I'm Somebody Now!

The only things I love more than blogging (Jada)

(Kira)

Well how about that! The Valley Advocate declared me one of the "100 things" they love about the Valley.

Silly me, I always make fun of Internet listicals -- but this one strikes me as pretty darn lovable.

Although I'm pretty sure if, say, the Massachusetts Daily Collegian came up with a list of 100 things their readers hate about the Valley, I would be pretty high on the list.

The BIG advantage I have over traditional bricks-and-mortar media outlets is I know my hometown better than anyone.

And I still have a competitive karate spirit for getting the story, giving voice to the voiceless or speaking truth to power.  Especially when it's a combination of all three.

But mainly I have an Irish sense of humor -- even when the jokes on me. 

A Violation of Journalistic Ethics?

Select Board reading draft doc written by Temp Town Mgr Peter Hechenbleikner

So yes, more than a few people have asked how I came in possession of a "draft" document that was being discussed at a public meeting (although in a hard-to-find room) where a public official later refused to release it to the Daily Hampshire Gazette.

 Draft Select Board response to Vira Douangmany Cage email last week

First off I'm aggressive about getting the story but I always keep in mind the ethics involved, because a good reporter is only as good as their reputation.  And ethics violations are a quick way to forever destroy a reputation.

Although these days, with the blinding speed of digital reporting, the line between right and wrong is sometimes a tad blurry.

Cut to the video replay:




As you can clearly see I borrowed the document (with permission) just long enough to photograph it, and since the Select Board was discussing said document in a public setting it is most certainly going to become a public document in the very near future.

In fact the draft of the document I published would also be subject to Public Documents Law which acting SB Chair Doug Slaughter seemed to acknowledge.

This exceedingly sad case of single mom trying to protect her 7-year-old daughter from bullying only to be bullied in return by the public schools has embroiled the Pelham, Amherst and Regional School Committees, Amherst and Pelham Police Departments and now the Select Board in a no-win quagmire.

It should NEVER have gotten this far.

 #####

Aisha Hiza at Monday's Select Board meeting

Statement from Aisha Hiza after last night's Pelham School Committee meeting:

"The Pelham chief said that he had spoken to the school but had come to a conclusion that it was a school issue. The Amherst Police said that it was a Pelham issue, as did the Amherst town manager. 

Both have made these statements, but the superintendent in her statement said that she placed the stay away order because of the advice and guidance of both town's police departments. 

So who is telling the truth and who is lying? Who will take responsibility? 

Over 80 something days I was banned with no due process and no actual reasoning or explanation. 

Can you even imagine the amount of stress this created for my child and myself? 

Even with the ban lifted I will not able to enter the school unless I have someone with me as a witness because I have lost trust ... and for good reason. 

The abuse of power continues: they are withholding my daughter's complete school records, which I have requested from them more then once verbally and in writing. Records that as a parent I have the rights to according to state laws. 

Instead all they will give me is a log of her visits to the school nurse. This stay away should never have been placed. Instead of handling the real situation of my child being bullied, the superintendent and her administration irrationally and hastily made decisions and decided that my daughter's well being and safety at school was not important. 

The use of a stay way order was placed intermittently is questionable. How is safety conditional if my behavior/actions were such a concern that warranted such an order but I was okayed to attend events.

Hell, even a court ordered Restraining Order has an expiration date to revisit and have an appeals process. Seems to me like a misuse of power without admittance to their fault."

Innocent Until Proven Guilty

Amherst Select Board 12/21/15.  Jim Wald on right

Amherst Select Board member Jim Wald was arrested by Amherst police over the weekend and charged with "Assault on a family member," arraigned before Judge John Payne this morning in Eastern Hampshire District Court where his case was continued to January 28th for a Pretrial Hearing.

Click to enlarge/read

I have not felt this lousy about reporting an event concerning an Amherst town official since that sad Sunday morning in late September when I broke the shocking news of Town Manager John Musante's death at too early an age.

The relatively new Domestic Violence Law, in order to protect victims, requires police to purge from their daily logs any domestic abuse incident, aka Chapter 56A.

In addition, Eastern Hampshire District Court will not provide the police "Statement of Facts" that I rely on with my usual drunk driving or party house arrest reports.

I reached out to Mr. Wald asking him for a statement.   But other than pointing out, "Not everything you read or hear is true or as characterized -- which is why in this country one is innocent until proven guilty," he did not have anything further to say.

