Wringing Out 2007: Civil Rights Go Missing.
By Jim Conley • December 30th, 2007 • Email This Post to a Friend •
Print This Post
• Email this author
The saga of Arthur Conquest might easily have been the top story of 2007 (we’ll bring you that tomorrow). Never have the faux liberalism of Brookline and the progressive posers that trip the rights fantastic been better put to the lie.
Conquest, an African American town meeting member was within a breath of being charged with assault by officers of the Brookline Police Department during the May 24th Brawl at Town Hall. The sergeant doing the charging is nephew to the complaining witness (former ZBA member Lawrence Kaplan). Kaplan, made a host of wild claims (in an incident report we received after months of wrangling with the town’s lawyers) in his initial report to police and was not only remains charge-free in the matter, but enjoyed a police escort from the building.
Pity that while the escort was being provided, no police officers bothered to take a statement from Conquest and/or interview other witnesses not associated with town government. (In a rather troubling footnote, Frank Hitchcock, one of the town’s senior building inspectors, vouched for Kaplan’s version of events…many of which were patently false.)
The Brookline Selectmen took up the matter last month and proved once again that a head in the sand beats two on a problem. In a public session, where only the police were allowed to give evidence, the selectmen denied an appeal of Chief Daniel O’Leary’s findings that no police misconduct had occurred.
O’Leary was about as convincing as Colin Powell at the UN, and one could only shudder from the thought of the havoc he might wrought at the helm of the department.
Where were Brookline’s self-proclaimed civil rights leaders during all this? Missing in action. See, when it’s a choice between standing up for civil rights or getting your phone calls returned from town department heads, our liberal activists disappear…except maybe to write a column or two on how well every thing works in Brookline.
There’s a lot more in store for 2008 and for some in public life, this hole may be too big to crawl out from.
Jim Conley is publisher of On Brookline.
Email this author | All posts by Jim Conley
I did not witness Chief O’Leary’s performance before the Selectmen. But I did observe Colin Powell’s before the UN. Powell was impressive in his performance because of his personal credentials over the years. And seated behind him were George Tenet and John Negroponte, both visible to lend credence to the presentation. It was only later that the world learned that Powell’s solid evidence was not so solid; in fact, much of it was false. So the wool was pulled over Powell’s (and all Americans’) eyes by the Bush Administration. Powell has conceded to a great extent that he was indeed bamboozled. But until the evidence Powell presented was exposed months and years later, Powell was indeed convincing.
As for the Chief’s performance, based upon press (and other) reports, it was many weeks after Lt. Burke’s internal affairs report was released. Several of us have pointed out inconsistencies and contradictions, etc, in Lt. Burke’s report on this Blog. The report was what the Chief had as his “evidencce” and it was sorely lacking, especially since an opportunity was not provided to rebut him.
So I would submit that while Powell may have been convincing (since we didn’t have the background of his evidence at the time), the Chief was not. Powell had referenced “bullet-proof” evidence to support his performance. All the Chief had was an inadequate report evident from reading its four corners. It’s time to call in CSI.
I just got back from conducting a training workshop on civil rights in Florida. I became concerned when I received several emails to the effect that due process rights have been denied TMM, Arthur Conquest, on the ZBA/Kaplan assault charge.
Thank you for posting the police report.
The police report reveals the assault charge against Arthur Conquest has no legal standing. Arthur’s due process rights were denied him. Sworn statements of material witnesses are lacking; therefore, the criminal investigation is incomplete.
Most damaging is Jennifer Depozo’s unlawful attempt to ban Arthur Conquest from ZBA meetings. An attorney is nothing more than an advisor. Banning officials who uphold Zoning By-laws endangers the public interest.
Elected officials have the right to uphold zoning laws.
Brookline Police Officers are required to thoroughly investigate crimes. Consider the following:
http://www.brooklinepolice.com/force/mission.php
Criminal Investigation
3. The evidence officer has been receiving … training … evidentiary issues. …execution of search warrants to increase our accuracy in the collection and documentation of evidence …allows investigators to concentrate on searches, suspects and statements.
Given a police officer’s official duties require thorough investigations, where’s Ruthann’s, Arthur’s. and other material witnesses sworn statements?
Ruthann and Arthur showed tremendous courage standing up to the ZBA on on a point of law. In my mind, they deserve our respect, praise, and support.