently good understanding of recommended dis- ening language from the Department… the employees may take the shortest leave escipline at the secondary levels at the Bu- Truthfulness charge dropped. tablished under an employers timekeeping reau of Internal Investigations. The probIf not accepted: Department seeking system… for sake of argument – one hour. lem is that most of the evenhanded and lev- termination (guaranteed to be rubber- There is a lot of pushback concerning this elheaded recommendations for discipline stamped at the Department hearing, plus 1- change and to keep it as is. that come out of the internal investigations are overturned at the higher levels. In some cases, discipline has turned into Discipline will no doubt continue to be unbalanced, a life-altering sentence… where an officer’s simply because it is allowed at the highest level, but family is ruined. Loss of health insurance when arbitrators point out the Department’s extreme occurs at around 30-plus days with the threat of mortgage payments going unpaid shortly shortsightedness in countermanding their findings thereafter. Abusive discipline can simply be (i.e. termination reversed to 1 day or no time)… it’s described as discipline that is destructive not time to take hard look at the victims of such careless only to the individual but to the Department with the residual after-effects. That is not decision making and not let it happen again. to say that reasoned discipline excludes terThere were proposed rules concerning mination if justified… but over-the-top, 1/2 to 2 years waiting for case to be heard, “grieve it” discipline has become the rule. though the City has been accommodating military personnel and their families. An eligible employee can take up to 26 weeks The “just cause” discipline section of our con- in pushing discipline cases.) Background: Officer has eight years of leave in a 12 month period providing care tract is intended to keep predisposed partiality (which has become common in the disciplin- on, first time offender (no prior disci- for a spouse, child, parent or next of kin pline)… two BPPA cases on point regard- who is a service member who suffered a ing of our members) out of the process. Recent cases that come to mind have been ing past discipline include: 10 days from serious illness or injury incurred during acterminations that have been reversed by an ar- an arbitrated case (five years ago) and 7- tive duty in the Armed Forces. In addition, bitrator… decisions that were well written and day settlement agreement under a differ- a 12 week leave for “any qualifying exigency” that arises from any parent’s, used good judgment. The individuals were de- ent Commissioner (seven years ago). With termination being the backdrop… spouse’s, child’s active duty in the Armed serving of discipline but not terminal, career ending sentences. In these cases, officers were there is no choice. This is nothing short of a Forces, including call to duty. Information not given an option, but had they been ten- demand to comply with the counter offer… provided by Public Safety Labor Relations dered even an unreasonable offer, they would which is calculatingly malicious. The regarding proposed legislation. www.bppa.org
(Or have you, too, forgotten?”) By Jim Carnell, Pax Editor T’S ALMOST SEPTEMBER 11TH AGAIN. You remember September 11th, don’t you? Or don’t you want to? Yeah, it’s always convenient to forget, to pretend like it didn’t happen. Or, like millions of stupid Americans who consider themselves liberals, to believe that somehow, someway… it must have been our fault. Yeah, that’s right, if only we were nicer to the peace-loving Arabs, if only we didn’t support Israel, if only we were more tolerant and understanding, then the practitioners of the religion of love and peace would like us, right? What unadulterated crap. The simple fact is that those who attacked us on September 11th are still out there, by the hun-
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Yeah, it’s always convenient to forget, to pretend like it didn’t happen. Or, like millions of stupid Americans who consider themselves liberals, to believe that somehow, someway… it must have been our fault. dreds of millions. And we could kiss their behinds and wipe the bottom of their feet and they would still want to kill us. Understand that? Do you get it? They want to kill us because we are Americans and we don’t accept their warped, demented, sick theology that would return us to the twelfth century. They hate Christians, they hate Jews, they hate Hindus, Buddhists and all other religions anywhere. They hate us because they are losers and because they are intensely jealous, knowing that the bonds of their own twisted religious beliefs are what keeps them where they are- and where they belong. There is something very basically wrong with a people who still shun toilet paper and consider it an example of Western excess. I always get a kick out of those phony morons who attend the Boston Common anti-war protests. They have this boilerplate chant that somehow manages to wrap their anti-war sentiments around, together and with issues like racism, sexism, homophobia, and all other perceived social ills attributed to the United States of America. The thought occurred to me: if these idiots were really against racism, (continued on page A7)
PAX CENTURION • July/August 2008 • Page A3
Treasury Notes:
Thomas Pratt,
BPPA Treasurer
Summer is the time for golf, baseball and looking ahead to stupid referendums in the fall
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s always I start with a customary I hope My next order of business are my ivory towers who employ outside compaI find everyone doing well and enjoy- thoughts on the income tax roll-back vote nies to solicit names to get these referening the summer months with family and coming up this fall. It is my opinion that if dums on the ballot. These groups do not friends. The first order of business that I this passes it will not be a good thing for understand the complexities behind local would to do is thank all of our members, public safety unions and public employees aid and other programs that the state sponfriends and sponsors who played and con- in general. The thought of more money in sors to the cities and towns around the Comtributed to the success of the Union’s Golf Outing at the Franklin The income tax roll-back vote coming up this fall will not Park Golf Course on July 18, 2008. I hope everyone enjoyed the round be a good thing for public safety unions and public emof golf, great food and the ton of ployees in general. The thought of more money in your raffle prizes. The weather was defi- paycheck is a good thing, who doesn’t like more money? nitely on our side, sunny, clear and not too muggy. Once again, I was What we as public employees must realize is that we on a the albatross in my foursome. I whole are paid by tax dollars. The elimination of this apologize to John Ford, he was ex- source of income for the Commonwealth of Massachupecting bigger and better things from me this year, but I was just setts would turn out to be about a 14 billion dollar deficit happy to get the ball off the tees. in the state budget. Think of other states that do not Big congratulations to the foursome have an income tax and see how they generate of Stanton, Conley, Troy and Hussein who not only came in first revenue… other taxes and fees have skyrocketed. place in the golf but Detective The state will always get their money. Timmy Stanton, C-11 also won first place in the first annual BPPA hot dog your paycheck is a good thing, who does monwealth. Once again, I like money, but eating contest with a tremendous effort of not like more money? What we as public not at the expense of my job or at the exten quarter-pound weenies without having employees must realize, is that we are paid pense of programs for special needs chilto come up for air once. Great job, Tim. It by tax dollars and the elimination of this dren or elderly services. All I ask of you as was also nice to see our union brothers from source of income for the Commonwealth a member of the BPPA, is research the refboth the Providence Police Union and the of Massachusetts would turn out to be about erendum and think of the impact it will have New York Police Benevolent Association a 14 billion dollar deficit in the state’s bud- on your family and your livelihood. Don’t travel to Boston for this event. It is a sign get. Think of other states that do not have get caught up in the short-term benefits. of police union solidarity. My last an income tax and see how they generate Look to the future, your retirement and futhoughts on this topic would be a thank revenue: i.e. higher property taxes, meal ture contract negotiations and the possibilyou to Bob and Andy Ferguson of Ski taxes, usage fees and when it comes time to ity of layoffs. The general public does not Market and Matt Griffin of Costello’s renew a license or permit those prices have fully understand the impact it will have on Tavern who helped me out with this year’s skyrocketed also, the State will always get services such as police, fire, and ambulance. event and without hesitation all said yes their money. Do not forget that the people It is up to you to educate these people on and went out of their way to accommo- who sponsor these initiatives are usually the harsh reality of basic essential services date my schedule. transplants from other states or persons in being slashed.
On a lighter note, I would like to say job well done to our Secretary Jay Broderick on organizing the day of baseball at the Brockton Rox for our members, family and friends. The highlight of the day was not really the baseball but the sumo wrestling. Chris Morgan and Daryle Dwan put on sumo suits and rolled around first-base that looked like two turtles on their backs. Morgie with the height and Weight advantage and Daryle with a very low center of gravity advantage, making this event very equal on the skills level. It turned out to be a very sweaty draw. One last order of business on July 31, 2008, the Telephone workers had a prestrike rally at 185 Franklin Street, Post Office Square. I would just like to thank some of our members who assisted me in a standout in a sign of solidarity with our brothers and sisters from Local 2222 and 2223 and a host of other unions and organization. Big thanks to Mike Brown, Dan Donahue, Rich Jenetti, Jason Ezekiel, Eddie Nolan, Brian Reaney, and Mike Leary, and last but not least, Jimmy Carnell, who was the Captain of our mobile strike team. Do not forget that the telephone workers stood tall with us down at the Fleet Center before the Democratic National Convention. In closing, I would just like to say once again, enjoy the summer! Take time out to be with your family and friends. Take a trip, go to the beach and unwind, look around and appreciate what you have. Remember, keep your guard up and watch each other’s backs and if I have done something you are not happy with, call me on it. Don’t let it fester. I work for you, so it is your job to keep me honest.
Editor’s Opinion/Analysis:
Cop-haters declare war on police pay, benefits Storm clouds gathering on fall horizon…
By Jim Carnell, Pax Editor control. The eternal optimists among us say “never;” I say “Wait and see….” EAH, I KNOW, I’VE HEARD IT BEFORE… “Don’t listen to him, he’s nothing The facts simply don’t matter in this media-generated controversy about police debut a pessimist, he always sees the glass half-empty instead of half-full,” yadda, tails. It’s not about “cost savings” – that has nothing to do with it. And it’s not about yadda, yadda. Problem is, in the current political environment, I just might be (unfortu- them being “concerned for how tired the officers must be doing details”… (they don’t nately) right… give a damn about your health). It’s A combination of factors is gelling hatred for police officers makThe facts simply don’t matter in this media-generated about together for the upcoming elections this ing money, pure and simple. They fall, and there’s nothing bright and posi- controversy about police details. It’s not about “cost simply hate the fact that a blue-coltive to report. By the time this article is savings” – that has nothing to do with it. And it’s lar, working-class cop has the ability published in the August ’08 Pax Centuto make more money than a 25-year rion, Governor Deval Patrick will have not about them being “concerned for how tired the old piss-ant journalist who just gradureleased his new regulations concern- officers must be doing details”… (they don’t give a ated from B.U. or Columbia and is ing the use of police details vs. civilian now tenuously employed in the deflaggers on state road projects, which damn about your health). It’s about hatred for police clining newspaper business. In their may not (hopefully) have much of an officers making money,pure and simple. minds, there is a pre-determined initial impact on how Boston currently amount of money that the average uses details. Certainly, these new regulations will have a negative impact on the Massa- police officer should be allowed to earn, and it’s always below whatever they make… chusetts State Police and on cities and towns that do not currently have ordinances, byThink of the people who hate us. Think of the likes of the Globe’s Scott Lehigh or laws and/or existing collective bargaining agreements in place. For example, we may the Herald’s Rachelle Cohen. Think of Suffolk University’s Beacon Hill Institute disee, in the near future, civilian flagmen being used on State roads in Boston such as rector David Tuerck, a man who literally oozes hatred and contempt for police officers Morrissey Blvd. or the portion of Columbia Road in Dorchester which is under state (continued on page A15)
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Page A4 • PAX CENTURION • July/August 2008
617-989-BPPA (2772)
Secretary Spread:
Jay Broderick,
BPPA Secretary
Speaker DeMasi blocks Seaport jurisdiction legislation T
he Massachusetts Legislature has ended will rail about how the “powerful” police trator reverse the termination and replace it formal sessions for the year and it’s unions have blocked reform and how with a one-day suspension. ONE DAY. probably a good time to comment on what elected officials are afraid of the police Come on now! That’s a pretty big differhappened, or didn’t happen, relative to the unions. Police unions, or any union for that ence. But the department knows that many interests of the BPPA and its members. matter, are powerful because of the partici- members, when offered a suspension, canA major piece of legislation that the pation and support of the membership. If not afford to risk getting more time off and BPPA was pushing was our attempt to cre- we, as a collective group, continue to fail to many just accept it. The BPPA can only help ate concurrent juthe member make an inrisdiction in the We were continually assured that the legislation formed decision. Believe Seaport area. The me when I tell you that the BPPA, with Leg- would be advanced. We weren’t looking for a bag BPPA looks forward to islative Agent job. We just wanted to be able to debate the the chance to take one of Jim Barry as the merits of our arguments. The simple argument these cases forward but at point man, workthe end of the day, the ed tirelessly to that Boston Police Officers should have jurisdiction member has to make a get this legisla- on property located within the City of Boston. decision that is best for tion passed. We their family. were continually Pretty simple right? Mayor Tom Menino The BPPA is often told assured that the supported the legislation and we were confident that the decision came out legislation would Legal. Well, nowhere in that we had the support of the many members of of be advanced. We the Rules concerning the weren’t looking the legislature we have continually supported administration of discifor a bag job. We throughout the years. But in the end the bill pline, do I see the word just wanted to be Legal Advisor. I only see able to debate the didn’t come out for a vote because of one Bureau Chiefs, IAD Inmerits of our ar- person…Speaker of the House Sal DiMasi. vestigators, and the Comguments. The missioner. You know, only simple argument that Boston Police Offic- go to the polls, whether it’s local or national, sworn Police Officers. Maybe someone will ers should have jurisdiction on property lo- and cast a vote we will be sending them a take a second, read the Rules, and rememcated within the City of Boston. Pretty message that we really don’t care. Remem- ber that! Only then will discipline accomsimple right? Mayor Tom Menino sup- ber, the BPPA is restricted as to how much plish for what it was designed. ported the legislation and we were confi- we can give to an elected official. But we’re Notes: dent that we had the support of the many not restricted in putting a bumper sticker • There were no By-Law Proposals submitted to me, so obviously there won’t members of the legislature we have con- on our cars or a house sign on our lawn. be any votes on new By-Laws or Bytinually supported throughout the years. The one thing that I don’t doubt is that, Law changes. But in the end the bill didn’t come out for a over the years, these politicians have reThere will be nominations, and if vote because of one person…Speaker of the alized that too many of our members don’t needed, elections for all Shift RepresenHouse Sal DiMasi. take the time to vote so in reality, they tative positions as well as for the four Ok, that’s one issue and the Legislature feel that we are not a big enough threat to leadership positions. When the dates for has many issues to deal with one may say. them. these nominations and/or elections are How about our EMS Division? The BPPA/ On a different note, I was reading the finalized, I will be sure to get that inforEMS Division negotiates a contract that Boston Police Rules and Regulations the mation out to the membership. calls for their members to be afforded the other day when I happened to get to the part opportunity to join Group 4 (Public Safety) about discipline. I read with great interest • The BPPA has secured passes for the Museum of Science. Because of the anof the State Retirement System, which about how discipline was not designed to ticipated demand for these passes there would grant them the same retirement ben- be punitive but is meant to serve as a trainwill be a limit of two per member so that efits that are enjoyed, by Police Officers, ing aid. I read a little more about how comeveryone has a chance to enjoy them. We Corrections Officers, and Firefighters. plaints and allegations were to be investistill have passes to Zoo New England, These guys gave up substantial pay in- gated in a timely fashion. After reading the Roger Williams Zoo, and the Boscreases to get into the system. The Mayor those two pieces, I turned the book over, ton Children’s Museum. We are currently and the City supported the legislation and and took a look at the cover just to make out of Aquarium passes but we hope to it doesn’t even come out for a vote? That is sure that I was reading the Boston Police have more by the start of the school year. complete nonsense. Makes you wonder Rules and Regulations. I was, I think? My The Liberty Mutual Discount Program, about whom else was trying to get into the confusion came from the way the Rules read which entitles our members to an 8% system. and how they are actually applied. When I discount on the auto insurance and up to So where does that leave the BPPA? hear about how the department offers a yeara 10% discount on the homeowners inHistorically, the BPPA has been one of long suspension to an officer who was insurance, is also available to all our memthe bigger spenders in the Commonwealth volved in a very minor off duty incident (an bers. of Massachusetts, as far as political con- incident that IAD didn’t even interview a tributions to politicians. Do we continue witness that had an account of the story that, • Anyone who is interested in receiving information concerning the BPPA by to contribute to elected officials who ei- in my opinion, completely exonerated the way of email, please email me at ther can’t or won’t advance our interests officer), I wonder what the hell is going on. jbroderick@bppa.org and I will add you or do we shut of the faucet? It’s a diffi- The length of suspensions relative to the to the email list. cult question but it’s one that needs to be infractions that are alleged is completely out Enjoy the rest the rest of your summer addressed. of whack. A clear sign of the problem should Those who are opposed to paid details be the recent example of the department and stay safe. advance their issue a little more each year. terminating an officer only to have an arbiIf you read the Globe and the Herald, they
www.bppa.org
Meet Boston Globe columnist Scott Lehigh
(When you’ll see him – and when you won’t see him…)
By Jim Carnell, Pax Editor OME OF YOU MAY HAVE SEEN the column by Globe columnist and resident cop-hater Scott Lehigh on Wednesday, July 2nd. (Others may not have noticed it, due to the fact that the Globe’s cop-hating editorial board was busy on that same day blaming police for the death of David Woodman during the so-called post-Celtics’ victory “celebrations.”) Lehigh’s smarmy col-
S
Lehigh’s smarmy column, “Making (no) sense of police details,” was standard drivel for a Charlestown urbanprofessional type who loves nothing more than to look down his nose at police officers whom he considers to be inferior. umn, “Making (no) sense of police details,” was standard drivel for a Charlestown urban-professional type who loves nothing more than to look down his nose at police officers whom he considers to be inferior. It is, however, important to understand the hateful, warped view of the police that Scott and legions of his like-minded Bostonarea yuppies hold, especially in the current political atmosphere and with Question 1 (the binding elimination of the state income tax) looming this November on the ballot. We’ve all encountered the Scott Lehighs of the world, haven’t we? They’re the demanding, obnoxious, overbearing “professionals” who now (unfortunately) occupy so much of this city. They’re the ones who drive the BMWs and the Volvos with the “Celebrate Diversity” and “Kerry/Edwards” bumper stickers sipping their Starbucks latté as they pass you by with that look of utter disdain on their face. They’re the ones who “work” (so to speak) in their comfortable offices behind the safety of a computer and spend their time robbing people with the punch of a keyboard or the stroke of a pen and then have the gall to criticize blue-collar workers for having a cup of coffee or taking a break. We’ve all met them, haven’t we? In his column, Scott smarmily muses over the fact that he passed by a (continued on page A9)
PAX CENTURION • July/August 2008 • Page A5
BPPA2008SPRINGAWARDWINNERS On June 27th, The BPPA
honored over 30 of our members for their extraordinary work and bravery while in the performance of their duties. The BPPA Awards Luncheon is held twice a year. Every award recipient was nominated for recognition by a fellow Police Officer.
Steve Roe and Natasha Abasciano (accepting the award for her husband Joe, who is serving overseas).
Award recipient Tamara Finley with her daughters.
BPPA President Tom Nee, award recipient Ken Autio, and BPPA Secretary Jay Broderick. Recipients Adam Fornash and Mark Hennessey.
Recipients Ed Boylan, Clay Morris and Jim LaCroix. Members of the Crime Scene Unit accept an award on behalf of their unit.
Recipients Pat Browning and Chris Holt.
Award recipients Eamon Geoghegan, Adam Mammone and Chris Adams with BPPA Secretary Jay Broderick. Page A6 • PAX CENTURION • July/August 2008
617-989-BPPA (2772)
Police Services Price List (continued from page A1)
Recipients Dan Donahue, Garvin McHale, Claire Duffy, Henry Doherty, Jeff McLean and Marty Harrison. A7 Shift Rep. Mike Leary with recipients Scott McIssac and Joe Digirolamo.
Recipients Otis Harewood and Mike Mylett with MOP Shift Rep. Chris Broderick.
“Four Fat Guys!”
Claire Duffy and Kristin Donahue.
Phillip’sOldColonyHouse Friday, June 27, 2008 www.bppa.org
ers will soon be capable of accepting VISA, Mastercard and Discover cards (No American Express, please). The following is a sample of proposed charges: Car accidents: Police response to socalled “paper swaps” (minor, non-injury car accidents) will incur a $100. charge. If injuries are involved and a police report is required for insurance purposes, the cost will be $250.00 to compensate the police for the additional time. If police are required to call tow-trucks, a $50.00 surcharge per car will be assessed, not including the cost of the actual tow. Transport to hospitals will begin at $800.00 per injury, payable immediately by credit card to Boston EMS. Alarms: Car alarm calls will incur a $100.00 response fee. House alarms cost $200.00. Business alarms will cost $250.00. Repeat calls (3 in 5 years) to faulty alarms (99% of all alarm calls) will incur an additional $100.00 surcharge per response. Shoplifting/Non-felony arrests: Requests from businesses to arrest shoplifters will incur a minimum booking fee of $250.00 per prisoner, plus a $100.00 reportwriting fee if the store requesting said services does not employ a special officer capable of writing said report. Housing of prisoners for more than 1 hour will incur a $300.00 storage/hotel charge, plus additional costs to compensate the city for having to assign an officer to watch and check the prisoner every 15 minutes. Long-weekend stays will pay a flat fee of $1000.00, plus additional costs for prisoner meals and medical services. Domestic Disputes: Service of restraining orders will cost $100.00 for the initial visit. If repeat enforcement action is required, the party requesting enforcement of the order will be assessed an additional fee of $75.00 per call, plus costs. (This fee may be recovered through the courts and re-assessed to the offender, but that is the responsibility of the person named on the court order). If an arrest is required, see above: “Non-felony arrests”. Report writing costs for introduction before the courts will remain at the standard $100.00 per page. Surrogate-parent, child-counseling charges are $25.00 per 15 minutes of the officer’s time, with a cap of $75.00 per hour.
Removal of vagrants/bums: Bum removal on private property is $50.00 per bum. No more than four (4) bums will be removed by the police wagon at any one time, due to liability concerns. Private businesses will be responsible for the holding and safeguarding of the bum’s property until the bum’s return. Claims of injury or loss of half-gallon jugs of Mohawk Vodka or Listerine by individual bums are the sole responsibility of the business requesting the bum removal. Locksmith services: Car lockouts will be assessed a fee of $100.00 per call. House lockouts require a deposit of $150.00. Damages incurred to any locks during attempts to gain entry are the sole responsibility of the car/home owner. Directions: Directions requested in-person of an officer will cost $10.00. Directions requested via phone will incur an additional fee of $2.50 per call in order to help pay the city’s phone bill. Gang removal: Requests to remove unruly gangs will incur a fee of $50.00 per call. Gangs must be of standard size (1-10 teenagers). Gangs composed of violent felons such as MS-13 will incur additional fees, depending on the size of the gang and the level of difficulty in removing. Detail services: The current prevailing wage rate for a flagman is $37.50 per hour. Since a police officer is highly trained and comes equipped with gun, radio and other equipment, the hourly fee for a police officer will be $72.35, with an 8-hour minimum required. The vendor must also pay the officer’s health insurance, liability insurance and indemnification costs. Special, additional rates are in effect for nights, weekends and holidays. Injuries incurred while in the performance of the officer’s duty will be paid by the vendor. Additional services: Services requiring the use of a marked cruiser will incur a fuel fee which will be assessed at the prevailing rate per gallon of gas, plus mileage, plus a vehicle maintenance fee surcharge. Fees may also be incurred for the response of specialty units such as motorcycle units or required/requested detective services. Fingerprinting and license fees will also increase to $100.00 per person.
