Worcester Diversity Leaders Eliminate Police In High Schools Despite Lower Arrest And Suspension Rates Because, Racism
Back in the infant stages of Turtleboy we used to blog about mostly Worcester related issues, since Worcester is the home of TB, and one of the big issues in 2014-15 was violence in the public schools. In one day at North High School four principals and five teachers were assaulted by students, four of whom were later arrested after the damage was done. In April of 2015 there were two separate incidents at Burncoat High School involving guns, one in which involved a threat to kill a cop.
And that was just 2015. A student was stabbed to death in the hallways of Worcester South High School in 1989 and gang activity is rampant in the 5 high schools and middle schools,
TB established itself as an advocate for police in our infancy, particularly in public schools. For that we received a lot of pushback and were called racist by professional agitators who hate the police and want to sell the schools diversity trainings as a remedy instead. They literally held a press conference to call Turtleboy racist, and Clive McFarlane “exposed” me for being a racist for my support of cops in schools.
Others at the press conference called out City Councilor Michael Gaffney and local blog Turtleboy Sports by name for making inflammatory comments — saying that they are “exploiting” the students of North High School for personal gain. “He’s just grabbing the opportunity to grandstand,” said McNickles.
Ultimately TB won the day because they ended up putting resource officers in every secondary school. It was an immediate and overwhelming success as arrests and suspensions decreased with the presence of a trained LEO in the buildings, and trust between the community and police improved.
School officials say the police officers stationed in Worcester’s high schools after several incidents last year have successfully quelled the violence.
“There’s definitely a decrease in arrests, disruptions and assaults,” said the Worcester Public School’s school safety liaison, Rob Pezzella. He credited theaddition of full-time school resource officers to the high schools after a series ofgun incidents and assaults last year.
Now, Pezzella said he sees these officers building relationships with the students, teachers and parents at their respective schools. Deputy Chief Steve Sargent said those relationships are invaluable from a policing perspective.
“It’s invaluable,” said Sargent of having officers in the schools. “Community policing is really what we do. This is another way we can be in the neighborhood. This is closing the loop for us.”
Sargent noted that before officers would have to come in and arrest students and the only interaction the kids would have with police would be negative. Now, Sargent noted, the officers are able to have positive interactions with the kids every single day.
On the last day of school before COVID a student at the alternative school I used to teach at was arrested with a gun on him.
So these problems have not gone away, and the resource officers are obviously still necessary. Naturally then City Manager Ed Augustus is pulling them out because….racism.
To “disrupt systems of racism and inequity,” Worcester’s City Manager signed an executive order Friday afternoon and submitted a series of recommendations for City Council approval that include removing police officers from schools, banning facial recognition within the city and creating a police dashboard online that would provide the public access to use of force complaints. The measures to address systemic racism within the city and police reform come after Augustus hoped to release some measures in the fall.
The measures were announced by Augustus on Friday but were drafted with input from a city-wide effort that included Chief Diversity Officer Stephanie Williams, Director of Urban Innovation Eric D. Batista, City Solicitor Michael Traynor, city councilors and community organizations. The recommendations require city council approval.
“The anger and outrage we witnessed in protests across the nation – and here in Worcester – were not merely the result of Mr. Floyd’s murder; they were the expression of those who have suffered decades of mistreatment and injustice, too often at the hands of those sworn to protect them,” the letter to the council reads.
The most specific recommendations focus on reform within the Worcester Police Department. Augustus included aspects of the Massachusetts police reform bill signed last year, but went beyond it in several areas. The recommendations also suggest the removal of officers from Worcester Public Schools by the end of 2021. Augustus said the program worked well referring to a decline in the number of arrests and suspensions in schools with officers. Augustus, though, said the move comes after discussions with the community, which felt the officers created feelings and impressions that made students uncomfortable.
- Kids who want to commit violence and not get arrested for it
- Children of SJWs who have been brainwashed into believing that all cops are bad because of BLM.
They’re going out of their way to make schools LESS safe because unnamed students from “the community” suddenly don’t like them.
Ed Augustus is allegedly one of those “pragmatic” liberals. The ones who favor the core tenets of liberalism, but don’t get on board with defunding the police and other radical BLM-inspired ideas. But that all changed because of George Floyd. Now there’s no difference between “pragmatic” liberals and the AOC patrol.
That’s because Ed Augustus isn’t really calling the shots in Worcester. This idea was the brain child of two people who have never worked a day in a public school. The city recently hired Stephanie Williams to be the “Chief Diversity Officer” and pay her a taxpayer funded salary of $125K a year, because how can a city function without a Chief Diversity Officer? Her job before getting this plum gig where she makes the schools less safe? Life coach and professional race hustler:
According to the city, Williams is a certified life coach, and has held a number of professional certifications, serving as a member of the Women’s Initiative Coordinating Committee, co-chair of YWCA’s Stand Against Racism.
Also drafting this legislation was Eric Batista, who gets paid to be the Director of Urban Innovation, where he tries to make himself useful by buying new suits and using Facebook to talk about boycotting Facebook because apparently Mark Zuckerberg is a Trump supporter now.
That guy right there is the one who decides if your kids will be safe in school. Think about that.
The City Council can and should vote this down. Anyone who signs onto this anti-police garbage needs to be named, shamed, and replaced in November. I still have hope that Worcester will not become Cambridge, Boston, Springfield, or one of these horrible cities where ACAB rules the day. Six of 11 no votes are needed to defeat this. I’m sure we can count on Sarai Ti-Ti-Ho Rivera, Khrystian King, and a confused and lost Gary Rosen to vote for this. But Candy Carlson, Kate Toomey, Mo Bergman, Donna Colorio, and I’d hope Matt Wally, Mayor Joe Petty, George Russell, and Sean Rose will ideally see this for what it is and vote it down.
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