Had it been a DPW worker, Dispatcher or Town Hall janitor you would not be reading this report.  But Mr. Wald is a high ranking town official (although at $300/year he makes far less pay than any of those three other examples) who simply must be held to a higher standard.

And a reporter who decides whether or not to report a story based on personal feelings -- good or bad -- towards personalities involved, is a lousy reporter.

Death Be Not Proud

Growing up in bucolic Amherst during the carefree pre-Internet days just before Vietnam changed our national psyche, my Irish mother had a superstitious habit of lowering her voice to a whisper when using  the word "cancer" to describe how a friend or acquaintance had recently passed.

Her way of dealing with a killer that still a generation later accounts for a sizable percentage of "routine" deaths.

Ball Lane:  one of the last unpaved roads in Amherst (privately owned)

On Wednesday evening Amherst police responded to a Ball Lane apartment to perform a "well being check."

Neighbors had called because the tenant who lives there had not been seen in quite a while and a strong stench was emanating from the general direction of his apartment.

You can guess what happened next.

After a "keyholder" (property manager) arrived to let authorities in the officer promptly radioed Dispatch saying ,"Recode from a well being check to a 63."  A '63' is an "unattended death."

Since all unattended deaths have to be investigated by the Northwestern District Attorney I asked for a statement concerning the sad incident.  I was told no statement would be issued.

I asked for simple confirmation that an Amherst resident, age 31, had actually died and was again told "no statement would be issued."

Okay, I can take a hint.

As of yesterday the Amherst Town Clerk has on file 109 death certificates for the year 2015.  And just so as not to slip into a melancholy morbid stupor I also checked births:  64.

And while I was there looking at them (since they can't be removed from her office or photographed) two couples came in to file for a marriage license.  Life, indeed, goes on.

The vast majority of deaths resulted from cancer, heart attacks, renal failure or dementia.  And for the most part their ages were well past retirement.

But six of them -- all but one -- college to middle aged had "pending" appear prominently on the cause of death line.  That means the Medical Examiner had been called in because the death was not "routine."

And more often than not those eventually (takes six months) return as a suicide or drug overdose.

For instance one of the names with "pending" is Zachariah Spaulding another the recent well publicized Chris Linehan, who died in the bathroom of the Hess Station in South Amherst. 

In fact two other death certificates did outright confirm "suicide".  Neither of which were covered by the local media or even so much as acknowledged by public officials.

Perhaps if people knew the extent of the problem with deaths nobody wants to acknowledge or talk about, preventative measures would be sought -- in earnest. 

Should Everyone Get A Trophy?

Today's Gazette above the fold story (at least they used a question mark)

Well I guess now I know why the Gazette sent a photographer (but not a reporter) to the Amherst Regional School Committee meeting on Tuesday: Today's whiny front page soap opera piece about the supposed poisoned political climate in town.

Had the reporter attended the Regional School Committee meeting readers could have been informed about the one-hour discussion that took place concerning expanded Regionalization -- the most  important educational decision facing the four towns in more than a generation.

All the more important for print coverage since Amherst Media, although contractually obligated to, failed to cover it (too busy covering the town sponsored 3rd annual parking forum I suppose).

And where was the Gazette when former School Committee member Catherine Sanderson was being raked over the coals five years ago for telling it like it is on her blog?

The establishment went so far as to file a letter of complaint with the District Attorney about her outspokenness -- a clear violation of the First Amendment.   Thus sending the unmistakable message that if you question authority, you will be crushed.

Seemingly every year someone dies horribly while hiking in the White Mountains because they choose to set off ill-prepared for the journey.

Amherst politics is not a casual stroll along the bike path, but neither is it an ascent up Mt. Washington.

I would not have it any other way.

A rant on why a bleeding-heart liberal advertises on a more right-leaning publication in a left leaning community.

 Mike Seward

Editors note:  This is only the 2nd "guest post" I have published over the past 8 years.  Self serving perhaps, but considering all the nasty  comments I've published directed at me over the years from Cowardly Anon Nitwits ...

There was an item in the news recently that caught my attention.  Masslive.com reported that Only in the Republic of Amherst blogger Larry Kelley complained about not being allowed to film an event at a public building, thereby violating his First Amendment right.

The article didn’t mention anything about what school officials had to say about it, however.

As is often case on Masslive, anonymous posters chimed in on the topic.  One caught my eye because it characterized the author of this blog as an “insane agitator and provocateur” who is hated by the public and public officials for his “confrontational manner”.

It went on to characterize this blog as an “anti-democracy screed” and relegated it to the “right wing paranoid luny (sic) bin”.

