This is something that is getting some press in the western part of the state: the incoming Executive Director of the Massachusetts Police Association, Rick Pedrini, an Arlington police lieutenant – came out with some vitriol recently when talking about the recent murder of a police officer in Yarmouth. Here’s an excerpt, published in the MPA’s official publication, The Sentinal:
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Gannon family, the Yarmouth Police, and K‐9 Nero. Officer Gannon was one of US. Like all of us, he bravely strapped on his bulletproof vest and his firearm and went to work. He was doing his job when he was gunned down, executing a warrant service on a violent, sociopathic scumbag with 112 arraignments on his BOP. We never learn. Officer Gannon’s name is now mentioned with the names of Rose, Charbonnier, DiNapoli, Maguire, Ambrose, Tarantino, and many others who were killed in cold blood by vicious animals. Animals that can only be “rehabilitated” when they are put down. Right now, it seems the media and the public are on our side and they see the situation for what it is. But wait. Soon the maggot cop‐killer will have his defenders and advocates. “He is a non‐violent drug offender and feels stigmatized.” they’ll say. “He was turning his life around.” they’ll say. “He has anger and mental health issues but was off his meds.” they’ll say. “Everyone deserves a second (or 112th) chance.” they’ll say. “Bullshit!” I say. He is a rabid varmint, a vile piece of human excrement, and an oxygen thief who doesn’t deserve to walk among us.
If that wasn’t enough, he explicitly called for violence by the police:
I am sick and tired of the social justice warriors telling us how to do our jobs. It’s time we forget about “restraint”, “measured responses”, “procedural justice”, “de-escalation”, “stigma-reduction”, and other feel-good BS that is getting our officers killed. Let’s stop lipsynching, please! Let’s meet violence with violence and get the job done.
Nice, huh?
The MPA is (I think) is a pro-police non-profit supported by over 17,000 dues-paying members, I’m not sure if it is a “union” or just an advocacy group like the NRA. Regardless, 17,000 police officers in this state are expressly associated with (by paying dues to) an organization that very clearly views a human being – a bad one, no doubt, but still a human – as an “rabid varmint”, and as an “animal” that should “be put down”, and who believes that the police are not violent enough.
This person is spoon-feeding 17,000 police officers in this state hatred and violence. He has called for extrajudicial violence against the public – to be sure, not against everyone, but seemingly against anyone that the police interact with, if they decide that person deserves it somehow.
This should not be allowed to stand in our state. I have seen many online posts by police who view certain members of the general public as “animals”, and they view themselves as “zookeepers”. This seems to center on non-white persons. We need to figure out a way to stop the festering problem of aggressive and dismissive police before it gets out of hand.
This is … out of character for the Arlington PD, in my impression. Chief Ryan is known as one of the more progressive police chiefs around. It certainly doesn’t make me feel good or safer as a resident to know this kind of loose-cannon temperament is in our police force.
The question we should be asking is “how much of the state’s police officers believe this same thing”? I don’t want to call for a witch hunt, but if our police believe that they really need to be more violent and confrontational in their interactions with the public, that’s kind-of a problem, isn’t it?
This kind of stuff doesn’t just spring up organically. Our police are being trained in this way of thinking, that their #1 job every day is to “get home safely”, a thought pattern that leads them to overestimate the potential for violence in each and every interaction with the public.
There are also national police trainers who preach this idea, They are taught false information, such as the “21 foot rule” which claims that any suspect with a weapon within 21 feet of the officer is a deadly threat. There is fear-based training called “Killology”, which professes that the police are at war with the criminals. The Bulletproof Warrior training teaches the police that they are “sheepdogs” who are trying to trying to protect the sheep (the public) from the wolves (the criminals). Is it any wonder that the police think of people in subhuman terms?
Thanks for the heads-up, by the way – it seems to be getting some action.
Yes, the problem is not just the content itself, but the culture that it springs out of, and the fact that Pedrini obviously felt he was writing for a sympathetic audience. Cops lean to the right, for sure; I would never expect to agree with them on everything. But this kind of language and temperament just won’t do. If anything, the guys with guns and badges need to be *more* even-tempered, *more* reasonable; *more* bent towards de-escalation, than your average citizen. Officers of the peace!
This is getting some traction. The Arlington town manager is aware and quite concerned; the PD is being made aware; story in the Advocate.
http://arlington.wickedlocal.com/news/20181030/arlington-police-lieutenant-publishes-columns-calling-for-police-violence-against-offenders
Time to audit the state police. Bump won’t do it. Dan Fishman will. Fishman gets my vote.
Bump still gets my vote, but for the record, I wrongly argued that she wasn’t responsible for auditing the state police.
I genuinely appreciate your candor. It’s a reason I so look forward to your commentary here. Thank you for walking this back.
