Haverhill Community Television
Last Monday, December 7th, I participated in the Annual Meeting of HCTV which was held virtually.
HCTV was established 25 years ago and today has 576 members with an income of $914,737 and assets of $3,427,489
I was extremely impressed by listening to their accomplishments in such a difficult year. This group is charged with all three community access stations (Schools, Government and Community) which meant that when the pandemic broke, their small staff and volunteers had to get creative to get the School Committee and City Council meetings going as usual while observing safety measures, including social distancing.
Within weeks, the meetings were back on television, school events were being covered and members had the opportunity to produce programming again. I fact, Lindsay Paris, host of Haverhill Journal LIVE gave a presentation dividing the year into two parts: Before and After COVID-19 started.
First, she described the struggles dealing with this emergency, then their accomplishments during the first few months of their fiscal year. They have 414 different programs and in total, they managed to produce 621 original programs and 98 Public Service Announcements. Amazing!
In Haverhill, residents depend on HCTV to get their local news and find out what’s really going on in their city.
Congratulations!
Police Review
Some people have a negative opinion of police officers as being abusive thugs and when we hear of a case of misconduct it justifies those thoughts. As a result of that, several cities all over the country are considering defunding their police departments and I cannot understand how anyone could justify it.
In Lawrence, for example, we’ve had officers fired for misconducts while others ended up serving time in jail for much graver incidents. As long as we have a trustworthy administration and police chief, those things could be handled as a personnel issue. If warranted, the legal system and the courts should get involved.
It was funny that in a California city recently, a city councilor who was all for defunding the police department, when some protestors showed up at her house, she called the police for protection. Others have private security that the residents cannot afford.
One suggestion from these oblivious rulers is that when responding to a domestic violence call, they should send a social worker to handle it and come to a pleasant solution. Are they crazy? Do they know how many police officers have been injured or killed responding to those calls?
So, in Massachusetts, our Governor Charlie Baker came up with the brilliant idea of creating a commission charged with establishing a system by which to judge all police officers in the state and crafting new rules for them to behave.
The new 129-page bill, Police Reform Law of Massachusetts relative to justice, equity and accountability in law enforcement in the Commonwealth is sitting on the governor’s desk waiting for his signature.
This commission will develop and implement training standards for all officers with the power to investigate misconduct independently. They will also certify, restrict, revoke, or suspend certification for officers and will have subpoena power to compel witnesses and documents as part of its investigations. It will also maintain a public database of officers who are decertified, suspended, or are required to have retraining resulting from on-duty conduct.
The nine-member, independent commission will be appointed by the governor and attorney general. The bill stipulates only three members can be from law enforcement, including a current police chief appointed by the governor. The commission would also include a retired Superior Court judge, a social worker and an attorney appointed from a list of five nominations presented by the Civil Rights and Social Justice Section Council of the Massachusetts Bar Association.
Police unions are objecting because the six civilian members of that board will be deciding the professional future of these officers without any experience in these matters and are reacting to the protests.
State Senator Diana DiZoglio said it best: “I was provided with talking points and expected to repeat them to my constituents as being accurate with blind obedience,” she said angrily and continued. “My staff and I dove into this legislation into the wee hours of the morning from Monday night to Tuesday, to try and understand its impacts, as quickly as was humanly possible. I was alarmed to find instances where the very talking points I was given were in fact contradicted by the bill’s actual text — a frustrating reminder that as a ‘legislator’ it is not my job to vote on someone else’s talking points, it’s my job to review and vote on ‘legislation’; a job that has been nearly impossible to do under the current rules of the Senate.”
Senator DiZoglio also explained that “Attorney General Maura Healey reached out to the Legislature to express her concerns regarding the language included on no-knock warrants, saying that even though it is well-intentioned, it will put child victims of sex trafficking in danger. The fact that the bill indeed can endanger child victims of sexual exploitation and human trafficking as is written (an issue that I made clear to our leadership team was a significant issue raised by our attorney general — but was ignored) was enough for me to vote against the measure and ask our leadership team for a redraft,” she concluded.
Diana ended up voting “present” in the hope that Governor Baker doesn’t sign it and requests a new version from the legislators.
Meanwhile, remember those who blindly voted in favor of decimating our police department: Representatives Frank Moran and Marcos Devers. We can deal with the dirty, corrupt, abusive officers but we need strong officers without fear of being killed because their hands are tied with senseless rules.
Lawrence Community Access Television
Read the beginning of this page and you will learn how a real community access television station works and serves the residents. Each surrounding city operates in a similar way. I am familiar with all of them and that’s why I keep fighting to put our money to work as it should.
HCTV prepared a fantastic presentation and advertised their Annual Meeting as required by law in order to make it public. Since 2004, LCAT has violated that requirement by keeping it secret. Let’s see, I heard that they will be having their annual meeting on the 13th.
We all pay through our cable bill a portion to maintain the premises and all they do is violate our rights and deprive us of getting information so that we remain ignorant.
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