I don’t always agree with Larry, but I proudly advertise on this blog regardless.  Allow me to explain why I advertise, why others should advertise, and why those who don’t agree with him should read his blog.
  
While I can appreciate why liberal-minded folks like myself may disagree with Larry’s opinions, it is undeniable that his blog provides a service and fills a void.  It would be a mistake to compare what he does to Fox News, a so-called “news organization” that I would characterize as an actual right wing paranoid loony bin. 

Larry has broken stories that were later picked up by more mainstream publications like The Republican/Masslive.com and Daily Hampshire Gazette.  He also reports items that aren’t covered by either organization that should be covered. 

The press is supposed to challenge public officials, even if it requires a confrontational style to get the answers. 

The Masslive/The Republican reporter should have “confronted” school administrators about Larry not being allowed to film a public event in a public building and included their response in the article.

The framers of the U.S. Constitution enumerated free press protections in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights because they knew that an informed electorate was essential to democracy.

They knew that voters need to know the who, the what, the why, the how, and the when of what their public officials are doing in order for a democracy to function.

Today’s press is failing voters miserably in more ways than one, and what follows are just a couple of the many reasons why―and why the citizens of Amherst should be happy to have another source of information.

Today’s press is too reliant on “official” sources and press releases.  They don’t investigate the facts independently as the Fourth Estate should.

I published a news site of my own in Belchertown. It was called Belchertown-News.com.  I know it is a lot of work to cover and promote the news. (My appreciation for what Larry does is another reason I support this blog with advertising.)

While I was unable to make it sufficiently profitable to quit my day job, I still get press releases all the time.   Because I receive press releases, I can tell you that too many of them are simply paraphrased and published by mainstream news agencies.

Sometimes they just get their information from a police agency’s Facebook status. They don’t investigate the facts for themselves.  They don’t try to find out if there is more to the story.  This includes press releases from organizations, town officials, businesses, and everyone else.

They just take it for granted that what they received was true and distribute it to the masses for consumption.  How is that good for democracy? 

I post Belchertown-related stories from other news agencies at Facebook.com/BelchertownNews.  As such, I contribute to the problem I just discussed by distributing said stories further.   I still post my own scoops on occasion, as well.

Another way our press fails us is through media consolidation.  There is  too much synergy and not enough energy in news reporting.  Most of our press, both locally and nationally, is owned by just a few media conglomerates.

These media conglomerates have their own interests that sometimes conflicts with that of the public they are supposed to serve―whether it is their own interests or the interests of their advertisers.

Just look at Comcast-owned NBC News and their lack of coverage of net neutrality, a topic that could potentially have a very significant impact on our democracy.

And when the media are making millions on political campaigns, well, the conflict is self-evident and especially egregious. 

Two of our local television media outlets―WGGB (Channel 40) and CBS3 Springfield―are owned by just one corporation: Meredith Corporation.   The Republican/Masslive.com is owned by Advance Publications. Even Daily Hampshire Gazette and its family of newspapers isn’t locally owned.  It is owned by Newspapers of New England.

Media consolidation dilutes the news.

One perspective is portrayed across multiple venues, thereby limiting the number of news items that the people of the cities and towns of the Pioneer Valley actually need to know.

I watched CBS 3 Springfield a few times, and it seemed that too many of their stories began with, “According to our media partners Masslive and The Republican...”  What’s the point of multiple news sources if they all report the exact same thing?

Isn’t the point of a robust press to provide multiple perspectives and allow for more news stories to be reported?  How is media consolidation good for public?
 
As someone who ran his own news website for one town, I also know that there are a ton of stories not being covered that should be covered.  Think about it. Every single town has a regular schedule of selectmen meetings, school committee meetings, planning board meetings, zoning board of appeals meetings, and more.  Each of those meetings has multiple items on their respective agendas.

Think of all the potentially important news stories not being covered because there aren’t enough resources to cover them.

The public can’t do anything about what they may not want their public officials  doing unless they know about it beforehand, and the public not finding out something until it is too late happens more often than you think.
  
Of course, we shouldn’t dismiss the fact that more of the public needs to take an interest in what is happening.  I’ve seen people stand up at Belchertown’s Annual Town Meeting and ask questions about things that were widely reported in the news.

The more people paying for news would go a long way toward improving news coverage.  

The community should embrace Larry’s efforts for all these reasons, at the very least.  He is just one local guy helping to fill a large void to serve the public interest.

