CLEARING THE RECORD
By William E. Cleary
Re: October 12 Gloucester City News; City Police Respond To Columnist's Views.
When I was editor of the City News each Monday I or someone from the paper would pick up the police report at police headquarters. There were also, occasions when an officer would hand deliver the report to the City News office.
The intent of my original article (click on link Heard On The Street October 5 NEWS) was to find out why we were spending UEZs monies and tax dollars to pay police overtime. Was there and increase in crimes occurring in the City?
I asked the present Editor, Albert Countryman, if he had received any crime reports in recent weeks and was told no. In addition, Countryman added he had called the Police as recently as Monday, October 2, and asked for a report but was told there was none.
In the meantime, I talked to some business owners who were against spending the UEZ money on overtime for the police. I also knew of two people who had their houses robbed recently and heard rumors about other crimes.
In this week's (October 12) Gloucester City News, a police spokesman took the time to go into great detail on why and how the UEZ monies and your tax dollars will be spent. Not everyone belongs to the City's Small Business Association so it was nice the Deputy Chief finally explained to the public how their tax dollars were being disbursed.
The writer also took a couple of "cheap shots" at me for asking questions. After 40 years of reporting the news, you get use to it.
Yet if you look further in the paper you will notice the City Police Department did not submit a crime report. I guess it was a dull week to be a policeman.
By the way, in the beginning of his book/statement the Deputy Chief says the city has no crime problem. And my Heard on the Street article was filled with rumors. And I had inferred there was a conspiracy to hide the crimes occurring.
Yet at the very end of the article he says there were five burglaries in the month of September. One was a residence, three were businesses, and one was a car. Why the public was never told about those crimes is a puzzle.
Is it any wonder why rumors were circulating throughout our city about a crime problem.
For those keeping count the last time the police published a crime report in the Gloucester City News was September 14, 2006. And for the record there was not one mention of any burglaries in that report.
