Anchor Rising: Cicilline Helped Weaken Providence Police Department

August 27, 2012

Cicilline Helped Weaken Providence Police Department

Patrick Laverty

At least that's what today's GoLocalProv.com article is conveying.

How can this be? He's been out of the Mayor's Office for two years now! This must be Taveras's fault! Patrick, you're just piling on and making this stuff up! See for yourself:

The police union blames the situation on former police Chief Dean Esserman and former Mayor David Cicilline. “Cicilline and Esserman bankrupted the city Police Department,” said union President Taft Manzotti. “I think the current administration has had to do as much as they can with as little as that was left them.”

So it isn't me saying it, it's the Providence Police Union President.

Are you feeling nice and safe, Providence residents? With a statistic like this?

More than double the murders: In 2012, there have been more than double the murders there were by late August 2011: 13 compared with 5, a jump of 160 percent—and that’s not counting last weekend’s fatal shooting.

And then, just about on cue with this story, comes a rough night over on Broad Street with the Puerto Rican festival where bottles and rocks were thrown at police officers, and a woman was shot and in critical condition. According to one report:

Around 10:15 tonight Providence police responded to the CVS located at Broad and Sumter Streets for multiple reports of shots fired. A female victim was located suffering from a gunshot wound to the back. She was transported to Rhode Island hospital in serious condition. No suspect description has been given at this time. The area is heavily concentrated with police, mounted units included. Reports from scanner traffic indicate that bottles were being thrown at those officers. Meanwhile a few blocks away on Harriet Street, a vehicle was found shot up.

Just add this to that Cicilline resume of all the "good" he's done for the city of Providence. He didn't intend to mislead anyone on the state of the city's finances, the firefighters' union wasn't thrilled with him when he said he'd settle their contract in his first year and didn't get it done until almost eight years later and here we see the police union saying he screwed up their ranks.

Anything else?

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Speaking as a life-long Providence resident, I'll say something that was pointed out to me: it's not a trend until there's more than two years to compare. Unfortunately, that's not how media reports crime.

Posted by: SGH at August 27, 2012 5:50 PM

"the firefighters' union wasn't thrilled with him when he said he'd settle their contract in his first year and didn't get it done until almost eight years later"

That was a complete charade. He held off on serious negotiations with the firefighters for most of his eight year tenure solely so that he could strut around claiming that he was being fiscally tough on behalf of the taxpayers. Then, when he wanted a political promotion, he settled on a contract in jig time.

Pure phoniness.

Posted by: Monique at August 27, 2012 9:44 PM