| Author |
 Topic  |
|
|
massdee
Moderator
5299 Posts |
 Posted - 08/21/2007 : 10:46:40 PM
|
|
I heard today that RVC has accepted the job as city solicitor for the city of Melrose. Anyone else hear this?
|
Edited by - massdee on 08/21/2007 10:48:33 PM |
|
|
justme
Advanced Member
1428 Posts |
Posted - 08/22/2007 : 05:20:35 AM
|
I haven't heard anything but, it's a natural transition. He's an assistant city solicitor (not sure where). The move makes sense.
I would have liked to see him in the mayor's race........... |
 |
|
|
Court4Fred
Advanced Member
1201 Posts |
Posted - 08/22/2007 : 09:25:52 AM
|
| Must be the Dolan connection. Peter Dolan, erstwhile assistant superintendent of schools, is the father of Mayor Dolan of Melrose. |
|
|
|
massdee
Moderator
5299 Posts |
Posted - 08/22/2007 : 09:57:28 AM
|
| I had heard that about RVC from a neighbor and was wondering if anyone could verify it. That is why I posted it, I don't think I was clear enough. |
|
|
|
Head
Senior Member
111 Posts |
Posted - 08/23/2007 : 10:16:03 AM
|
| why does someone have to be connected he is a very smart man who will have a great future in whatever he chooses to do. just wish he would choose to be our mayor. |
|
|
|
Court4Fred
Advanced Member
1201 Posts |
Posted - 08/23/2007 : 1:00:11 PM
|
| Because it is all about connections. The reason he's not a candidate now is because of less than steller poll results with John Hanlon in the race. |
|
|
|
Lynda
Advanced Member
1282 Posts |
Posted - 08/23/2007 : 1:40:19 PM
|
| steller? |
|
|
|
massdee
Moderator
5299 Posts |
Posted - 08/24/2007 : 08:41:53 AM
|
I just found this when I was looking around on the web.
Two shot at house party: Violent incidents have city looking to crack down, raise awareness
Advertisement
GateHouse News Service
Wed Jul 11, 2007, 05:57 PM EDT
Story Tools: Email This Email This | Print This Print This
Melrose -
A summer evening house party on Florence Street Saturday night turned violent when two people were injured — one seriously — when gunshots were fired.
Police believe the shooter and an accomplice have ties to Malden, having obtained photographs from the Malden Police Department that match descriptions of the suspects, Melrose Det. Sgt. Barry Campbell said.
Police encounter difficulty enforcing the law
There have been no arrests yet, but after getting a witness to identify the suspects on Monday, Melrose police were in the process of obtaining warrants for both men on Wednesday morning.
Campbell said they are seeking a warrant for the shooter with charges of assault with intent to murder, and possession of a firearm without a permit. The shooter’s accomplice, who allegedly waved a box cutter at the party, will have a warrant under the charge of assault by means of a dangerous weapon.
Police did not release the names of the victims, citing an ongoing investigation.
Saturday night, approximately 100 people were at the party on Florence Street. Campbell said most of the partygoers were 21-years-old and older.
Police are unsure whether the suspects were invited or not, but at some point they and several others were asked to leave the party and were escorted outside.
One of the people escorted out of the party took out a small handgun, fired a few rounds without aiming at anyone and then fired a round that a hit a 21-year-old former Melrose resident in the stomach. Campbell said that the partygoers initially thought the shooter was brandishing a pellet gun.
The victim was transported by ambulance to Melrose-Wakefield Hospital and then transferred to Mass. General Hospital, where he underwent surgery to repair his intestine, Campbell said.
“That’s when we found out it was not a pellet gun, it was a small caliber handgun,” Campbell said. “According to a family member, he’s doing well.”
After being shot and falling to the ground, the victim was also hit in the head with a beer bottle.
Melrose police received another call on Sunday afternoon around 4:30 p.m., when a 20-year-old Melrose man sought treatment at the Melrose-Wakefield Hospital emergency room, saying he had been shot in the side at the party the night before.
When police asked the victim why it had taken him so long to get to the hospital after being shot, the man told police he thought he’d just been grazed by a pellet gun. After learning that another person at the party had been shot by a handgun, he decided to seek treatment for his injury.
The second victim was also transferred to Mass. General, and according to a family member, they decided not to remove the bullet and released him later on Sunday night, Campbell said.
Stepping up police patrols
The shootings — combined with another incident at a house party last Friday on Sanford Street when partygoers were throwing beer bottles and rocks at police — has led to increased police patrols on weekends, enforcement of the state’s social host liability law and possible new local legislation, according to Police Chief Mike Lyle and Mayor Rob Dolan.
Dolan said while most parents and homeowners are responsible, there have been a growing number of house parties where the property owners are either allowing the parties or not monitoring their homes while away on vacation.