It’s almost Sept. 11 again (continued from page A3) sexism, homophobia and religious bigotry, then …shouldn’t they be protesting against the same people who slammed the airplanes into the WTC and the Pentagon on September 11th, 2001? Are there any bigger sexists, racists and bigots than those who believe in the same warped form of alleged religion as Osama and Co.? This September 11th, like all previous, I’ll be searching the media for a recounting of that terrible day. I think it’s important for all Americans to watch again and again as their fellow countrymen and women leaped to their deaths, guilty only of going to work to make a living. I’ll be remembering the
firefighters, the police officers, the EMT’s and all others who died that day trying to help people they never met before. And I’ll be remembering the Palestinian savages who cheered and jumped for joy as the towers fell. And I’ll remember the animals who are still out there this very day, plotting to kill more Americans and innocent people everywhere while hiding behind the umbrella of religion. You can do what you want on September 11th; our great country affords you that luxury. But some of us choose to remember and never forget.
PAX CENTURION • July/August 2008 • Page A7
New York Life Insurance Company and select agents referred to as ‘the union retirement team’ are proud to support the men and women of the Boston Police Department and the Boston Police Patrolman’s Association Scholarship fund. For over six years, we have been helping Boston police officers and their families plan for retirement, college and insurance needs. Call team leader and New York Life Agent, Brian Carroll, for an introduction to our team’s experienced professionals: 781-398-9879
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Page A8 • PAX CENTURION • July/August 2008
617-989-BPPA (2772)
Summer, 2008 “BLAME THE POLICE” AWARDS (continued from page A1) for Democrats, or live in privileged, wealthy, yuppie-dominated neighborhoods. (Which is sort of redundant, I know, but…) Among the easiest of all professions to blame for one’s negative conduct are the police. One would not be in trouble, after all, if it were not for the police catching them, ergo, the police are ultimately responsible for the negative conduct of the complaining individual. Add in the fact that it is part and parcel of basic liberal theology that the police are assumed to: 1.) have nothing better to do, and 2.) are probably engaging in some form of profiling or other racist, sexist, (fill-inthe-blank-here) behavior and – Voila! – blame and responsibility for individual actions are easily and conveniently transferred to the police. Therefore, let us visit just a few recent examples of this phenomenon and issue the Summer, 2008 “BLAME THE POLICE” Awards to the following winners… ����� JUNE 2008 “BLAME THE POLICE” AWARD: Boston Herald, June 18th, 2008, p.5, “Shot Baby critical as cop’s probe hits wall.” In this incident, a 6-month-old baby, Alianna Peguero, was being held by her gang-banger, scumbag father, Alinson Peguero (how strange: same last name?) inside a (federally subsidized?) apartment at 70 Fairlawn Avenue in Mattapan. Other scumbag gang members shot through a sliding glass door in an attempt to hit the scumbag father, who was in fact shot in the hand but poor baby Alianna was hit in the stomach. Because a responding ambulance was delayed, the police decided to transport the criticallywounded baby to the hospital in a cruiser, rather than wait precious minutes for the ambulance. According to the Herald’s account: “Family members criticized officers for taking the tiny infant, who was turning purple, to Carney Hospital, about three miles away. “Why would they go there? She could have died,” said Indira Castillo, Alinson Peguero’s former stepdaughter. (Ahhh – “former stepdaughter”, now I see the close family dynamics at play here….) Castillo went on… “…she believes the shooting is related to the killing of her halfbrother (duly-noted as per the above) Alana Peguero, who was shot to death while working at his family’s convenience store last year. She lashed out at police for failing to make an arrest in that case. “I told them two months ago that something was going to happen, and now here’s proof,”Castillo said. But according to BPD spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll, in regards to the baby’s shooting, “We’re receiving limited cooperation from the baby’s family.” Yes, Ms. Castillo, the, June 2008 BPPA “BLAME THE POLICE” Award goes to you and your scumbag family. Not only are you worthless mendicants living in subsidized housing and (no doubt) collecting a bounty of various checks from the taxpayers in one form or another, but, despite the fact that your scumbag, gang-banger family members won’t cooperate with the powww.bppa.org
lice, you’ve managed to “BLAME THE POLICE” for the shooting which was so clearly the fault of your own worthless family members! Congratulations, Indira Castillo and the Peguero family…. ����� JULY, 2008 “BLAME THE POLICE” AWARD: And the co-winners are… Boston Globe columnists Yvonne Abraham (Wednesday, July 2 – “Jumping to conclusions”) and Kevin Cullen (Monday, July 21 – “Asking for trouble”). These two residents of the Ivory Towers on Morrissey Boulevard both managed to compose columns which, of course, “BLAMED THE POLICE” for the tragic death of David Woodman during the so-called “celebrations” following the Celtics’ victory over the Lakers. After being ordered – and refusing – to dispose of the beer which he was drinking in front of the police, Woodman, 22, deciding to have the police chase him and then resisted arrest, grabbing onto a fence, requiring several officers to forcibly remove him. Woodman had a welldocumented, pre-existing heart condition (the cops, of course, had no prior knowledge of this, but it’s always assumed we’re supposed to know everything…). Now, I’m not a doctor or a detective, but I’m going to go way out on limb here and say that drinking alcohol, partying, having the police chase you and then resisting arrest – while having a pre-existing heart condition – is probably not conducive to one’s cardiac health. But in her column, filled with biting, liberal-tinged sarcasm flavored with huge dollops of intense hatred for police, Abraham manages to do what the title of her own column accuses Police Commissioner Ed Davis of “Jumping to conclusions.” The police, she not-so-subtly infers, are lying, because they are denying blame. Who, therefore, can believe the police, since they deny charges of brutality? Woodman’s drunken friends have provided another version, and so they should be believed, right Yvonne? Have you ever tried to subdue and handcuff someone who doesn’t want to be subdued or handcuffed, Yvonne? I’ll bet not. But I’d give a week’s pay to see you try. And Kevin Cullen, who began his journalistic career living off of police officers and the cannon fodder they provided, has obviously given up beer and chips for the Globe’s chardonnay and brie. In his column, “Asking for trouble,” Cullen cites the opinions of a friend of his from Albany, NY, a season-ticket holder who was present on Causeway Street for the “celebration” following the Celtics’ game. The friend was upset by the presence of so many officers wearing riot gear and preparing for crowd control. The friend thought this was “unnecessary” and from that, Cullen inferred that Woodman’s death miles away must have been caused by… you guessed it! : THE EVIL, BRUTAL POLICE. Of course, neither Cullen or his New York friend saw the “fans” smashing windows, beating people indiscriminately, lighting fires, or
urinating in public taunting the cops. “How many more must die”, wondered Cullen, because of the “storm-trooper tactics” [of the police]. And so, for stupidity and arrogance above the accepted norms even for Boston Globe reporters, the BPPA awards the July, 2008 “BLAME THE POLICE” awards to these two intrepid journalists. ����� AUGUST, 2008 “BLAME THE POLICE” AWARD goes to… Marjorie Clapprood, occasional co-host of Tom Finneran on WRKO’s morning radio show. After a scumbag, illegal-“criminalien” from Brazil (who had been previously charged with attempted murder for ramming his scumbag girlfriend’s car with his own) led Yarmouth Police on a wild high-speed, pursuit, rammed the cruiser and gunned his engine at the police, the suspect was shot by police and subsequently expired.
Marjorie, the limousine-liberal from tony Sharon and former candidate for Mass. Lt. Governor, opined that the police were wrong and used excessive force. She offered her ridiculous, non-sensical opinion that “training should be available” for these type of incidents, as if one can actually be trained for such unpredictable acts of mobile mayhem and carnage. The perpetrators, and the perpetrators alone, are responsible for what occurs during and after similar incidents, not the police who are always in the position of having to react to these criminal scumbags. Congratulations, Margie! ����� We’re not sure of much, but we’re sure of one thing: they’ll be more “BLAME THE POLICE” award winners for next issue. Congratulations, winners! And remember: “IT’S NOT YOUR FAULT.”
Meet Boston Globe columnist Scott Lehigh (continued from page A5) Charlestown worksite with an unfilled police detail, and that he got through without a problem, therefore, why the need for police details at all, right? Of course, Scott and his fellow yuppies would be the first ones complaining if there was an accident, injury or if he was (gasp!) delayed in getting to the Ivory Towers on Morrissey Blvd. Then, the calls to the Area A police-community relations office would go something like this: “Why wasn’t there a police officer assigned to (location X)! I was delayed in traffic! Do you know how important I am? I’m going to call the Mayor’s office!” etc., etc. Lehigh is one those detestable people who drives by a detail officer in 1.8 seconds and makes a snap-judgment about what you do all day. You might have been doing traffic like a Dutch windmill all morning, stopped to have a coffee with the crew, and Scott and his ilk will, sure as death and taxes, drive by at that moment in time and sneer at you with that “God-I-hate-cops” look on their face. If you’ve encountered these people, then you’ve already met Globe reporter Scott Lehigh. The conundrum currently being ginned up about police details has nothing to do with alleged “tax dollar savings,” as Lehigh and co. assert (…“tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer dollars could be saved!”…) We’ve already proven beyond any shadow of a doubt that the Massachusetts prevailing wage law has a rate for flagmen ($37.50 per hr.) which already exceeds the cost of a Boston police detail, (and not even including night, weekend, holiday or other specialty rates which Boston police don’t get!). And whenever one of these pretentious phonies tells you that “they’re concerned” about our health, or that we’ll be too tired for our regular shifts… etc., etc., it’s time to head for the hills. I can give you an ironclad guarantee that neither Scott Lehigh, Barbara
Anderson of Citizens for Limited Taxation or any other local cop-hater is in the least bit “concerned about our health and wellbeing.” Oh, you’ll see Scott Lehigh and Co. driving by you when there’s a lull in the activity or you’re drinking some water, that’s for sure. You won’t see Scott, however, when you’ve just chased down a handbag thief on a detail, pulled a worker from a burning manhole, captured a scumbag on an outstanding warrant while on detail, or you’re on detail assignment rolling around with a fighting drunk at 3:00 am on State Street or at Tremont and Stuart. No, you can be damn well sure that Scott Lehigh and friends won’t be anywhere around then. They’ll be at a wine and cheese soirée at some rich bastard’s Beacon Hill rooftop party talking about how much they hate cops and isn’t it terrible that these police officers are doing details. What they’re really concerned about is the possibility that you, the perceived bluecollar stiff who doesn’t have the same college degree they have, is making money, and sometimes more than them, God damn it! In their urban-professional minds, they have some pre-conceived amount of money that you, the low-life police officer, should be limited to earn. They absolutely detest the fact that (God forbid!) a cop might be able to earn enough money to send their kids to the same schools as their children or (gasp!) live in their neighborhoods (perish the thought!)! And behind it all is that that innate hatred of authority, the remembrance of that cop who gave them a ticket or didn’t talk nice to them when they were at the antiwar protest in college. Hatred of cops. That’s what really drives the anti-police detail argument. And now, you’ve met Globe columnist Scott Lehigh!....
PAX CENTURION • July/August 2008 • Page A9
Byrne & Drechsler, L.L.P. Attorneys at Law
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PAX CENTURION • July/August 2008 • Page A11
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Page A12 • PAX CENTURION • July/August 2008
617-989-BPPA (2772)
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PAX CENTURION • July/August 2008 • Page A13
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State plans to release police detail regs By Jim Barry, BPPA Legislative Agent et ready for the parade … Scott Lehigh of the Boston Globe, Professor David Tuerck of Suffolk University and Michael Widmer of the Massaxhusetts Taxpayers Association will all be running their spins on what the regulations will do or what they think they should do. These talking heads are the same folks that have lamented the protections that were incorporated into the regulation legislation. Lehigh called for a statewide question on the ballot just a few weeks back in his weekly column. Tuerck said these regs would be useless unless the prevailing wage and collective bargaining laws were repealed. Widmer is saying we could save thousands in utility bills by stron-
G
ger regs. The impact on Boston Police Officer details will be virtually none. These regulations will impact state road projects and Boston Police details do not entail state road projects where the state is the awarding authority. Written into the legislation and the regulations are provisions for municipal exemptions. If a city or town is the awarding authority and has a by law or ordinance or it is in a collective bargaining agreement then that by law, ordinance or CBA will control that project’s police details. In a case where a city or town has a collective bargaining agreement in place before the regulations become effective, that will apply to state road projects. Boston has all of those, ordinance and collective bargaining agree-
Proposed abolition of State Income Tax means layoffs for public employees (continued from page A1) out. With a palpable, visceral, anti-govern- when it’s somebody else’s concern. They’ll ment, “throw-the-bums-out – screw-all- stamp their feet, scream and yell when their public-employees” attitude in the wind, streets go un-repaired, their traffic lights there is a definite chance that this initiative aren’t fixed, and their kids attend schools can and will succeed. It is incumbent upon with 40 or 50 kids per class. They think evevery member of the BPPA to ensure that eryone works for them for nothing. It’s perhe/she and every eligible voting member of fectly OK if they sit behind a computer or a their families vote “NO” on this disastrous desk robbing people with the stroke a pen proposal, which is tantamount to cutting off or a touch of a keypad, but they’re outraged one’s nose to spite one’s face. if a cop, an EMT or a firefighter makes more The state income tax accounts for 40% than $100,000 per year by doing overtime of the state’s budget, so it goes without say- and/or details (a barely survivable salary in ing that basic services such as police, fire, Massachusetts in 2008, by the way). ambulance and education will absolutely be New Hampshire doesn’t have a state inon the chopping block. There’s simply no come tax, they argue, and so the same way around it. As the state budget goes, so should apply here in Massachusetts. But of does that of all local municipal govern- It is incumbent upon every member of ments. Recent police the BPPA to ensure that he/she and hires in the BPD, for every eligible voting member of their example, would be the first to be laid-off, families vote “NO” on this disastrous while older veteran proposal, which is tantamount to cutting officers would be re- off one’s nose to spite one’s face. assigned and ordered to perform mandatory overtime shifts in or- course, property taxes in NH are outrageous: der to maintain even minimum staffing lev- they simply replace one with the other and els. call it something different. Unfortunately, The libertarian, selfish-yuppie advocates there’s no accounting for what people do of this measure seem to think they’re the once they get behind the anonymity of the only ones who pay taxes. They diminish the voting booth. What looks like a few thoupossibility of public safety layoffs, saying sand dollars in your pocket today will actuthat’s a scare tactic and there are “other ar- ally cost more a year or two from now, but eas” where cuts could be made. (Interest- it’s difficult to explain that to people, espeingly, they never explain where those “other cially with economic conditions as they areas” are). The “other areas,” of course, currently are. All we can do as a union is to are always in somebody else’s backyard, encourage our own members and families never in their own. They’re mortified if the to vote “NO” and to attempt to explain how fire, police or ambulance don’t come disastrous this proposal will actually be if quickly to their emergency (perceived, real, it passes. Get ready for bare-knuckle polior imagined) but they shrug their shoulders tics after Labor Day….
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ment in place prior to these regulations. In 2007, less than $200,000 was paid to BPD details where the vendor was the Common-
wealth of Massachusetts. There is not way of knowing if those details were road or other details.
The perfect storm
(continued from page A2) revolt. I could go on and on about the things that would immediately effect you. How about a page out of the Kevin White playbook? Want to create a little shock and awe to get the publics attention for making a bad decision, how about police layoffs? Some of the younger officers I have spoken to find it hard to believe that it could happen. It happened not that long ago and there are still many officers on the job who lived through the experience of the layoffs about 25 years ago. Seek them out and ask them their experience and how serious an impact it had on them and their families, when they were used as political pawns. Still think it is worth $3,600.00 per year, I don’t. Do I want to pay fewer taxes and expect that you do too? Absolutely, but at the expense of everything else? No way. If this ballot initiative is not taken seri-
ously and passes, we will all be looking at a serious new way of living and frankly not for the better. Your job security and quality of life are a central part of this debate. Please do not live in the moment, consider your future. Protect your interests and your future by voting “NO” on this ballot initiative that is now to be known as Question #1. You don’t need a crystal ball; the writing is on the wall. Speak with your family and friends and tell them how dangerous this is. This initiative is too radical and will cause more harm then good. Enough said. The decision is yours. The propaganda campaign from the proponents has begun and I am deeply concerned about the timing of this ballot question, as well as the traction and momentum it is coming out of the gate with. Please be safe.
Cop-haters declare war on police pay, benefits (continued from page A4) and police unions. Think of the Municipal Research Bureau’s Sam Tyler, a man who never met a benefit for public employees that he thought was good. Think of Michael Widmer of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation or Barbara Anderson of Citizens for Limited Taxation (CLT) or Carla Howell of the Massachusetts Libertarian Party, who is behind Question 1, the elimination of the Massachusetts income tax, which will be on the ballot this November as a binding question. And then think of your own neighbors and friends…. Besides the detail issue, Question 1 – the elimination of the Massachusetts state income tax – looms on the November ballot. It is a binding question which, if it passes, will eliminate 40% of the state budget and corresponding amounts of local aid and other portions of municipal budgets. There is simply no way that layoffs can be avoided if this measure passes. A lot of your own friends and neighbors (relatives even?) might smile and feign sympathy with the plight of cops, teachers, firefighters, EMT’s and other municipal employees. But in the current political and economic climate, with gas and heating oil prices hurting everyone, well, what happens when somebody gets behind the anonymity of the voting booth is the great unknown. Who wouldn’t go for keeping several thousand state income tax dollars in their own pocket every year, right? So what if it means EMT’s, cops, firefighters and teachers will be laid off? That always happens in the other guy’s town, not mine, right? And besides, I never call the cops (except when I need them) and my kids are grown up and don’t use the schools and didn’t I see the picture of that body-building fireman on disability in the newspaper last week and they’re always reporting corruption in government
on the talk shows, the toll collectors on the Masspike scamming motorists, the guy stealing money from the copy machines at the Somerville registry of deeds, etc. etc….. Ladies and gentlemen of the BPPA, that, unfortunately, is the thinking out there, good or bad, right, wrong or indifferent. When people think of cops, many think of the ticket they got ten years ago or the gruff cop who told them to move along when they were teenagers. The guy in Brookline doesn’t give a rat’s ass about the detail cop in Roxbury who caught the handbag thief or the detail cop downtown who pulled an injured worker from a manhole. The lady from Newton could care less about Boston police short-staffing or mandatory overtime shifts for cops covering for laid-off fellow employees. All they care about in this day and age is the possibility that, at least for a short period of time, they can “send a message” to the politicians and keep some more dollars in their pocket. Whether or not their property taxes skyrocket like New Hampshire’s to compensate for the elimination of state income taxes is to worry about at some later time. And besides changes in police details and Question 1, there’s a growing clamor for pension “reform” and additional changes in health insurance and other pay-and-benefit, meat-and-potato issues. Your BPPA leadership works diligently on your behalf (and on behalf of police officers everywhere for that matter) but only Jesus Christ and Annie Sullivan (Helen Keller’s teacher) were known as miracle workers. All of us, everyone, and all of our family members, are going to have to ensure that we vote and participate fully in the political process if we’re going to have any hope of surviving the upcoming storms. Get ready. Hold your hats. And more importantly, make sure you VOTE!
PAX CENTURION • July/August 2008 • Page A15
Making a Difference
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They Served With Dignity and Honor We Shall Not Forget Them
Detective Joseph P. Brine, Jr.
Deputy Superintendent John J. Donovan, Sr.
June 17, 2008
June 19, 2008
Police Officer Emilio G. Ciriello
Police Officer Joseph F. Coakley
Police Officer Hugh D. McGonagle
Police Officer William A. Bray
July 2, 2008
July 6, 2008
July 10, 2008
July 11, 2008
Police Officer John T. Fitzgerald, Jr.
Police Officer – Active Kaitlyn E. Keaney-Loan
Lieutenant Hippolit Piatkowski
July 19, 2008
July 19, 2008
August 2, 2008
We apologize for any errors or omissions. www.bppa.org
PAX CENTURION • July/August 2008 • Page A19
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Second in a Series: “Yellowed News Clippings”: Boston Police Patrolman John J. Gallagher (1929-1962)
The Scrapbook
By Anne E. Gallagher know my mother tried to explain what happened when dad was killed. Before she had a chance though, other people tried to explain. “Your father’s dead!” cried one aunt. She was the first one who told my brother, sister, and I that something had happened. We were huddled on the bed in the room that I shared with my older sister. My sister cried. We heard the voices downstairs, but didn’t know what was going on. My mother was still at the hospital and had not yet come back to the house. I ran downstairs in my feet pajamas, and pushed my way through reporters, uniformed police, aunts and uncles. I looked up at the faces, my eyes darting from one face to the next looking for my mom and dad. When I asked where daddy was, someone said, “Your daddy’s in heaven.” I was puzzled. I wondered why all the police and relatives were at the house. Who were the men with the cameras? Why were people crying? Where was my mom? Where was my dad? I knew something was terribly wrong. Then a police man took me by the hand, and put me in the side car of his motorcycle. We drove around the block. “Where is my daddy?” I asked. He didn’t say a word. What could he say? It was decided that my brother and I would not go to the wake and funeral. We went and stayed at my uncle’s house. We were driven there by two police officers in a cruiser. I remember playing with the siren. When I got to the house, I ran to a room and cried. Days after the funeral, I was still confused. Now, alone in the house without dad, and trying to answer our questions, mom sat with her arm around us and said “Daddy has died. He was in a bank and a bad man shot him.” I didn’t get what “died” meant, but I knew that “bad” meant not good. I wanted to find my dad. So I waited. I waited at the top of the street corner for him to come home. I tried that each day for several days. I waited and waited, and wanted him to come home. I remembered that he sometimes drove a pickup truck. I wanted that pickup truck to come into view. I wanted him to stop at the top of the street like he used to. I wanted him to let the neighborhood kids climb into the rear of the truck, smile at me and say “Sit up here in front with me.” That was the memory and the hope I had as I waited at the top of the street. All I knew was that I missed him and he hadn’t come home in awhile. “Maybe,” I thought, “If I run into the
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middle of the street, maybe he’d come and get me.” Why I thought that and what stopped me is beyond me. Days and weeks passed and I began to realize dad wasn’t coming home. I had a dream one night of dad. He was standing tall and straight as he always did, and said, “I have to go.” “Don’t. Don’t go,” I pleaded, but then he vanished. In a place deeper than my soul, I felt and realized the heartbreaking truth. He was not coming back. Within the first year of his death, there were ceremonies that presented plaques, and another that presented a medal of valor. I wore that medal and lived with the idea that dad was a hero. I imitated him when we played cops and robbers in the neighborhood, and wanted to learn how to ride a horse. There was also a trial, but it wasn’t talked about, or not that I remember anyway. Some time later, at supper time, the phone rang. It was a local reporter. He asked my mother what she thought about the death penalty. The reporter wanted her viewpoint because Charles Tracy, the man who killed my father, was now on death row. It was either one more time that his sentence had been commuted or when Massachusetts law eliminated the death penalty. I don’t know which. “No comment,” my mother said and hung up the phone. As the days passed, my siblings and I went to school, played with the neighborhood kids, did our homework, ate evening dinner. Then, after several years of moving on without him, I wanted to know more
about what happened. The question had shifted from “When is dad coming home?” to “What happened to him?” The scrapbook. The scrapbook with the thick brown cover and gold outline around its edges…Maybe that had the answer. It was under my mother’s bed in her room. I
knew there was something important in there. Why I knew that I don’t remember. Did I see my mother cutting the articles and photographs from the newspapers and pasting them into that brown covered book with the tan-colored paper? I don’t know. I took the book and went into my brother’s room. He wanted to see it too. I was 12 or so and he was three years older. I opened the scrapbook. On the first page was the photo of dad
lying on his back on the bank floor with the bullet hole in his white shirt. It was from the front page of the Record American. I looked at the picture. I didn’t cry. I hadn’t cried since that day at my uncle’s. Then, I looked at the page facing it. There was an article and a picture of the family on the day he died. It was taken in the living room of our home. I was sitting in my mom’s lap with furrowed eyebrows and lips turned downward. As I looked at the picture, I remembered seeing stars as the light bulb went off when the photographer snapped the picture. Page after page in the scrapbook showed newspaper photographs. There were pictures of him on duty in Boston and pictures of my parents’ wedding.
