Another Richard Kelliher Sham.
By Jim Conley • Jan 25th, 2008 • Email This Post to a Friend •
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I must be missing the point. Because so far, my research into members of the blue ribbon committee panel of experts advising the Brookline Selectmen on their police complaint policy shows me that only one member - Attorney Douglas Louison - has significant experience in the area; and he represents the police.
Here’s a bio on Dean Denniston, Director of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services:
A former counselor at the Carroll Center for the Blind, and regional director for the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind, Mr. Denniston serves on the executive committee of the governor’s Commission on Employment and Training Policy for Individuals with Disabilities. He was on the boards of Boston Aid to the Blind, the National Braille Press, and MATCHUP Interfaith Volunteers. Mr. Denniston received a M.Div from Yale University Divinity School and a B.A. from Northeastern University.
All impressive. But I don’t see what would qualify him to revise the procedures and practices used by citizen’s to complain about police treatment.
Folks, this is another sham engineered by Town Administrator Richard Kelliher. Because when the dimwits on the Brookline Board of Selectmen hear the term civil rights in a person’s title, they think that they’re covered. But it’s a big area including criminal justice, housing, employment discrimination, rights of the disabled and myriad other areas.
It’s like asking a psychiatrist to treat your tendinitis.
Oy.
Jim Conley is publisher of On Brookline.
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I wonder if Town Administrator Kelliher, in designating panelists, had the benefit of the following ACLU website:
http://www.aclu.org/police/gen/14614pub19971201.html
Perhaps the panelists, as well as residents of our Town might benefit from a review of this website.
Disclosure: I am a proud card-carrying member of the ACLU, as are many others in our community.
There is available a download from the Chicago Crime & Punishment Workshop titled: Legitimacy and cooperation: Why do people help the police fight crimes in their communites? by Tom R. Tyler and Jeffrey Fagan available by “Googling”
Legitimacy and cooperation, August 7, 2007
The article is 33 pages in length, with references, tables, etc, of an additional 22 pages. It is an interesting article, especially the discussions on “procedural justice” that can relate to the treatment that Conquest received. I would hope that the panel of experts might take a peek at this article as well as others in our community having an interest in this matter. Author Tom R. Tyler is with the Department of Psychology/School of Law, New York University and author Jeffrey Fagan is with Law and Public Health, Columbia University.
For more on “procedural justice” take a look at this website:
http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/p8230.html
on “Why People Obey the Law” by Tom R. Tyler (2006, Princeton University Press), in the book’s “Afterword.”