Totally Stable Cop-Hating Pawtucket Woman Fights City For Police Officer’s Home Addresses. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Lynn Farinelli is a Pawtucket, RI resident on a mission.

Shirking gainful employment in favor of what she proclaims to be “community activism”, Lynn spend her days posting cheerful, positive and encouraging sentiments about the local police, schools and city officials on social media. Like these ones, for instance:

 

She seems sane and balanced. What a lovely woman.

 

In her defense, Lynn is a grieving mother, having suffered through the untimely death of her 26 year old son in 2014, when he was found deceased in the basement of her grandmother’s home from an apparent suicide. I truly cannot imagine that level of pain and loss, and I certainly understand that everyone grieves differently. Some people become isolated and drown in their despair. Some turn to alcohol, others to support groups. And some people incessantly submit an unreasonable amount of public records requests and sue at the first sliver of an opportunity to do so in a haze of over-the-counter and prescription medication topped off with pure, unadulterated blind rage and crazy.

 

Can you guess which one is Lynn’s go-to coping mechanism?

Lynn is currently fighting the city of Pawtucket for the release of their police officers’ home address. Why? Because….reasons, I guess. The Valley Breeze Reported:

“Farinelli, the co-founder of the Rhode Island Accountability Project who has filed a number of complaints against the city over records and other matters, including over the previous investigation into her son’s death by suicide, says law enforcement officers should be held to the same standard as other city employees.

“Secrecy breeds corruption. Continually granting law enforcement special privacy protections only feeds the disconnect between the people and their public servants,” she said in a statement to The Breeze. “How can people have faith in the integrity of the system when the system is clouded in secrecy? Law enforcement officers must be held to the same standards as the people they serve or we risk further misfeasance.”

Unfortunately, she said, Milos and police union attorney Joseph Penza Jr. “don’t believe the law applies to all public servants.” There are many valid reasons why the community would want to know what cities or towns officers live in, said Farinelli.

“I feel it is outrageous Mr. Milos and Mr. Penza would attempt to challenge the Attorney General’s office in their decision,” she said. “It is a longstanding decision that city of residence is clearly required to be disclosed for all public servants under the APRA laws.”

Baino said the public can find enough information with the names of officers, including how many there are, he said.

“It’s hard enough now trying to get police officers,” he said, and this will make it that much more difficult attract new ones.

The union is ready to take this fight as far as its members are able, said Baino.

In an Oct. 28 directive to Milos stating that the city had violated the APRA by withholding the list requested by Farinelli more than a year ago, Special Assistant Attorney Gen. Sean Lyness gave the city 10 days to release the list of hometowns requested by Farinelli, stating that the APRA specifically provides that the city or town of residence for a public employee shall be public.

Milos noted in his memo to the Grebien administration that his office had already denied one resident’s request for the same information when Farinelli made her request, noting that the person making the request for information has no bearing on decisions to disclose records.

Penza argues that providing the hometowns of officers violated their privacy rights “and more importantly would endanger their physical safety.” If the city discloses either the city or town of a police officer, it has the same effect as disclosing an officer’s home address, he maintains, since the specific address can subsequently be determined through tax records or other public documents.”

 

Listen, lady. I don’t need to know where the cops in my town live, and neither do you. If I went in to a local gas station, coffee shop, doctor’s office or any other place of business demanding to know where their employees live, I’d be a huge creep. The same standard applies here. Who wouldn’t feel comfortable with a chick who posts stuff like this all day knowing where they live?

 

But don’t worry – she doesn’t have a valid gun permit. She just doesn’t care.

I, for one, would feel totally safe with this chick knowing where I live – wouldn’t you? She’s also the proud recipient of a lifetime protective order – one that she just keeps violating anyway.

 

Come meet me in Massachusetts, chickie. I dare you. You’re an upstanding citizen with nothing to hide, right?  Accountability for all, I always say! Speaking of which, you’ll never guess who Lynn is friends with…

 

So that speaks volumes right there. Lynn has made some very lofty allegations against the Pawtucket Police department and city officials, but that’s going to have to be another story for another day, unfortunately, because I have to wait for my records request to come through after the city tackles her eight trillion frivolous ones. It’s almost like she’s drowning the city solicitor in requests to cover up her own dirty laundry….but I suppose we’ll see in due time. In the meantime, I’d like to know what other people out there think. Is this lunatic lawfully entitled to a list of her local police department’s officers’ home addresses? And what could possibly go wrong if she gets what she wants? Let us know in the comments.