Homeless In A College Town

First Baptist Church, 434 North Pleasant Street

The Housing & Sheltering Committee hosted the unveiling of a report last night done by two area college students over the past semester under the direction of John Hornik dissecting the overall operation of Craig's Doors, the seasonal homeless shelter operated part-time out of the First Baptist Church at the main gateway to UMass.

 John Hornik, Sakshi Bhatnager, Grace Nash

The homeless shelter originally started in 2010 as simply a "warming place", morphed into an overnight shelter run by Milestone Ministries and then became "Craig's Doors".

The facility runs on a $300,000 operation budget, two-thirds from the state and one-third from the town and is open from November until April 30 during New England's most dangerous season of the year, winter.

 Most recent year unique visitors are down, but utilization is up

The shelter has a capacity of 22 beds (16 men, 6 women) and oftentimes turns away two or three potential users, although during particularly bad weather they can get permission from Town Manager John Musante to expand capacity to 34 guests.  

The shelter has a close working relationship with Amherst police who visit nightly just as a courtesy call.  That way should their emergency services be needed residents do not view them as hostile outsiders. 

Year's worth of public safety calls (or about a weekend's calls to students' parties disturbances)

One of the criticisms of the shelter is that it does not enforce a strict policy of alcohol abstention prior to coming into the facility.  This of course can lead to behavior that requires the services of Amherst police.

 Click to enlarge/read

The other drawback that's a concern to downtown businesses is the facility attracts individuals to town who do not have a job or meaningful ways to occupy their time during the day.   Town center becomes a magnet for some of them to hang out ... panhandling, or a roughhousing in such a way as to make potential customers uncomfortable.

Of course the alternative is potential death due to the elements, so the inconvenience of occasional bad behavior is offset by the greater good:  keeping people safe.

 Comparison with Interfaith Cot Shelter in Northampton, a "dry" shelter i.e. no under the influence of alcohol admissions allowed 

John Hornik pointed out that Craig's Doors is safe for a few more years at its current location, but needs a permanent home.

Funding is also not guaranteed as the lion's share comes from the state as "earmarked funds," which means they have to be renewed annually and as such are subject to the vagaries of the state legislature.

Although having state senator Stan Rosenberg about to assume his powerful leadership roll should be comforting.

The Camera Never Blinks

An athlete oftentimes performs a little better while being observed by others, or trains a little harder when a "personal trainer" is giving encouragement. In sport psychology it's called "social facilitation".

In a larger sense, during competition, it can become a home field/court advantage.

Simply put, we all tend to behave better while under observation.

A recent study of a police department that has embraced use of the body cameras in Rialto, California showed a dramatic drop in complaints filed against officers as well as a reduction in police use of force.

What a difference these cameras would have made if UMPD and APD had been wearing them during the infamous "Blarney Blowout".  One of the suggestions published in the $160,000 Davis Report was to have better trained police photographers filming such interactions.

But if every patrol cop had a camera running, rather than selective outtakes that make it to Youtube, the whole story would be easier to see.  And you would not need to designate one or two officers to act as photographers, thus freeing them to help out fellow officers with the disturbance. 

APD has been experimenting with the body cameras since before the Ferguson incident. The Chief tells me it comes down to a budgetary issue as to whether his department will adopt them.  No real complaints have been issued by officers or their union concerning adoption.

Kind of like adopting cameras in all our patrol cruisers, something APD did two decades ago.   Or the early adoption (1984) of video taping drunk driving arrests/bookings.  Amherst was the 4th community in the state to adopt 911 as a means of emergency communications (1970).

When you're well trained, confident about your abilities and judgement, and in many cases young enough to embrace the digital age, cameras are nothing to be afraid of.

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I asked District Attorney Dave Sullivan about the supposed conflict of interest Mr. O'Connor mentioned in his monologue and received this reply:

We have had two police-involved shootings. There was a fatal shooting of Corey Navarette in Orange on July 3, 2013, in which the decedent pointed a loaded assault rifle at a state trooper who entered his home with a search warrant. First Assistant District Attorney Steve Gagne investigated and issued our full investigative report for publication. The report was fair, balanced, and exonerated the trooper.

A second shooting, nonfatal, occurred in Ware on Sept. 23, 2014.  Sajid Dacres and passenger were stopped for motor vehicle charges and credit card fraud. Dacres revved the engine to flee arrest, striking the police officer with the car he was driving. Shots fired by a Ware police officer resulted in non-life threatening injury. Dacres was arraigned today. It was determined by the Massachusetts State Police Detective Unit attached to the Office and the Office of the Northwestern District Attorney that the officer was justified in shooting.