You don’t have to agree with everything he writes to do so. The news shouldn’t be consumed to validate one’s worldview.  It should be consumed to help inform it.  That’s why multiple perspectives are essential.

Those perspectives shouldn’t just be limited to the same story, either. Different perspectives are also offered in the types of stories that are covered.

If it is true that the public and public officials hate Larry, as the anonymous Masslive commenter claimed, then it is likely because the public and town officials have forgotten what a free press is all about. 

That Damn Gazette!

They also fail to mention photo taken by supporter of the movement

 

Sincerest Form Of Flattery

8/10/2013 Torch Run for Special Olympics

The downside of publishing 10,000 photographs over the past 7.5 years is it's sometimes hard to recognize when someone borrows one without permission, a clear violation of copyright law.

I'm not surprised when the understaffed mainstream media does it with breaking news (although they are getting better about asking for permission) but I was a little surprised the town and UMass would do it.

Well I guess technically it was U3 Advisers, the $60,000 consultant hired to map out a strategy for future growth of housing and economic development between the town and our #1 employer UMass/Amherst, the flagship of higher education in an education oriented state.

But the town published the "Final Report" on the town website, as did the Town Gown Steering Committee on their state website.

I actually did notice the photo when it was first used at the preliminary presentation back in early August since I  have enjoyed covering the jointly produced by APD/UMPD "Torch Run" to benefit Special Olympics.

This past year I notice my friends in the mainstream media didn't cover the annual event, but since they did the year before I just assumed the photo was one of theirs and used with permission.

Or taken by any number of folks who work for the University in "community relations".  Rumor has it they even hired a few students to do social media to counteract my pain-in-the-ass blog.

A Town Meeting member recently posted to the privately owned Amherst Town Meeting listserve Blarney Blowout thumbnails via Google images (which is not a copyright violation) in response to another Town Meeting member asking about the Torch Run photo (where was it taken and what was the event) used in the U3 Advisers final report. 

 Fearing Street 2:10 pm (UMPD video screen grab)

Yes, the Blarney Blowout will be l-o-n-g remembered -- as well it should.  In fact, I'm working on a story for Monday that uses previously unpublished video of the sad day taken by a not overly happy UMass police officer.

So get ready for the UMass PR machine to counter with high resolution photos of kitties and unicorns.  At least I will not have to worry about them stealing those from me (not my kind of photo shoots).

 APD Chief Livingstone (center) without riot gear, North Pleasant/Fearing Street 2:10 pm 

screen grab from UMPD video shot that day

Witness vs Informant

Chancellor Subbaswamy and Stan Rosenberg Saturday UMass Homecoming Parade

Well I guess there goes the Pulitzer Prize for the venerable Boston Globe.

According to Northwestern District Attorney Dave Sullivan, drug OD victim Eric L. Sinacori, age 20, was not a UMass Police Department snitch, err, I mean informant.  He was a "witness" in a case against a drug dealer.

Kind of a BIG difference wouldn't you say? 

Although I'm going out on a journalistic limb at the moment by not corroborating that claim with another reliable source, but if you can't trust the District Attorney who can you trust?

And one of my other problems with the original Globe article was they seemed to think they could guarantee the young man's anonymity.  In this day and age.

I had a couple dozen Google referrals on Sunday to the story I did four months ago from folks doing a search for "acute heroin intoxication, Amherst".

Even the Gazette figured it out, since the Globe article published the date he died.  And the medical examiner has to file a death certificate in the municipality in which the person died (although it takes six months).

UMass PR folks at first seemed to be showing support to UMPD, but backed down last night and issued a statement from the Chancellor suspending the use of informants until a full review.  Today both the Boston Globe and Springfield Republican did editorials cheering that backpedaling.

I have no problem with requiring informants to get counseling if indeed they are addicted.  But to require parents be informed is simply a deal breaker.  You might as was well require UMPD to take out an ad in the Daily Collegian naming their informants.  

So yes, even though (apparently) Eric Sinacori was not a police informant, PR conscious UMass will probably go ahead and kill the program anyway.

And a year or two from now some kid will die of an OD that could have been prevented if his/her dealer was arrested via use of an informant. 

DA Dave Sullivan Statement Eric Sinacori

The Fairness of Anonymity

Daily Hampshire Gazette version of Boston Globe story

I'm sorry but I find it odd the venerable Boston Globe went with this story (in a BIG way I might add) using anonymous sources -- the parents who endured that which no parent should endure.

