Russell Moore: Taveras' Police Department Spin Boomerangs

Russell Moore: Taveras' Police Department Spin Boomerangs

Maybe at this point lame duck Providence Mayor Angel Taveras should just stop talking? 

In all likelihood, that would do more to help his friends than the alternative of highlighting his own record and promising us that his handpicked candidate will perpetuate it.

One month after losing the Democratic Gubernatorial Primary, Taveras has devoted himself to doing, in his words, anything he can, to help his friend and fellow Democrat Jorge Elorza become his successor in Providence City Hall. Apparently, that includes penning an OP/ED piece for the Providence Journal beckoning Providence voters to not go back to the "clubhouse" atmosphere of the Providence Police Department that he claims existed under former mayor Vincent "Buddy" Cianci, who also happens to be Elorza's chief rival in this year's race.

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The article serves two purposes. First, it helps Elorza in seeking to neutralize the endorsement of Cianci by the Fraternal Order of Police. Secondly, it self-servingly allows him to take attack union leadership, which refused to endorse his gubernatorial bid and instead ran ads opposing him.
It's a strange article in that it’s hard to understand what he means by a "clubhouse". But the mayor makes broad brushed accusations of pay to play politics and favoritism that occurred during the previous Cianci administration. Anyone who thinks favoritism doesn't occur in city government is shamefully naive. And the fact that some folks who do know better are making pretend that favoritism and political patronage ceased to exist once Cianci left Providence City Hall is nauseating and insulting to the intelligence of the average voter.

Naturally, Taveras' article whitewashes over the decade that took place after Cianci left office, conveniently forgetting to mention that three Providence Police Officers, one of them a narcotics detective and another a school resource officer, were arrested for dealing cocaine in 2009. In 2010, another police officer was put on trial and eventually convicted of police brutality, (though the conviction was later reversed on a technicality) for beating a handcuffed man over the head with a flashlight. (Both those events happened prior to Taveras taking office, during the David Cicilline administration, a close supporter of Taveras and Elorza.)

But what stuck out most about Taveras' article is the paragraph that drones on about the vague protocols that have been established to improve the police department. Taveras says "Merit-based hiring and promotion systems were instituted." Later, he brags about the new recruitment class of the Providence Police department, saying "Within weeks, a new class of Providence Police officers — the most diverse in the department’s history — will be sworn to protect and to serve the people of our great city."
How's that working out for us, Mayor Taveras? Not very well, I'd venture to guess most would agree. Last week, Golocalprov.com reported that one of the members of the recently inaugurated police class was fired under suspicion of larceny after he and his fiancé were implicated in stealing a cell phone. 

It was later revealed by WPRI's Walt Buteau that the former police officer recruit in question, David Sanchez, has been arrested twice for misdemeanor charges in New York. A Providence detective who looked into the backgrounds of the new hires made the higher ups aware of this fact, but was ignored and the officer was hired anyways. Does that not sound like a clubhouse atmosphere wrought with favoritism? Does anyone doubt that Sanchez must have known somebody to be hired despite a criminal record?
Buteau reports that Police are also investigating another officer who allegedly kissed a woman, unprovoked, for merely asking him to move out of the way so she could pass him in the aisle at the ceremony. That sounds like a "boys club" if you ask me.

Unfortunately for folks like Taveras, there are people like me actually listen to what they say.

Taveras ends his diatribe by pointing out that Janis Joplin sang "I'd trade all my tomorrows for a single yesterday", and that means we shouldn't vote for Cianci, or something like that. 

First of all, while it's true that Joplin sang the song, let's give attribution where it belongs. "Me and Bobby McGee" was written by Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster and originally sang by Roger Miller.

However, Taveras does inadvertently make one decent point: the way things in Providence are going these days, most residents would be thrilled to trade today for the way the city was 15 years ago.

A native Rhode Islander, Russell J. Moore is a graduate of Providence College and St. Raphael Academy. He worked as a news reporter for 7 years (2004-2010), 5 of which with The Warwick Beacon, focusing on government. He continues to keep a close eye on the inner workings of Rhode Islands state and local governments. Find Russell J. Moore Twitter @russmoore713.