On average, one in three people will be involved in a drunk driving crash in their lifetime
Just to show there is a cultural connection between rowdy Party Houses, Blarney Blowouts, Hobart Hoedowns and drunk drivers, I give you Joseph J. Buckley, age 23, a UMass student from Billerica, Massachusetts.
Joe Buckley
Now Joe was arrested by APD at 2:00 AM, early Friday morning after quenching his "Thirsty Thursday" with too much alcohol and then getting behind the wheel of a car. He was pulled over on Lincoln Avenue, near UMass.
At the May, 2010 Hobart Hoedown Joseph Buckley was arrested for assault on an officer after throwing beer bottles at police. Obviously UMass was pretty lenient on him as he is still a student three years later, and still being arrested by Amherst police.
And he probably still won't do time. A guy like this should be doing a good, long bid. Richard Marsh.
ReplyDeleteI don't think in Massachusetts you do time for DUI, unless you kill someone.
ReplyDeleteToo bad the kids don't consider/ know how these things can affect them, possibly for the rest of their lives. Joe here is on the path to answering 'yes' to the 'have you ever been convicted of a felony' question on a job application.
ReplyDeleteLarry, I really wish you'd been on my committee -- you make blanket statements without any scintilla of verification.
ReplyDeleteFor all you know, UMass may have suspended him for THREE YEARS and finally let him back in this semester. Or he could have found Allah or somehitng (Enku's from Somalia) -- who knows.
You're as bad as obama was on the Skip Gates affair (he KICKED DOWN A DOOR -- I think cops have a right to inquire why, don't you).
And when his BLACK colleagues (Harvard Profs) are saying things like "couldn't have happened to a nicer guy" -- well -- any UMPD or APD officers want to say what would happen if THEY were asking someone (whom they didn't know) why he kicked down a door of a rental building?
What bothers me Larry is that the bad actors will get off -- they ALWAYS do. Daddy may have to make a $30K donation to UMass -- I know one A=Hole who got readmitted that way -- he the one who caused me to have problems with the APD, and I really wish I could tell them the whole story.
The kids I have seen get screwed are kids like your daughters (albiet older) -- good parents, good kids, were on the edge of something but didn't really do anything but can't fight back. So UM makes an example out of them. To appease you.
You once asked why PIKE got away with things --- mASSgop. Other frat houses got shut down for serving 20-year-old MHC girls, but not PIKE.
Larry, remember the movie Air America?
ReplyDeleteThe powers that be (Congressmen?) were calling for dug busts, so they engineered one. Doesn't matter that the guys they were going to bust were totally innocent -- they had their sacrificial lamb. That's what I fear you are doing.
What a scumbag. Ed, too, but this guy really should have a nice big book thrown at him, both literally and figuratively.
ReplyDeleteFolks, if you beat up a cop, I don't have problems with criminal charges being filed.
ReplyDeleteProsecute him!
What I *do* have a problem with is ad hock punishments. No, do it by the book.
You don't like ad hock punishments, Ed? How about ham hocks?
ReplyDeleteHarvey Silverglate quotes the play A man for all seasons to make a point -- in ensuring that others, no matter how reprehensible or guilty, are accorded all protections of due process and procedure, we are ensuring that such things will be there to protect us should we ever be falsely accused of anything in the future.
ReplyDeleteThe King's enemies were plotting aginst him, and the King's supporters wre urging him to just go kill the conspirators before anything could come of it.
No, the King said, the laws are like trees in the forest -- if I chop down every tree chasing the Devil, and the Devil turns and starts chasing me, what tree will there be for me to hide behind?
I have no doubt that this kid is a true schmuck who "has more money than brains." I would like to see "the book thrown at him" -- but remember the two underlying presumptions -- that there IS a book and that it can *be* thrown -- there are specific consequences for specific things, imposed after specific (PUBLIC) proceedings.
Folks, you can't commute to UMass from prison, can you? If we want to see people kicked out of UMass for things they don't do at UMass, that's a law that ought to be passed by the legislature and a sentence that ought to be imposed by a judge. Not Enku in a secret proceeding.
Folks, if you permit the principle to be established that UMass can expel students on the basis of an arrest (not conviction) and for something as a minor municipal bylaw, it won't be long before they are firing employees (including tenured professors) for the exact same thing. It won't be long before they are revoking the pensions of retired UM employees as well.
It won't be long before Larry figures out what I already know -- while managed by Eagle Crest and others, a lot of the rental property in Amherst is *owned* by current and/or former UM employees....
What's really wrong with due process and the expectation that it is the judge who gets to punish miscreants for their misdeeds?
Long time reader...first time commenter.
ReplyDeleteI am a recent graduate of UMASS Amherst who found Larry's blog to be informative and sometimes even useful throughout my stay at UMASS.
That being said, Larry and the rest of you commenters have no idea what they are talking about when it comes to Joe Buckley.
Joe is a good friend of mine and a genuinely great person. He's more than willing to go out of his way for a friend or a charity. I know the UMASS stereotype and frankly, it does exist. Joe is not the typical UMASS bro.
The alleged "beating up of a cop" as one of the commenters described simply did not happen. I was there that night and saw the whole thing. The justice system failed Joe that night. Admittedly, Hobart was was loud and overcrowded that night so the cops chose to preemptively pepper spray the lot of us. They then chose to detain over a dozen students, Joe just happened to be one of them. In my four years at Amherst, this was the one time I can actually say that the police were mistaken.
As for those saying Joe is from money, Joe worked almost 30 hours a week during his time at UMASS. He worked to help put himself through school. He's one of the most independent and hardworking people I know.
For those that may say I'm probably biased, no shit. But i know Joe's character. Much more than any of you could say before your baseless posts.