Yes, I'm well aware of my exceedingly high percentage of commenters who wish to remain anonymous.  I struggle almost daily with publishing some of the nasty unfair criticism they hurl at people both in the public eye and sometimes not so much in the public eye.

In America one of our fundamental legal rights is to be able to face our accuser.  The Globe allowed grieving parents to criticize the UMass Police Chief and Assistant Chief while remaining cloaked in anonymity.

Sorry but you can't have it both ways.  Let's protect the parents' privacy so as not to further hurt their already battered feelings, but simultaneously allow them to hurt others' feelings by suggesting they screwed up, causing a young man's death. Cops are human beings too.

The reason I published the young man's death certificate four months ago using the killer quote "acute heroin intoxication" is because I thought people should be aware that heroin is deadly serious business, even in our bucolic little town.

And why shouldn't police protect their sources the same way journalists do?

If I take a photo in town center of a low-level town employee inappropriately parking in a handicapped zone and they offer me details of high-level corruption in exchange for not publishing it, what the hell do you think I'm gonna do? 

The "age of majority" in Massachusetts is 18, so police were under no legal obligation to contact the parents.  And it's a bit of a leap to strongly suggest that parental intervention with a 20-year-old is guaranteed to make a life or death difference. 

Last week a UMass student killed himself in an off-campus location.  The District Attorney does not comment on private deaths in private homes, neither apparently does UMass (except they did issue a statement on the day the drug informant was found dead in his off campus apartment).

Fair enough.

But what if the Phoebe Prince case was covered up in such a typical manner?  Massachusetts would not now have stronger anti-bullying laws.

And what if none of the 100 grieving relatives of those who died in the horrific Station Nightclub fire wanted it mentioned that their loved one died in a bar?  We would not now have stronger legislation to protect the public from such a fire ever reoccurring. 

And where would gay rights and AIDS research be today if Rock Hudson had not come out in 1985 to acknowledge he had the dreaded disease?

The greater good often comes at the expense of the very few.  Or the one.

Privacy vs Free Speech

I always cringe when Massachusetts hastily passes a new law in reaction to a high profile event, such as the exceedingly good intentioned Domestic Abuse Law in response to Jared Remy murdering his girlfriend that now, unfortunately, forbids police was releasing names of perps arrested for domestic abuse.

Or the recent "upskirt" law criminalizing peeping toms who take surreptitious photos of women in public places.

According to the Governor's press release:  "The legislation makes the secret photographing, videotaping, or electronically surveiling of another person's sexual or other intimate parts, whether under or around a person's clothing or when a reasonable person would believe that the person's intimate parts would not be visible to the public, a crime."

Okay fair enough, no arguments there.

But I now wonder if that is the fledgling law UMass administrators are using to bully a freshman for tweeting a picture of a couple -- clearly anonymous, without "intimate parts" showing -- having sex in state subsidized housing on the campus of a state subsidized flagship of higher education?

Amherst College can do pretty much whatever they want in relation to the First Amendment because it doesn't apply to them, since they are not a "government" institution.  UMass/Amherst is, however, a state funded institution -- so the First Amendment clearly does apply.

Arguably our single most valuable freedom enjoyed as Americans.

If the young student who innocently tweeted that image-shattering photo (My God, 18 year old students actually have sex on a Thursday afternoon!) had instead published a photo of white Ferguson police officers combating black protesters, UMass Office of News & Media Relations would fall all over themselves championing her for standing up to authority.

Yes of course the First Amendment can indeed be, um, messy -- especially in this instantly publish Internet age.

Westboro Baptist Church @ UMass 4/16/14

I don't like the racist, homophobic signs carried by the attention seeking Westboro Baptist Church any more than you do.   But suppressing their rights today based on content, only means tomorrow it could be your message banned.

Fuck the censorship!

Say What?

My friends at the Gazette have switched over to Facebook commenting for their online articles, which I of course think is a good thing.  Yes, trolls and cranks thrive under a cloak of anonymity.

But based on a Facebook posting I received in the dead of night (2:00 AM) I'm now not so sure that simply having to identify yourself keeps the discussion civil and prevents namecalling ...

UPDATE (11:15 AM):

 

So Mr. Geryk has removed his incendiary comment from my highly public Facebook page.  

But no, I'm not going to remove it here.  In Massachusetts you cannot record someone without their knowledge, but if someone calls you up and leaves a message on your voice mail then that is fair game.

#####

These are in response to article about Maria Geryk's $11,000 raise:

Click to enlarge/read

Dimming The Light

The door to open government just closed a few inches with an "emergency" measure signed earlier this month by Governor Duval Patrick (so it went into effect immediately) forbidding police departments from releasing the names of perps arrested for domestic violence.