I see it as entirely appropriate for the District Attorney, who is Chief Law Enforcement Officer and has jurisdiction over all death cases and criminal cases, to investigate police-involved shootings. I am elected and accountable to the people to insure that an independent investigation of a police shooting is conducted and justice is served.

Good & Bad

LifeFlight helicopter dropped in for a visit to Amherst College

The crew of the Worcester based UMass Memorial LifeFlight helicopter dropped in to do all-day EMT training at Amherst College on Sunday. That is of course the good.  In fact, great.

 Amherst College quad late Saturday night (the not so good)

 Shaki Holines, age 20, stands before Judge Payne

The AFD weekend report shows the bad influence on public safety wrought by the Amherst College "Crossett Christmas" late Saturday night. Amherst police also made two arrests.

   Weekend Runs Crossett XMass by Larry Kelley

In Eastern Hampshire District Court yesterday Mitchell Arthur and Shaki Holines had pleas of "not guilty" entered in their behalf for their Assault & Battery cases which were continued until January 26th.

 Mitchell Arthur, age 18, stands before Judge Payne

They both were released on their own recognizance.

We Gotta Get Out Of This Place

ARHS 12:15 PM Thursday

A response from Jennie Traschen to Amherst Regional High School Principal Mark Jackson's email sent to all parents concerning the Thursday afternoon walk out to "honor" a black man shot to death in self-defense by a white #Ferguson police officer set off an interesting email string sent to ALL Amherst Regional School Committee members  (thus making them public documents) prior to the walk out.

I'll let the emails speak for themselves.  Maybe Dr. Shabazz and Dr. Baptiste didn't see the email in time.  Or they don't care what the Superintendent thinks about "adults interceding on this student event".

   Amherst Student Walk Out Emails

 Adult cheerleaders ARHS 12:15 PM Thursday

 

Regional School Committee member posted to their Facebook page

In response to my records request for walk out numbers:

Click to enlarge/read

Student walkout statistics (Only in Amherst!)

Top Cop Chastises OML Violation

Trevor Baptise, then Vice Chair reads opening statement at 7/14 RSC meeting

Once again the Amherst Pelham Regional School Committee has been found guilty of an Open Meeting Law violation by the Attorney General, this time for the renegade 7/14 meeting brashly called by then Vice Chair Trevor Baptiste and attended by 5-of-9 members, which is a legitimate quorum.

The AG found, however, the meeting had not been properly posted in Amherst.  Although the AG does admit that for a brief time it was legally posted, but not for a long enough period.

   Amherst Schools OML violation

The meeting with only one item on the agenda was called by Trevor Baptiste (then Vice Chair, now Chair) to countermand a memo sent out by Chairs of School Committees who make up the Region decrying a statement made by Amilcar Shabazz at a public meeting talking about a covered up in-school racial incident where black youth beat up a white student.

"What Democracy Looks Like"

 Coming up North Pleasant Street

A large group of about 100 mostly college aged youth marched from UMass to Amherst center with APD in front and trailing behind as they chanted their way through town center and then descended Main Street to demonstrate in front of the Amherst police station.

 APD Chief Scott Livingstone on scene

After more than a half-hour at the police station they marched back up into town center, over to the Rt 9 intersection, down college street and into Amherst College. All the while Amherst PD, UMPD and Amherst College PD kept their distance, simply trying to stay ahead of the crowd but closing off roads before they crossed.

Around 3:15 PM, after just over two hours of marching around the downtown, they headed back to campus.  



No doubt this is one of but many protests nationwide today over the highly publicized deaths of Mike Brown and Eric Garner.

Holiday Cheer (In A College Town)

Police pushed about 400 or so students off the quad area Amherst College

Amherst Police came to the assistance of Amherst College PD around midnight last night to clear out a large party in the quad area near Crossett Dorm which had, like last year, gotten out of hand.

The annual event, known as Crossett Christmas, attracts a bevy of off campus students from our other institutes of higher education.

And when you attract an extra few hundred college aged youth, mix in alcohol, loud music, and somewhat hospitable weather, things can quickly go wrong.

Amherst College PD:  If you see non AC students with backpacks and they will not let you inspect them, escort them off campus.
— Larry Kelley (@amherstac) December 7, 2014

So many fire alarms were pulled AFD ended up stationing a engine at the scene for well over an hour.

The crowd was never anywhere that of the Blarney Blowout (400 vs 4,000) and it only took ten minutes to disperse.  Umass Police also assisted with foot traffic as hundreds of youth ended up on busy Rt 9 walking back to town center to catch the PVTA buses.

 Engine 1 East entrance 11:30 PM

Engine 1 parked in front of Crossett Dorm

APD briefly staged at Orr Rink then moved in from the south

AFD ambulance had trouble getting through fleet of taxis that were coming and going