An excellent piece by Todd Wallack in the Globe today details efforts by the Boston Police to hide the names of drunk driving officers. What is most interesting is that Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, likely with an eye to his southern neighbor Bill de Blasio’s current problems with some members of his police department, appears to have sided with the BPD’s evidently improper effort to avoid its obligations under public records laws on a matter of public safety:
Two specialists in the state’s public records law say that the Boston Police Department is violating the statute by refusing to release the names of five officers who were caught driving drunk. But Mayor Martin J. Walsh said he has no plans to order police to release the information.
Department officials declined to release the names in response to requests from the Globe as part of a review of off-duty drunken driving involving law enforcement officers. Using public records and interviews, the Globe counted at least 30 officers in Massachusetts since 2012 who have been caught driving drunk, including five from Boston.
In several cases, police departments attempted to withhold records even when the officers had been in serious crashes. The Globe also found that at least 10 officers were kept on the police payroll after their driving privileges were suspended and they could not perform their normal duties.
“There is no exception in the public records laws for information embarrassing to the police,” said Jeffrey Pyle, an attorney at Prince Lobel Tye LLP in Boston who specializes in the First Amendment, public records, and media law. …
Walsh said he deferred the decision to withhold the names to the Police Department. “I have no real understanding of what we should do or can’t do,” he said.
It is not at all clear how the politics of the nasty argument in New York will play out. By turning their backs on de Blasio New York police are in effect also turning their backs on the overwhelming 72 percent of the electorate who voted for him. That is short-sighted. Ultimately, a police force that stands against an overwhelming majority of the city that pays its salaries will suffer.
goldsteingonewild says
I think Bill deBlasio is off to a really bad start as mayor. Both on policy and politics.
And I can understand the police beef with his association with Al Sharpton.
That said, I 100% agree with the NYT editorial you linked to, Bob.
Locally, I think most Boston voters got the Mayor they expected….to the degree he chooses to push or engage police, firefighters, teachers, et al., it will probably be done fairly quietly and behind closed doors.
Example – recent announcement to pay teachers $4k/yr for an extended school day.
sabutai says
I do think voters elected Walsh because he believes in paying people what they’re worth — and that includes paying people more in return for them working more.
I don’t believe people were expecting Walsh to cover for the type of actions such as driving drunk. Equating the two as you just attempted to do is ridiculous.
goldsteingonewild says
is that the sour “how can you compare x and y” meme on new year’s? in that case, my bad! let me try to word it differently.
to degree walsh does anything about anything public sector — police on releasing records, teachers on what had been a controversial issue, firefighters on their issue – i doubt he would or will do it in via interview with the boston globe.
not his governance style.
maybe he’s engaging with police on this behind closed doors (hey, release the damn records). maybe not. you don’t know if he’s “covering.” i don’t know either. typically we won’t know – that’s my point. i think that’s mayor walsh’s governance style. it’s early. we shall see.
moreover, the “don’t talk out of turn to the Globe seeking comment; take a short-term hit where he seems soft on an issue; possibly get more trust from public union leaders; ultimately get more “stuff” done” may be effective.
works for bellichick.
ryepower12 says
that teachers should be paid a little more for doing even more than the insane amount of work they’re already doing, much of it unpaid?
SomervilleTom says
The police will continue to assert their arrogance and their flaunting of civilian control and oversight so long as they are allowed to.
The attitude that we see in the NYPD and the BPD is exacerbated by years of increasing militarization, by our pervasive refusal to discipline or even seriously investigate them when they do wrong, and by the knee-jerk reaction of too many officials and voters that police can do no wrong.
When we communicate, through our refusal to enforce even minimal standards for police, that police are above the law we should not be surprised when they behave as if they are above the law.
Civilized and civilian society needs to reassert its control over our police.
kirth says
Why is the mayor deferring to the PD to decide whether to release this information? Why is he not referring this to the City Attorney? Is it possible that he lacks confidence in his hand-picked appointee?
Peter Porcupine says
This past year on Cape, we’ve non only publicly identified but fired cops OUI, even when off-duty. Falmouth and the Truro chief come to mind.
There were a couple of FOIA requests initially for COA reasons a few years ago, but now exposure is routine.
If Walsh doesn’t even know what the law is, it bodes ill for Boston as he seeks to enforce it.
paulsimmons says
…for a number of reasons:
First is the fact that turnout in de Basio’s election was only 24%.
