Last Night In Fall River

Last night, somewhere in between the time the police were arresting people at Flaunt (fight with an assault and battery on a bouncer) and arresting at least five people over at Club Xcape (home of the "ceo's and hoes party" and the venue at which the infamous JJ's hot dog fight began), a friend of mine called the police to report street racing and a theft of city property in his neighborhood. 25 minutes later the activity stopped and the racers disbursed, he called back to tell the police not to bother because the racers left. He was then told, "I'm sorry but with the shortages, there is nothing we can do."

This is by no means a commentary on the job the police are doing; they are doing an incredible job with what is being thrown at them. However, it is UNACCEPTABLE to report a crime and hear 'sorry but we can't help you.' We have already had one murder this month, possibly two, depending on the status of the Club International victim, and Correia refuses to bring back police. Cut your effing driver. Just do it. Cut your PR person, because she clearly hasn't been successful for you, cut the pay rates of the 68 city hall employees not subject to collective bargaining......

Furthermore, we need to crack down on the bars/clubs/whatever, that are constant crime scenes. Pull their liquor licenses, make them get police details (although club xcape did have one last night), cut their hours, or whatever you can do to stop this. After the second shooting outside the Regatta there were about 15 officers stationed around the building. Are we going to wait for a second or a third shooting at Club International before we do anything?

Hopefully Bob Correia was able to sleep through all the noise of crime and violence in his city last night. He needed his beauty sleep so he would be rejuvenated for his announcement this morning that he intends to run for mayor again because he hasn't wreaked enough havoc on the city, nor padded his pension enough, in his one term.

**Thank you to the police who are working twice as hard now and who, due to shortages, probably have to respond to some calls alone now, without backup, putting their lives in further danger.

Thoughts on Cutting our Police Force

Absolutely unconscionable that the Mayor still has a driver. Yes, I realize that she does other things like holding his umbrella over him in the rain, gets him coffee, attends the occasional neighborhood meeting to earn her title as 'Director of Intergovernmental Affairs," and yes I realize cutting her would not completely solve the budget issue but I would rather save one police officer's job than have the comfort of knowing Bob will never get wet in the rain. Her position is a symptom of the disease in this administration.

I have not seen one of the many good suggestions on ameliorating the budget issue, by the city council, acted upon. Three weeks ago, at a city council meeting, Councilor Steve Camara requested that Adam Chapdelaine bring him the list of the 68 non-union employees at city hall to perhaps start trimming with them. That seemed like a great idea. Trim the fat at city hall. Two weeks later, at the next city council meeting, Chapdelaine failed to provide the council with that list, this failure to comply with the request indicated to me that the administration wasn't at all interested in making cuts at city hall. Councilor Lund suggested making the top 100 salaries take percentage decrease. Councilor Viveiros had submitted a 5 page report to the Mayor with suggestions. Councilor Bigelow suggested that the city do an inventory of things we own like at the prison where they inventory screwdrivers because if they lose track a prisoner may get one and use it as a weapon.......not sure where he was going with that, but hopefully I am making my point. MULTITUDES of good suggestions (and Councilor Bigelow's) have been made yet Bob has not, from what I have seen, used any of them and continues on with the plan he had from the beginning: CUT SAFETY.

Don't even get me started on the city's law department...I think William Shakespeare would take a more forceful approach,"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers." - (Henry VI ), but can't we at least cut some of that fat? Or in retrospect, knowing that a financial crisis was only months away maybe we shouldn't have given Arthur Frank a 30/40,000 dollar raise.

Mayor Correia, dust off your fiddle, sit in your throne on the 6th floor of government center, and be prepared to watch Fall River burn.

• I think that pretty much sums up my thoughts at the moment.