There were pictures of the bank in Kenmore Square, and the broken window in the back where Tracy got in. There was another one of the police in a stand off with Tracy. It showed an officer in his raincoat, sheltered by a door frame with bullet holes in it, gun in hand aiming down a corridor. There was a picture of officers carrying my dad out of the bank his head bent back. There was a picture of Bob Cunningham who had made his way into the supply room where the shooting took place, and jumped Tracy. Then, there were pictures of the funeral; hundreds of uniformed police officers in front of the church. They stood like soldiers standing at attention as other officers carried the flag-draped coffin to the hearse. After viewing the photographs, my brother and I read one of the articles. The article was split into columns and pasted across several pages. Some of it was mixed in with other clippings, and the tape had become unglued with age, but we pieced it together by following the page numbers and headings. It was written by an on-site reporter. He said he remembered being stung by the tear gas because he had just shaved. He also described the whizzing sound of the bullets as they went by. After reading the piece, I said to my brother “You’d think he was the hero.” We were somewhat indignant at the self-aggrandizing tone of the article. We closed the scrapbook, laid it in the box, and put it back under my mother’s bed. From time to time, I went back to the scrapbook and looked at it. That Record American picture stayed fixed in my mind. So did the con(continued on page A22)
PAX CENTURION • July/August 2008 • Page A21
“Yellowed News Clippings”: Boston Police Patrolman John J. Gallagher (1929-1962) The Scrapbook (continued from page A21) tradictions in the yellowed news clippings. Some of the articles said dad and his partner were the first to arrive at the bank, others said they came later. Some said the other officers were searching the upstairs, others said they were downstairs where it happened. Stories from relatives also contradicted each other. Some said the police knew Tracy was in the bank, others said dad had no idea and was completely taken by surprise. I don’t remember where I got the information, but somehow I thought the whole ordeal of stopping Tracy and getting my dad out of the bank took two to three hours. How could it have taken so long with so many officers at the bank and one gunman? It was often said how confusing the shooting was. The corridors of the basement made it difficult to know where Tracy was and where my father was. I didn’t understand, and couldn’t grasp what was so confusing about it. The contradictions made me restless, anxious. I had tried hard to simply accept that dad was a hero, but it was an unsatisfying awareness. One that didn’t alleviate the confused, nameless mix of feelings I had.
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The Silent Pain
y the time I was a teenager, the loss and unknowing passed into some deep unconscious place. It was resurrected when there were special occasions like graduations, or on the anniversary of his death. Father-daughter nights in high school also reopened the wound. If I had it do over, I would not have gone. At the time, I was trying to be a courageous teenager who had learned to stay upbeat and unbeatable by the loss, or by anything else that was unfair and tragic. I was trying to be heroic by denying a part of who I was – a teenager who had yet to deal with the violent loss of her dad. I was unaware that alcohol and weekend drinking parties with friends were dulling the pain. On the surface, all was well. I loved high school and learning and my teachers were excellent. I was a B+, A- student, active in chorale group and the school yearbook. I was Class President during my freshman year, and Co-President of Student Council during my senior year. I had ambitions to go to Boston College and successfully completed my degree. At the same time though, alcohol had become my friend. It quelled the anxiety and depression, and silenced the voice that kept saying “Something is missing.”
Hitting the Iceberg
stopped drinking in my late 20s, and five months later, I was trapped in an abyss. I woke up one morning and wanted to get a gun. My plan was to blow my head off. “Why was I thinking this way?” Everything seemed alright. I had a meaningful job as a high school teacher and held the esteem of students and colleagues. I had a loving family, romantic and social relationships, a religion that gave me solace. I did not know that underneath the success I enjoyed, was a festering wound. I had no idea that this death wish was related to something tragic that had happened so many years ago. I had come to believe that the whole thing with my father had been resolved years ago. I had a medical appointment that morning and pushed myself to ask about talking to a counselor. I had never done such a thing and wondered if I was being dramatic, but
then the gun idea became persistent and I decided that it might be a good idea to talk with someone about it. The doctor suggested that I go to the ER at New England Medical Center so I did. During the intake at the hospital, I was asked why I went there. “I want to get a gun and blow my head off,” I said. I couldn’t believe I was saying such a thing. The nurse looked at me and said, “So you’re suicidal?” “I guess so.” I hadn’t put that name to it, but that’s what those feeling and ideas are called. About a half hour after talking to the nurse, she called me into a room. It was dimly lit and had padding on the walls. One thought after another ran through my mind “What the heck am I doing here? Am I nuts? Talk to a therapist? That’s for
Articles in the series, “Yellowed News Clippings”: May/June 2008 The Anniversary My introduction to the series of articles with a statement of my intentions for my readers. July/August 2008 The Scrapbook My account of my early years of looking for information about what happened to my dad. The Silent Pain (Adolescence, Young Adulthood) My account of dealing with the loss through high school and young adulthood. Hitting the Iceberg My first realizations that dad’s death had affected me more deeply over the years than I had acknowledged. September/October 2008 The Realization Explains how getting the details of what happened helped me in my recovery. The Peace, Freedom, and Resolution Where I am now as a result of my looking for and finding what I needed to know. Page A22 • PAX CENTURION • July/August 2008
people with problems. I don’t have any problems.” There was pressure on my temples like my head was held in a vice, and I gritted my teeth. Then a woman came into the room. “What brings you here?” she asked. I told her what I was thinking when I woke up that morning. Then she asked questions about my life. “Are your parents living?” she asked. “My mother is, but my father is dead.” “How long ago?” “25 years.” “What happened to him?” “He was a police officer and was shot in a bank.” “So, he was murdered?” My explanation of what happened was usually “shot in a bank” or “killed in the line of duty,” but I was always matter-offact about it; monotone, polite, and expressionless when I pronounced the words. Now, here was someone calling it a murder. I felt stabbed. The therapist seemed very interested in the whole thing which puzzled me. I wanted to run from the room. “Why in heaven’s name was she asking me so many questions about it?” It was old news, 25 years old. “Things happen. Everyone’s got pain in their lives, but you
move on.” I silently reasoned. “This couldn’t still be bothering me.” After explaining my options, one of which was to be admitted to the hospital, I opted to go home. During the following days, though, the suicidal thoughts increased. Everyday things triggered thoughts about killing myself, kitchen knives, ropes on the shades, electrical cords, walking across a foot bridge over Storrow Drive, a rope in my friend’s sail boat. My mind felt as if it had been shot with Novocain. I went back to the hospital and this time was admitted. During my stay, I realized that dad’s death was lurking in the labyrinth of my mind and my soul. I had not really processed the grief and terror of what had happened. And my drinking silenced it through the years. I spent three weeks in the hospital, went back to work, and continued therapy. I was resentful and embarrassed about the whole process and still struggled to believe that dad’s death was an issue with me. With time I began to accept that it haunted me, and something had to change. The broken glass feeling inside was fury, and I had enough of it to fill the universe. Following the death of his wife, Joy, C.S. Lewis said he “never knew grief tasted like fear.” I never knew it tasted like fury.
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PAXCENTURION Section B Kids enjoy 2008 BPPA Family Day at the Brockton Rox
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Sean, Emily and Connor prepare for the frozen T-Shirt contest.
n Sunday July 20th, the BPPA held a Family Day for our members and their families. The event was held at Campanelli Stadium, home of the Brockton Rox. Almost 200 people turned out for a great day of friends, food, and baseball. Due to the weather, the kids didn’t make it out to the field before the game, but more than made up for after when they got the chance to play catch and run the bases. A great job was done by Emily Rogers, Connor Dwan, and Sean Broderick during the frozen T-Shirt contest, with Emily being the winner!
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pecial thanks to E13 Shift Rep. Chris Morgan and Daryle Dwan for the incredible display of athleticism displayed during the between innings sumo wrestling match. I am happy to report that Chris Morgan, once again, lost the battle. The Brockton Rox would also like to thank Chris for bringing his own sumo suit (or was it a suit?).
The Mahoney family.
Hopefully, we will have even more people able to make it next year!
Nice catch, Ryan!
The Roses and one old thorn! Hit it here! www.bppa.org
See more photos on page B2 PAX CENTURION • July/August 2008 • Page B1
The Sullivan family enjoying the game.
The McCarthy Family.
Dave Powell with family and friends.
Fiona and Maeve Walsh.
The reason why Japan lost World War II.
Hey, it’s a family day!
Rounding third, heading home!
A great time was had by all at the Brockton Rox game! Page B2 • PAX CENTURION • July/August 2008
617-989-BPPA (2772)
Letters to the editors of the Boston Herald and Globe
Re: Boston Herald editorial, “No public interest in paid cop details” Dear Editor: Before I respond to your editorial in the Boston Herald August 6, 2008 issue, “No public interest in paid cop details,” I wanted to advise you that I am a former member of the BPPA and current member of the BPD Detectives Union. The following reply are my personal feelings and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the BPD. The poll conducted by the Beacon Hill Institute and the Political Research Center results should have been expected. The above groups, along with the Herald and Globe have been on an anti-detail campaign for years. Many erroneous articles and studies have been produced in opposition to police details, while factual rebuttal by the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association has been suppressed. Your constant barrage of myths and lies regarding details, without equal representation of the opposing view, created these results.
The fact is the BPPA has provided you with significant data that shows flagmen are not cheaper than police details. The BPPA has offered to publicly debate this matter with all of the above groups, however none are willing to do so. Police details add about 300 police officers to the street at minimal cost to the private entity. Significant documentation of heroic acts preformed by detail officers has also been provided, however you refuse to acknowledge that. Finally please don’t reply that utilities are so high because of police details. Quite frankly, the cost of police details compared to the public safety benefit they provide, are minuscule. Do you really believe that utility bills will go down with flagmen? If you are so confident in your research why are you so afraid of open debate? Reach out to the BPPA, I’m sure they would be willing to discuss it in a fair and proper forum. Respectfully, Bill Kelley, West Roxbury
Dear Editor, Parroting an alleged “study” concerning police details conducted by the Beacon Hill Institute, the Herald’s editorial board (predictably) issued yet another editorial condemning police details. Once again, the Herald thoroughly ignores the fact that the Massachusetts prevailing wage law already makes the use of flagmen more expensive than using police officers. (Boston Police Officers: $33.00-$37.00 per hour, flagmen: $37.50 per hour, excluding night, weekend and other specialty rates). These alleged “studies” issued from the Beacon Hill Institute are viewed by us at the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association with a jaundiced eye. We recall that BHI issued an anti-Cape Wind “study” several years ago. Of course, we then learned that the wealthy Egan family foundation, which
was opposed to Cape Wind from the start and owns property which might be impacted by “unsightly” windmills, “donated” $100,000 to BHI for the study. (Source: Boston Globe columnist Joan Venocchi, December 14, 2004, “Cape Wind: too ugly for the rich?”) Of course, it’s all in how you frame the question. We’ve done our own “studies” here at the BPPA and have found that 98.9% of those surveyed want less expensive, experienced police officers on the streets and not more expensive, useless flagmen. Hey, if BHI can publish their “studies” using questions designed to elicit a particular response, we can certainly issue ours…. – James W. Carnell Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association Area A-1 representative
Expected Results
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Re: Boston Globe article, “Asking for trouble” Dear Mr. Cullen, Suffering no illusions that the letter to the editor (attached) I sent to the Globe in response to your column “Asking for trouble” will ever actually appear, I have decided to send a response to you directly, on behalf of all members of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association and on behalf of those unfortunate officers involved in the Woodman incident. Your column, based on the opinions of a Mr. Jim Rufo from Albany, N.Y., was nothing short of disgraceful. It is always easy to sit in the armchair and criticize what the players on the field should have done or might have done differently. As one of the officers assigned to Causeway Street during the alleged “celebrations” following the Celtics’ victory over the Lakers, I again witnessed and experienced the level of absolute stupidity which human beings can attain when under the influence of alcohol. Thousands of idiot suburbanites and youthful morons – none of whom had tickets to the game – came to this city on that night with the sole intent of getting drunk and causing trouble. At one point, the security barricades were overrun by drunken fools who proceeded to then break windows on Canal Street. My particular squad was ordered to retreat in the face of overwhelming numbers of violent drunks until additional help arrived. While your friend Mr. Rufo, the privileged season-ticket holder from Albany, N.Y. was “high-fiving” with his new-found friends on Causeway Street, my fellow officers and I were dealing with legions of drunken idiots assaulting people and destroying property. Unfortunately, Mr. Cullen, we cannot comment, other than in general terms, on the death of Mr. Woodman, as the matter is still under active investigation, although I am literally champing at the bit to do so. Suffice it to say that individuals who have pre-existing heart conditions should probably not be “celebrating” by publicly drink-
ing beer and then wrestling with cops trying to lawfully arrest them. I’m not a detective or a doctor, but I’m going to go way out on a limb and say that at a minimum, that’s not too smart. Your characterization of my fellow officers as employing “storm trooper tactics” is disgraceful and insulting. If anything, I witnessed the BPD’s kid-glove treatment of violent drunks who lit fires, smashed windows, urinated in public and randomly assaulted others. And as for Mr. Rufo’s condescending, gratuitous statement that “I have nothing against the police. My grandfather was a policeman.” Could you kindly tell him to stick it where the sun don’t shine? Mr. Rufo, your expert witness on whom you rely for this column, saw but one tiny fragment of the conduct which I witnessed that evening. While reveling on Causeway St., he is no position to pass judgment on the actions of police officers miles away who were dealing with legions of drunken idiots hell-bent on causing mayhem. Once all of the facts of David Woodman’s death are made public, and not just the observations and opinions of a season-ticket holder from New York and a Globe columnist, I am certain that the officers will be exonerated. Several of the officers involved are only a few years older than Woodman, and feel terrible about what happened, even though they are guilty of nothing more than performing their jobs. Some have already had their reputations sullied; their unrelated, minor disciplinary records or unfounded complaints splashed around the pages of the Globe. All wonder why they continue to perform this most thankless of jobs, where second guessing and relentless scrutiny from critics who sit on the comfortable sidelines has become an art form. Sincerely, James W. Carnell Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association Area A-1 Representative Editor, Pax Centurion
Dear Editor, As a veteran Boston police officer, I am outraged beyond words at Kevin Cullen’s column “Asking for trouble,” Boston Globe, 7/21/08. Cullen reports the views of a man from Albany, N.Y. named Jim Rufo who opines that the police response to the unruly crowds following the Celtics’ victory was excessive and somehow responsible for the death of David Woodman. As one of the officers who was confronted with the violent, obnoxious, drunken behavior of socalled fans “celebrating” the Celtics’ victory, it would be my personal pipe-dream to grab Mr. Rufo and Mr. Cullen by the scruff of the neck, put them in a police uniform for the night, and have them deal with these alleged “fans.” The behavior of these morons, the overwhelming majority of whom were not from this city, was disgusting and disgraceful.