Apparently proponents of the measure feel victims are less likely to report acts of domestic abuse, fearing the local paper will publish their address, thereby identifying them.

But most (good) newspapers have policies in place to protect underage victims or those impacted by sensitive issues such as sexual abuse, suicide, or domestic violence.

In the interests of protecting the victims of this sordid scourge that strikes 25% of American women, this broad stroke measure will also serve to protect the perps. 

Last Fiscal Year APD arrested 59 individuals for domestic Assault & Battery.  

If A Reporter Falls In The Forest ...

The painful decline in the newspaper industry nationwide continues unabated.   Once again it hits close to home.  The Daily Hampshire Gazette has parted ways with Bob Dunn, yet another front-line reporter from the ranks of an already decimated stable.

And nowhere is that more apparent than in Amherst, home of the state's education flagship -- and city unto itself -- UMass/Amherst:  25 years ago the Daily Hampshire Gazette/Amherst Bulletin news operation employed 13 full-time benefited employees (10 Bulletin, 1 Gazette, 1 shared) and another 15-20 Bulletin part-timers. 

Now the Gazette/Bulletin operation consists of only two full time benefited employees:  reporter Scott Merzbach and editor Debra Scherban. 

And that simply reflects national trends, although probably a lot worse, set in motion by a rise of the Internet over the past ten years: Classified advertising down 74% (thanks to Craigslist), overall print advertising down 61%, weekday circulation down 47%.

Simply put, the newspaper industry is drowning in red ink.

Plunging profits mean cuts in overhead.  Newsroom staffing has dwindled from 54,700 journos in 2002 to 38,000 in 2012, a drop of 31%. And it's only going to get worse.

If you really think Facebook works as a news provider then simply look what happened last week.  The riotous events in Ferguson, Missouri dominated Twitter and cable news, while Facebook was awash in the "Ice Bucket Challenge."

The loss of this vanishing breed -- a good reporter -- should be a wake up call.  You know, like a bucket of ice water dumped on your head!

Last year's lay off, quickly overturned

Shining A Light

Shine the light on the story, not yourself

I consider myself an aggressive reporter.  When at the scene of a fire or riot, if I don't get yelled at by police, then I'm doing something wrong.  But whether covering a chaotic outdoor disturbance or a boring indoor zoning board hearing, I always try to stay out of the way.

When using public documents to uncover truths for a story, I try to let the documents speak for themselves.  The hard part is knowing such documents exist and who it is you need to hit with a public documents request.

The events unfolding in Ferguson are -- as Commander Spock would say -- "fascinating".     For many reasons.

As usual, folks are quick to jump to conclusions based on their built up biases.  I'm a BIG fan of public safety (admitting my bias for those of you who may be first timers to this blog)  but an even bigger fan of journalism.

I will, however, never suppress or ignore the truth to protect either of them.  

There's no question Ferguson police could use a refresher course on respecting constitutional rights, and just plain old public relations.  The images of Darth Vader like squads of police armed for Armageddon is not the kind of thing you want presented on the nightly news ... or even that newfangled thing, the Internet.

Reporters want to report, it's kinda their job.  And it's really hard to do that when police keep you corralled up far from the scene of the action.

Police, conversely, want to quell the very action reporters need to report, and it can sometimes be difficult to do when reporters get in the way.  Or worse, their presence serves to incite an already amped-up crowd.

 

UMPD firing pellets into the crowd (burning sugar) 10/31/13

At all the disturbances I've covered involving rowdy students both on and off the UMass campus, I have never yet seen a TV news camera not cause a volatile reaction from the crowd.  And yes, when police don their riot gear, that too incites the crowd.

So what we now have in Ferguson is the worst combination of the two.

If police had been more forthcoming with the facts from the very beginning, the cycle of violence would never have gotten out of hand.  Mainstream media also took too long to awaken to the story, but now it's become a circus where reporters outnumber protesters.

"Sunlight is said to be  the best of disinfectants."  Perhaps why all the mayhem seems to occur after dark.

What A Twit

Worst Tweets Ever has a whopping 3 followers

As I close in on a Twitter milestone, one thousand followers (hint, hint), I'm reminded by a youthful critic otherwise known as a "Cowardly Anon Nitwit" why the service rocks.

With only 140 characters to play with you have to be a tad concise.  Kind of like the telegraph of old where you paid by the word so you tended to use as few as possible.