Second is the collapse in de Blasio’s white support.
And finally is the fact that the NYPD perceives itself as the senior partner in its relationship with New York Mayors – and is traditionally treated as such.
stomv says
arrests are down 67% because NYPD isn’t engaging like they have in the past. Nuisance tickets are down over 80%.
Quality of life will suffer, and my bet is that the apparently lollygagging NYPD will take the heat for it.
Mark L. Bail says
that broken windows pseudo-science?
paulsimmons says
“Broken windows” policing should not be conflated with abuse of authority.
Integral to the former (if done correctly) is community policing, whereas the latter is militarized self-indulgence.
Hence there is no conflict between (for example) opposition to police abuse by black New Yorkers and their majority support for Broken Windows. To quote from an August 27, 2014 Quinnipiac Poll:
…but at the same time:
That last paragraph says it all, the majority of all races want the police to stop nuisance crimes. They do not, however, consider those crimes to be capital offenses.
Mark L. Bail says
has been related to the stop and frisk, which, I think, most people don’t like.
I think it’s fine to be concerned with quality of life issues, and particularly if they are respectful of the community. And I’m strongly in favor of community policing.
I’m skeptical that taking care o broken windows will lead to a reduction in major crimes.
geoffm33 says
Have a read of ‘Broken windows,’ broken policy by Derrick Jackson in a rect Globe OpEd.
paulsimmons says
…when those issues conflict with the perceived wisdom of the white Left.
Case in point: his apologia for the Cambridge Police Department during the Gates fiasco in 2009 (sub. req.).
It never occurs to Jackson that black people are capable of nuanced thinking; but, in fairness, he doesn’t write for a black audience.
Mark L. Bail says
I think what I said in a lot of words was that I agree with you.
I’m skeptical of the science behind the theory and claims for its deterrent effect.
paulsimmons says
…but experience with New York politics suggests that de Blasio and Bill Bratton (in that order) will be the designated scapegoats.
The New York City Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association will blame higher-ups for any adverse public safety matters, as it is successfully doing now.
I still remember when Dinkins put all kinds of resources into the NYPD and was successfully trashed by Giuliani for being soft on crime.
fenway49 says
2200 murders a year, riots in Crown Heights, Flatbush, and Washington Heights, high profile crimes and 10 locks on every apartment door. Still took a Staten Island secession referendum for Giuiliani to beat Dinkins. Since 1993 more of the NY Post crowd has moved to the suburbs.
chris-rich says
The Wiki data is what it is but the Rupert Murdoch Journal’s assessment of white people support collapse probably needs a bag of road salt.
And Politico is crap. They were the idiots that fatuously predicted the Mittins surge in the last presidential elections and humiliated themselves repeatedly and messily.
What if the cop tantrum has already run its course and the run of opinion shifts to the problem with having tantrums while armed?
Here’s a few early signs.
The New Yorker is working the ‘shut up and do your job’ angle.
http://www.newyorker.com/news/amy-davidson/nypd-turning-back-de-blasio?mbid=rss
Gawker is on a roll with juicy details and back story.
http://gawker.com/the-nypd-is-an-embarrassment-to-the-city-of-new-york-1676173181
The Mayor has a while to work on his relations to constituents and demographics favor him.
And it could be argued that New York has been substantially pacified since its peak scary days of the 70s and 80s. It is simply worth too much and economic cleansing has done what no amount of policing could.
So it ends up being a kind of kabuki to convince dumb rich assholes that the force is indeed on the tip.
It just gets carried away now and then and some dark skinned person ends up dead cause officer thought his wallet was a gun or figured it was really urgent too throttle some hapless obese guy for being a cigarette sales scofflaw.
paulsimmons says
…between news and opinion-writing at the WSJ.
I have yet to see the Journal’s polling impeached. Anyway the polling is confirmed by other sources: here, here, and here, for example.
For tracking polls, you might want to try here.
The problem in New York politics is that (the Dinkins years excepted) racism is an integral part of New York’s politics. This most emphatically includes the equal-opportunity plutocratic bigotry under Bloomberg.
De Blasio made the mistake of presuming that twinkie Working Families Party politics is equivalent to creating a counterforce to the three way alliance of financial services, municipal unions, and entitled new-gentry hipsters that collectively control the city’s civic culture. (Not too dissimilar from Boston in that respect.)
You presume that New York is racially progressive. It isn’t.