They smashed windows, lit fires, urinated in public and committed multiple acts of assault and vandalism, all under the guise of “celebrating.” As police officers, we are always placed in the position of “damned if you do, damned if you don’t.” There’s either too many cops or not enough, and we’re either too aggressive or not aggressive enough. But for Cullen and his friend Rufo from New York to use the Boston Police Department for a punching bag is simply outrageous. The officers who had the unfortunate occasion to interact with Mr. Woodman are guilty of nothing more than doing their jobs. Sitting behind a computer at the Globe criticizing cops is indeed a luxurious bully-pulpit, isn’t it Mr. Cullen? – James W. Carnell Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association Area A-1 representative
PAX CENTURION • July/August 2008 • Page B3
A parent’s grief By Mark A. Bruno s parents our biggest fears are for the welfare of our children. From the day they are born we try and protect them from any illnesses or harm. They are the most precious things in life we have and we will do anything to protect them. We listen as they speak their first words and watch as they take their first steps. Aside of when they are born these moments are etched in our minds forever. They may catch a cold or a virus and we see them through to good health with medicine and love. When they begin to speak, we teach them good manners and instill family values in them. These values stay with them throughout their lives. These children are a work in progress and as parents we never stop giving, even when they leave to go out on their own. We provide them with an education, watch them as they walk down the aisle, and marvel as they become parents. We share in all their joy and triumph, and support them during their lows. We are their parents. Unfortunately as human beings we suffer many ups and downs in our lives. How well we rebound from the downs will determine how well we can cope with life in general. We all have a lonely place in our hearts which deals with depression. For some of us the anxiety of living itself can throw us into the abyss of despair. Sometimes you can see it coming like an oncoming freight train. Those around can see it as well but cannot reach out to help due to the surrounding wall built up by the person suffering the depression. It is a horrible feeling waiting for the impending doom, but sometimes a person must hit bottom before they can climb out. Some make it back and some don’t. The other sides of the coin are those you least expect to be suffering from depression. They appear to be in control but inside they are hurting. They are in a dark place of loneliness and despair with no place to turn. We cannot help this person because we are unaware that they are suffering. If they could reach out to us they would, but they can’t. For some reason they are consumed by this ominous feeling and alas the only way out for them is one that causes grief for everyone around. Wondering why and how this could have happened will be on everyone’s mind. In the end it is a terrible tragedy for the remaining family and friends left behind who have to deal with the loss. It is a slow healing process which leaves us to depend on each other to help guide us through the feelings of pain we must endure. I can tell you honestly that Jack and Kathy Loan are two of the best parents I know. They, like any other parents have raised their children with love and admiration. They loved their daughter Kaitlyn Keaney as she loved them. Kaitlyn was a good friend to all who knew her. She loved her family and relatives. She had a few pets that she took care of which kept her company. Having kept Jack and his wife company during this trying time, I sensed the cats and dogs Kaitlyn owned knew she was gone. The animals acted like they were actually trying to console those around them. Jack and Kathy have two other children, Keleigh (Kelly) and John. Losing a sibling and watching their parents go through this anguish has taken its toll on them. They, like their parents cannot understand how this young beautiful girl who had accomplished so much in a short period of time could be gone. This whole family will now have to rely on each other to get through this traumatic experience. This is where family and friends shine. The outpouring of affection shown during the wake and funeral service for Kaitlyn was truly a testament of how much she was loved and will be missed. It was also a testament of how a community and police family gathers round one of their own to protect and console them in their hour of need. Not since Joe Moakley’s and Jim Kelly’s wake had I saw such a long line of people waiting to pay their respects to the family. Members of Area A-1 and C-6 along with many other members of the BPD lined up for a walk by in the pouring rain. If tears were measured in rainfall, this day it would have equaled that which had fallen to the ground. The funeral mass at Saint Monica’s Church shut down traffic on Preble Street from Andrew Square to Columbia Road. I can’t remember when I have seen so many cars lined up in a procession. When I walked up to the front of the church on Columbia Road and saw what looked like the entire Boston Police Department lined up it made me realize how many people this young girl and family have touched. The bagpipes were playing solemnly as people walked into the church. You could have heard a pin drop as the BPD Honor Guard and Pall Bearers lead Kaitlyn and her family to the front of the church. It was a fitting ceremony with eloquent speeches given by Patrick Keaney (cousin) and Patrick Byrne (Kaitlyn’s boyfriend) recalling their fondest moments of Kaitlyn. Meghan Brown Cress and Maureen Ready sang like angels during the Mass. Cedar Grove Cemetery would be the final resting place for Kaitlyn. It is here where hearts are broken and tears are shed the most. After the priest gave his final prayers and blessings, Meghan Brown Cress sang “Tears in Heaven.” Watching Jack and Kathy place a rose on Kaitlyn’s casket broke many hearts that looked on. Everyone knows that the hardest thing for any parent to do is burying their own child. Family and friends will be around to support the Loans, but in the end they will be left to lament a parent’s grief. (continued on page B8)
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Big Brother is not only watching, but he’s also videotaping
f you are like me, you had to read George squad witnessed an individual pull into the The other mandatory video in my police post it on YouTube or send it to the Boston Orwell’s novel 1984 in ninth grade. If restaurant parking lot and make a call on academy would be one of an officer work- Herald faster than you can say “does that you are also like me, you probably don’t his cell phone. A short time later, a second ing a paid detail at a supermarket. In this have a delete button?” Believe me. It has remember a lick about this book, other than vehicle pulled in, and the two drivers made video, the officer in question is seen going already happened. And remember, what the phrase “Big Brother is watching you.” eye contact with each other. Both operators to elaborate lengths to steal a videotape from gets sent to the Department or to the media That phrase, made popular by Orwell’s simultaneously got out of their cars and the store, which was all captured on the store may not present the whole picture: it may novel, is relevant to police officers and other walked together inside, walking down a security camera as the operator of the cam- only show you using force to subdue somepublic safety officials working in today’s hallway to the men’s room in the rear of the era zooms in on the officer. The videotape one, but it may not include what the arrestee world of law enforcement. The expression, restaurant. was first hidden by the detail officer inside did to warrant your use of force. If you use however, should be force while making an arrest, don’t updated to reflect the neglect to include it in your report. changes in our times, While preparing officers for their testimony, I make it a point to tell If you have to use your nightstick or and may better be the officers how important it is that they speak the truth. First and flashlight, explain it in your report. stated: “Big Brother Don’t omit it. is watching you, vid- foremost, telling the truth is an essential part of your job as a police Videotape, on the other hand, can eotaping you, and officer. Moreover, speaking the truth is essential because you never also serve to vindicate you. Several will be uploading you ago, a prisoner died inside a know when a videotape of your actions will surface. It is one thing years onto YouTube.” cell at District Four. The prisoner in Over the past sev- to screw something up. It is something very different to get caught the cell across from the now-deeral months, I have lying about your mistake, especially when your actions are on video. parted prisoner told the responding had to deal with two homicide detectives how the dying very difficult cases inprisoner was gasping for air, and then The incident report outlining this arrest of a folded newspaper that was later re- dramatically acted out for the detectives how volving public safety officials (not Boston Police Officers) who found themselves los- stated that the detective in question followed trieved and moved to another location. It the prisoner died on his hands and knees ing their tempers and striking handcuffed these two males into the restroom and heard was later placed inside of a bag and brought while holding his throat and struggling to individuals before the wrong ends of video them consummate a drug deal, specifically into the bathroom where the anti-theft de- breath. During the dramatic re-enactment, cameras. Both of these public safety offi- recounting the conversation between the vices were cut off and hidden in the ceil- the prisoner talking to the homicide deteccials are good people. Both had good em- males as the drugs and money were ex- ing. The video was later taken out of the tive told how he himself repeatedly banged ployment records. Both also lost their jobs. changed while the detective pretended to store. The teaching point behind both of on his cell door and yelled out for someone One is being criminally prosecuted. Today’s urinate. The harsh reality, however, was that these videos is you don’t know when you to come help the dying man. If what this reality is that video is everywhere: inside this detective never entered the men’s room, are being watched, and you don’t know prisoner was saying was true, can you imagpolice stations, inside hospital lobbies, in- which was as clear as day from film cap- when you are being recorded. If you are ine how the heads would have rolled beside convenience stores and fast food res- tured on a high quality security camera. The writing a report, write it accurately. If you cause the police did not respond to these taurants, and in almost everyone’s cell men’s room in question had a urinal, a toi- are testifying, testify truthfully. If you are calls for help to come save this dying prisphone. It’s the world we live in, and you let, and a sink, but no dividing petitions not sure or don’t remember something, say oner? If this scenario played out in a station must – absolutely must – be cognizant of it. between them. It also had a lock on the door. so truthfully. without video, the heads of patrol officers Over the past ten years, would probably still be rolling. I have represented several Let’s face it. Your job is not easy. The public expects two very Fortunately, the prisoner in hundred police officers in question died in a cell with all sorts of setting including difficult things from you. Perhaps unreasonably, the public expects video, and all the tape revealed Clerk’s hearings, Internal you to maintain your composure in all situations, even when you was someone dying quietly on Affairs interviews, Antia bench as they slept, someCorruption interrogations, are sworn at, spat upon, or assaulted. Unlike other humans, police thing that was not discernable Homicide interviews, fed- officers are not supposed to react in anger. The public, and also the to anyone who would have eral and state grand juries, been checking on this prisoner. courts, additionally expect you to tell the truth in all situations. and at trials. While preparThe other prisoner obviously ing officers for their testihad no qualms about lying to mony, I make it a point to tell the officers Although the police knew from their expeAlthough public and private institutions hurt the officers in question. The video saved how important it is that they speak the truth. rience what transpired inside the bathroom now have cameras almost everywhere, you several careers and prevented a massive lawFirst and foremost, telling the truth is an – a fact established by the drugs later found also be aware of those ubiquitous cell phone suit. Video can be your friend. essential part of your job as a police officer. on one suspect and money on the other – cameras. Dating back to the unfortunate Let’s face it. Your job is not easy. The Moreover, speaking the truth is essential the detective was not inside the men’s room incident surrounding the 2004 death of public expects two very difficult things from because you never know when a videotape and did not witness the incident as he re- Victoria Snelgrove outside Fenway Park, you. Perhaps unreasonably, the public exof your actions will surface. It is one thing ported in his incident report. The drug you will recall how myriads of videotapes pects you to maintain your composure in to screw something up. It is something very dealer, who likely locked the bathroom door, from the raucous celebration-turned-riot all situations, even when you are sworn at, different to get caught lying about your pointed out this falsehood in the incident were provided to the media and police in- spat upon, or assaulted. Unlike other humistake, especially when your actions are report to his lawyer who obtained the vid- vestigators from multiple sources. Each mans, police officers are not supposed to eotape from the restaurant. The video video that surfaced showed dozens of other react in anger. The public, and also the on video. If I were in charge of the police showed the two men enter the men’s room people also videotaping the events on their courts, additionally expect you to tell the academy’s curriculum, something that will and showed the two men leave. It also cell phones. The same goes for the recent truth in all situations. As the Massachusetts never happen, I would make two real-life showed that the detective never went down destructive behavior after the Celtics’ cham- Appeals Court wrote in 1997, “a demonvideotapes involving former Boston Police the hallway. Upon learning that the officer pionship last June. Use of cell phone video strated willingness to fudge the truth in exiofficers mandatory viewing for all incom- lied to establish the basis for his arrest, the cameras, however, is not limited to large gent circumstances [is] a doubtful characing police officers. The first videotape in- drug case was dismissed. Regrettably, the de- scale celebrations. Drug dealers in the Com- teristic for a police officer. Police work frevolves a drug arrest at a local fast food res- tective who wrote the false report got indicted bat Zone and young hoodlums in any part quently calls upon officers to speak the truth taurant. In this case, members of a drug BPD and was terminated. The tape didn’t lie. of the city can videotape your behavior and (continued on page B15) www.bppa.org
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The 1996 Disability Retirement Law Amendments: An update
welve years after the Legislature re- right of reinstatement begin, before or after words, a disability retiree cleared to return and the City could not fill it, despite the preswrote the disability retirement laws, the retraining? The SJC answered the ques- to work has no legal claim on the employ- ence of an active promotional list. public employees continue to feel the after- tion in Sullivan v. Town of Brookline, 435 ment, and no right to just cause protection The Commission sided with HRD and shocks. Most recently, the Appeals Court Mass. 353 (2001), in favor of the employ- against termination, unless and until the re- the returning retirees. It agreed that HRD and the Civil Service Commission have ers, who generally wanted their obligation tiree completes training. had the right to refuse to provide a promoweighed in on aspects of this complicated to reinstate the returning retiree to begin as Sullivan in 2001 and Facella in 2007 tional list as long as there was at least one process. The changes began in 1996 when, late as possible. Sullivan, a returning dis- represent a trend towards strengthening the PERAC-approved retiree waiting to return. after a newspaper expose about disability ability retiree who was required to complete rights of employers – who generally resist It criticized the City of Medford for failing retirees working physically-demanding jobs a retraining program, but had not yet com- the return of retirees – in the returning dis- to work with HRD to construct a retraining in the private sector, pressure built on Bea- pleted it, had no right to reinstatement, the ability retiree arena, after the strong pro- program that did not require the use of the con Hill to reform the pubfire academy, especially aflic employee disability re- Some of you may have read about recent decisions from our state ter the City learned of the fire tirement system. Under that academy’s refusal to retrain system, public employees Supreme Judicial Court involving allegations of racial profiling and the retirees. Ultimately, the who become disabled can selective enforcement of traffic laws. These cases arose out of State Civil Service Commission retire with a pension no matdenied the firefighters’ apter what their age. Employ- Police traffic stops resulting in vehicle searches which revealed evipeals and, in order to uphold ees with job-related disabili- dence of drugs or other contraband. its (and HRD’s) interpretaties receive 72% of their pay tion of the disability retiretax free; pension benefits for ment law, prohibited the City non-job related disabilities (only available SJC ruled. His right (and the town’s obliga- retiree statements of White and O’Neill in of Medford from making a promotion to to someone with at least 10 years on the tion) only began after he had successfully 1998. On the other hand, they may be only fill the vacancy. job) are considerably lower. The pre-1996 completed the retraining. the courts’ response to a specific problem: Once the former disability retiree is ready Facella v. City of Newton, 69 Mass. App. how do the right to reinstatement and the to return and, assuming civil service applies system included some medical reviews and permitted employers to take back retirees Ct. 459 (2007), followed up on a question retraining obligation intersect? This trend and he or she’s been retired at least five who had recovered from their disabilities, left unanswered by Sullivan: What are the (if it is one) is also reflected by PERAC’s years, the employer has designed an HRDbut in practice it rarely happened. As a re- rights of a returning retiree who has actu- decision to amend its regulations so that a approved retraining program, the next set sult, some felt, the system was ripe for ally been reinstated, but has not completed disability retiree seeking to return to work of questions pertains mostly to the collecretraining? The answer: few to none. In must receive a unanimous report, not a mere tive bargaining agreement (CBA). The Apabuse. This was where the Legislature stepped Facella, the Appeals Court strengthened the majority, from a panel of designated physi- peals Court acknowledged in Thomas v. in. It amended Chapter 32, Section 8, of the Sullivan court’s conclusion that successfully cians. The Appeals Court gave the new regu- Department of State Police, 61 Mass. App. Mass. General Laws to tighten up the medi- completing retraining is the key factor in lation its stamp of approval in Pulsone v. Ct. 747 (2004), that an existing union concal review process and require employers determining the employment status of civil PERAC, 60 Mass. App. Ct. 791 (2004). tract governs the terms of employment of to take back any former retiree found to be service disability retirees who retired more Even more recently, the Civil Service the returning former retirees. In Thomas, the fit, as long as there was a vacancy in the than five years earlier. The state cleared Commission added its perspective on the returning retirees argued that the retirement same or a similar position. Almost imme- Facella as physically fit to return to a police issue by approving HRD’s practice of en- laws guaranteed them better wages and bendiately, disability retirees who were now fit officer position after 19 years on disability forcing hiring preferences for returning re- efits than the CBA, but the court disagreed. to work began knocking on the doors of their retirement. The City immediately reinstated tirees in Faggiano, Jones & Cappuccio v. The negotiability of returning former disformer employers looking to return. Two her, relying on the law as it existed at the City of Medford and HRD, a decision that ability retiree wages, hours and working such employers – the City of Boston and time. The City assigned her to a desk job goes against the general pro-employer trend. conditions was well known to the BPPA, the City of Cambridge – refused to take back for several months, and then sent her to the Faggiano, which was decided on July 3, which negotiated a comprehensive agreepolice officers who had been retired on dis- police academy for a 22-week retraining 2008, involves the appeals of the top three ment with the City in 2001, long before ability and had medical approval to return. course. During the retraining course, health firefighters on the list for promotion to a Thomas was decided. The agreement covBoth officers went to court. The Supreme issues caused her to drop out of the acad- vacant lieutenant’s position. The City had ers such matters as accrual of leave and other Judicial Court (SJC) ruled in 1998 that the emy and be placed on sick leave. When 18 asked for a list to promote one of the men, benefits during the retraining program, elistatute meant what it said – the employer months passed, and Facella still had not but HRD refused, explaining that there were gibility for details and overtime and calcuhad no discretion. If there was a vacancy completed the academy, the City terminated three retired Medford fire lieutenants who lation of seniority for vacation and shift se(and both Boston and Cambridge did have her employment. Facella sought to appeal had been cleared by PERAC to return from lection. By taking a proactive approach and openings), and the officer had been cleared her termination using the legal protections disability retirement, and the law required addressing these issues early, the BPPA for duty by the state’s Public Employee for tenured employees under civil service HRD to keep open any vacancies until they avoided potential confusion down the road. Retirement Administration Commission law. Under that law, Facella would have the returned to work. (The actual language is As the most recent cases make clear, the (PERAC), then the city had no choice in right to a hearing before the employer, and “the member shall be granted a preference fallout from the 1996 changes to the disthe matter. (The cases are White v. City of the right to appeal to the Civil Service Com- for the next available position. . . .” G.L. c. ability retirement laws is far from over. As Boston, 428 Mass. 250 (1998) and O’Neill mission, which would order her reinstated 32, § 8(2)(a).) To complicate matters, none developments occur, we will work with your v. City Manager of Cambridge, 428 Mass. unless the City could prove it had just cause of the three retirees had completed the union officials to keep you informed. to fire her. 257(1998).) HRD-approved retraining program, in part The Appeals Court backed the City, rul- because the state fire academy refused to With the choice/discretion issue resolved, civil service law added a twist to ing that Facella had never finished the re- admit them. As a result, the retirees were the plot. Chapter 31, Section 39 of the Mass. training program, so she had never been not retrained, so the vacancy remained open, General Laws requires formerly disabled fully reinstated as a tenured officer. At best, civil service employees returning to work she was “conditionally reinstated … subafter an absence of five years or more to ject to her completing a retraining program.” successfully complete a retraining program Facella, 69 Mass. App. Ct. at 464. In other designed by the employer and approved by the state Human Resources Division (HRD). A question arose: When does the www.bppa.org
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Police deaths plummet in first half of ’08
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By Kevin Johnson, USA Today olice officer deaths plunged to their lowest midyear total in 43 years after an unusually deadly year for law enforcement officers, says a report released today by a national police advocacy group. The review reflects declines in all major categories of officer fatalities, including traffic accidents and shootings, the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund found. Overall deaths declined from 100 to 59 in the first six months of 2007 compared to the same period this year. The number of overall deaths is the lowest since 1965, when 55 officers were killed. Midyear shooting deaths fell from 38 in 2007 to 21 this year, the lowest number since 1960, when 18 officers were killed by gunfire. “I’m amazed to see declines of this magnitude,” says Craig Floyd, memorial fund chairman. “We were questioning last year whether 2007 was the start of a troubling trend. Now, I’m hoping that 2007 was an aberration.” Last year, fatal police shootings claimed 68 officers, up from 54 in 2006, spurring fears that violent criminals were targeting police. Ed Nowicki, executive director of the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association, says police still are encountering more aggressive, armed offenders. He and other police officials attribute the dramatic reversal this year to the cyclical nature of violent crime and to increased training and awareness among officers. “Any time an officer is killed, it touches home,” says Nowicki, who survived six shooting incidents as a Chicago cop. “Police are a lot more cautious and aware because of last year.” In response to the 2007 increase in officer shooting deaths, Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis says he ordered all patrol officers – the bulk of the department’s 2,200-officer force – to participate in drills to test their responses on calls involving armed suspects. “I don’t know of any department that isn’t now spending a significant amount of money on training,” Davis says. Floyd says last year’s “shocking” losses, which included six multiple slayings, forced officers, chiefs, unions and policymakers to focus on officer safety. That includes renewed emphasis on protective items such as body armor, Nowicki says. He says about half of the estimated 900,000 officers in the nation still are not wearing bulletproof vests. Last year, 27% of the officers killed by gunfire were not wearing protective vests. “Criminals are still arming themselves with high-powered weapons. But officers are preparing themselves for that,” Floyd says. Several agencies, including Miami, recently decided to arm officers with military assault weapons to counter the threat. “I think the staggering numbers last year really grabbed people’s attention, especially the officers on the street,” Floyd says.
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A parent’s grief (continued from page B4) P.S. On behalf of the Loan and Keaney family I would like to thank Police Commissioner Ed Davis and his staff for their kind words and support. Thank you Chief Superintendent Robert Dunford, Superintendent Daniel Linskey and Deputy Willy Gross for their kind support. A special thank you Lt. Detective Bobby Merner and his unit for handling the matter with dignity and respect. They would also like to thank Mobile Operations, Mounted and other units throughout the city that helped with the wake and funeral. Thanks to Boston Police Chaplain Father Sean Connor for his support and prayers. Thanks to all the local businesses who donated food and other items. A special thanks to those officers who helped fill in down in District One, which allowed the officers in that district to attend the funeral. Thank you to all of Kaitlyn’s co-workers and friends in Area A-1. Thank you Captain Flaherty for assigning a unit 24/7 in front of 431 E. Sixth St. Thanks to all the
units that took the assignment, and kept us company. Thank you to Terry Burke for the generous donation he solicited from the United States Marine Corps. Thank you to the Family Assistance Unit, Sgt. Jimmy O’Connor, P.O. Billy Carroll, P.O. Jack McCarthy, P.O. Julie Colburn and others that served us during the wake and funeral. Thanks to the Boston Gaelic Column, Sgt. Joe Cheevers, for the wonderful bagpipe music played the day of the funeral. Special thanks to the BPPA leadership and all its members for being with us during our time of need. Last but not least, I would like to thank the following officers who are close friends and were assigned to the family during our time of need; P.O. Lenny Lilly, P.O. Liz Philbin, P.O. Michael Felton and Sgt. John Doris. These individuals went above and beyond the call of duty, there support and kindness was unwavering during this time of need. God Bless and thank you all for your kindness. 617-989-BPPA (2772)
Treatment of cops unfair in fan’s death By Michele McPhee t is tragic when any young man collapses and dies when he has promise and potential – as Emmanuel College graduate David Woodman clearly possessed when, after leading Boston Police on a foot chase, he collapsed and then died 11 days later. Still more tragic in this case however is the finger-pointing at the police that immediately ensued within hours of Woodman’s passing. These are the facts: On June 18, just before 1 a.m., David Woodman, 22, was celebrating the Celtics NBA championship clincher near Fenway Park, an area that Boston police, college officials, and City Hall have repeatedly called off limits to rowdy revelers after a sports win. Woodman, in fact, was arrested after the Patriots won the Super Bowl in 2004 so he was clearly familiar with the police response to the streets of Boston when fans start rioting. Cops approached him because he had an open container of alcohol. He turned and fled. When the cops tried to cuff him, Boston Police Patrolman’s Association lawyer Tom Dreschler says, Woodman latched his fingers onto a chain-link fence to resist arrest. After he was on the ground, cops noticed he was in medical distress. “They took his handcuffs off and officers immediately began to administer CPR,’’ BPD Commissioner Ed Davis told me last week. Another cop sprinted 400 yards to flag down a private ambulance that rushed Woodman to Beth Israel Medical Center where he was pronounced dead last week. “There is no evidence that excessive force was used,’’ said Davis. But Woodman’s parents, and granted they are grieving, immediately began to heap blame on the police officers. They never mentioned the fact that their son had
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been arrested for similar behavior in the past. They never wondered aloud what a grown man, a college graduate, was doing drinking in the middle of a city street and fighting with the cops. They never apologized to Boston taxpayers who consistently have to pick up the bill to pay for police overtime and cleanup costs after one of our sports dynasties bring home the gold. Now cops who were sweating in riot gear, on the streets of Boston doing their jobs – not celebrating the Celtics first win in 22 years with their friends and family – are being subjected to an investigation. That’s right. Davis announced last week that former United States Attorney Donald Stern “review the facts and circumstances of the case.” That is an appalling development, especially when you consider that at least six police officers were assaulted on the night Woodman was arrested. Cops were punched, pushed, kicked, spat on, hit with hurled bottles. After the Red Sox World Series win, a state trooper had his front tooth knocked out. A BPD cop was kicked in the groin. Police horses were cut by flying glass. What ever happened to personal responsibility? Why is it that Woodman’s parents are being allowed to malign hardworking Boston cops with insinuations of wrongdoing and no one says to them, ‘why was your son acting like a knucklehead?’ Again no parent should have to bury a child. But at the same time it’s any wonder the Boston Police Department is scraping the bottom of the barrel for new recruits and having trouble keeping them in the academy. It’s hard to keep morale up when cops try to save a man’s life by administering CPR and flagging down an ambulance and then find themselves under investigation. (Michele McPhee is an Author, Journalist for the Boston Metro and WTKK radio host.)
Amber abuse T
By Kevin Doogan
he Amber Alert was sounded and all available law enforcement officers and the general public where informed of the abduction of young Reigh Boss. Officers and civilians alike scrambled and strained to come together as a community to find this little girl that was abducted and whom we were all led to believe that her life was in grave danger. Only to find out much later that the child’s life wasn’t in grave danger at all. The child was taken by her father, a liar and a cad but certainly not a killer or rapist. Until Clark Rockefeller, or what ever his true name is, crossed the Massachusetts border as best as I can tell we couldn’t even arrest him. Custodial Kidnapping as we all know is an unarrestable misdemeanor. In truth it’s more of a civil complaint or probate violation than a criminal offense. Here we were all duped into circling the wagons for little more than a custody battle of the Rich & Famous. Amber Alerts are meant to be serious life threatening situations not for when a spouse tries to pay off an estranged mate and it backfires on her. The Department of Justice outlines strict criteria for Amber Alerts and clearly this doesn’t meet the muster. Clearly the following days Amber Alert was the real deal when a murderer, Rodlyn Petitbois abducted his children after murdering a woman and stabbing the mother of his children. That’s what the Amber Alert is supposed to be about! Fortunately the public and law enforcement wasn’t distracted by the media sensation of a clown named Rockefeller and Petitbois was captured quickly and the children were safely returned. The Amber Alert System shouldn’t be whored out for some blueblood silver-spoon multimillionaire custody spat. It weakens the response and sends the wrong message to the public. The Amber Alert System isn’t about bank statements nor trust funds, it’s about children in true life and death danger, not custody battles. That’s why we have Probate Courts, private investigators and lawyers. www.bppa.org
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PAX CENTURION • July/August 2008 • Page B9
News Brieflets… and Comments Compiled and commented upon by Patrick Carnell, Canisius College, Buffalo, NY group of American cyclists has apologized to Beijing Olympic organizers after Barack Obama’s supporters are creepy in the degree to which they elevate him to arriving in China’s capital wearing face masks. Michael Friedman, Sarah Ham- a Messianic figure and turn his convention center rallies into super-churches, so you mer, Bobby Lea and Jennie Reed released a statement Wednesday, a day after they have to give credit to the Clinton supporters; even now, they never fail to make the caused a stir by showing up in the protective gear. Democrats hilarious. “The wearing of protective masks upon our arrival into Beijing was strictly a ����� arbage collectors would inspect San Francisco residents’ trash to make sure pizza precautionary measure we as athletes chose to take, and was in no way meant to crusts aren’t mixed in with chip bags or wine bottles under a proposal by Mayor serve as an environmental or political statement,” the athletes said. “We deeply regret the nature of our choices. Our decision was not intended to insult BOCOG Gavin Newsom. And if residents or businesses don’t separate the coffee grounds from the newsor countless others who have put forth a tremendous amount of effort to improve the air quality in Beijing.” – Associated Press, 8/5/08. papers, they would face fines of up to $1,000 and eventually could have their – San Francisco Gate, 8/4/08 The Chinese not only have a horrific human rights’ record, but a polluted-air one as garbage service stopped. How this could be practically implemented without a massive invasion of privacy well. But apparently foreign athletes are supposed to let their lungs burn and die rather than risk offending the commies’ trashing of their own environment. How rude of them and huge tax increase is a mystery, although both of those things aren’t exactly a to consider taking precautions for their health in anticipation of physically strenuous problem with the Greenshirts of San Francisco if it suits them. There, it makes perfect sense and doesn’t seem at all unusual to dig through the trash to sort it into different activities over the next few weeks. categories, and then yell at people about how throwing rotten fruit and moldy bread in ����� ormer U.S. President Bill Clinton has said that improving health services is the the same trash bin will herald in the End Times. main challenge to fighting HIV/AIDS in Africa, not a lack of money. ����� amilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters says a Springfield Township man, In a BBC interview, Mr. Clinton said his foundation had therefore been focusing accused of running an “underwear con” to get near young children, is a more and more on cost-effective ways to improve national health systems. He also said encouraging monogamy should be an important part of the fight predator who deserves to be locked up for a “very long time because he will against HIV/AIDS. – BBC, 8/4/08. continue to prey upon young children unless he is removed from the community”… Hawkins allegedly conned parents into thinking their children were parSometimes jokes write themselves. ticipating in an “underwear survey” in order to get close to them for sexual con����� illary Clinton supporters will march through Denver during the Democratic tact. – Local 12 News, Cincinnati, 8/3/08 National Convention to show appreciation for the New York senator’s hisOkay, parents? I know he must have seemed very professional, but that nagging toric primary run and urge the party to place her name in nomination. suspicion that the man who wants to study children’s underwear may have ill inten– Rocky Mountain News, 8/4/08. tions? Perhaps you should listen to that.
