A Message to the Rutland City Police Dept.
When I was a child, I had nothing but respect for the police. I grew up a few houses up from Officer Greene. He would often let the neighborhood kids gather up and ask him questions about being a police officer. A particular thing I recall was when he was asked what police show was the closest to the real thing. He answered NYPD Blue. I've been a fan of the show (Hell yeah for Sippowicz becoming the boss at the end of the series!) ever since. When I entered my rebellious teen years, I often encountered the night shift. I had a penchant for walking around all night with my friend John (best known to you folks as Spanky Payne). We caused a bit of ruckus, did some dumb teenager stuff, but were entirely harmless. Even then, the officers I encountered were mostly good people. Officer (now Detective? congratulations if this is so) Lachance and Officer Hall stick out in my mind as my favorites. I recall this one time where John and I were quite swiftly pushing each other around in a shopping cart, running in to things. Officer LaChance -- heh heh -- pulled us over. He didn't even have to say anything. I was just like, "Ummm, so... you want me to get out of the cart and leave it here, huh." I guess you had to be there. I seem to have gotten sidetracked...
Since then, we've moved on from our nighttime romps through town. John partially owns and runs a business in Grafton, VT (Grafton Metals & Salvage) and I'm working my way through college as both a convenience store clerk and web designer. This story isn't as shiny and nice as it sounds. There have been potholes in this road.
In the late 90's, John and I ran a zine (a small, DIY-made magazine containing whatever crazy or morbid thought passed through our minds, as well as reader-submitted poetry and random street interviews -- Street Talk eat your heart out). It was less of a publication and more of a photocopied and distributed piece of art, albeit adolescent and erratic. All was fine with this until Colombine spread media and authority fear and paranoia across the nation. Because John wore a trenchcoat to school and refused to cease doing so (it was a nice coat he had gotten for Christmas, why should he stop wearing an article of clothing because two morons blew a mental fuse?) we became the subject of an investigation. John had RCPD detectives and State Troopers at his door with false accusations of some half-cocked plot to blow up his school. I had the same two detectives at my door asking the most inane and obviously poorly researched questions about cults, the occult, ethnic cleansing (where that fit in, I still haven't figured out) and, most notably, Hatezine, the zine we produced. The occult question that sticks out as the most retarded was 'the significance of circles.' I smirked and said that they are round. I learned all about them in elementary geometry. The male detective smiled and said it was okay, that I did not have to tell the truth right now. The truth is that there is no specific significance to circles in the occult. I'm almost inclined to write and publish a short research paper on this just to prove it. Circles are round, they are the uncountably-sided shape, and can be perceived as elements in symbols of protection, binding, and a near infinite amount of other things. Personally, I think circles are useless other than for visually-pleasing aspects to symbology; not even a real shape [see my article against the concept of Pi]. In the end, no charges were filed and they obviously had nothing to work with. That leads me to believe that their purpose wasn't a true investigation of any committed crimes, but rather a means to harass a piece of art they disagreed with. That, by any definition, is a true abuse of power.
I hear more and more, everyday, about the police in this region abusing their power. Shane Goodrich, while I detest the junkie, was treated too harshly by the police. They reported that he was acting severely disorderly and attacked an officer. They left out the fact that he was having a cocaine-induced seizure and was approached by the officer as he was coming out of it. The confusion of having a large man come at you while you're leaving a seizure state caused Shane to believe he was being attacked again (he had shortly before had an attempt on his life by a crack dealer) and he tried to defend himself by putting the person in a headlock. This person happened to be a police officer and Shane was quite roughed up by the man. The whole time, he was screaming that he didn't know what was going on. He was screaming for help. Yes, he attacked an officer, and that does justifiably warrant arrest and a particular level of force. The problem here was the police refusal to take statements of what occurred from the many neighbors who had witnessed the entire event. This way, with no statements supporting how things really happened, it could be a no holds barred police officer assault case.
We are all familiar with the case of the gentleman who was being disorderly in police custody and needed to be maced, resulting in his death. the man had a pillow placed over his head by a few oficers and was maced three times. Shortly thereafter, he died. The police were cleared of all charges of misconduct and it was determined this action did not lead to his death. You've got to be kidding me. A man has respiratory problems, he has a pillow case placed over his face and is maced three times, he dies right after, and that wasn't the cause?!
I could go on and on about RCPD misconduct, but I do not want my point to be lost at the end of a long entry in this ADHD-readership. I still respect the role of a police officer. Like Edward Norton stated in American History X in the role of Derek Vinyard, we acknowledge that the police have a very difficult job that is, without a doubt, extremely high stress. At any moment, on any call, their very life can be in danger from some crackhead or maniac, for the sake of protecting the law-abiding public. Mr. LaMoria made very good points about this in his August 12th letter to the editor of the Rutland Herald 'Can police really be called selfish?' [Link]. There is no question that the job is hard and demanding, especially now with the herion and crack problems plagueing this city. Rutland is very quickly becoming Albany, and that is not good at all. The problem I have with the conduct of the RCPD is the unreasonably, even with their job difficulty in consideration, harsh use of force and intimidation they feel is justified solely by their position. This, in my mind, disqualifies them from being adequate for their job. I am not speaking of all Rutland City Police, of course, just a handful of officers who feel they have the right to harass the people who aren't ruining this city. Maybe if they set their focus more on the real problems here (ie. crack dealers, Albany/Massachusetts/NYC drug routes and their runners, and out-of-staters coming here to take their easy pickings in violent crimes, maybe there wouldn't be such a problem. I am not impressed with Rutland's drug task force. They aren't doing nearly enough. While I realize marijuana is widely considered, albeit incorrectly, a gateway to other things such as crack and heroin, they need to take a bit of focus off of it. People dealing weed aren't stabbing my friends in this head and lung (Justin O'Neil). People smoking a bowl aren't smashing in to convenience stores (like the one I work at) and robbing the places at knife/gunpoint. People spotting a bag of weed aren't raping my friends or bashing in the heads of harmless streetwalkers for a bag of heroin or a couple crackrocks. I don't smoke marijuana. I haven't since I was a teenager (I prefer some beers and some whiskey now and then). The biggest drug I abuse is caffiene (sometimes I think I drink more coffee at work than I sell -- thank Hell and damnation its free to employees). A lot of my friends do partake in the green, and not one of them is going out at night looking for some hapless victim to rape, beat and slaughter for their next fix. If you go without weed for a few days, the most you'll do is bitch and moan that you're jonesing until some half-annoyed friend gives in and smokes you up. Strung out, needing a fix of crack or heroin? That results quite differently. Rutland City Police Department, and especially the drug task force, open your eyes. You really need to start focussing on this problem. If you kep harassing everyone who 'looks' like they may have a hand in Rutland's seedy underworld (ha, oh man that's funny) these people aren't going to open up to you. Like Officer Hall has in the past, talk to the teenagers in Rutland. Befriend them and earn their trust. Hall is a good guy and, despite his name being in the mace/pillow-case case, I trust him. Hell, my mother's husband went to school with him. You can bet your asses, that if I saw some of the aforementioned Albany-ish shit go down and he asked me what happened, I'd tell him and give him as full of a description of the violent whatever hypothetical perp as I could. Officer Todd, on the other hand, I'd clam up and not be able to recall. ITs all in the approach, guys. LaChance comes by investigating some crazy shit going down, you know damn well I'd answer his questions with the respect he has EARNED from me. Another, trying-to-be-intimidating officer who has earned my disrespect through abuse of power wouldn't get squat from me. I'd be willing to bet a lot of people in this town would react the same way.