Round Them Up.
By Jim Conley • May 29th, 2007 • Email This Post to a Friend •
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In a previous post, I mention that Town Meeting Moderator Sandy Gadsby is cautioning members from getting too hopped up with the Police Chief and Selectmen over Thursday’s ZBA hearing fracas, because criminal charges are being contemplated. Here’s what Arthur Conquest tells me happened in the lobby of Town Hall:
“The sergeant initially told me that I’d be charged with assault. When I questioned him about that, I thought he changed what he said to ‘verbal assault.’ What is more, initially the sergeant said ‘You’ll never be able to attend any ZBA public meetings.’ And when I questioned him on that statement, he changed it to, “You won’t be able to attend any ZBA meetings until this matter is resolved.’”
Verbal assault? By all accounts it was ZBA member Lawrence Kaplan that left the protection of the dais to engage in a verbal altercation with Mr. Conquest (they had been previously separated by a railing).
And if there is such a thing as verbal assault, I’d like to present the video of the January 2006 Selectmen’s hearing into the DPW’s activities on a grant to restore the Carlton St. Footbridge as evidence of a crime. In that case, the suspects are the DPW Commissioner, his lawyer, a current selectman (Jesse Mermell), several town meeting members, and a DPW manager who organized the mob.
Unlike Mr. Conquest, this mob’s intent was to use verbal assault as a means of intimidation in order to shoot down calls for an investigation into alleged mis-statemets in a state grant. And it worked.
Jim Conley is publisher of On Brookline.
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If the claim is that Lawrence Kaplan was the victim of a verbal assault, I wonder if he is receiving medical care and if he is planning a civil action against Arthur Conquest for injuries he may have sustained to his sensitivities. (Let’s see who can be recommended to represent him.)
This seems to be another circling of the wagons by the Town powers as was the case with the DPW circus referenced in this Post. Rest assured, however, there will be no lynching of Arthur Conquest and his voice will continue to be heard at ZBA and other public meetings and hearings. And other voices will also be heard.