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Off-duty cop helps bust gun-toting trio at bar By Jessica Van Sack, Boston Herald Saturday, July 12, 2008
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fficer Peter Fontanez just wanted to grab an after-work drink with his buddies. But his night took a dramatic turn when
he noticed the gun tucked under a patron’s shirt – and helped arrest a notorious trio with three loaded handguns, police said. Fontanez, 46, is a 23-year veteran of the force and a drug unit officer assigned to
P.O. Bobby Armstead, his son and K-9. circa 1970’s
District A-7 in East Boston. He had already made three arrests when he arrived at The Boyne Pub, a local watering hole on Western Avenue in Brighton. It was shortly before 1:20 a.m. when Fontanez saw a man watch two women leave the bar and inexplicably pull up his shirt, flashing the end of a gun at the women, authorities allege. Fontanez wasn’t sure the women saw the bizarre gesture. “I’m thinking worst-case scenario – what if they’re planning to shoot some- Boston Police officer Peter Fontanez stands in front of The body,” Fontanez said, who Boyne Pub on Western Avenue yesterday, hours after he helped arrest three men inside. said he was angered that the man was acting so “brazenly.” So he seized were found cocked, or ready to fire, ducked into the kitchen area and called the police said. “It was a tremendous arrest of supervisor at District D-14 in Brighton, re- very significant figures,” said District Dquesting plainclothes cops to surround the 14 Capt. Frank Mancini. Dennis Sena, suspects. 29, of Brighton was held on $150,000 bail Once inside, the cops noticed the bulge on a variety of weapons charges, said Jake under the suspect’s shirt, shouted “Police!” Wark, spokesman for the Suffolk County and ordered him to put down his beer, po- District Attorney’s Office. Maurice Coates, lice said. “That’s not mine; I’m holding it 30, of Brookline was held on $50,000 bail for someone else,” the suspect said, accord- on charges of disorderly conduct and resisting to a police report. The officers struggled ing arrest. Gontrand Germain, 31, of Hyde to tackle the suspects, the report states. Cops Park was also held on $50,000 bail on sevallegedly found two loaded guns stashed in eral weapons charges. a bathroom garbage and pulled a third off a Said Mancini, “Hopefully they will be suspect’s waistband. Two of the three guns spending some time in the clink.”
THE LAW FIRM OF SCOTT D. GOLDBERG, P.C. Assisting and Representing Police Officers Since 1990 Do you know how the recent change to competitive auto insurance rates in Massachusetts affects you? Would you like to know what coverage you need to have? Or which insurance companies might be better for you? The insurance agent is just that – an agent for the insurance company.Attorney Scott Goldberg personally assists and represents members of the BPPA, Superior Officers Federation, MassCop, and suburban police officers in injury-related issues. Attorney Goldberg offers you free legal advice to protect you from losses due to on-duty and off-duty injuries. In many cases he can help you recover additional money for lost detail and overtime pay, disability, and pain and suffering. For the past 18 years, Attorney Scott Goldberg has helped police officers receive compensation in motor vehicle cases, including injuries while in a cruiser, when struck by a stolen vehicle, or while directing traffic. In many situations the officers did not know that they were entitled to this money; it was literally being kept by the insurance companies. Call to see how he can help you. Attorney Goldberg provides free consultations. If you have been injured and have a case, the law firm only receives a fee if we recover compensation for you. And we give police officers a 10% discount off our general public legal fees. Contact Attorney Scott Goldberg at 617-227-1888 or scott@goldberglawfirm.net.
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PAX CENTURION • July/August 2008 • Page B13
The Gospel According to Barack Obama By Patrick Carnell, Canisius College, Buffalo, NY ear, O Israel, this testimony, and rejoice, for the Lightbringer, who is called Obama, walks now among us, to take his rightful throne upon the nations of the world. It has come to pass in the final year of the rule of Jorge the Younger (the Foolish) of the tribe of the bush, of the people of the tusk, who had laid waste to the lands of the Arabs, that He has ventured forth to bring light unto this world, so that all may know Him and worship Him to a creepy degree, as do His disciples, the tribe known as Media. They have heard His words, and never, ever, ever cease to marvel at them, saying, “Who is He who possesses the audacity to hope for change, who will save humanity and change the very fabric of reality with naught but a smile and a sly wink?” They went to battle with His blessing, and defeated the Witch-Queen Hillary, sometimes-consort to the deposed King William the Lecherous, and her barbarian Appalachian hordes. He rode victorious to Jerusalem, seated upon an ass, while the Media lay palms before Him, singing Hosannas and Hope-Change-Believe-Yeswe-can ad nauseum. There, the Lightbringer did nothing more than hope for change, and the Israelites and the Blood-Drinkers of Gaza laid down their arms, and lived in peace forever. And wherever He went, the Lightbringer,
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Hos-bama in the highest! purely by His presence and the invocation of His most holy name, brought peace; tyrants and terrorists alike cried aloud for joy, and beat their swords to plowshares and nuclear weapons into playground equipment. Many great and wonderful things happened at the Lightbringer’s will. By His mere
breath, global temperatures dropped (in spite of never having actually risen in the first place), and the Prophet Algore rejoiced. The Lightbringer declared his plan for hope change for the fifty-seven states of the Unified Empire, although the Empire had but fifty. But lo, by His words alone, seven states
arose from nothingness, for it was prophesized, “Nothing is impossible in Him; He needs only to say, ‘be,’ and it becomes, for the tribe of Media will ensure it.” The uninsured sick were cured, and gas prices and interest rates fell as manna from heaven, because the Lightbringer had declared it. His many enemies, led by the one known only as the Bitter Old Man, sought to challenge the Lightbringer, and point out the incredible number of inconsistencies, flaws, and outright lies told by Him and His disciples, as well as His complete lack of meaningful experience (having not yet completed even one term in His divinely given office), unbearable arrogance and presumptuousness, and His Hillary-esque spouse. But their efforts were for naught, as the Lightbringer was declared infallible and unassailable by those who heard Him and believed, and those who questioned His divine nature were maligned as racists, heretics, racists, shills, and racists. For, although He had not even yet emerged victorious, and was even placed behind the Bitter Old Man on nine of fourteen issues by the census-takers of Rasmussen, as far as He and His faithful were concerned, He had already ascended to the Father, hoisted aloft by a host of Cherubim, as the Principalities, Archangels, Democrats, and sixwinged Seraphim sang His praises forevermore. The Word of Obama; Thanks be to God.
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More on police details By Jim Barry, BPPA Legislative Agent he Deval Patrick administration continues to work on the regulations and guidelines to decide how and when police details or flaggers might be used on roads under state jurisdiction. According to the law that authorizes these regulations, Boston Police details, (which are under local authority by ordinance and our collective bargaining agreement) will not be affected by these changes. Even with these regulations having little to no impact on BPD detail work the BPPA is still lending its political support for our brother police unions, as these regulations are developed.
T
The Nutty Professor
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ne would think replacing any police officer with a more expensive flagger wouldn’t make sense. But the Nutty Pro-
fessor of Suffolk University, David Tuerck, seems to not mind that. He is almost shrill in his rabid calls for police detail replacement. He publicly called on Governor Patrick to repeal Chapter 150E and scrap the prevailing wage laws. He said if they didn’t repeal them then the regulations were worthless. The Patrick administration had no intention of doing either. Police details are here and never going away The replacement costs don’t add up. Prevailing wage is $37.45 per hour for a flagger. Do that math! Now add into the equation the lack of any driving abilities or civilities for the majority of Massachusetts drivers. Police details are not going away no matter how shrill Tuerck becomes.
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Massport
he clock ran out on the concurrent jurisdiction at Massport buildings in the
Probationary police officer has no property interest in the job
D
ennis Walsh began work as a police officer with the Suffolk County, New York Police Department on August 29, 2005. Walsh signed an “acceptance of appointment” at the time of his hire, a document which stated that “this appointment shall be for a probationary term of 18 months.” The County had not completed its background investigation of Walsh at the time he was hired. It subsequently determined that Walsh was the subject of a criminal investigation by a police agency in California in which he was accused of extortion and harassment of a woman, an investigation that stemmed from Walsh’s threatening use of a sexual videotape Walsh did not disclose the investigation on his application for employment. The Department began an investigation of Walsh into the failure to disclose. During the investigation, Walsh resigned. Walsh subsequently filed a federal court lawsuit alleging he was compelled to resign, and that he had a property interest in his job of which he was deprived without due process. A federal court dismissed Walsh’s lawsuit. The Court found that for Walsh to have
a property right to the job that compelled due process, he had to have a right that “secured certain benefits and that supported claims of entitlement to those benefits. Property interests arise in the employment context only where the employer is barred, whether by statute or contract, from terminating (or not renewing) the employment relationship without cause. Thus, in order to establish a federal procedural due process claim, the plaintiff must first establish that he possesses a property right in his continued employment.” The Court found that it was well-settled in New York that probationary employees had no property rights in their positions and could be “lawfully discharged without a hearing and without any specified reason. Many courts have found police officers in situations similar to Walsh to be probationary employees not subject to the same due process protection as permanent employees. Walsh’s claim for violation of due process cannot survive.” Walsh v. Suffolk County Police Department, 2008 WL 1991118 (E.D. N.Y. 2008). (Courtesy of the Public Safety Labor News, July 2008.)
PDS Director John Zuccaro Elected President of SENA Local 9158
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ohn Zuccaro, director of the BPD’s paid detailing billing unit, has been elected President of SENA (Service Employees of North America) Local 9158 effective September 2, 2008. SENA 9158 represents about 720 members, mostly within the City of Boston, but also with members in the towns of Orleans and Norton. The election was held in accordance with the constitution of the United Steelworkers Union. John has worked with the BPPA to resolve a wide variety of detail issues and problems over the last two decades. He represents the very essence of what a good manager should be – always looking to work with the unions and find solutions instead of being a perpetual roadblock. Those who remember waiting months and months to be paid for details can thank John for the tremendous efforts he’s made towards prompt payment. The BPPA congratulates John Zuccaro, but more importantly congratulates SENA Local 9158 members for their wise choice in leadership. www.bppa.org
Seaport District that both the BPPA and Mayor Menino jointly were working so hard on. Assurances of it getting done were received right up to the last minute of the last day. Speaker DiMasi sent word that the bill would be done and time went by without the action that was needed by him to get it done. This does not end the effort, it renews
it. We shall assist the Mayor with his effort to grant concurrent to BPD on buildings within the City of Boston owned by Massport. Massport hasn’t the greatest management record on public safety having settled a case in East Boston for almost $1 million. How much more will they pay to settle on cases?
Legislative Report
Big Brother is not only watching, but he’s also videotaping (continued from page B5) when doing so might put in question a stop or search which might embarrass a fellow officer. It requires no strength of character to speak the truth when it does not hurt.” City of Cambridge v. Civil Service Commission, 43 Mass. App. Ct. 300, 303 (1997). Stated another way by our Supreme Judicial Court, “police officers themselves must obey the law and be truthful in all of their official dealings, or they may face termination.” City of Boston v. Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, 443, Mass. 813, 821 (2005). These rules are clear: screwing up will get you in trouble, but a proven allegation of lying about it can get you fired. We know everyone does their best to avoid these types of allegations. If you act like you are being videotaped, you hopefully will not violate the first part of the rule. If
you act like you have been videotaped, you definitely should not violate the second part. Mistakes will inevitably happen to even the most conscientious and well-intentioned police officers. If a mistake results, the only remedy is to invoke your rights or to give a truthful statement to the best of your memory and recollection. Lying about the mistake will only compound problems, particularly if a videotape surfaces to prove something contrary to what you wrote or said. A search of YouTube for the term “police brutality” I did on August 7, 2008 brought up 5,110 hits. Please don’t become number 5,111. Keep the faith, stay safe out there, and be careful – Big Brother’s son is now watching you, and he’s a member of video generation.
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A brief history of the American bum:
How a social problem caused by liberals got dumped on the police By Pax Centurion Professor Emeritus Semaj L’Lenrac, University of Shetland Street F THE MANY ENIGMAS CONFRONTING THE POLICE in today’s society, the complexities related to residentially-challenged citizens are among the most vexing. (Or, to put it in the vernacular, bums and all of the problems they cause is another bag of sh** that’s been dumped on the cops.) In order for the law enforcement professional to even begin to confront this dilemma, one must have at least a rudimentary understanding of how the police came to inherit this conundrum in the beginning. Therefore, as a service to the aspiring, fresh-faced, eager, young police recruits who will be soon be exiting our Police Academy, filled with a “can-do” spirit and a desire to solve long-standing and often intractable social problems, the award-winning Pax Centurion presents this HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN BUM. We hope that this unexpurgated historical tome, compiled with the benefit of hundreds of years of largely anecdotal police experiences, will assist the fledgling officer via the interdiction of practical knowledge combined with the empirical data compiled by our own staff of professional researchers. (trans: Before you young idiots go out there and get yourselves hurt, listen to experienced officers who perform actual police work.)
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Chapter One: Colonial Bums in Early America
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he available historical record informs us that the first bum to arrive in the New World was one Yuseless Mendicant, who arrived on His Majesties’ Ship HMS Slothful in Boston around 1635 and took up residence on the very first park bench in Boston Common. Of him, it is written in the journals of the time: “Verily, verily, ye Yuseless Mendicant doth not labor but sleepeth and he doth not contribute but liveth off the labors of others. He drinketh of the fermented grapes and causeth the watchmen to picketh his sorry behind from off the groundeth on which he hath vomiteth and urinateth upon his own self.” (Loose translation from the olde English) To his credit, Reverend Cotton Mather is reported to have praised Yuseless Mendicant for “keeping the Sabbath day holy by not working”, but then again, Yuseless kept every day of the week holy by not working. There are those who swear that Mendicant’s ghost, and/or his direct descendants, continue to occupy park benches on the Boston Common to this very day, although this cannot be independently verified.
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Bums in America Until the 1960’s
ums in America were largely invisible during America’s formative centuries,
www.bppa.org
largely due to vagrancy laws which discouraged widespread bummery from spreading. One could be arrested for not being able to show an established address or means of supporting oneself. Sleeping on park benches or occupying sidewalks seeking alms was likely to be met with a good rap from a policeman’s baton or a kick in the behind. Urinating in public and public drunkenness were treated as criminal offenses. Anti-social conduct masquerading as various forms of victimhood was simply not tolerated. “Poverty” was not equated with vagrancy; being poor meant not being able to find an adequate means of supporting oneself and one’s family; there was no shame in being “poor” as long as one desired to work and tried their hardest to improve themselves. This was distinguished from common bummery, which implied then, as now, that the offender simply would not work not matter how many opportunities were placed in front of him.
Bums From the 1960’s to the Present Day
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tarting in the free-wheeling 1960’s, bums were transformed into “victims” of society. It was no longer the individual’s fault that one refused to work or passed out drunk in public, it was the fault of the oppressive capitalistic system which caused such conduct. Beginning with bum-authors such as Jack Kerouac, bums were romanticized as somehow “rebelling” against modern society, expressing their free will by refusing to become productive members of society. Bums were transformed into the more romantic, chic “hoboes”. Public drunkenness, vagrancy and other social-order offenses were decriminalized, often by idealistic liberals living in affluent communities (except of course, when the offending bums found their way to those very affluent communities, in which case the phony liberals immediately called the police to remove the bums from despoiling their property values.) Bums were victims as long as they remained someone else’s problem. And then came Michael Stanley Dukakis… In the 1970’s and 80’s, Brookline liberal M. Stanley Dukakis and other windbagphony liberals decided that it would be a good idea to “de-institutionalize” much of the mentally ill population, releasing them to “the community” (which did not include Brookline or anywhere near Mike and Kitty’s house) where they would be placed in residential settings instead of keeping them in secure surroundings. This, of course, helped to markedly increase the numbers of individuals living on our streets and in our parks for the police to deal with, not to mention the dangers of dealing with mentally-ill people in split-second situations requiring immediate action by police. (continued on page B21)
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PAX CENTURION • July/August 2008 • Page B17
Veterans’ Corner:
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Pat Rose, C-11
Life on the lake is great, but news from the radio drives me nuts
ife is great! Just sitting here at Crystal Lake in Maine, taking some needed, (and I might add warranted), rest and recuperation. Fishing pole in the water and believe it or not, actually reeling in some nice large mouth bass, (a special thanks to Chris Ross,YVSF, for some tips on the lake, you never know who you’re going to run into when fishing). Well, it has been raining like crazy and some people would think this a bad thing, however, I’ll take a rainy day in Maine over a sunny day in Boston any time! Everyone should be able to leave their cares and woes behind and do a little fishing once in a while, it not only relaxes the body but is food for the soul. So don’t ya figure I make the mistake of turning on a portable radio while I cast away the hours and what do I hear, yup, as predicted by me back in the April PAX, the Russians are trying to flex their muscles and have decided to show the world that they are no shrinking violet and will wipe out the sovereign nation of Georgia to prove it, if necessary. They are busy sinking ships and bombing villages while they claim they are only protecting their own. Their tanks are rumbling through the country side and the Central Asian oil pipe line has been shut down visa vie Russian bombs. This will be step one in the Russian plan to get back to ‘Super Power’ status, put a strangle hold on oil and gas to Europe, other than Russian delivered and will prove to be a great place to work the bugs out on their new military hardware. As if we as a country aren’t dealing with enough. But, I gotta give the ‘Ruskies’ credit, the whole world was focused on the Olympics. The American Military is too busy playing politics with the current Iraqi government instead of DIRECTING IT, and bending over to the Democratically controlled Congress. The President is in China, the American Democratic hopeful was running around the world playing President with his taxpayerexpensed visits to the middle east and elsewhere, oh and let’s not forget planning his vacation with important promises to go ‘body surfing’! Rome is burning and all the supposed experts are tuning their respective violins! The only one with his eye on the proverbial ball is the Republican hopeful John McCain. I know that I promised not to endorse anyone under the guise of the “Veteran’s Corner,” however, this issue is now and now is when we have to see what is real and what is an image. When Senator Hillary Clinton was still a viable candidate for the Democratic Party, she hammered away at the “lack of experience” held by Senator Barack Obama. Every time she brought up the notion of handling a crisis, she stated that it would take a President with experience, experience in foreign affairs, experience in dealing with our enemies, experience in holding the line and
sometimes making unpopular decisions, experience in politics and life itself! The Obama camp claimed that He held plenty of experience and surrounded Himself with literally hundreds of foreign affairs experts, (His claims and statements, not mine). Well the bell rang, and no one showed up! Round one is over, round two is over and we are entering round three and still NO Obama, unless of course you want to attribute a foolish statement that called for “restraint” and “calm”. I’m sure the woman and children, fallen by the Russian bombs, tanks and ships, the cannon fodder left under the Russian Boots that have split a Sovereign Nation in half, appreciate Mr. Obama’s call for “calm and restraint”. I’ll be the first to admit that the man has charisma, some great speech writers, a terrific choreographed routine and a great persona, however He has NO experience and worse than that He doesn’t appear to have a clue! The mans’ only experience in world affairs is that He’s a junior Senator and spent a tour in his state legislature. The bottom line is He is NOT qualified to be our Commander and Chief. Senator John McCain, on the other hand, is older, (an attribute not a detriment), experienced in world affairs, foreign and domestic, experienced in military affairs, and has decades of political background and totally understands the nature of our own government and peoples, (a necessary experience to lead this complex Nation). Senator
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McCain, even though running a campaign, has kept his eye on the ball. He was the ONLY one to immediately recognize what was happening in the sovereign Nation of Georgia. Senator McCain immediately denounce the Russians, from the seat of our Congress, He immediately Demanded an emergency meeting of NATO and further demanded immediate aid to the country of Georgia. That my friends is how a President deals with an international crisis. He doesn’t issue willy nilly statements asking for “calm” and or “restraint”, He doesn’t continue with his vacation plans, He acts and acts decisively with immediacy. John McCain not only passed the litmus test for handling a crisis he aced it! Senator Obama didn’t make the grade and that my friends is a fact! So please, for our country’s sake, for our own well being keep this lesson in mind in November. This couldn’t have been a better scenario to test what one’s response will be in an international crisis that will no doubt effect us in the long run. VETERANS EDUCATION OPPORTUNITIES: After more than ten years of lobbying Congress, the VFW has finally realized one of its’ top legislative goals. President George W. Bush signed the New GI Bill into law on June 30th, 2008. Originally introduced by Senator Jim Webb (DVA) back in January 2007 as the post 9/11 Veteran’s Educational Assistance Act, It provides college funding for honorably dis-
charged veterans including National Guard and Reservists who serve three years of active duty after 9/11/01. The new GI Bill covers the full cost of attendin a four-year in state, public college, plus stipends for living expenses and books. For veterans accepted into private universities, the new legislation establishes dollar for dollar tuition match at those schools that choose to participate in the program. Senator Webb stated “This bill properly responded to the needs of those who answered the call of duty to our country, those who moved toward the sound of guns, often at great sacrifice. There is no politics here, this is about taking care of the people who have taken care of us!” (Too bad more people didn’t think and act as Senator Webb) Thank You Senator Webb, you are a man of conviction! ELECTION RESULTS: In accordance with our VFW Post By-Laws, Executive Board elections were held on the second Tuesday in July, (the 8th). The following persons were either elected or appointed in accordance with the By-Laws: Jorge Castro, President; Chris Colby,Vice President; Marty Columbo, Clerk & Treasurer; Patrick Rose, Trustee; Frank DeClements, Member; George Murray, Trustee; Brendan McCarthy, Trustee; ‘Doc’ Spraig, Member; and Matt McGrath, Judge Advocate. Congratulations to all elected officials. (continued on page A19)
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You could’ve heard a pin drop!
hen in England, at a fairly large con ference, Colin Powell was asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an example of “empire building” by George W. Bush. He answered by saying, ‘Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return.’ You could have heard a pin drop. ����� here was a conference in France where a number of international engineers were taking part, including French and American. During a break, one of the French engineers came back into the room saying “Have you heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done? He has sent an aircraft carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What does he intended to do, bomb them?” A Boeing engineer stood up and replied quietly: “Our carriers have three hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people; they are nuclear powered and can supply emergency electrical power to shore facilities; they have three cafeterias with the capacity to feed 3,000 people three meals a day, they can produce several thousand gallons of fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry half a dozen helicopters for use in transporting victims and injured to and
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from their flight deck. We have eleven such ships; how many does France have?” You could have heard a pin drop. ����� U.S. Navy Admiral was attending a naval conference that included Admirals from the U.S., English, Canadian, Australian and French Navies. At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a large group of Officers that included personnel from most of those countries. Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks, but a French admiral suddenly complained that, whereas Europeans learn many languages, Americans learn only English.’ He then asked, “Why is it that we always have to speak English in these conferences, rather than speaking French?” Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied “Maybe it’s because the Brits, Canadians, Aussies and Americans arranged it so you wouldn’t have to speak German.’ You could have heard a pin drop. �����
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obert Whiting, an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane. At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport in his carry-on.
