Nirvana, Taxi drivers in charge, and Officers in danger
November is one of my favorite months. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays and I so love the fall. The day treated me to a refreshingly cool breeze with a soothingly warm sun. The skies, a comforting blue, were decorated with the occasional cloud that appeared to be no more than a whisper.
I felt alive. I was in my city and I felt safe.
Pop. Pop, pop…pop.
The pops I heard sounded like gun shots and probably were. It brought me back to reality; back to what Lawrence has become: a war zone.
Mayor Rivera continues to reassure the city that all is well and crime is down. I suppose he is getting that information from the police department. But it simply is not true. The problem appears deeper to me as it shows a mayor out of touch with his city or, even worse, a mayor lying to his city about the reality we are living. Either possibility has potentially dangerous, negative consequences for us as a community.
In 2015, there were 132 calls to the police for guns. In 2016 so far, there have been 145 calls to police for guns. The city is on pace to see a twenty percent increase in gun violence.
For shots fired there were 277 calls to the police in 2015 and 255 in 2016 to date. The city is on pace to see a ten percent increase in calls for shots fired. More than fifty percent of the calls for gun violence are made during the day.
Something is very wrong and needs to be corrected. It only appears to be getting worse. Maybe there are fewer cars being stolen than several years ago. But I would rather have to deal with a stolen car than have to take cover because this administration has allowed criminals to rule the streets.
Taxi drivers in charge!
Cab drivers in the city of Lawrence are confused since they are now getting directives straight from the police chief.
Chief James Fitzpatrick recently met with representatives from each taxi company requesting that drivers carry a notebook with details of each fare they pick up, including where they were dropped off.
They allege that this information is already filed at the office when the call was originated. Those records are placed on a safe at the end of the day and if the authorities need to access it, it is easy to do.
The overall feeling is that the police department wants them to do their work by being vigilant in their communities. To make matters worse, the recommendation they have made is that they do not pick up passages around the Hancock Projects or people they do not know. This shows that the police have no notion of who the members of this community are, treating us as if we were a ghetto or a tribe where everyone knows each other.
Officers in danger
There was an incident last week in which someone showed up at the home of a police officer and when a child opened the door, the man asked to confirm that he was the officer’s son while pulling out a gun.
At that moment, his father, who was off duty, came out. The man tried to run away but was followed and apprehended by one of our finest and the weapon taken away.
No one knows the intentions of that man or the purpose of his visit. All I know is that it did happen. This is one time that I condone disguising the details of the call on their daily log, so don’t look for it online. We need to protect our police force!
Hypocrisy
I received this message from Mayor Daniel Rivera’s Chief of Staff Eileen O’Connor Bernal: “One of the wonderful traditions we have here in Lawrence is our flag raisings, recognizing many of the different cultures and ethnicities which comprise this ‘Immigrant City’. Today, Thursday, October 27, at 4:30pm across from City Hall, the Turkish Flag will be raised. Feel free to join in this public celebration. Light refreshments will be provided immediately after in the City Hall lobby by members of the Turkish community.”
Last week I wrote about the insult suffered by the Turkish consul during the flag raising. Customarily, the President of the City Council will do the honors delivering the mayoral proclamation in his absence. Occasionally, the Chief of Staff has taken over that duty and although Council President Kendrys Vasquez was present, the proclamation was offered by the receptionist at the mayor’s office.
That brings me back to the email I received from Eileen that same morning encouraging the public to attend yet, she couldn’t make it.
