Aaaaalrighty then.
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Posted on 02/09/2007 8:13:33 PM PST by kristinn
WRENTHAM - Police Chief Joseph Collamati has asked Norfolk County District Attorney William Keating to investigate allegations a town police officer may have posted information on an Internet blog critical of selectmen.
Collamati said Thursday the allegations, discussed in open session by selectmen at the end of their meeting Tuesday night, "demeans the reputation of everybody here" in the police department.
The police chief wants the district attorney's office to conduct an independent investigation.
"Quite frankly, I was a little disturbed by the allegations. I don't think they're true," Collamati said. "The officers of the Wrentham police department feel their character has been assassinated."
Collamati said individuals calling themselves "Little Bill" and "Guinness Boy" made the negative comments on a blog on Feb. 23, 2005.
The blog's address, www.freepublic.com/focus/f-news, now leads to MegaGo.com, which offers a "one click search" of keywords.
Collamati said he had done a preliminary look at the text.
"I don't see anything in there that refers to a Wrentham police officer, but politics does strange things," Collamati said.
Selectmen say they heard a police officer had used the name "Guinness Boy," but hadn't confirmed that.
"They were making fun of John Zizza and Mary Dunn and me," said Selectwoman Jennifer Firth, who raised the issue at the selectmen's meeting at the urging of board member Richard Dion. "It was concerning the election" of April 2005, and ideas being bantered about on how to unseat Greg Pazurchek.
Pazurchek ended up being defeated by George Labonte, who has a relative on the police department. Firth, who had been on the board since before 2005, won another term last year. Dunn and Zizza were selectmen during 2005.
Labonte pointed out at the selectmen's meeting that anybody can say they are anyone on a blog.
Firth called the Internet site a "political blog written on a left wing Web site, Free Republic," which included a chat room.
Firth said she has no problem with referral of the case to the district attorney's office.
"We certainly welcome him to do so, and file any complaint he would like to," Firth said of the police chief.
Information about the blog text was left anonymously at the selectmen's office, and that was forwarded by Dunn to Collamati for investigation, Firth said.
The matter was later discussed by selectmen in closed session.
Firth said Dion, who resigned at the end of the selectmen's meeting for personal reasons, wanted the blog issue discussed in open session against her wishes.
"There was no reason to put it in a public political forum," Firth said, adding she questions the credibility of blogs. "I thought it was inappropriate. You don't know who the people are who are actually chatting."
Selectmen and police officers have not had a smooth a relationship in recent years, and that worsened with budget reductions this fiscal year that led to layoffs of two patrolmen, one position of which has been restored.
There has also been controversy over improving public safety communications coverage in the west end.
In recent months, selectmen have discussed accountability and discipline procedures of police officers and firefighters with Collamati and Fire Chief Robert Morrill, but there have been no serious problems with the rank and file.
"I greatly respect the police department and think they are doing a great job for the town," Firth said. "I have nothing negative to say."
AAAAAHHHHHHH.....poor babies....bump
I was almost fired for bringing up FR at work. A moonbat coworker reported me for visiting a "hate site".
LaCasse contended that as president and a voting ex-officio member of every council committee, he had membership in each of the committees that made up the joint committee - and therefore had two votes.Councilor Bill Bowles took issue with the interpretation, arguing a joint committee is a single committee with each member getting one vote.
Mangiaratti agreed with Bowles's interpretation, saying that a joint committee is a "separate and unified deliberative assembly" with each member getting a single vote.
He said he reviewed the city charter, city ordinances, council rules of procedure and Robert's Rules of Order, but could find no rule that covered the situation.
Furthermore, after discussing the question with colleagues at his law firm, Murphy, Hesse, Toomey & LeHane, Mangiaratti said, there was "no clear answer."
"I cannot say with authority the position of Mr. LaCasse with respect to his ability to cast two votes at the joint committee meeting was plainly wrong," he wrote.
But he said two votes for one committee member is out of the ordinary.
Then shouldn't the Voters get more than one vote for items that combine Town, State, and Federal funds/properties? With these inbred clowns is it any wonder the USA is headed down the wrong path?
Please, the official slang term for my home-state is My-ass-itch-ooze-zits.
False advertising:
you guys never told me that Free Republic was a left wing hate site....
"(They didn't even have the right address, which is why they got redirected to one of those placeholder web sites with a search engine box.)"
Pretty funny that an investigative reporter can't figure out he has the wrong address. Instead, he tries to make it appear as if the website 'disappeared.' What was he trying to do, make it appear that something sinister was going on? /sarc
I'm guessing that they have a printout with the URL at the top of the page. When they type it in, it is not recognized because the thread has been removed from FR.
Remember, when democrats are involved it's not the facts that matter, but the "seriousness of the charge".
Oh man, that's the funniest thing I've seen around here in a while. Well done!
Rolling all over the floor, LMAO!
Left wing, freepublic.com...
ah...methinks they doth protest too much since their assumptions are a bit off...ROFLOL...
ROTFLMAO!
You are TOO TOO funny...my first belly LOL o' the day.
Aaaaalrighty then.
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Left wing?! ....!!! ROFLMFAO!!!!!!
LOL!!!!!
It's obvious that they don't know what FR is. I still don't get (even if they thought they knew who said it), why "they" didn't have the right to say it.
I'm guessing that someone doesn't know thier right from their left, but that's just a wild guess.
ya oughta read it, too!
These a-holes should pucker up and place their collective kissers right on John McCain's butt. I hear he has a bee in his bonnet about the "blogosphere" too.
I fired off an e-mail to their editor with the correct links to the news forum, the front page, and teh statement by Jim.
And I told the editor that their reporters were sloppy.
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