(continued from page B18)
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“Impossible. Americans always have to show your passports on arrival in France!” The American senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he quietly explained, “Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in 1944 to help liberate this country, I couldn’t find a single Frenchmen to show a passport to.” You could have heard a pin drop.
And this story fits in with the above…
Life on the lake is great, but news on the radio drives me nuts UPCOMING EVENTS: Our annual ‘TOYS For TOTS’ motorcycle run is scheduled for Sunday the 14th of September. The registration is from 10:00 am – 12:00 noon, cost of $15.00 per motor cycle, $10.00 per additional rider, $5.00 per child, or an unwrapped, non-violent toy with a retail value of at least $15.00. We have been able to raise thousands of dollars for this event over the years, (with the generous support and backing of the BPPA and many local community stores and vendors). All are welcome to join us, you don’t have to ride to enjoy the festivities and cookout hosted by the post after the ride. Please help us help those less fortunate. Our Annual Military Ball will be held on September 6th, from 7:00pm til midnight. This will be a casual dress affair with music and a buffet all for $5.00. This year, Commander Brendan McCarthy will be honoring past Commanders of the post, it should be a lot of fun with good food and music, on the cheap, come on down and have some fun. On September 19th the Post will be hosting a 70’s-80’s-90’s night. For $10.00 you get to enjoy a hot and cold buffet and dance the night away to some of your favorite music, 7:00 pm ’til midnight (or whenever you decide).
“You have been to France before, monsieur?” the customs officer asked sarcastically. Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to France previously. Then you should know enough to have your passport ready.’ The American said, “The last time I was here, I didn’t have to show it.
REMINDER: VFW Post meetings are held on the third Monday of each month in the upper hall at 1930 hours. The Board of Directors meets at 1800 hours downstairs. The VFW meeting is open to all members, and we encourage active participation. The Board of Directors conducts its’ annual open meeting on the 2nd Tuesday in July, (per the by-laws). Once again let me offer an invitation to visit the completely remodeled Post, inside and out. A reminder that inside of the post is SMOKE FREE as of June 1st. news on the radio drives me nuts Enjoy a cheap, cold ‘one’ with some old friends, or make some new friends. Enjoy the game tables, electronic game machine or lottery. The all new patio area is open for horse shoes, card play or just hang out in the fresh air in the PRIVATE FENCED IN PATIO to enjoy a cigarette (if you’re a smoker) or a cold one. The Post is open seven days a week from 1500 hours ‘til closing around 0200 hours. If you are behind on your dues, come on down and we’ll figure something out. If you are still not a member, what are you waiting for? The membership cost is only $30.00 per year. You don’t have to be a Veteran to be a member. As always, please be safe out there! Oh, and for those who didn’t believe me, look at one of the fish that didn’t get away on the previous page!
You could’ve heard a pin drop.
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PAX CENTURION • July/August 2008 • Page B19
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Can I count on your vote?
’m running for President of the USA. I need your vote!! I’VE DECIDED TO BECOME A WRITE-IN CANDIDATE. HERE IS MY PLATFORM: (1) Press 1 for English is immediately banned. English is the official language. Speak it or wait at the border until you can. (2) We will immediately go into a twoyear isolationist posture to straighten out the country’s attitude. NO imports, no exports. We will use the ‘WalMart’ policy: /’If we ain’t got it, you don’t need it.’/ (3) When imports are allowed, there will be a 100% import tax on it. (4) All former military personnel will be required to man one of our many observation towers on the southern border. (Six month tour) They will be under strict orders not to fire on SOUTHBOUND aliens. (5) Social Security will immediately return to its original state. If you didn’t put nuttin’ in, you ain’t getting’ nuttin’ out. Neither the president nor any other politician will be able to touch it ever again. (6) Welfare – Checks will be handed out on Fridays at the end of the 40 hour school week with a passing grade and the successful completion of urinalysis. (7) Professional Athletes – Steroids – The
FIRST time you check positive you will be banned for life. (8) Crime – We will adopt the Turkish method: The first time you steal, you lose your right hand. There will be no more life sentences — if you are convicted of a Capitol Offense, you will be put to death by the same method you chose for your victim, gun, knife, strangulation, etc. (9) One export will be allowed - Wheat – The world needs to eat. A bushel of
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wheat will be the exact price of a barrel of oil. (10) All foreign aid using American taxpayer money will immediately cease, and the saved money will pay off the national debt and ultimately lower taxes. When disasters occur around the world, we’ll ask the American people if they want to donate to a disaster fund, and each citizen can make the decision whether it’s a worthy cause.
(11) The Pledge of Allegiance will be said every day at school and every day in Congress – right after a prayer to God. (12) The National Anthem will be played at all appropriate ceremonies, sporting events, outings, etc. Sorry if I stepped on anyone’s toes, but a vote for me will get you better than what you’re likely to get otherwise. Thanks for listening, and remember to write in my name on the ballot in November!
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Union Unity By Kevin Doogan n the upcoming months there will be a lot of talk, rumor and exaggerations regarding any exploration into the uniting of the police unions. I, for one, am wide-open and excited about the possible opportunity to unite all the unions. The uniting of the unions doesn’t mean that any union, whether large or small is willing to prostrate themselves and their membership upon the altar of another bargaining unit. Any merger or combining of the unions would require long, hard thought and compromise by all parties. No Union, Association, Society nor Fed-
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eration can be expected to give up their individuality and be left to scramble for the table scraps of another bargaining unit, and to suggest such a thing is just asinine. For years now the BPPA has worked hand and hand with the bargaining units of EMS and the Cadets without incident. It is this type of model I look forward to exploring, unions that can keep their individual identity but reap the benefits of a peaceful, nurturing, mutually prosperous partnership. A partnership, where all bargaining units can bargain together in unity for the greater good of all. There will surely be talk of smaller bargaining units being short-changed and left
federal court rejected Sillers’ lawsuit. The Court found that “the cases are consistent in holding that a public employee who raises concerns related to his job function up his chain of command does so as part of his
arryl Brown and Martin Whitfield were injured in the line of duty as officers of Los Angeles Police Department. They both applied for benefits under LAPD’s disability retirement pension, which contains an offset: Duty disability payments are reduced by the amount of any workers’ compensation award the officer receives for the disabling injury. Brown and Whitfield sued the City, alleging that the offset violated their rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). A federal appeals court rejected the lawsuit The Court began by describing the two different retirement systems available to LAPD officers. The first, a service pension, is based on length of service and age. The second, a disability pension, is available only to officers who have sustained a workrelated injury and whom the LAPD cannot reasonably accommodate in employment. The service pensions are funded in part by employee contributions, the disability pensions are funded exclusively by the City. Officers disabled after an on-the-job injury who are eligible for a service pension can choose either pension. No offset results if the injured officer elects the service pension. In the Court’s view, this structure de-
official duties and not as protected speech. It is evident that Sillers made the statements in question in the course of performing his duties as a police officer. His statements reflected his knowledge of acts committed by his fellow officers, knowledge that he obtained through his duties as a police officer, and significantly, the statements were all made internally, up his chain of command, rather than to outside individuals or entities. Sillers’ speech was made pursuant to his official duties and is therefore not protected First Amendment speech.” Sillers v. City of Everman, Texas, 2008 WL2222236 (N.D. Tex. 2008).
Note: In a similar case, Barrows v. City of Fort Smith, Arkansas, 2008 (W.D. Ark. 2008), the Court found unprotected by the First Amendment speech by a police officer who was in charge of his Department’s Administrative Services Division where the officer was terminated after he expressed concerns to the City Administrator regarding a new program that was potentially wasteful of public funds and could violate state law. The Court found that these remarks were made as part of his job responsibilities, and thus were unprotected. (Courtesy of the Public Safety Labor News, July 2008.)
A Brief History of the American Bum
Employer allowed to offset disability payments by workers’ compensation benefits
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If we’re all under the same roof there is no benefit to encroach another’s work space. For decades the fire department has enjoyed the benefits of a united work force, while we in the police department have been divided and on occasion conquered. As time has moved on, the leverages of unions has weakened across this country, this fact is undeniable. We need to leave no stone unturned in our quest to represent our memberships to the best of our abilities. Where there is Unity there is Strength, when people put the greater good of all before their quest for personal titles and fulfilling grudges everyone wins.
Officer reporting crime to Supervisor not protected by First Amendment
erry Sillers was a police officer with the City of Everman, Texas. In a federal court lawsuit, Sillers alleged that during late 2006 and early 2007, he witnessed unlawful acts committed by his fellow police officers against other citizens. Sillers claimed that he was terminated from employment after he relayed his concerns over these acts to his supervising sergeants and the Chief of Police. Sillers’ lawsuit contended that his reports to his supervisors were protected as whistle-blowing speech under the First Amendment, and that the City violated his free speech rights by terminating him. Applying the dictates of the Supreme Court’s decision in Garcetti v. Ceballos, a
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behind. Some will throw gas on the old fires of the past. But times have changed, unions have changed and I believe we have all learned from the triumphs and failures of our union forefathers. The benefits of uniting the unions, I believe far outweigh the possible negatives. Those who stand adamant against the exploration of building a stronger united union are misinformed ax-grinders that are apparently stuck in the past. As with any partnership, a merger has to be mutually satisfying and beneficial. Surely the complaint of one bargaining unit doing another’s work would immediately cease.
feated Brown and Whitfield’s ADA claim: “The City’s police pensions are nondiscriminatory. In addition to the disability retirement pension, the City also provides the seniority-based service pension, which is not subject to any offset for workers’ compensation and which is clearly distinct from the disability pension program as evidenced by the different funding mechanisms. The City provides two separate pension programs to officers with disabilities. The two programs need not provide identical benefits. “The offset does not treat disabled officers differently or create disproportionate burdens because of the nature of their limitations or even their status as individuals with disabilities. It simply limits the type of compensation for work-related injuries that happens to be available only to individuals who are disabled. Most importantly, the limitation merely pertains to the cause of the injury – that is, whether it was sufficiently work-related that the officer receives workers’ compensation. This is not discrimination by reason of disability.” Brown v. City of Los Angeles, 2008 WL 962057 (9th Cir. 2008). (Courtesy of the Public Safety Labor News, July 2008.)
(continued from page B17) It is estimated anecdotally by many experienced police officers that today’s homeless population can be divided into three basic categories: 1.) the classic “hopeless alcoholic – skid-row” type; 2.) the mentally ill/homeless, who should be hospitalized or re-institutionalized; and 3.) con-artists who are simply out to take advantage of the system and wouldn’t work if a hundred jobs presented themselves. If the mentally ill were “re-institutionalized in secure medical environments and if the con-artists seeking to take advantage of freebies were removed from the picture, “homelessness” per se, would undoubtedly drop dramatically. Of course, that would negatively impact the “homeless industry” that has grown up around the ever-increasing (of necessity) “homeless” population. One will notice that regardless of how many millions of dollars are thrown at the problem and regardless of which party is in office, the annual count of the alleged “homeless” never decreases. (The problem becomes “especially severe” for “the most vulnerable among us,” however, when a conservative politician occupies the White House.) Despite the fact that public drunkenness, begging and other affronts to the social order have been decriminalized, the burden of dealing with bums – er…the “residentially challenged” still falls on the police. The good liberals who throw money in the beggar’s cups in the morning are shocked
when the same bum appears passed out in their doorway in the afternoon. “Where are the police, and why don’t they remove these wretched rummies from the streets?”, the good liberals inquire, as they scurry away in their Volvos and BMWs to their tony enclaves in the suburbs. There are intersections in Boston, such as “Mass. & Cass” where every corner is covered by bums competing, even fighting with each other, for the right to pester motorists stalled in traffic. (The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has decreed that begging is a protected form of free speech, but somehow, one never observes beggars in Wellesley, Sudbury, Marblehead-by-the-Sea, etc. where many of our judges reside. Geez, I wonder why….) Since such conduct is no longer within the purview of the police to address in any sincere way, it has been suggested that homelessness, vagrancy, public drunkenness and related conduct should be addressed as a medical-social problem. Perhaps “bumbulances,” for lack of a better term, could be appointed to help the poor dears after they’ve consumed a gallon of Listerine and soiled themselves. Or perhaps “bum-buses” could be sent to gather up the rum-dums and bring them out to suburban pastures, parks and commons where the interplay of fresh air and compassionate liberalism could have a positive effect upon the “most vulnerable among us.”
PAX CENTURION • July/August 2008 • Page B21
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PAXCENTURION Section C
EMS Division Unity & Strength T
It’s not personal… It’s business!
OUR Memorial Service
his year, 73 names were added to “The Tree of Life” the symbol of The National EMS Memorial Service “OUR Memorial.” Some of those names I had very personal encounters with. First, Ritchie Powers, many EMT’s, and Paramedics here have worked with him at some point in their careers. Ritchie worked all over the Boston area from the South Shore to the Merrimack Valley and every where in between there are very few people in Metro Boston EMS services who didn’t know him. His cause of death was he suffered a fatal heart attack after transporting a patient to the hospital. Next was Michael Latta. Michael was 21 years of age. He worked for Patriot Ambulance Service and his death was very unexpected. His cause of death also happened to be cardiac in nature. This was a dedicated young man with a bright future in EMS. I had the fortune to meet his family at the hotel prior to the service. His family was very responsive and knew Boston EMS stands alone. They were also very grateful we attended his funeral here in Massachusetts. Mr. Joseph Murawski of Perth Amboy, NJ, whose family members can’t say enough good things about Boston, and Boston EMS, wanted to thank all of us, because Ed McCarthy and I traveled to New Jersey to play at his funeral back in June. Lastly, Mr. Allen Parsons of Maine whose mother and father wanted to say an extra thank you to our honor guard who traveled to Maine for his services. He was killed by an intoxicated driver who struck the ambulance while he and his partner were transporting a critical patient to the hospital. While 73 of our brothers and sisters were honored for paying the highest price for doing our job, 73 families were affected, add to those numbers coworkers’ friends, and loved ones the numbers start to raise more attention. This year, it was announced OUR Memorial service is slated to move to Colorado Springs, Colorado in 2010. The site in Colorado is home to the IAFF Fallen Fighters Memorial. It will be in the Memorial Park which is for IAFF members only. When I was told this was the “best choice” for OUR Memorial. I felt completely betrayed because for once I actually thought members of the EMS community were acting together in making a positive change. Now I know our union leadership has been steadily working on this for sometime with great efforts being set forth. The EMSLA proposal of using our Nation’s Capital for OUR Memorial was “not the best choice,” leads one to believe in conspiracy theory stories. I however do not believe it was the IAFF alone who was the undermining factor here. Mr. Kevin Dillard, along with a selected group, feel they are above us when it comes to choosing a site for the Memorial. Many years ago when I first went to the service, I saw OUR Memorial in of all places a shopping mall. I, along with many, said this is no place for OUR Memorial to be. Those times seem so distant and I can remember being told many times the Memorial and the Service could not be moved out of Roanoke without an Act of Congress. Why, because it was an official act written by Congress, which recognized Roanoke as the Home of the First Volunteer Rescue Squad. Since I’m a bit of a history buff, did you all know our own Paul Revere was a first responder! He aided the wounded during battles here in Boston, so much for (continued on page C3) www.bppa.org
By Gregory Bond, Paramedic 216 “To avoid criticism do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.” -Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915)
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hen I was a brand new recruit at BEMS one of my preceptors taught me one of the most important lessons I’ve learned to date. He told me not to take anything personal. He did this because he recognized that I, as most recruits are, was young, inexperienced, and frankly overwhelmed with the overall process of becoming a Boston EMT. On a more private level, I was very “thin skinned,” and when I did make mistakes, I would let my emotions got the better of me, causing me to become easily frustrated and
discouraged. This in turn had a negative impact on my job performance. As a result, he set about working with me to overcome my fears and self-doubt, and it worked. In the years since he has become a good friend and coworker, and I would like to thank him for his insight and his knowledge. If my past experiences have taught me anything, it is that mistakes, be it mine or others, are best served when they are recognized for what they are, learning opportunities. They should be embraced and learned from, not ignored or otherwise forgotten (continued on page C3)
On the road to Roanoke, again!
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hile the weekend began for me and my family with the annual loading of the van, checking and double checking to make sure all was in its place. Driving the 700+ miles from greater Boston to the Shenandoah Valley is an experience. Traveling the route takes you through some of the best looking parts of our nation. It also allows time to reflect on ones choices. Just driving over hills, down valleys and through cities you can see why we as a nation are truly blessed. During our drive we passed many retired servicemen on their annual pilgrimage to Washington, DC for the Thunder Run, many proudly flying the flag off the back of their bike. I had the opportunity to speak to some of them in various rest/gas stops along our trek. I would thank them for their service to our country. Most responded an asked where we were heading and for what, I was amazed at the gratitude they bestowed back. During one such conversation, one older not so friendly looking man overheard me talking with another biker. He came over to say thank you, for he had an experience with EMS. He said with gratitude how his life was saved by a Medic who later was Killed in Action. There was a kinship with all of those bikers who were traveling paying respect to people, whom they did and did not know. They often shared; we should be thanking you, and “you’re still fighting battles” one said. I never thought about the similarity before that is until you have 12+ hours to drive and reflect. Danger knows no individual and by putting yourself on the line trying to care for some one who is hurt is very special. When we arrived in Roanoke the sun was just starting to come up. I have told you before all about the Grand Hotel, and the staff before. So I’ll just say you need to travel in the South to truly appreciate hospitality at its best. The Star City as Roanoke calls itself has many different attractions which we rarely see or hear about. Annually during the Memorial Service weekend there is a street fair called “Festival in the Park” in downtown area. It’s a short walk from the hotel. It’s definitely worth going by if you have the time. They also have a smaller version of Faneuil Hall called the Market Square Area; The Train Museum has one of the best collections of Steam Engines and Early Diesel Electric models, trolley, and passenger cars assembled. Roanoke happens to be a hub for one of our nation’s busiest freight railroads. For those of you who are enthusiasts it’s definitely worth the ride. Next month they will be opening a major art museum. It is to house fine arts as well as modern and contemporary pieces. The building was designed, built and is shaped much like one of those old stream engines. So while waiting for the bike riders to arrive, one can settle back on the front porch, (continued on page C5) PAX CENTURION • July/August 2008 • Page C1
BEMS MEMBERS SPEARHEAD NATIONAL MEMORIAL EFFORT
EMS providers across the country are dying at an alarming rate. While researching this subject I was surprised to find that the occupational fatality rate (OFR) for EMS has grown significantly over the past decade. In fact the number of occupational fatalities in EMS is fast approaching that of the fire service, and experts say it will soon surpass that number. As of December 2007, the OFR for EMS personnel was 12.7 deaths per 100,000 workers compared to 13.5 per 100,000 for the fire service. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Center for Statistics and Analysis keep track of these numbers, and although the vast majority of EMS deaths (74%) are transportation related, the remaining 26% include a wide variety of causes. Electrocution, exposures, cardiac events and homicides are just a few of the ways EMTs and Paramedics are dying on the job. We have been blessed not to suffer a line of duty death within our department. Unfortunately, statistically, it is only a matter of time. I have attended many LODD funerals over the past eight years. The first was in New York City for Carlos Lillo, a Paramedic who was killed during the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. The last one I attended was this June in Sussex County, Delaware. Paramedic Stephanie Callaway was 31 years old when she died in the back of her ambulance while treating a patient. The reason I’m writing this article is to point out a fact that I have spoke of before in the Pax. As well as dying doing what they loved to do, Paramedic’s Lillo and Callaway have something else in common. They, along with every other EMT and Paramedic who have died in the line of duty, are not recognized for their sacrifice with a permanent memorial. Back in May of 2006 I wrote an article in this very publication titled “National DisHonor.” I had just returned from the National EMS Memorial Service in Roanoke, VA, which many people mistake for an actual “memorial.” I had been disgusted to watch “the memorial” (two pieces of plywood to which small bronze leaves were attached) being hastily nailed together an hour or so before the service. In that article I pointed out the fact that there was no permanent memorial in the whole country, just a service. Now don’t get me wrong, the service was always very nice but once it was over, it was over. Packed up, put into storage and forgotten about for another year. Families, friends and loved ones had nowhere to go to pay respects, and nowhere to visit on special occasions to see a lasting memorial to their forgotten heroes. “There is no marble wall, no statue, not even a plot of land” I wrote over two years ago, and guess what? The same is true today. One thing that has changed since then is my idea of a remedy. Back then I wrote “Something has to be done, I’m not sure what”. Well today I am sure. I know exactly what needs to be done and I am very proud to announce that members of the BPPA-EMS Division have established The National Emergency Medical Services Memorial Foundation, Inc. The sole purpose of this foundation is, as its name implies, to design, build and maintain a permanent EMS memorial. As you may be aware, the BPPA-EMS Division are also members of the EMS Labor Alliance (EMSLA, formally known as NEEON) whose membership includes the city’s of Boston, New York, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Detroit, Cleveland and New Castle County, Delaware to name a few. Although each city had expressed an interest in hosting the memorial, we decided collectively that the only fitting location for such a project was Washington, DC. Put simply, the nation’s forgotten heroes should be remembered in the nation’s capital. The choice of this location brings some significant challenges; it is not easy to build a memorial in DC. This adds to the prestige of having a memorial in the Capital city. It is easy to build a memorial in just about any other city. For example, we were offered prime real estate on the Rose Kennedy Greenway for that purpose, but we realize as do most EMT’s and Paramedic’s that it does not belong here in Boston, or New York, Pittsburgh, etc… That is why we are committed to Washington, DC. We have already met with local officials and are well on the way to having the District of Columbia allocate land to the foundation. This project is HUGE! The members involved are committing countless hours of their personal time to the effort. How can you help? There are a couple of ways. First we are looking for someone to set up and maintain a website. We have limited funds available if need be, but I would like to think one of our techno-savvy members could do their part for the cause by donating their skills. Not a computer expert? Not to worry, you too can put your thumbprint of the memorial. We are now accepting donations!! With $25,000 already pledged by NAEMT and an aggressive corporate sponsorship campaign in the works, we are about to start a nationwide fundraising effort. Our EMSLA partners will be soliciting their members and I am soliciting you. 100% of the money raised will be invested in the memorial. I know that we seem to be giving a lot these days, it seems everywhere we look people are holding out their hand looking for some of your hard earned money. I would just ask you to take a moment and think of how important this project is. Not only will a National EMS Memorial finally recognize all those that have already given their lives “that others might live,” it will also provide a suitable place for any of our own families, friends and loved ones to visit should, God forbid, one of those terrible statistics catch up with one of our own. I hope and pray none of us end up on this memorial, but should the unthinkable happen, I would sleep better knowing our brother or sister would be memorialized in a way that is fitting, and lasting. Their name would be etched in stone and on display year round in our Nation’s Capital, not screwed onto a piece of plywood for a couple of hours one Sunday each May. Please help us make the National EMS Memorial a reality. You may contact any member of the executive board if you feel you have skills that may be helpful to the Foundation. If you wish to help financially you may make contributions to the address below. The National Emergency Medical Services Memorial Foundation, Inc. c/o 9-11 Shetland Street, Boston, MA 02119 Thank you in advance for your support of this cause. Fraternally, Tony O’Brien
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Senator Joseph Biden (D-Delaware), pictured here with BPPA/EMS Vice President Robert Morley, expressed his appreciation and support during this year's annual NAPO conference held in Puerto Rico.