Or the early days of the telephone when the thought of "long distance" charges struck fear into the hearts of your parents, so you learned to talk fast with far flung family members.

It also reminds me of Town Meeting where pretty much any local can get up in front of the body before a live microphone and say pretty much anything.

I always have that split second fear as I trudge to the podium that I'm going to suddenly have a  Tourette's moment and just start spouting "expletive deleted."

On Twitter you can get in trouble instantly for saying stupid things even if you only have a few followers, because all it takes is for one of them with a huge number of followers to retweet you.  While bad news has always moved quickly, stupid news moves at warp speed.

I have more than a few "college aged youth" who follow me just to see if I'm talking about them or their lifestyle.  They don't usually just randomly tweet at me like the nitwit "worst tweets ever" who obviously also has the account "larry kelleys whack."

Him I ignore, because if I respond to a stupid tweet that originally only went to his one follower, suddenly it goes to all almost-1,000 of my followers.  And since  a few them would like to dance on my grave, they would chime in supporting the initial idiot.

Last Spring was relatively quiet but there were a couple weekend nights where warm weather brought out the zombie party herds.  I remember tweeting a couple of low key incidents early in the evening -- APD making an arrest for "open container" on Fearing Street or AFD responding to the first ETOH (alcohol poisoning) incident of the night. 

A couple kids played off those tweets with sarcasm that was then favorited or retweeted by other like minded followers (none of them having much more than an average number of followers -- 200 or so).

But as the night wore on, and the number of ETOH incidents requiring ambulances became more and more numerous -- to the point where we ran out of ambulances -- the sarcastic tweets stopped.

So either it dawned on them that having all our ambulances tied up carting drunk students to CDH is not a good thing, or maybe some of them were the ones being carted to the hospital.

Of course the other tremendous Twitter thing is the ability to post photos instantly, conjuring up that old pre-Internet adage that still remains true:  a picture is worth 1,000 words.

And that's a lot of characters.

LarryWhack has zero followers

One Million Down ...

So I should have stayed up a little later last night because sometime just before midnight the milestone one millionth visitor came a calling.  Not that my sitemeter gives me their email so I can award him/her a prize.

Over the past seven years I have tried to cover the stories that my friends in the bricks and mortar media may have missed, or to cover them in a way that offers more of the backstory.

Living here all my life and having operated a small service-oriented business for 28 years gives me Google-like institutional memory and a fairly extensive list of ultra-reliable sources.

Sources who trust my use of "off the record," knowing that North Koreans could hold a flamethrower to my head and I would never give them up.

If you looked at my widget for "popular posts" (which is continuously updated real time) four months ago, six of the top ten stories had nothing to do with  "rowdy student behavior."

Cowardly Anon Nitwits constantly accuse me, a proud UMass grad, of being "anti-student" where all I ever write about is the tiny minority of students who screw up.

So I kind of liked that I could respond with, "60% of my top ten stories have nothing to do with students behaving badly."  Well unfortunately, that is no longer the case.  This year's Blarney Blowout -- not exactly a "tiny minority" of students -- pushed not one, but two new posts into the top ten.

Now 60% of my "popular posts" do involve student bad behavior (4 of them specifically related to Blarney Blowout).

But I take great journo pride in the two stories that were pushed out of the top ten:

The potentially catastrophic basement fire at a Hobart Lane (students) apartment that exposed a (well known) landlord coverup of shoddy conditions -- including orchestrated violations of the bylaw restricting one family units to no more than four unrelated tenants.

A case that came at just the right time to help pass the Amherst Rental Registration & Permit Bylaw last year, the most important piece of legislation enacted by Town Meeting in a generation.

And the other case that you have also read about here more than any other media outlet:  A working class family unfairly sanctioned by an overly PC Amherst School system.  A sad story that is still ongoing.

I hope to be around to bring you a conclusion.

An Unattended Death

UMass Amherst: Not exactly a drug free zone

UPDATE January 24, 2015

My sitemeter tells me a bevy of folks are now coming to this post after doing Google searches for "heroin death UMass Amherst" or something similar, no doubt in response to the ABC 20/20 episode aired last night, which interestingly enough used the same alias for Eric Sinacori as did the Boston Globe, "Logan."

So they can interview his Mom on camera and show his picture, but not use his real name?

And I wonder when the next student dies of a heroin OD supplied by an on campus dealer who was free to ply his pernicious trade because UMPD can no longer use student informants, will 20/20 cover that?

