When I first heard of the 66-page research book being released by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), my first thought was “uh oh, what do they have on him?” But then I read it.
The first thing to keep in mind that if you’re going to be in the public eye for many years, and you’re going to run for public office, someone is going to dig up that one time that you crossed the street before getting the walk signal. All of that stuff will be included. But apparently so will other things that don’t relate to you. As I was reading it, I learned a lot about Brendan Doherty and there were things in there that made me think that Doherty himself should release this book as it actually includes a lot of good things about him too.
Here are just a few from the section titled “Top Hits.”

In December 2009, the FBI launched an independent investigation into allegations of police brutality. An officer was filmed beating a handcuffed suspect while several other officers looked on.

Unless there was another incident, that’s likely referring to the Lincoln police officer who kicked a woman in the head at Twin River. Brendan Doherty was the Colonel of the State Police, not Lincoln. Do the Democrats support the State Police having jurisdiction and control over the local police departments? If not, then what’s this got to do with Brendan Doherty?

In July 2008, The Providence Journal reported that gun violence was increasing in Providence. In 2006, there were 49 shootings and 59 in 2007. As of July 2008, there had been 32 shootings compared with 17 shootings from January to July 2007.

Wait, in where? What city? Providence? Again, Brendan Doherty isn’t in charge of Providence, the Providence police are in charge of Providence. If the Democrats want to make an issue of an increase in gun violence in Providence, they should look at who was in charge of the Providence police. The mayor of Providence is in charge of the Providence police and who was the mayor of Providence in 2008? Say it with me. David Cicilline.

The chief of police blamed the increase in violence on a smaller police presence on the streets and a tough economy causing joblessness and foreclosures.

Chief Dean Esserman blamed the violence on smaller police presence, which was overseen by again, David Cicilline, not the Colonel of the State Police.

Crime in Providence rose 12 percent in 2008, ending a 5 year downward trend. There were 10,442 crimes compared to 9,314 in 2007. Violent crime went up 19 percent. There were 14 murders in 2007 and only 13 in 2008, however there were 1,201 violent crimes in 2008 compared with 1,007 the year before.
The police blamed the spike in crime on cell-phone robberies and gang-related incidences as well as the economy.

Wow, this is getting repetitive. This is starting to sound like the Democrats really believe that Providence had a crime problem during the Cicilline administration.

In March 2010, three Providence police officers, including a narcotics detective and a school resource officer, were arrested on charges that they were involved with a cocaine-dealing operation. They were suspended without pay.

Once again, the Democrats are trying to pin Providence crime issues on the head of the State Police?
According to this report, the Providence police had a problem with increased violence and drug dealing within their own ranks. And who was their leader at the time? Yes, David Cicilline.
That’s all just in the first eight pages.
Add on to that the part that Marc wrote about yesterday, where they try to put Doherty in with the Beacon Mutual scandal, yet the reason he was put on the board was to clean it up. That’s like saying “Oh wow, Brendan Doherty was at the scene of that murder last night!” And then explaining, “because he was investigating it.”
Maybe in the coming weeks, we can dig deeper into this or offer the further context for others. An example is Doherty is often cited by the Democrats as being in favor of simply letting the Bush tax cuts expire. First, isn’t this what Cicilline supports too? I don’t remember hearing David Cicilline claim he supports and agrees with the Bush tax cuts. But regardless, the Democrats make that claim but they leave out the next few sentences that Doherty offered. Of course this isn’t in the report, but I heard them first-hand. He supports letting the tax cuts expire but then overhauling the tax laws and putting new laws in place that do make sense for everyone and not simply raising taxes on the middle class, as Cicilline is trying to make us believe.
If this is the group that is helping the David Cicilline campaign, I’m certainly feeling even better about November’s prospects. The one thing I will certainly give them credit for is they put this out there to the public so we can all blatantly and openly see just how dirty the politics is here.
Addendum: A reader wrote in to say that the 2009 incident mentioned could also have been referring to Providence police officer Robert DeCarlo’s video recorded beating of Luis Mendonca. The DCCC document gives no indication which incident it is referring to.