Training Manifesto By Gregory Bond, Paramedic 216 eeing as how my attempt at sarcasm and playing devil’s advocate failed to hit the mark, I thought I might offer a follow up article as a straightforward attempt to set the record straight. With the recent large infusion of new and relatively inexperienced EMT’s, we need to reinvent the wheel: we need to improve the training and hopefully regain the high standards of care to which we have set forth so many years ago. Ultimately it is we who bear the burden of teaching them, instructing them, and showing them the right way. In doing so, we might also learn a thing or two for ourselves. This is not restricted only to the classrooms of the fourth floor at south block, but in the station houses, at the hospitals, and sitting in the front seats of the ambulances. We cannot allow ourselves to be derailed by bad attitudes or bloated egos, it is these kinds of attitudes that are holding us back. When somebody stands in the way of any supplemental education or training, it only speaks towards their own ignorance, short-sightedness, and laziness. If we truly care about our department and our profession at large, then we will accept this challenge and meet it with the determination and professionalism with which we conduct ourselves every day. At the end of the day, the responsibility lies with all of us. If we do not take it upon ourselves, then we are all destined to suffer the consequences. Similarly, the administration and RTQI need to do a better job of seeking out feedback from the membership when it comes to the content of the training afforded to them. As a result I offer the following as unsolicited but hopefully not unwelcome advice. These are a number of areas with which
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I feel we can dedicate our efforts.
Standardized vs. Specialized Training
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s I see it, two broad schools of thought seem to exist surrounding the issue of training. The first revolves around the thought that some of our personnel, especially our newer people, need to focus their efforts towards reinforcing the “basics” of our job; that even everyday calls can be elusive to interpret for those who maybe should know better. The other, stresses the fact that we need not train for something that we practice every day, but for those situations that are extraordinary, in the hopes that we may better cope when faced with them. The simple answer is obviously not one, nor the other, but both. In addition to maintaining the minimal training requirements as dictated by OEMS, we should also focus our efforts towards preparing for the unexpected. By forcing everyone to endure same basic levels of training, you are bound to teach to the lowest common denominator. As a result, instead of raising the standard of care you are in fact lowering it. In addition to the annual refreshers sessions we receive, we need a strong effort applied towards more specialized training which addresses abnormal situations which goes above and beyond the basic requirements. This type of training will provide a more tailored approach as dictated by the needs or requirements of the department.
Trickle down teaching
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ll levels of the department attend training review. As such, all personnel should be expected to impart their own experiences and teachings. (continued on page C7) 617-989-BPPA (2772)
Homeless 0utreach: The revolving door of healthcare? By EMT Ed McCarthy everal weeks ago, I had the happy occasion to encounter two Public Health Commission Homeless Outreach Physicians. These doctors were roaming the Boston Common with backpacks full of medical supplies, seeking out homeless people that they could “help.” They called us to transport a homeless woman they had found in a wheelchair who had been ill for several weeks. She was in the company of her group of friends by the fountain, and without going into great detail, was not interested in going to the hospital. In fact, she was pretty adamant that she was NOT going to leave her friends. She had already been to the hospital several times over the past week, and did not want to go back. The two physicians told her that she “Had to go,” and that she didn’t have any choice. Attempts by me to point out that oriented people can refuse were met with dismissive gestures, and dirty looks. After lengthy negotiation, the patient finally agreed to go to the hospital. Apparently satisfied, the two doctors left
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the scene, undoubtedly feeling very good about themselves. At the hospital the patient argued with, and verbally abused a doctor, got a sandwich, cleaned up a bit, got a prescription she will likely not fill, and after a short time signed out of the ER against medical advice. The staff at the receiving facility commented that our patient has been in several
EMS Division
Unity & Strength
times over the past few days, and was uniformly uncooperative, and disinterested in following doctors’ instructions. She trundled off out of the ER back towards the Common in her wheelchair, trying to re-join her circle of friends at the fountain. A block from the hospital, on unfamiliar pavement, she caught one of her wheels in a rut by the curbstone and overturned herself onto the sidewalk. Another EMS unit brought her back to the same ER, but now with a suturable lac-
OUR Memorial Service (continued from page C1) being the first volunteers. We all know 85% of this countries EMS and Fire Service is volunteer-based. So why select a site that clearly does not recognize Volunteers? Our Nation’s Capital is home to many memorials to some of the greatest Volunteers in American History. There are too many to list and if you don’t know who they are take a trip to DC and see for yourself. Now I ask why all of a sudden OUR Memorial can be moved halfway across the country and without Congressional approval. Did Congress make a resolution to move it? The Tree of Life is OUR Memorial, not the Board of Directors of the National EMS Memorial Service. In 2009, the service will be held in Roanoke, probably for the last time. So if you plan to make the trip, for whatever reason, I will personally guarantee the effort is well worth it. I continue to support the efforts of our union leadership and the efforts to move OUR Memorial to its rightful place in Washington, DC. I ask each and every one of you to contact your Congressman and Senators when asked to do so and let them know how you feel about the planned move as well. This year was the largest group ever to be inducted into OUR Memorial. Our brothers and sisters “Paid Too High a Price.” They were not looking for monetary wealth, hero status, or personal satisfaction, but just helping people was their goal. They all left the house as if they would return safe and sound, for these people it never happened. These 73 individuals are now forever bonded together. Their families know of suffering known only to them, an only shared www.bppa.org
with us on this EMS WEEK weekend. These families came from far and near to pay homage to their loved ones. Friends’ colleagues and associates of many different service types traveled to the Shenandoah Valley, by whatever means. Once again, the “Ride” was a prominent part in making OUR Memorial Service more visible and publicly known. If you had not heard, during one of their stops, they fell into misfortune having a support vehicle broken into and materials stolen. Although a negative situation the AP picked up the story and it ran nationwide. So I guess any press is good press. The riders and support staff continue to strive for what was started here in Boston, which is raising awareness of our common bond and OUR Memorial. We should never be considered the others, rescue workers, or simply those who drove the person to the hospital. It is my hope in 2010 we will all be joined together in Washington DC. Gathering around OUR Memorial, to pay honor and respect to those who truly deserve our respect, your fellow EMT’s, Paramedics, Flight Nurses, and Pilots. It does not matter if you are a Third service provider, Firefighter or Police Officer, paid, union, private or volunteer we will honor your memory. If there is one last message I can send to the board of the service, the Tree of Life is “OUR symbol of OUR Memorial.” It can’t be traded or bartered, for shortsighted personal gain. To all of you, Please Be Safe and look out for one another. – Paul K. Ciampa EMT 582 Peer Support Team Member
eration. Now I ask you: What good has been done for this woman? My answer is: None at all. In fact, this sequence of events has only harmed her by removing her from her system of support - her friends, and indirectly contributing to her injury. It seems to me that the only people who got anything out of this were the two doctors, who, I am sure, felt very relevant and self-satisfied as they headed off to other parts of the park. I am all for homeless advocacy, and helping people out of bad circumstances. All of us at Boston EMS do that on a daily basis. I submit that the Cities’ homeless population has very little difficulty accessing EMS. Just about every passerby is more than ready to whip out their cell phone, and call us down because “This man needs help.” If Homeless Outreach Physicians genu-
inely wanted to help the homeless population, they would station themselves at the exit door of the Emergency Room. That is where the disconnect is. That is where the disconnect has always been, not out in the middle of the Common. Each homeless person who leaves a hospital, after receiving ER care should be asked: “Okay, now what?” This moment could really be a golden opportunity. Their maladies have been assessed, and seen to. Care plans have been written, and prescriptions handed out. They are likely to be more sober, and perhaps in a better frame of mind to make some positive decisions about themselves, and their future. But alas, that’s not as glamorous or as visible as walking triumphantly past the frog pond in Birkenstocks, blissfully unaware that meanwhile, homeless people leave ineffective ER visits, and return to damp alleys, and cold sidewalks.
Ben Franklin was wrong!!
By Lt. Brian Pomodoro hen Benjamin Franklin said, “The only things assured in life are death and taxes,” he was mistaken. The only things actually assured in life are complaints about the turret and complaints about training. The reason is simple really. By tradition, EMTs are a driven, dynamic lot. Fiercely independent and clingy to past practice. Picture a newcomer to this world. You want to fit in right? So at first you take on the opinions of your peers. When you do join in a conversation you echo those opinions right? Then after a time, and wanting to keep your place in this complex society, you repeat these opines to the next generation as if they’re your own and so it goes. Social climbing at its best and worst. Pay a compliment to a dispatcher, or remark about an interesting training session and you can kiss your spot in Club Pop good by. I’ve had dozens of people tell me how much they enjoyed a particular class, then to hear it on the street it was the worst kind of hell to endure. Part II. Is a little tougher to take. There is an old saying in the theater, “The boos come first from the free seats.” In other words, people who got in free for a performance tend to be the most critical, where those who paid good money will deliver praise. I quote this not by accident because that is what people seem to expect from training... entertainment. Despite our 24-hour all-access society, the mission is to relate information. Often dry, often dull, but nonetheless information that often times state and federal agencies dictate shall be taught. You want entertainment in training, work for Barnum and Bailey. You want fun, I’m sure Chuck E. Cheese’s recerts are a blast. It stupefies me how we boast of being the best, yet complain about the venue that keeps us there.
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It’s not personal… it’s business! (continued from page C1) about, with the hopes that they will not be repeated. Mistakes are inevitable, and there is always room for improvement. When you are criticized for mistakes you make at work, it does not mean you are bad person. However, if your mistakes are not pointed out to you, then you will never learn from them, you will never improve. Our chosen profession, like most others, demands our constant attention as it is in a constant state of flux. As such we must learn to change with it, to adapt, in order to survive. Change is always around the corner, and as such, we must learn, inherently, that we should learn to agree to disagree. We must also accept that, no matter how
good we think we are, we can always be better. Everyone sees things just a little bit different, and as a result, everyone interprets them as such, that is what makes us all the individuals that we are. At the end of the day, we are stuck with each other, working together towards what I view as a common set of goals and standards and beliefs, whether we like it or not. In this way I hope that we can better ourselves not only as individuals but also as a department. If you disagree with my methods, that’s fine, but at least let me leave you with this one question: how have your emotions affected your job performance? And when you really think about it ask yourself this: has it been for better or worse?
PAX CENTURION • July/August 2008 • Page C3
TO BOSTON’S FINEST
FROM BOSTON’S FINEST OFFICE SPACE We proudly support The Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association Scholarship Fund
Page C4 • PAX CENTURION • July/August 2008
617-989-BPPA (2772)
On the road to Roanoke, again! (continued from page C1) sitting in rocking chairs enjoying a cool breeze, drinking a beverage or two. The bike riders and “wingmen” finally arrived with the fanfare of many different agencies vehicles all lit up. All took time to have a small welcoming party, splashing of the champagne and playing a tune or two as they all gave each other high fives. This year the media paid a little more attention to the cause, sending local news crews to the finishing line. If you did not hear during one stop over, the riders support vehicles were broken into and equipment was stolen. This still did not dampen the spirits of the riders though. They were blessed with local support, vehicles repaired and they were back on their way. When the AP picked up their story sending it nationwide primed the local coverage. So I guess even bad news can be a positive step in getting the word out about the EMS Memorial. After everyone cleaned up and got the pictures taken. All the participants were invited to attend an annual BBQ dinner put on by the local volunteer rescue squad. In The Commonwealth of Virginia most areas are served by Volunteer Rescue squads. Privately owned ambulance services are rare and usually found only in larger cities. While Fire based EMS is not seen unless you are in a large city. These volunteer rescue squads are fully funded by the individual squads fundraising efforts throughout the year. When it comes to state of the art equipment they will give any large EMS system a run for its money. While at Cave Springs Rescue Squad we were all treated to what I will describe as a gastronomic event of magnificent proportions. You can’t leave here hungry! But if you do, you have certainly insulted every little old lady in the place. By now most of you know about my endless enjoyment of cooking and BBQ, I even tried to get the “secret” recipe. They told me in order to get it I would have to stay in Virginia. While the offer was tempting, the commute was not worth it. So after diner it’s back to the hotel and some opportunities to socialize and network. Most of Friday evening’s festivities take place in the hotel’s pub which is called The Pine Room. Some started imbibing shortly after the bike riders came in and continued till the Hotel Staff kicked us out. I will report there were some loud and opinionated discussions taking place. The consensus on that porch was, very few were happy with the decision of the board of directors and their plan either. I can also attest Boston EMS is one of the most respected agencies who attend the service. By of the amount of times I was barraged with “where is Boston” from the other honor guards. Many old friends wanted to say hello and send back” we expect to see you next year.” When the Pine Room closes, usually around 2:30 or so and you need that something special to eat! Where do you get a bite, and what could possibly be open in Roanoke! Well I’ll tell you there is this little place which serves “1,000 people only 10 www.bppa.org
at a time” called “The Texas Tavern.” Now there are no alcoholic beverages served here, But what you do get are some of the best chili cheese dogs, burgers and this cheeseburger and egg concoction called a “Cheesy Western with or without.” The “with,” is with onions but you have to order like a native or there is no service for you. (Hospitality must stop somewhere, especially when you have large crowds of hungry, well-lubricated individuals.) Now you say what so special about a burger place in Roanoke Virginia. Well it’s not the decor which is straight from 1930’s. It’s one of those places, where you know everybody goes and every town across this great land has. How many of you have just gone to Simco’s or Kelly’s in Revere just for the dog or burger at 2 am? Now you understand the appeal of this place. A hearty group of us ventured for a feeding feast which can be seen in a few episodes of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom or that “You Tube” video. Well after the feast the bill came to under twenty bucks for 10 hungry larger EMS providers. I don’t know how they can afford to keep the prices so low but they have not changed anything in over 70 years. Volume is the only way to describe this and no matter what economic class you come from this is the place you come when your favorite watering hole closes. On Saturday morning if you have the energy, strength or constitution, Roanoke happens to have a 5K road race at 7 am sponsored by the “Festival in the Park.” This weekend my son entered and came in third place in his division, 33rd overall. Ahhhh, the joys of youth. The announcer had fun with the pronunciation of the last name, but was even more special was when he announced where he came from. The crowd gave him the warmest of cheers again in that true southern hospitality shown. If you’re a survivor of Friday evening all participant Honor Guard units are scheduled to meet around 9 am for final preparations for the service. Setting up, folding of the flags rehearsing to clam “last minute jitters” allows everyone to be on the same page. After running through the service a few more times we head back to the hotel eat, rest, or whatever. This year the weather was perfect low humidity, temps in the upper 70’s and slight breeze. This was a blessing for those who were charged with standing post at the Tree of Life. The service started early due to the large number of honorees. Opening begins with being called to attention by the Honor Guard Commander. The Unified Pipes and Drums playing proudly leading in 32 representative state flags carried by the ensemble of Honor Guard members. These flags represent the states of those being honored. The singing of our National Anthem by Glen Burks of Cleveland EMS was truly inspirational. Opening prayers, remarks and an address to honored guests and members of service followed. This year’s guest speaker Gary Brown, the Director of EMS in Virginia, gave a very heartfelt speech. The
contents I’ll paraphrase, his message by saying we need to stop and enjoy ourselves more. Care for each other and not take our life for granted. The service continued with the Honoree’s family or representative being presented a United States flag (which was flown over the Capitol Building), a medal inscribed with the honoree’s name and LODD date, and a single white rose for Remembrance. Small tokens of appreciation for which have the greatest of meanings to each family. I sat and listened to all the stories of how and why the honorees came to be in this profession. The common thread was they loved helping people. After the all the names were read, honors bestowed. The Honor Guard Commander calls everyone to attention again for the retirement of the colors. The pipes and drums again enter this time on a mournful slow Tap. With an unwavering discipline, command calls, colors to be retired. The pipes and drums blare in unison leading everyone out of the church. Then the playing of “Amazing Grace” which signifies the service is about to conclude. An impressive fly over of the air medical wing and the playing of taps signal everyone present, this years services have ended. Saturday evening after the service presented another opportunity to meet and greet your peers from all over the country. This year was even more colorful due to the circumstances surrounding the proposed move. The Pine Room and balcony were
especially congested with lots of conversation. Again this went into the wee hours of the morning. Sunday morning however was much more subdued. The families gather for one last event. The family breakfast is probably hardest part of the weekend. Our own Dr. Hayden Duggan spoke at length about grief and the grieving as a process. He truly gave the most moving speech of the weekend. Then any family member, guest, or representative is then able to share their words about the honorees. Like I said this was the most difficult part to hear. These people pour their emotions out one last time to a room full of strangers. Their strength and courage is awe inspiring. After the breakfast most people make their way out and begin the check out routine. We all said our last goodbyes and wishes for safe returns. I will head back to Roanoke for the last time in 2009. When it was announced the service was moving to Colorado Springs in 2010 it will mark the end of a tradition and will be the beginning of a new journey. One I hope you all take advantage of before the service leaves Roanoke. I still believe in the EMSLA proposal and fully intend to support it. So that’s why in 2010 I’m making plans to see some of you in Washington, DC. Please care for one another, be safe, and take a moment to enjoy yourself, because you all matter and you all count. I’m proud to serve with each and every one of you. – Paul K. Ciampa, EMT 582
THE BOSTON POLICE DEPARTMENT
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Because health, safety and knowledge are among life’s most precious possessions, we’re proud to support the
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Training Manifesto (continued from page C2) It’s a little thing I like to refer to as “trickle down” teaching. It goes something like this: When presenting a case review say, all members present will speak to their own actions, responsibilities, and concerns. In this way, Deputies will be teaching Medics, and Medics will be teaching EMT’s, etc. This will open the door towards what expectations might be of personnel at all levels, and keeps everyone apprised of what each other is doing-on the same level. It also helps to erase the possible stigma of peer teaching/review and in turn increases personal accountability at all levels. Hopefully this will result in increased communications, a better understanding of each other’s responsibilities, and ultimately lead to more streamlined operations.
Field Training Exercises/ Table Top/ In-house Drills and Scenarios
a better method of debriefing and in turn presenting the call to others so as to figure out what worked, what didn’t work, and how we might learn from and improve upon it in the future. Input from outsiders should be encouraged instead of what we have now which is just the opposite.
Advanced/Enhanced Training
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ne of my first jobs as a teenager was that of a lifeguard. As part of my training then had to learn all aspects about water survival and water rescue in the face of a distressed swimmer. Some years ago, I attended a wilderness EMT course in New Hampshire. While I’ll admit that although the majority of material taught did not apply to urban EMS, I did find that later that year I was confronted with a call in the city where my wilderness
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ot to anyone’s surprise, much of our job has nothing to do with medicine. Don’t get me wrong, I love the medical aspect of our profession, it’s why I do what I do; but I also recognize that there is so much more to be a competent practitioner than knowing one’s protocols. Also, as we all should know, this is not a job that can be learned in a classroom. It can’t be read in a book or taught in a lecture. Unless you’ve “been there, done that” then you will never fully appreciate all of the extenuating factors that may play a part in an EMS call. With so many new people, we should take this opportunity to conduct and expose them to scenes that they might not have had a chance to experience on their own. Based on real world calls, loosely or otherwise, they could be used as training exercises to identify what works and what could be improved upon. This does not require large-scale multidisciplinary drills or catastrophic scenarios. Possible scenarios might be multiple shooting victims; multiple patients from a fire scene; MVA w/ multiple casualties, etc. If we don’t have a solid understanding of our own responsibilities and capabilities, then it does us no good to try and understand everyone else’s. These types of exercises could employ all of the combined resources, experience, and knowledge of the practitioners involved, not just the one being tested.
Lessons Learned/ After Action Review
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hy is it that information garnered after a large-scale event or drill is only accessible to those present at the call itself? The fact is that information sharing has always been a problem around here and should be more widespread. Following a large scale, unusual, or otherwise notable call, there should be in place www.bppa.org
Unity & Strength
training proved useful and improved the patient outcome. Although these two examples may not apply to our everyday job descriptions or requirements, they just may come in handy when someone’s child is drowning at the family barbeque or someone twists an ankle during a camping trip. When someone says that we don’t need extended transport/treatment protocols due to our short transport times, I say tell that to the crew stuck for over an hour with a cardiac arrest in a blinding snowstorm. The point is you just never know when supplemental training will play a crucial role in helping to save someone’s life.
