Anything’s happening?
I’m not going to call this segment “Welcome to Paradise” as in the past because the sarcasm will be too much – even for me – to take. In previous columns I mentioned that Lawrence has been forgotten by the Boston media; they are not coming around anymore and it can only be a sign that everything is wonderful here now.
We grew accustomed to seeing Chief Romero face on television on a weekly basis every time there was a robbery, car stolen, accident and (God forbid!) a shooting. He used to tell his officers to hurry up and write the report because he had already called the media.
And the media responded because Lawrence’s bad news was good news for them and for politics.
All the bad publicity scared people from coming here, let alone moving to this city (perhaps with the exception of the Mt. Vernon area, by the Andover border) where city services are better and people feel more secure. I should know; I live in that part of Lawrence and have heard many times that residents are afraid to attend city council meetings at city hall. They hate to venture on the other side of the river and adored Chief Romero because he was actively fighting against the violence and those despicable people of the north side of the city.
Today, everything seems to be well under control. Chief James Fitzpatrick has a different style and stays away from reporters – including me. Things never hit the local newspaper and since Boston stations and newspapers pick up their news from them, it must be that this new administration is really clamping down on criminals. Within a short few months, the city is quiet and outsiders are getting the impression that it is “paradise.”
Well, crime is usually measured by the number of homicides each year. In recent years, we had a drop in murders from 2010 with 10, 2011 another 10, 2012 had 2 and in 2013 only 1.
We started this year on a good note until the month of August that we had four murders. Right now, there is one man in grave condition in a hospital that could probably die, there were two females shot (one in the arm and the other in one leg) yet, few people outside of Lawrence have heard about it.
Other crimes like robberies, assaults, larcenies, rapes, etc. are never reported to the public giving the impression that they have subsided when local residents believe they are on the increase, just not reported to the media.
Reporters are free to peruse at the police station for the daily log; that’s how they select what the newspapers would print on the pages of their “police log” of different cities and towns. The problem is that the front desk is a mess, everything is taken apart, out of order and I am sure many sheets are missing or intentionally taken out. I was looking for one specifically last week and couldn’t find it. I went through the entire mess, one by one because I had the right number and date and it wasn’t there. Freedom of the press!
There is a concerted effort to make Dan Rivera look good but keeping information away from the public is not the right way to protect the citizens.
Elections results
It is not a question of who you voted for but if you went out to vote at all. I don’t have the strength to argue anymore about the ignorance of our community. We often hear them yelling that by being the majority we deserve more, but it’s so difficult making them understand that unless they get out voting, they are nothing and would never be taken into consideration.
Yes, having a State Senator from Lawrence would be great because he would not turn a blind eye like so many other politicians have done, but I guess that leaving the soap operas to support him or her was too much of a sacrifice.
What good is it having good, decent, well educated candidates if we wait for someone else to do the work of electing them for us.