Nor is Boston, but that’s another story…
And I have yet to meet anyone in New York politics that takes Gawker or the New Yorker seriously. Even the Times has minimal traction locally.
chris-rich says
It’s pretty cool.
https://espnfivethirtyeight.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/enten-police-mayor-approval1.png?w=610&h=741
We have the least populated and most isolated borough as the disgruntled white people epicenter while the much larger and more racially and culturally diverse boroughs are not feeling it for police fetishism.
So once you let the white people continue to marginalize themselves with isolation and entitlement, you still have some pretty workable numbers.
The Observer looked underwhelming. And the bigger problem is that white men are bugging because the demographics are not favoring them.
I’m a white guy and am pretty thrilled to be free of being in charge of everyone else. Maybe more of my fellow white guys will figure it out too?
I’m quite aware of the racial biases in NYC and here. New York was the place where escaped slaves and freedmen were slaughtered in the streets in riots over the Civil War draft. It sorta favored the south as there was money involved.
It was pretty sucky when I first started going there in the 70s and lord knows I am familiar with race relations as I was down there scheming ways to get actual Black jazz musicians money. Guess what.. they tended to live in black communities so I’d get a sense of the neighborhoods.
It’s an old pirate city now clogged with financial industry swells and trust find cases as the less affluent residents keep heading further out to the margins.
If anything, this showdown with the cop tantrum could just as well be what the mayor needs to secure good working relations with the vast rest of the city that provided his voting constituents.
Staten Island is having a sulky sad while the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and significant parts of Queens are psyched.
And I have spent close to 50 of my 60 years being alive in this area as an affable white guy who worked the white guy world, so I’m pretty familiar with the varieties of irrational racial animosities that drive some of my yokel fellows.
methuenprogressive says
It’s not as if they took to the streets for weeks chanting “fuck the mayor and the 17% that voted for him.”
Back on topic – Walsh should release all the info on all city employees who have/had brushes with the law. Why this crime instead of all crimes? Why this department and not all departments?
SomervilleTom says
– The average city employee isn’t issued a lethal weapon, trained in how to use it, and protected from prosecution after that use.
– The average city employee isn’t issued a citation book, given broad discretion in whom to cite and for what, and accorded automatic respect in a courtroom.
– The average city employee has not been protected for years or decades by a code of silence that effectively shields him or her from any prosecution for any crime.
People don’t stick decals identifying themselves as family members of filing clerks on their vehicles, and call attention to those decals when pulled over.
Police are DIFFERENT. That’s why.
Christopher says
It seems to me that in an ideal world we SHOULD be able to afford them respect in the courtroom, SHOULD be able to trust them with a firearm without worrying about whether it is appropriate to do so. Putting on a police uniform does not automatically make one a better person, but said uniform should only be offered to those who pass the most rigorous background checks and psychological evaluations to begin with.
Christopher says
…I strongly suspect most cops are in fact model citizens and that thousands of unremarkable or even friendly interactions between cops and civilians take place every day, but we have unfortunately heard news lately of instances that make one wonder how a particular person was allowed to become a cop in the first place.
chris-rich says
I have high school friends who became cops. I’ve worked in shitty building trade situations with moonlighting cops.
Their job isolates them in creepy ways that aren’t good for them. They end up only going to cop bars. It is very important to establish immediately that you are aware of and sympathetic to the person on the other side of the job.
Of course it’s easier when you are a white guy. They see a lot of wretched stuff that would wreck anyone’s peace of mind and many end up as suicides. It means a lot to em if you can convey that.
My favorite cop is my friend’s dad who bragged that he got through years on the force without ever having to pull his pistol, let alone fire it, and he went through the Korean War.
So you can stiffen up and prepare for an adversarial situation or you can make a bridge to the human. I know what I’m doing.
jconway says
A friend’s brother finally made the Cambridge force and I couldn’t be happier for him. The Gates incident struck home precisely since our force is diverse and better trained than most. I had met the professor prior to the arrest and the cop was related to my Cub Scout den master who my parents just sold their house to. A small world and small bridge that was overcome well in my opinion.