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New Trends/Techniques in EMS and/or Emergency Medicine
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s always, we need to keep an eye on what’s taking place throughout the country and/or the rest of the world with regard to new trends in emergency medicine and prehospital care. This can open up discussion as to what may work or not work for BEMS and at the very least can be educational and informative. I believe that we, as a department, should welcome any and all training regardless of its impact on our jobs. If nothing else, it provides a means of better understanding and accepting those applications that may lie outside of our own scope of practice. By limiting ourselves to our own perception of what is and what is not appropriate for our day-to-day activities, we are missing out on huge educational opportunities and in fact inhibiting ourselves from becoming better all around practitioners. PAX CENTURION • July/August 2008 • Page C7
MY PURPOSE: TO MAKE A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE
Simmons students are determined to make a difference in their families, communities, and the world. We help them succeed. At Simmons, we honor an educational contract that places students first — enabling them to achieve successful careers, meaningful lives, and tangible returns on their educational investment. For more than 100 years, Simmons graduates have succeeded in a wide variety of careers, including business, communications, science and health care, international relations, and more. Simmons College proudly supports the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association’s Scholarship Fund for Police Officers’ Families and Boston Police Programs. www.simmons.edu
Simmons College • Boston, MA 02115
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The 25th Reunion of the Boston Police Class of 1970 October, 1995
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PAX CENTURION • July/August 2008 • Page C9
Remembering our soldiers during the holidays
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By Mark A. Bruno he Fourth of July has come and gone, and Labor Day is fast approaching. Too often we take for granted how comfortable we are during these holidays. We plan cookouts and invite family friends over for a relaxing day. Unfortunately we forget that there are American Servicemen serving overseas protecting the peace and serenity we get to enjoy on these holidays. Some of our own members of the BPPA have been recalled to serve yet another
tour in Iraq and Afghanistan. They protect the “blanket of freedom” our families sleep under every night. They are some of the bravest men and women you’ll ever meet. Their courage and conviction in what they are doing for the United States of America should never be questioned. They are all heroes who deserve nothing but our utmost respect. That being said, I wanted to mention a couple of people who impressed me with their undying loyalty and support. The first one was a performer who was playing
at the Bank of America Pavilion in June. I decided to drop in prior to my shift so I could listen to a few of the songs. I thought this performer was a liberal until I heard an eloquent speech given during this performance. Up on the screen behind the stage a huge American Flag was displayed, and in the middle of it were our soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. This singer made a plea to the audience to please support our troops regardless of how they felt about the war. She asked that everyone
support the USO of which she was a supporter. Asking that everyone place a little something in an envelope, even if it were a dollar, to help support the USO. This singer from the seventies is now sixtyone and can still belt out the tunes. Thank you Stevie Nicks, for supporting our troops. The next person I wanted to thank is my wife’s cousin, Christopher Clark. This young man is serving his country in Afghanistan. He recently came stateside to enjoy a wedding reception for his sister. I remember a shy little boy who now is a fully-grown man. This young man had to go through hoops to get back for this special event. This is not like putting in for a P-day. Watching him enjoy himself around his family friends was heartwarming for all. Everyone knew the sacrifice this young man was making, and that after this reception he would be heading back to combat duty overseas. When I talked to him about what he was doing over there in Afghanistan, he couldn’t have been more proud. He talked about helping families and spreading democracy throughout this war-torn area. He mentioned how his fellow soldiers were performing under fire. He never once complained about
being there or wanting to get out. He was proud to serve his country and would do another tour if called upon. Later in the evening as we were about to leave the reception, Christopher asked us all to please wait around because he had something special for us. I couldn’t imagine what this young man had for us, but I waited eagerly. He slid out to his car and returned with several boxes that each had an American Flag in it. He started with me and pulled out what appeared to be a certificate which read that this particular flag had been flown in Afghanistan on a certain date and time. The flag was folded neatly in a triangle in this box which he handed to my wife and me. I never felt more proud of this young man who brought back about a dozen or more flags which he had flown individually overseas. This young man like many soldiers serving overseas, has the courage of a lion and a heart of gold. This flag is now amongst my most cherished possessions. Please say a prayer for these brave men and women who are putting it on the line so we may enjoy our enduring freedom.
������������������������������� ��������������������������������� Macquarie Office Trust proudly supports Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, Inc.
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Education is the key to stopping crime. That and a handful of Boston cops.
Here’s to supporting both. The VIA Group is proud to continue our support of the Boston Police Scholarship Fund.
www.vianow.com
www.bppa.org
PAX CENTURION • July/August 2008 • Page C11
INVESTMENTS
RETIREMENT
© 2008 John Hancock JHAD547
INSURANCE
It ’ s simply part of who we are. Working for the community. Supporting a wide range of local and regional educational, cultural and charitable programs. And, ensuring that those most in need will always have a dream, and a promise, for the future.
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B R O A D W AY PA R T N E R S
BROADWAY PARTNERS FUND MANAGER, LLC PROUDLY SUPPORTS THE BOSTON POLICE PATROLMEN’S ASSOCIATION
Broadway Partners Fund Manager, LLC 375 Park Avenue, Suite 2107 New York, New York 10152 T 212 319 7100 F 212 319 9669 www.broadwaypartners,com
www.bppa.org
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is honored to support the Boston Police Patrolman’s Association. 313 Congress Street, Boston � 330 Congress Street, Boston � 55 Summer Street, Boston � One Bowdoin Square, Boston
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Dirty Jobs A review by James F. Lydon, Jr., Boston Police Academy do not have to tell anyone who is reading this publication that our jobs can, at times, get dirty. Police officers and EMT’s are constantly in situations that cause them to get dirt, grime, blood, sweat, and even tears on their uniforms. Not to mention the self applied food stains. I could not imagine doing the job our EMT’s do. And I bet that there are EMT’s who think that we are crazy for doing what a police officer does. Would you believe, however, that there are jobs even dirtier than ours? Dirty Jobs is a reality show on the Discovery Channel. Not reality show as in a bunch of over privileged brats living together in the same household, whining
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about the fact that they have to actually get a job to have spending money for the trip to Vegas that the network is sending them on. Thanks MTV, for skewing the world’s conception of what reality actually is. No, Dirty Jobs is about reality in the sense that the world is a big place and there are lots of nasty, stinky jobs that need to get done in order to keep society running. Sewer systems don’t clean themselves, folks. To quote the rock group, Faith No More: “It’s a dirty job, but someone’s gotta do it.” Since July of 2005, the Discovery Channel has showcased Dirty Jobs, an actual reality show that depicts what life is like for those poor slobs who have to clean up roadkill or inspect our sewers. Hosted by Mike Rowe, a sarcastic, blue-collar every-
man, Dirty Jobs is an hour’s worth of onthe-job-training with some of the dirtiest jobs on the planet. Mike Rowe and his happy camera crew travel the world and interview the people who do the dirty jobs in question, such as hot tar roofers and sidewalk chewing gum removal experts. The interviews, however, do not just stop with questions. Mike will, in every episode, work as an eager – or not so eager – assistant to the laborers. Whatever the workers are doing, Mike Rowe will be doing … whether he likes it or not. For example, he has gotten instruction on and performed such jobs as ostrich wrangling, mushroom farming, and concrete stamping. Some of the jobs have not been so bad, such as the beer brewing, the candy making, and the special effects makeup testing. (That’s a perfect day for me: beer, candy, and Halloween masks!) Some jobs, however, have been very dangerous, such as hauling garbage from a sinkhole, handling poisonous snakes, beekeeping, and testing shark suits. (Yes, testing shark suits.) And some jobs have been so awful and disgusting that they are almost the stuff of nightmares, such as being a technician at a waste water sewage plant, being an animal skull cleaner, being a horse manure removal specialist, or even being an artificial inseminator of farm animals. (No comment.) You might recognize Mike Rowe’s face if you watch an episode of Dirty Jobs, but
you will most likely recognize his voice. Mike has been a television personality since the early 1990’s when he pitched products on the shopping network, QVC. Since then, the former opera singer has hosted various news and television magazine shows, one of which gave him the idea for the pilot of Dirty Jobs. While working for a San Francisco news station between 2001 and 2005, Mike hosted a segment entitled “Somebody’s Gotta Do It.” After receiving a large volume of fan mail about the segment, Mike sent a copy of the show to the Discovery Channel, who commissioned the series Dirty Jobs, with Mike Rowe as its host. Currently, Mike is narrating not only Dirty Jobs, but The Deadliest Catch, American Chopper, American Hot Rod, and the annual Shark Week. Mike even narrates the opening of Ghost Hunters, on the Sci-Fi Channel. And he does those Ford truck ads. Heck, next time you have the plumber come to the house, look under his hat; it might just be Mike Rowe. Dirty Jobs has four seasons and 87 episodes under its work belt; seasons one and two are on DVD. At the end of each episode, Mike Rowe asks viewers to submit suggestions of dirty jobs that they would want to see Mike do. He claims that without those suggestions, the show will eventually fade away. If you have an idea, then go to discovery.com and send it in. Who knows? You might be Mike Rowe’s boss for a day.
Mike Rowe, host of the Discovery Channel’s “Dirty Jobs.” www.bppa.org
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C E L E B R AT I N G A T R A D I T I O N O F M A K I N G C O L L E G E A R E A L I T Y. E Fidelity Investments is proud to sponsor THE BOSTON POLICE PATROLMAN’S ASSOCIATION
SCHOLARSHIP FUND to benefit families of police officers. We’re honored to play a role in providing an opportunity that will help educate children for life’s challenges.
Call 1- 800 - FIDELITY
Click Fidelity.com
Fidelity Distributors Corporation 366052
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Why is it???
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By Police Officer Michael Kane, Boston Police Academy Small children are scolded for picking up a pack of matches, but allowed to handle a “sparkler” and told to pose for a picture? These so called “harmless sparklers” burn at about 1,500 degrees and injure countless children each year. Keep your kids away from them. Senator Barack Obama thinks he can “create” his foreign policy experience by taking a tour of the Middle East? Senator… you’re only fooling yourself. The Red Sox Organization just received $13.3 million in tax credits from the taxpayers of Massachusetts? There are public pools in this state that remain closed? (Hint: See last entry) Jesse Jackson still receives ANY attention from the media? He shows up at various places in this country and tries to create more trouble. Now he’s insulting Senator Obama! You go Jesse… GO AWAY! Some fans still chant ”Yankees S***” at most if not all of the games at Fenway? Can you imagine if basketball fans around the country started chanting “Celtics S***”? Or what about “Patriots S***”? We would be outraged that anyone could say that about “our teams” Boston fans look like fools every time they wear those foolish tee shirts or start that chant.
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• Some politicians think it’s a good idea to move City Hall to the waterfront? You know it will somehow cost the citizens of the city millions of dollars and the politicians will end up with great views from their offices. Keep it where it is. • You never see kids playing a pick-up game of baseball anymore? • The Registry of Motor Vehicles has a tough time keeping repeat drunk drivers off the road? Some have killed innocent drivers and pedestrians but still are driving on our roadways. • Senator Obama thinks he can garner votes from the voters by saying, “I don’t understand when people say “We want English only” – Instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English – they’ll learn English – you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish!” This guy has completely lost direction. We
Golf Committee Says Thanks
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he BPPA Golf Committee would like to thank everyone who participated in making the 2008 Annual Tournament a great success. This year’s tournament was held at Franklin Park Golf Course with the reception held at the Boston Police Post. The food was catered by the Porto Bello Restaurant in South Boston. The Committee would also like to acknowledge the many, while behind the scenes, who make this event a reality along with our gracious sponsors with whom we should reciprocate in kind by frequenting their place of business. Special thanks to: Annmarie Daly, Fred Stevens, Jay Broderick, Joe Vannelli, Pat Rose, Marty Columbo, Brian Reaney, Mark Bruno and the many others who help with the set up work and preparation… Thank you one and all, The Golf Committee 2008 Sponsors Porto Bello Restaurant, South Boston City of Boston Credit Union State Representative Walter Timilty Ultimate Parking Who’s on First? Vintage Lounge – Broad St., Boston The Designer’s Edge BPPA/EMS Division Representative Bob DeLeo Law Offices of Byrne & Drechsler, LLP Sandulli, Grace PC Trinity Bar Higs/Citywide Tickets Boston Firefighters, Local 718 James Higgins, Attorney at Law Beachcomber, Wollaston Beach www.bppa.org
J.J. Foley’s Café Eire Pub Gary Sullivan – Labor Benefits Plan Attorney Matthew J. Machera Tom Scotto Members Plus Credit Union Feeney Brothers Excavation M.A.M.L.E.O. Emerald Society City Councilor Bill Linehan The Galvin Group EasCare Ambulance Jack Diamond, Law Offices Aetna Insurance Company Liberty Mutual Insurance Company Ski Market – Bob & Andy Ferguson Costello’s Tavern
want it because it’s our history! Do you think France wants to give up their language? And Senator, just how are they going to learn English? There’s no such thing as assimilating into this country anymore. Remember voters… PRESS ONE FOR ENGLISH when calling the Obama campaign office to complain. • Some lifeguards got in trouble a few weeks ago for chasing down some seagulls on a beach, but a politician ha-
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rasses a few women and he keeps his job? The summer passes by so quickly? Yet winters around here seem endless? This state doesn’t have a death penalty? Neil Entwistle deserves it! Howie Carr is in the Radio Hall of Fame? I listen to his show every once and awhile and find myself laughing at some of his topics, but Hall of Fame? He was begging for listeners to vote for him… it was pathetic. So self-serving Howie. He must have something in his contract that gives him a few extra bucks if all his loyal listeners vote him in. Come on Howie… how much did you get? 10k?, 25k? More? The men and women of this department must again suffer the horrible loss of one of their own? Rest in Peace, Kaitlyn. You will not be forgotten by those who knew you. Stay Safe.
Attention To all members of the Boston Police Relief Association Active Duty or Retired If you need to change your beneficiary or you are not sure of who your beneficiary is you can contact the relief office at 617-364-9565. If you leave a message your call will be returned and if necessary the paperwork will be sent out to you. Thank you, William F. Carroll, Clerk, Boston Police Relief Association
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United States Trivia:
Bill Carroll
How Much Do You Know About Your Country?
1. What is the largest gold producing state in the United States? 2. What is the largest oil field in the United States? 3. Where did the first public elementary school in the United States open and in what year? 4. What city in Florida is known as the Venice of America because it has 185 miles of local waterways? 5. What state has 90,000 miles of shoreline which is more than California, Florida, and Hawaii combined? (see answers on page C19)
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Sports Trivia:
Bill Carroll
How Many Can You Get Correct?
1. In the history of Major League baseball what team that has played in only one home city has produced the most twenty game winners? 2. What current Major League team has gone the longest without a twenty game winner? 3. Who was the only twenty games winner in the Majors in 2007? 4. Since 1968 what Major League pitcher logged the most innings in a season? 5. Who was the youngest Major Leaguer to hit 500 career homeruns? 6. Who was the last Major League catcher to win a regular season MVP Award? 7. What current Major League teams have never had a twenty game winner? 8. Who was the last Major League Rookie to win twenty games in a season? 9. What Major Leaguer hit 60 or more homeruns in a season the most times? 10. Who is the only twenty games winner in Florida Marlins history? (see answers on page C19) PAX CENTURION • July/August 2008 • Page C17
Education is a smart investment choice AEW Capital Management is pleased to support the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association Scholarship Fund
Focused on the Future of Real Estate www.aew.com
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Disorder in the American Courts
hese are from a book called “Disorder in the American Courts,” and are things people actually said in court, word for word, taken down and now published by court reporters that had the torment of staying calm while these exchanges were actually taking place. ATTORNEY: What was the first thing your husband said to you that morning? WITNESS: He said, “Where am I, Cathy?” ATTORNEY: And why did that upset you? WITNESS: My name is Susan! ����� ATTORNEY: Are you sexually active? WITNESS: No, I just lie there. ����� ATTORNEY: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all? WITNESS: Yes. ATTORNEY: And in what ways does it affect your memory? WITNESS: I forget. ATTORNEY:You forget? Can you give us an example of something you forgot? ����� ATTORNEY: Now doctor, isn’t it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn’t know about it until the next morning? WITNESS: Did you actually pass the bar exam? ����� ATTORNEY: The youngest son, the twenty-year-old, how old is he?
Trivia Answers United States
WITNESS: Uh, he’s twenty. ����� ATTORNEY: Were you present when your picture was taken? WITNESS: Are you shitt’in me? ����� ATTORNEY: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th? WITNESS: Yes. ATTORNEY: And what were you doing at that time? WITNESS: Uh.... I was gett’in laid! ����� ATTORNEY: She had three children, right? WITNESS: Yes. ATTORNEY: How many were boys? WITNESS: None. ATTORNEY: Were there any girls? WITNESS: Are you shitt’in me? Your Honor, I think I need a different attorney. Can I get a new attorney? ����� ATTORNEY: How was your first marriage terminated? WITNESS: By death. ATTORNEY:And by whose death was it terminated? WITNESS: Now whose death do you suppose terminated it? ����� ATTORNEY: Can you describe the individual? WITNESS: He was about medium height and had a beard.
a urine sample? WITNESS: Huh....are you qualified to ask that question? ����� And the best for last: ATTORNEY: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse? WITNESS: No. ATTORNEY: Did you check for blood pressure? WITNESS: No. ATTORNEY: Did you check for breathing? WITNESS: No. ATTORNEY: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy? WITNESS: No. ATTORNEY: How can you be so sure, Doctor? WITNESS: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar. ATTORNEY: I see, but could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless? WITNESS: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law.
‘One man army’ Alton Knappenberger dies Won Medal of Honor for WWII valor, but lived quiet post-war life By David Venditta, The Morning Call, Allentown, PA lton W. Knappenberger, who was born in Coopersburg, Pennsylvania, worked on a pig farm and received the nation’s highest military honor during World War II, died of natural causes recently in Pottstown Memorial Hospital. He was 84. PFC Knappenberger, an Army draftee, was awarded the Medal of Honor for acting with ‘’conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity’’ in his first and only combat experience just days after the Allied landing at Anzio, Italy, in 1944. He picked up a Browning automatic rifle, ran alone to a knoll and held off a Alton W. German attack for Knappenberger more than two hours 1924-2008 near Cisterna di Latina, 30 miles from Nazi-held Rome, on Feb. 1, 1944. The field was littered with 60 German dead. “Knappie,’’ as his buddies called him, served in Company C, 30th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division. His commanding general called him “a one-man army.’’ He went home to the Perkiomen Valley in August 1944, amid wide acclaim and pitched war bonds. But throughout the rest of his life he shunned publicity, seeking a return to obscurity. He drove a truck, laid blacktop and ran backhoes. He lived in a trailer in the woods of Earl Township, Berks County, near Boyertown, Pennsylvania. With his death, only 28 of the 464 Medal of Honor recipients from World War II survive.
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(see questions on page C17)
1. The largest gold producing states in the United States is Nevada. 2. Prudhoe Bay in Alaska is the largest oil field in the United States. 3. The Mather School in Dorchester was the first public elementary school to open in the United States in 1639. 4. Fort Lauderdale, Florida has 185 miles of local waterways and because of that it is known as the Venice of America. 5. The state of Minnesota has 478 lakes which account for 90,000 miles of shoreline which is more than California, Florida, and Hawaii combined.
Sports (see questions on page C17)
1. The New York Yankees have had 57 twenty game winners in the history of their franchise to lead the Major Leagues. 2. The Cleveland Indians have not had a twenty game winner since 1974 which is the longest drought among current Major League teams. 3. The only twenty game winner in Major League baseball in 2007 was Josh Beckett of the Red Sox who went 20-7. 4. In 1972 White Sox lefthander Wilbur Wood pitched 376.2 innings which is the most in Major League baseball in the last forty years. 5. Alex Rodriguez of the Yankees is the youngest Major Leaguer to hit 500 career homeruns at 32 years and 8 days old. 6. The last catcher to win a regular season MVP Award was Pudge Rodriguez of the Texas Rangers in 1999. 7. Three current Major League teams have never had a twenty game winner, the Colorado Rockies, Tampa Bay Rays, and the Washington Nationals. 8. The last Major League rookie to win twenty games in a season was Tom Browning of the Cincinnati Reds who went 20-9 in 1985. 9. Sammy Sosa, while with the Chicago Cubs hit 60 or more homeruns in a season three times, 1998, 1999, 2001. 10. The only twenty game winner in the history of the Florida Marlins is southpaw Dontrelle Willis who went 22-10 in 2005. www.bppa.org
ATTORNEY: Was this a male or a female? WITNESS: Guess. ����� ATTORNEY: Doctor, how many of your autopsies have you performed on dead people? WITNESS: All my autopsies are performed on dead people. Would you like to rephrase that? ����� ATTORNEY: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go to? WITNESS: Oral. ����� ATTORNEY: Do you recall the time that you examined the body? WITNESS: The autopsy started around 8:30 p.m. ATTORNEY: And Mr. Denton was dead at the time? WITNESS: No, he was sitting on the table wondering why I was doing an autopsy on him! ����� ATTORNEY: Are you qualified to give
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A NEW DOWNTOWN BOSTON LANDMARK
Situated in the heart of downtown Boston, One Franklin brings together more than 500,000 square feet of exceptional office space with stylish shops, luxury residences, an elegant hotel and health club—all within one new address. Gale International and Vornado Realty Trust, developers of One Franklin, are proud to support both the revitalization of Boston’s downtown and the Boston Patrolmen’s Association’s Scholarship fund.
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Graduation Day for Boston Police Class of 1971 March 12, 1971
Recently deceased P.O. Danny Duran
www.bppa.org
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WE ARE PROUD TO SUPPORT Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association
State Street Global Advisors has a long tradition of supporting worthy causes and is proud to demonstrate our commitment to the communities in which we live and do business. For more information, please visit our website at www.ssga.com.
© 2005 State Street Corporation. 05-076SGA0305
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Dear Boston, We throw our hands up!
P.S. JetBlue Airways proudly supports the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association Scholarship Fund. Now flying nonstop from Boston (Logan) to: • New York (JFK)
• Nassau, The Bahamas
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• Florida
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©2006 JetBlue Airways
www.bppa.org
• Richmond
• Washington DC (Dulles) • Phoenix
• Columbus, OH • San Juan, PR
• Pittsburgh
jetblue.com PAX CENTURION • July/August 2008 • Page C23
Building Green. Building Better. Boston Properties Boston Properties&& John Moriarty John Moriarty & & Associates: Associates: Proudly partnering Proudly partneringto tobuild build Boston’ss first Boston firstspeculative speculative green office green officetower. tower.
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