He’s an Arlington cop, not a statie, to my knowledge.
What is it you think an auditor does? Nothing stated here, as odious as it is, is the perview of the auditor to correct. If anything, the calls to violence on the part of law enforcement should incur the scrutiny of the Attorney General.. The AG is the one to police the police. The auditor is only responsible for proper monitoring of records, data and expenditures…
How about you stop grinding your ax and actually join the conversation…?
Healey should do her job too. I have not argued otherwise. I do think law enforcement will continue to act above the law if our elected officials allow them too. The State Police are represented by this organization as well and this organization has helped them avoid accountability. Good luck firing this guy in Arlington, I doubt it’s going to happen. Maybe a paid leave and a forced apology.
This is tough. Even if he were fired, he might get hired someplace else. And then what? In Arlington there is a Human Rights commission, which sounds trivial for a small town until something like this happens – which has been unfortunately rather common even in this community: Black Lives Matter signs vandalized; racist graffiti; swastikas; etc. In any event I wonder if there’s an opportunity for Truth and Reconciliation, if done the right way. This guy sounds like he thinks he’s better than everyone else; if he met his neighbors maybe he’d learn something. Worth a try anyway.
Seems to me if you get fired from one force for something like this your name should go on a list of personae non gratae for any department.
Heh. Indeed. Tell it to the Boston office of the FBI, who eagerly recruited Aaron McFarlane to execute Ibragim Todashev after Mr. McFarlane was forced to retire from the Oakland CA police department because of his abuses against minorities there.
I agree with you that behavior like this should be a career-ending event for any police officer.
Um, pretty sure Bump has announced she is investigating the state police overtime scandal if that is what you are referring to.
Sure, after it’s been headlined in media reports all over the state.
I’ll be voting for her competitor because Ms. Bump is so much more proactive about pursuing minorities than abuses like this.
WBUR now covering it.
Pedrini claiming it was “satire”. Nice try, buddy.
They are not a union organization.
How do you suppose they count 17,000+ dues paying members? If it is voluntary, and their membership largely supports this guy, then we have a big problem with police attitudes in this state.
It took months for Springfield to fire Conrad Lariviere, and months more for the firing to stick after the Police union aggressively protested the firing. It was apparently upheld by arbitrators earlier this month. The town of Medford accepted the resignation of Stephen LeBert (presumably with full pension) rather than confront his out-of-control behavior towards a motorist in 2015. Mr. LeBert had a long history of such behavior, all of it ignored by the town of Medford until the glare of publicity forced them to act.
We arm our police to the hilt with military weaponry. We hire military veterans trained in killing “the enemy”, then act surprised when they act out those attitudes in our cities and towns.
We do need to put a stop to this culture. A starting point is to take a much more critical view of the “investigations” that our various departments use to whitewash police abuses.
The #metoo movement is helping us learn the importance of listening to victims. Those listening skills are badly needed when we are confronted by police violence — particularly police violence against minorities.
Finally, I want to very explicitly applaud and recognize the competence, professionalism, and calm demeanor of every member of the Somerville PD that I’ve had the pleasure of interacting with. It’s another reason that I feel very fortunate to live here.
Springfield has a long and dirty history of police abuse. Springfield tried to reform its police department a decade ago. It didn’t go so well because 500+ officers resisted an outsider coming in – and all the insiders generally range from bad to worse.
Our current mayor is a Democratic Trump wannabee who actually invited Trump to Springfield, who protested refugee settlement and illegal immigration, who tried to evict an undocumented immigrant who was taking sanctuary in a church.
Why is he the mayor? Because he is a consummate politician, he makes every voter feel like a treasured individual, he has a daily routine of attending wakes and funerals, when a voter’s name appears in the paper, he sends it to their house with a handwritten note on it that ends with “God Bless”. And he frequently rails against “those animals”, meaning people who commit crimes.
A lot of people firmly support police abuse and extrajudicial punishment by the cops, primarily because they don’t think it will ever happen to them. However, even the politicians that do not support this behavior rarely stand up against it, they don’t want to be seen as “anti-cop” and therefore are scared to try and lead the public away from this ugly path.
Springfield is one of four cities in the nation that is under investigation by the Department of Justice.
This by itself wouldn’t necessarily make him a bad person, but I believe he is one of those “proud Democratic” (though technically elected non-partisan) mayors staring in a Baker re-election ad.
What kind of human being responds to violence only by considering how likely it is to happen to themselves?
As I said, it is very much out of character for the Arlington PD. Here’s the statement from the Town Manager and the police chief:
The blowback begins:
https://whdh.com/news/head-of-massachusetts-police-association-relieved-of-duty-following-disturbing-comments/
Are there seriously not rigorous psychological evaluations that police candidates have pass before being accepted into the ranks of law enforcement?