Wednesday, April 09, 2008

And this is a good reason to oppose 287g training here?Are you comparing Supt.Doherty to Sheriff Arpaio?I love the way you seek out an example of what you consider abuse of authority and try to insinuate that this will be the norm in Rhode Island.If Arpaio,by the way,is doing such a terrible job,why is he always re-elected?Arpaio has a reputation of being pretty hard on offenders in general,regardless of immigration status.
Is your idea of a good police chief Dean Esserman?If so,I think you are badly mistaken-you are apparently willing to overlook any of his faults because he is so politically correct.I believe Esserman neglects public safety in the interest of political expediencey.

Joe, I'm not sure what State you live in. Every year the voters of RI re-elect the same bozos back in to General Assembly who do very little, if anything, to tackle the major issues that face RI. They do plenty to line their own pockets. We have a Governor that somehow thinks that immigration is an issue. What a joker. And what do most Rhode Islanders do when corruption rears its' head? They laugh.

So was Urbano Prignano a better Chief than Esserman?

Arizona has a much more evnly divided two party system tha RI so getting re-elected isn't necessarily the same cakewalk it is here.According to a good friend who lives in Maricopa County,Arpaio has a strong following in the community.As a border state,Arizona faces different and more emergent problems than RI.
I was assigned to PPD for 4 years(1990-94)from INS on "loan" during which time I worked out of SIB which was commanded by Urbano Prignano(then Inspector)-I am still friendly with him and while the test scandal was certainly not his finest moment,which he admits,he had a good understanding of cops and criminals-he was what is called a "cop's cop"-Esserman isn't.Esserman never did the job on the street;he never admits to being wrong;his current stance on the Governor's executive order is a negative in the area of public safety;and his "Lucky Seven"program was very poorly thought out and set a terrible precedent of circumventing the court system.
I think Esserman's vendetta against Prignano in trying to take his pension absent any conviction for even a misdemeanor speaks volumes about his character.
There are numerous allegations that Esserman is "badge heavy"in trying to obtain freebies.This is unacceptable behavior,especially for a man making as much as he does.
The two Chiefs I served under at Providence were the late Walter Clark and Bernard Gannon.Both were men of spotless reputation and I think were head and shoulders above Esserman in the same job.
I truly believe that Esserman is willing to trade publlic safety for political expediency.
I mentioned my friendship with Prignano so as not to present a false face to anyone here.

Joe Arpaio is just a media slut. His dog and pony act is successful re: helping him get re-elected, but as far as solving problems...negative.

The circumstances in Arizona are far different than RI. Last time I checked, immigrants weren't scrambling across the border to get into RI--what a crisis. Why is Carcieri doing this?Carcieri is just seizing a hot button topic because he needs to boost his popularity among conservatives who watch too much national television news. He's seizing upon it because he's failed to tackle real issues like economic development and education.

I can't really comment on Walter Clark and Bernard Gannon because I relocated here during Prignano's tenure. I did attend quite a few community policing meetings in my neighborhood at which Prignano was present. Now I know that these meetings were and probably still are a little emotional at times. My neighbiorhood had a tremendous amount of street level drug dealing that was not being addressed by the Providence Police Department. Prignano refused on many occasions in these meetings to even acknowledge that there was a problem despite widespread agreement among citizens that there was. The community policing station was rarely staffed. One of our community police officers was arrested for drug posession while on holiday. The bikes purchased for the officers to use in the neighborhood hung mostly on the wall inside the station. I'm so glad that he was a "cops cop," but the police are here to protect serve the citizens of this city who pay their salaries through excessively high taxes. Esserman's focus on community policing reduced the level of drug dealing. Getting the police out of their cars and walking a beat worked.

Lucky Seven was a good idea but may've been poorly executed. But I would argue that most programs of this type need a little time to be refined. As much as someone can plan for something, unforeseen obstacles always arise. It's what you do to overcome them that makes a difference.

As for Esserman going after Prignano's pension. I do believe that Prognano is entitled to a pension, just not all of it. We should not be rewarding corrupt public officialls.

Joe O-When Prignano became Chief I had been reassigned to DEA Task Force for a couple of years.I do know this-while he was Narcotics Inspector,neighborhood response was his top priority.We executed 2 or 3 search warrants a night,plus buy-busts and other stuff.I estimate I participated in about 800 drug search warrants while I was assigned to Prignano's unit.Not a shot fired.I'd call that good professional conduct and Prignano was in charge.All I can say is that he is a decent and sincere man,and ALL of us have lapses in judgment unless we're in a vegetative state.
Now,Lucky 7-I don't begrudge anyone a break who is deserving-but there is already a process in place-pretrial diversion-at least in that case a judicial officer has oversight.These weren't cases about shoplifting cd's after all-they were about drug sales with a 30 year potential sentence.There is also deferred sentencing-a major step up from pretrial diversion,but still less than incarceration.Use the tools that are available-don't invent a new and potentially dangerous one.