At Tuesday night's Common Council Police Committee meeting, Police Commissioner Gary Graziano demanded that Alderman John Friedman (Third Ward) be removed from the committee, alleging that, because of Friedman's comments made "during and prior to police contract negotiations," future negotiations and discussions could not be successful if Friedman remained on the committee. Tom Casey has the story in today's Register-Star: "Sparks fly at committee meeting."
Friedman and Nick Haddad (First Ward) were the only two aldermen who voted against approving the police contract at a special meeting on May 8. At that meeting, Friedman spoke about the need for more community policing and the need to fix the department's "odd scheduling system." Ironically, another topic of discussion at Tuesday's committee meeting was a request to increase overtime for the department so they could "park an officer in the area of Fifth and State streets and maintain a presence." This was the location of an incident on Monday involving a man with a loaded gun shooting allegedly at another with a machete.
In the police contract vote, Aldermen Haddad and Friedman were the only ones who represented my own views.
ReplyDeleteAbout Mr. Friedman, I never thought I'd see the day when Hudson had an alderman who stood up to the HPD. All of Hudson's superficial signs of progress aside, is there any history in Hudson of a representative being really tough with the police department? It may not be pretty, but that is how I'd measure progress rather than the number of boutiques this year.
Truly, I never thought I'd see the day.
A technical aside, does anyone know whether a 3rd Ward alderman is ever called upon to actively represent the prison population? If so, that's a pretty important detail to have left out of a story like this.
When you speak truth to power in this City, they go after your job. Alderman Friedman should be lauded for asking the questions too few have had the courage to ask.
ReplyDeleteCommissioner Graziano owes each and every elected official in this City an apology for having the sheer bravado to seek to silence our constitutionally mandated duty just because he's uncomfortable with the discourse, or isn't able to engage the questions raised. Perhaps our appointed officials need a civics refresher?
Power struggle = just who does run "our town?!"
ReplyDelete