But that story had a happier ending than the strong of deaths from young black men at the hands of white officers. It doesn’t help when patrolmen a associations threaten elected officials in the open or defend the pensions of convicted torturers. Cops that kill and torture are bad cops, just as most people used to agree that the soldiers in Abu Gharib or My Lai stained the uniform and the flag. It’s time to get groups like LEAP (an anti drug war law enforcement group) and other counterparts to give a cops face to the majority who want sensible reform that fires bad cops and ensures we hire good ones.
kirth says
Courts have ruled that police departments can reject applicants for being too intelligent? Make me wonder what other ‘model citizen’ qualities they are selecting out.
stomv says
In the long list of traits that I think are important for police officers, intelligence isn’t high on that list. Compassion, respect, duty, bravery, discipline, courtesy, and many more are higher on that list than intelligence.
chris-rich says
It’s looking like …”Compassion, respect, duty, bravery, discipline, courtesy”.. are not elements of intelligence on your planet.
And we don’t generally have ‘beat cops’ down here on this corner of earth anymore. They mainly travel around their assigned areas in motor vehicles.
There’s more to intelligence than being a better sorting algorithm among humans. There are all kinds of context interpretations and real time judgement calls to make that may well need significant capacities for discernment.
If you wait a while until we finally attain Idiocracy, your version of imagined robotic ‘intelligence’ may show up.
And all those compassionate, respectful, dutiful, disciplined, courteous, brave dumbos out there either in or out of uniform can now celebrate the happy absence of the burdens intelligence heavily loads on frail shoulders.
petr says
… the article to which kirth link’d it says the prevailing theory is that cops who are “too intelligent” are screened out ‘on the theory that those who scored too high could get bored with police work and leave soon after undergoing costly training.
Which, if you think about it, makes absolutely no sense at all as it screens out people who are intelligent AND disciplined AND/OR respectful AND/OR possess a sense of duty…
A more intelligent screening process would not treat ‘boredom” as a force before which otherwise desirable traits are prostrate.
Christopher says
…but it makes no sense to reject on that basis either. In fact, I find that a bit offensive.
kirth says
At least WRT police departments that have this policy,* it’s safe to say that their officers are not too bright.
* A set of unknown extent
ryepower12 says
Otherwise, there would be no reason to do it.
They don’t want very intelligent candidates because they know, in aggregate, very intelligent people are more likely to do things like a) question authority, b) report departmental abuse and c) employ compassion and empathy, instead of the types of traits far more common with authoritarianism.
Better to ban all intelligent people, rather than let one person who would question authority, report abuse or make a real effort to be empathetic toward a big black guy selling loose cigarettes because he can’t find any other job.
Moreover, I completely disagree that intelligence isn’t important for beat cops, particularly since many aspects of intelligence play into just how authoritarian a person is.
Just look at some of the traits of authoritarianism — and how it could have played a huge role in all the incidents which have made the news in the past few months.
Oh, there’s also this nugget.
In the midst of a work stoppage and turning their backs (literally and figuratively) on the Mayor of NY, does that sound anything like how the NYPD has been acting in the past week or so?
It’s very clear that the level of authoritarianism in police forces is bad for America, and particularly bad for those who are a minority or who can be seen as falling outside of society’s mainstreams. We’ve seen the full effects of that in Ferguson, Cleveland, New York and so many other cities across the country.
One antidote to that would be hiring cops who are intelligent, who are skilled in employing reason and deduction on the fly.
Police officers don’t have to be rocket scientists, but given that they’re armed and borderline immune from prosecution when using their weapons (or citation books), it’s incredibly important that cops have the ability to use reason and deduction successfully, on the fly. We certainly should never ban someone from becoming a cop for being too smart — and we should question just why any police force would try.
Christopher says
Police departments aren’t, or at least shouldn’t be, fiefdoms unto themselves. The political leadership needs to step in and set the standards for hiring. They are certainly quick to do so for teachers, it seems, though I wouldn’t advocate going to the other extreme of making cops political punching bags the way teachers sometimes are either.
ryepower12 says
We should only be hiring the best and brightest as cops, but reality is actually very different.
There have been numerous lawsuits against police forces across the country because people performed too well on aptitude tests. They weren’t hired because they were smart, rational human beings.
The police forces in question have won these lawsuits because they “don’t discriminate” since they never, ever hire people who do well on aptitude tests. They’re very uniform about not hiring smart, rational people.
You can’t make this stuff up.
So should it be any surprise that in Ferguson and Cleveland, the killer cops shooting unarmed black men had terrible records from previous forces? Is it any surprise that in NYC, the killer cop strangling an unarmed father to death had a terrible record as a cop, costing the city hundreds of thousands in lawsuits for previous excessive use of force?
Is it any surprise that when police stations around the country are allowed to ban intelligent, rational people from joining the force, all they’re going to get are folks who are incapable of safely wielding a gun?
I know most cops are good cops, but the number of bad cops is far too high across the country — and the recruitment policies these police forces have makes finding people who can employ discretion intelligently — and have the right temperament to be on the job — very different.
ryepower12 says
last word should be “difficult,” not different.
Christopher says
Why would you not want the best people you can get AND why are they allowed to get away with it? There is just so much wrong with your comment (on the merits, not on your accuracy) that I don’t know where to begin.
methuenprogressive says
Shouldn’t we also know if a teacher is an abuser, a bus driver a drunk, a clerk an embezzler, an inspector corrupt, a firefighter a drugs abuser, a coach a wife beater, etc?
Christopher says
It seems to me there is a case to be made all around for innocent until proven guilty which entails not splashing one’s name all over the press regardless of who you are, or if that’s not reasonable at least let whatever the standard is be the same for everyone.
methuenprogressive says
That’s what I’m asking.
David says
In this case, from what’s been reported, it seems to be the police who are receiving what you call “special treatment.”
methuenprogressive says
Just because you’re upset about the police everyone else gets a pass? Maybe that’s why Walsh is being so shy. He knows, in the end, he’ll have to treat every city employee the same.
David says
do you really think that, if a school bus driver were arrested for drunk driving, he wouldn’t be suspended within about 5 minutes, and fired once convicted?
chris-rich says
The role of nepotism shouldn’t be overlooked as one of the basic elements of life here.
One of the earliest homilies imparted to me as a teen was “It ain’t whatcha know…it’s whoyaknow”. Hell, we have a diarist who makes entire posts out of whoyaknow gossip like some ambassador from the DINO Ward Heeler constituency.
I have personally benefited from this feature/bug a number of times over the course of my life. When I was busted for weed while still in high school, my father picked a mediocre attorney he knew up in Porter Square ‘because he played golf with every judge in Middlesex County”.
I stopped thinking it is a good thing a few decades back. It is like noise in the signal of basic civics.
So it is entirely possible that our OUI school bus driver could skate if the whoyaknow aspect was covered. The Jared Remy case is instructive as a form of whoyaknow at a lethal high level.
You might hope that driver would be canned but you never know. There are also questions about how intrusive the state can be. If bus driver was driving on his own time in his own vehicle, it could be seen differently than if it was in the course of daily duties.
That is another part of the purity problem. We are essentially intruding on private time and lives when we initiate a job sanction like dismissal over something the person did not do while on the clock.
Peter Porcupine says
Democrats see corruption as benign as long as it’s one of their own who benefits.
chris-rich says
The GOP mainly tries behind the scenes maneuvers to get favorable law changes or get an inside track on hog troughs like the Big Dig, (see Baker, Charlie).
They aim for the big score. Democrat corruption is more like getting some cousin the inside track on a sidewalk pour with bypassed bidding process tricks.
Or maybe it’s getting some useless uncle a no show job.
There have even been cases of bipartisan grifting like the legendary McKee Berger Mansuedo case in which Republican McKenzie and Democrat DiCarlo joined hands in sticking their hands out for extortion kickbacks over the U Mass Amherst Library project.
HR's Kevin says
Republicans see corruption as benign as long as it’s one of their own who benefits.
Christopher says
Since being a bus driver requires, you know, DRIVING I think it makes sense to penalize on the basis of one’s driving off the clock.
Christopher says
…in most cases I’d be a lot more concerned about a drunk driver than a kid with a joint from a public safety standpoint, which should be IMO a key consideration.
goldsteingonewild says
what actually does happen?
it sounds like you’re saying that in some driving-related public job (school bus), DUI off-duty leads to firing (is that actually what happens? i have no idea)…
…and that standard would logically apply to all driving-related public jobs (police car, fire truck, ambulance)…
yes?
SomervilleTom says
There have been several cases of MBTA drivers who, after being involved in serious accidents, have turned out to have multiple citations on their personal driving record.
Peter Porcupine says
Outiside of Boston.
Where laws are followed.
methuenprogressive says
The “duty to report” of off the clock criminal acts, and the rights of an employer upon discovery to react, is a very grey area.
SomervilleTom says
I wrote no such thing.