####

ORIGINAL REPORT 

Although nestled in a quaint little New England town, UMass/Amherst, the flagship of higher education in the state, is virtually a city unto itself.

So it's not overly surprising that death on occasion comes calling, even to the young of age.

Last Fall two sudden unattended deaths occurred that were (initially) covered by the local media -- Eric Sinacori, age 20, and Evan Jones, age 19.  Although technically Sinacori died off campus in his Puffton Village Apartment.

But since they both died in the town of Amherst the medical examiner files a certificate of death with the Town Clerk, although it takes up to six months. 

In Evan Jones case, death was caused by a "seizure."

In Eric Sinacori's case the injury occurred because of "Illicit substance abuse," and the immediate cause of death was, "Acute Heroin Intoxication."

Governor Deval Patrick and Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan have declared war on opioid abuse.  At a press conference in late February, DA Sullivan called the surge in drug overdoses, "A public health crisis" while citing, "19 deaths in Hampshire and Franklin counties since November 1st, 2013." (Twice the rate of the rest of the state.)

And since Mr. Sinacori died just prior to November 1st he would have pushed the DA's list to 20 deaths! 

Last week in the little town of Deerfield, three individuals were saved from death by heroin overdose over the course of three days by a quick spray of Narcan.

Governor Patrick has signed off on allowing first responders statewide to carry Narcan, as well as friends and family of opioid users (with proper training).

Today UMass graduates 5,500 dedicated young adults who have worked hard over the past few years to attain their degrees.  Governor Patrick is the keynote speaker.

I hope he remembers the students who will never make their graduation ceremonies.

Solace on St Patrick's Day

Growing up less than well off in a Irish Catholic single-parent household in Amherst, you couldn't help but notably mark St Patrick's Day.  To my mother it was perhaps more important than Christmas or Easter -- two pretty sacred days for Catholics.

So I've always tried to use it in a positive way.  Seven years ago today I started this blog, now fast approaching one million unique visitors.  Two years ago I gave up drinking, and today I don't miss it a bit.

From 1992 through 2001, March 17 was the start date of training for the bike race up Mt Washington, so from St Patrick's day until the end of August a day would not go by -- no matter the weather -- without an hour training in the saddle. 

At the impressionable age of 17 -- in the summer of 1972 -- in fell in love with both karate and journalism.  For you non history majors that was the beginning of Watergate, where dogged determination by two reporters over a (too) long time period led to the downfall of the most powerful man on earth.

I founded my karate school in 1982 to distract myself from not accomplishing a goal I had set at age 17:  Becoming the #1 ranked sport karate player in the nation.  But I did manage to come in at #3 that year.

Since then, two hip and one knee replacement later, my karate skills are not nearly what they were at peak when for a brief moment I was perhaps unbeatable.  But my journalism skills are better today than at any point in the past, partially because I accepted early on the awesome power of the Internet.

For the 1982 grand opening of the Karate Health Fitness Center and the following two years, I advertised in the weekly paper I had grown up reading, The Amherst Record. In fact my father and his father before him had advertised the Kelley Plumbing & Heating business in the paper as well. 

It was one of those traditional home town weeklies where you read about the people you would see in the downtown on any given day.

The Amherst Record folded in 1984 because of normal business competition not the upheaval cause by the Internet, which now threatens the entire print industry.

So why bring back the Amherst Record in digital form?  Because the more people shining a light on government, business and education the better -- especially in Amherst, where education is king.  And I have over 30 years of institutional memory to guide my spotlight.

I promise to pursue important stories with the same zeal and boundless determination I demonstrated in the karate ring, or while running a small business for almost 30 years.

Please join me in that quest: 

Indiegogo fundraiser for Amherst Record Digital News

When Heads Collide

The brain is a terrible thing to waste

For those of you who think sports writers are more cheerleaders than journalists, you may want to head to UMass tonight (6:00 to 8:00 PM) to check out  "League of Denial:  A Conversation with the Authors" at the Campus Center Auditorium put on by The McCormack Department of Sport Management and the digitally savvy UMass Journo Department.

A compelling case of journalism done right.  Shining a light on the dark side of an untouchable American icon of entertainment, professional football.  And the collateral, sometimes deadly, damage done to the athletes who make it their profession.

At least the Romans were honest about the outcomes of the Gladiatorial games.

Of course if you are a BIG football fan, a spoiler alert:  you may never again look at the game quite so comfortably, or allow your kids to take it up.

 Campus Center Auditorium 7:00 PM

Frontline award winning 2 hour presentation

Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru