rough draft
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BUILDING THE PUBLIC TRUST IN MEDFORD
AN ESSAY FROM JOE VIGLIONE
Police Chief John D. Buckley has done nothing to pacify an anxious public that is highly suspicious
of the 112 police officers in the city of Medford.
The question remains - what is Buckley going to do - what action - to assuage a public terrified of his force?
Clever Buckley is not to be underestimated. He knows full well that the hot air he was offering the public wouldn't fool the minority of residents looking at him with jaundiced eye. He also knows so long as he can issue lip service rather than honesty he can keep the cracked power structure in place.
Council V.P. Breanna Lungo-Koehn was very clear - citizens are afraid of retribution; citizens know how vindictive this particular police force can be, abusing its/their power with impunity. Buckley didn't let an elected official rattle him, keeping his cool his slow delivery as premeditated as a murderer plotting to kill free speech and freedom of the press. Everything's fine. These men and women convicted of "police misconduct" are all wonderful, kind, sweet, beautiful. No, Chief, they allegedly have committed crimes.
Keep in mind,
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At the Medford City Council on October 1, 2019 Buckley was methodical, speaking very slowly after the council president, John Falco, was tongue-tied, befuddled and looking for the proverbial life line, phone a friend. Falco was saved when Fred Dello Russo, Jr. and Adam Knight piped in with the mayor's talking points du jour, it's a "personnel" matter. No, it's a city crisis with Buckley talking at the citizens, not to them.
The Medford Police department has to make a concerted effort to obtain the trust of the public which
still thinks of the film and book The Cops are Robbers - the May 1980 Depositors Trust theft