I wrote that police should receive special scrutiny. That does not mean, AT ALL, that other groups should not receive scrutiny. I bleach my cutting boards and countertops after using them to prepare raw chicken. I sometimes bleach them at other times as well.
Nobody has suggested that other groups get a pass.
methuenprogressive says
My question:
Your previous answer:
Glad to see you’ve changed your mind.
Mark L. Bail says
need someone to push an FOIA request? Or is it too late for that? If someone had pushed the issue through legal avenues earlier, might he not have been able to stay out of the middle?
I’m pleased to see Jeff Pyle get quoted. His parents are friends of mine. As a kid, he challenged high school’s dress code. His father is a constitutional law expert at Mount Holyoke.
861 F.Supp. 157, 94 Ed. Law Rep. 729
United States District Court, D. Massachusetts.
Jeffrey J. PYLE and Jonathan H. Pyle, By and Through his father and next friend, Christopher H. PYLE, Plaintiffs,
v.
The SOUTH HADLEY SCHOOL COMMITTEE [etc.]
Aug. 26, 1994.
Trickle up says
hizzonor has a pretty shrewd “understanding of what we should do or can’t do.”
Including that there’s no political downside to taking this position even if the city is eventually compelled to follow the law.
chris-rich says
The core premise Drucker advanced is that modern undertakings often have so many converging elements that it all turns on ‘Identifying your regions of ignorance’ or mapping what you don’t know in order to have a well guided plan for finding out.
I’ve noticed that Walsh is not bashful about admitting when he doesn’t have a clue. But the gaggle of carping self appointed amateur experts, scolds and OCD Gotcha artists have a hair trigger readiness to pounce on such frailties and lapses.
The faux culture of expertise that is an affect common to noxious college towns has a vice grip on this place.
So the wannabe expert flock will descend and squawk as they do if there is a shred of hope that a gotcha may be at hand. It seems like he’s learning to ignore them with impressive panache.
Who knows what murky crust accretions coat the situation from union agreements on one side, to public disclosure laws on another to privacy protection laws on a third?
A prudent and honest person would say “I dunno”..’ when handed this mess while making an earnest honest effort to find out.
That might take a while.
farnkoff says
But have you ever seen the “police roundup” in your local paper? A variety of crooks and chumps unlucky enough to comprise a strange, randomly assorted list of arrests (not convictions, mind you) that the police and/or the newspaper saw fit to publicize, sometimes with unflattering photos included. If police departments can do this without legal repercussions, how can they justify protecting the identities of their own in-house arrestees?
chris-rich says
Ever seen it… HAH!
When I was a kid in the dull suburb of Reading, one of our favorite past times was scheming ways to get our nonsense IN it.
You do realize that an arrest can be reported at whatever level because it is a matter of record. As long as the proper hail Mary set of disclaimer litanies is uttered and included, you’re covered.
If there is something to complain about there, it might be failure to report acquittals for whatever it was.
But then how besmirched does one really get because the time they flailed while drunk and were thrown in the tank or were nabbed boosting some hit consumer crap item at the Natick Mall?
Christopher says
…justified by transperancy in conducting the public’s business or some such. At least the ones I’ve read are very dry and matter-of-fact, to wit: “20-year-old male arrested at corner of Elm and Main for disturbing the peace Wednesday at 1AM.”
farnkoff says
although those incidents that are reported almost always include the names of alleged offenders as well. To me it has always seemed to be at least partially a matter of luck whether a particular arrestee will end up immortalized.
chris-rich says
The CPD has an incident report page at their web site. While it reliably has the sad shenanigans of the wretch riff raff in Central Square, it goes to some length to avoid citing one of the more spectacular weekly public problems in my neighborhood.
I have a feeling it is an attempt to protect the gin mill from the wrath of the Entertainment License people who are a bit more strict about gin mill lapses.
If it ended up in accurate incident reports, it would be there every Saturday at 2am for a bevy of flailing dance drunk offenses up to and including firearm discharge, (that at least got in the news).
If the idiot restaurant mogul got cited, he’d lose his precious special provision to stay open til 2 on Fridays which means selling more booze.
So incident actions that may engage as many as 5 patrol vehicles with major loud public nuisance flailing are not put on record.
I have a feeling it’s one of those whoyaknow nepotism arrangements, but someone will end up dead or severely injured in a brawl one fine night and then the dump will be in a world of hurt.