“As we’ve seen these week, not only could those situations damage the home or cause illegal activity in the house, but someone could get killed,” Dolan said. “These aren’t high school kids. These are adults, many of who are in college or home from college, and there’s a new sense of unpredictability, violence, aggressiveness towards law enforcement.”
Lyle said he actually ordered extra patrols for last Saturday night because it followed a holiday. Unfortunately, at the same time two patrolmen responded to the house party on Florence Street, two other officers were responding to a domestic violence call.
“There isn’t one policeman left,” he said. “The only guy there is answering the telephone. So you can see how fast your resources can get tied up.”
The mayor has agreed to allow the Police Department to hire additional patrols on the weekends, and Lyle said he plans to have two extra patrols on Friday and Saturday nights, working from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m.
“That gives us five guys on the street … which would certainly help us in the event something were to occur,” he said.
Lyle added that neighbors who wish to report an out-of-control house party, but fear retribution, can call the Police Department’s tip line at 781-979-4470. Neighbors can also inform police of ongoing problems at a particular home.
Enforcing the ‘Social Host’ law
The state’s Social Host Responsibility Law can hold property owners criminally liable if minors are drinking alcohol on their property, and also make those homeowners a target for civil litigation, Lyle said.
The state’s Social Host Responsibility Law (Mass. General Laws, Chapter 138, Section 34), was amended in 2000, expanding the definition of “furnishing” alcohol to include not just a property owner directly providing alcohol to minors, but allowing minors to possess alcohol on someone’s property, according to information on the Web site of the Boston Chapter of the Association of Legal Administrators (You must be logged in to see this link.).
The amended definition means any property owner can be charged if a minor is drinking on their property, even in the person does not provide the alcohol. The misdemeanor crime can result in up to a year in jail, a $2,000 fine or both.
Under state law the only exemption for providing alcohol to minors is if a homeowner furnishes alcohol for their children or grandchildren.
Beyond enforcement of the current state law, Dolan said he has asked Deputy City Solicitor Robert Van Campen to explore the possibility of additional local legislation in regards to homeowner liability. He added that the problem extends to landlords who own properties where police have multiple visits due to illegal activity on the premises, and said Van Campen is looking at other communities that allow a police chief to levy fines if a property becomes a “nuisance property.”
“I know neighborhoods, good neighborhoods, with tax-paying, law-abiding people that in some cases are terrorized by a home where there is consistent illegal activity and the landlord isn’t taking proper steps,” Dolan said. “There’s not a single lease that I’ve ever seen that didn’t say that if there’s illegal activity, that lease could be broken and moved on.”
Van Campen said the idea behind such a fines is that city money is spent responding to repeat offenders, and “if your property is one of those trouble spots where the police, fire and our public safety folks have to continue to respond to, we’re looking to recoup some of the money spent in responding.”
Changing the culture
Ruth Clay, Melrose health director, said the city’s Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition (SAPC) is looking to stop large house parties with underage drinking before they start.
“Once the party’s happening and the police are called in, it’s too late,” Clay said. “Our goal is to prevent them from happening to begin with, and that involves changing social norms.”
One of those social norms, identified in a community assessment conducted recently by the SAPC, is parents in the community who condone underage drinking in their own homes, Clay said.
“They’ll say, ‘Well, I’d rather have my kids drinking at home than drinking elsewhere,’” she said. “They don’t understand that it’s illegal, they don’t understands the consequences that can happen.”
Working with parents, Clay said the coalition hopes to create “adult peer pressure” by making parents aware of the social host liability law, as well as educating parents through a program this fall called “Guiding Good Choices,” that will teach parents how to appropriately set limits for and discipline their children.
Kara Showers, the city’s Substance Abuse Prevention coordinator, said two keys to changing social norms in the community are to make sure the community is aware of the current laws and where the city will be increasing enforcement, and drafting a local ordinance on top of the state law.
“If we were to enforce the state law and then come up with a local ordinance around that, that’s called an ‘environmental strategy’ that has been proven to reduce drug and alcohol use rates in our community and decrease violence,” Showers said.
|
|
|
|
ItalianDevil021
Member
41 Posts |
Posted - 08/28/2007 : 2:26:21 PM
|
| Massdee a lot of this is going to peak this summer and into the fall as we have seen. Heck people getting shot nowadays is just as common as getting a cold (if you look at Boston anyway) |
|
|
|
massdee
Moderator
5299 Posts |
Posted - 08/28/2007 : 8:33:40 PM
|
| What I was trying to point out in that artIcle is that VanCampen is the Deputy Solicitor for Melrose. I agree wit you about the violence. |
|
|
| |
Topic |
|
|
|
RVC
