Deja Vu All Over Again Spun a Little Different

This is how I ended my last Blog on drinking in Barrington:

"So that student told me correctly seven years ago. You have to be an idiot to get caught. But you know what if you do get caught, don't worry. Nothing will really happen to you anyway. It makes you wonder what the point is."

So the day that I wrote this in my last blog, in the wee hours of the morning, literally right in front of my driveway I am told, one of the most powerful people in the state was arrested on a DUI.

I will leave the names out of the article to protect the guilty. Just like we usually do here in town.

This State Senator and his Buddy from the State Senate brazenly threatened the arresting officers doing their jobs.

What was stated was an attack on their pension if the #%#$%@ did not get
resolved. In the Senators' favor.

What was that patrolman thinking about at that moment? That his future, his pension at risk? Was his present at risk? Everyone knows that these were men who could do it! They can ruin you with a phone call!

They wanted to call and speak to John! (Chief John LaCross)  Right then! They were going to get majors in the state police on the phone to solve it. Maybe they had friends at the AG's office who have the power to make this go away. (Or at the least get a deal done in record time with no criminal charges!)

Who else could they call? Maybe perhaps a ranking member of the Patriarca crime family could come down and fix this mess for the Senator? Make the officer could be made an offer he could not refuse?

Why anyone would think a call to John LaCross after midnight would help them is beyond my ken. The officers who made the arrest and report are, as Jeff Brenner pointed out, to be commended. Praised. Loudly! Thanked at every turn! 

Whatever may have crossed their minds, whatever they were thinking in that high pressure situation, they did their jobs. As they should. It is now the job of the entire town to watch their backs, lest the long sleazy arm of the State Senate reach out from under its slimy rock of power and privilege and grabs them with punitive retribution.

We owe it to them. They protected us from very dangerous men, perhaps the most dangerous men to be found  on our streets of our town and protected us.

Hell, these criminals were  on MY street. I only wish my security cameras extended all the way down the driveway. Then I would have had it on tape.

Which makes me think. (Yes I hear what you are  thinking. It's a dangerous pastime I know!) But why would the Senator think that calling people would help his buddy out of a DUI? That is not what the people I know would do if they found themselves in that unlikely situation. The answer is a little scary:

Probably because it has worked before. Maybe many times before. Maybe that kind of threat works in other communities. Maybe if he had gotten caught elsewhere we never would of heard of it. Maybe it was just his bad luck he got caught in Barrington!

Maybe it happens all over the state all the time. And it gets covered up in a State Senate form of confidentiality! You know a provision that protects immature children and State Senators!

Why has no one from the Union stood up to say being caught DUI was despicable?

Why has no one from the Senate stood up to say threatening a police officer  was despicable?

There need to be consequences! Wait I have said that before!

Why has no one suggested yet that the Senate give back it's hockey trophy?

But I digress. Because  It is not funny. These so called gentleman
learned these behaviors when they were young. That if you pull the right
strings, and nobody hears about it then it goes away. And that is the important
thing of course make the !@#!@#$@#%!@# thing Go away. Don't let anyone hear about it. Don't pay consequences.

These lessons are learned when these gentlemen were in high school and they
are the same lessons we have taught here in town time and again. Many of the party-goers at Elm Lane may to if they work hard grow up to be Rhode Island Senators. So long as they don't get caught and their names don't come out.

I end this like I ended the last one:

"But you know what if you do get caught, don't worry. Nothing will really happen to you anyway. It makes you wonder what the point is."

I had finished this blog last night. I opened the Prov. Journal this morning to a disturbing comment by Chief LaCross. He was attributed to say he wants his offers to call him about Incidents that could end up in the media.

Okay, here we go. Questions:

Why? Will those cases be handled differently? What determines media worthiness? Are officers given training as to what will end up in the media?

Out of town state senators are on the list. Are our reps and senators on the list?

Are town councilors like Jeff Brenner on the list or is only the president of the council important enough to be on the list of media-worthy?

Do heads of boards in town make the list? Peter DeAngelis? Dr. McIntyre? Since
it is about the media, IS Josh Bickford on the list or Bill Rupp?

Dear God, am I on the list? I must be when last June I tried to get the police to peruse the harassment to my family. I was told I had less protection as a blogger. As part of the list, do I warrant a call?

Do famous athletes and their families warrant a call? Do players on the chief's former hockey team warrant a call? Who is treated different?

I was so pleased that our officers treated the gentlemen from the Senate as they should have been. Now thanks to a comment in the paper by the chief, I am left wondering once again. What don't we know?