For those who’ve been arguing here and elsewhere that the egging incident involving six Newton police officers was a harmless prank, comes this sobering report of what could have happened via the Globe’s Deirdre Fernandes.
It was just before 2 a.m. when loud banging noises outside his Framingham home jolted the police sergeant awake. It sounded like someone was breaking into his house. The 11-year veteran of the Newton police force loaded his gun before he walked outside to investigate….
Also, it seems the sergeant didn’t view the incident as particularly funny either..
The sergeant wrote he was “totally embarrassed and angered by this situation,” and had to take a drive “to settle down.”
I certainly was not among those arguing this was some harmless prank. Even without the benefit of the sergeant’s more recent quotes, it was obvious he couldn’t have been thrilled about this incident, as he had to have been the one calling the Framingham police to report the incident.
It’s hard not to infer there was more to this incident than kids being kids [I mean ADULTS being kids].
But even taking them at their word, these are public safety officers sworn to defend the law, setting an awful example for adults and kids alike. I have no idea what their “discipline” was, but i suspect it wasn’t enough.
Nice to know an 11 year veteran of a police department doesnt know enough to keep his gun loaded.
Mike
Even the NRA recommends keeping guns unloaded and locked when not in use.
I stand corrected.
Angry? Go operate a motor vehicle? Perhaps this is considered acceptable in our society.
Use includes keeping for protection. Storage would be “not in use”
Mike
So when you’re asleep at 2am, your loaded gun is being carried or under your control, as required by MA law?
The storage requirement is independent of whether or not it is loaded. Additionally, the law outlines how it must be stored or locked so that it is inoperable by an unauthorized user IF not under direct control. There is some question as to whether or not having your home locked if you live alone or with other licensed people would constitute proper storage. The front door to most houses is at least as strong as the commonly accepted plastic lock boxes and trigger locks. Laws are vague, in other news, the sky is blue.
This whole argument can be more or less tossed out as multiple fast-access bedside safes exist. I’m yet to meet anyone who keeps an unloaded gun for protection, except for this police officer apparently.
And for the record, while I think a storage requirement while you are home is absolutely ridiculous if you live only with [authorized] adults, it is common sense if you have children.
Mike
Let’s judge this incident based on what actually happened, not on “what could have happened.” Because the insinuation that these eggers were almost shot, is just a fantasy created by the Globe. The Globe wants an outsider brought in as Chief of Police. They have now dedicated at least three articles to a silly egging incident, in an attempt to discredit the NPD and internal candidates for the Chief position. I think we all need to recognize there is something going on behind the scenes, involving a person at the Globe, or with connections to the Globe, who has a very specific agenda.
@Mike Striar: I enjoy a good conspiracy theory as much as the next guy but there’s no evidence that would suggest to me that Deirdre Fernandes, a good journalist, is doing anything other than her job reporting on this, which required filing a public records request to see the letter where the sergeant said he went to get his gun. Surely you’re not suggesting that Fernandez just fabricated that?
Also, just a reminder (and I know this is a distinction that has become ever blurrier in the online age) the Globe opinion piece by Lawrence Harmon was actually on the paper’s oped page. To the best of my knowledge the editorial page (i.e. the paper’s official voice) itself yet to express an opinion on the chief selection.
This story matters because it is about law enforcement officials acting irresponsibility. And certainly we all know (well maybe the other Mike doesn’t know but the rest of us do) that “harmless” pranks can have very unhappy endings when there are firearms nearby.
What the mainstream media selectively reporting and twisting facts to support an agenda? UNpossible
Mike
If you guys have concerns about a cop shooting people egging his house than there is a whole lot more wrong with the pd than the cops who conducted the prank in the first place.
@Greg – I agree that this article was perfectly reasonable and I do think its significant part of the story that the just-a-silly-prank alarmed the officer enough to investigate with a loaded gun.
I don’t agree with Mike’s conspiracy theory, but I did raise some questions about an earlier Globe story about the Newton police. Nobody commented on my post at the time, but I would be curious whether anyone else thought that earlier article was as odd as I did.
@Greg– Fact: An op/ed appeared in the Boston Globe suggesting Newton look for an outside candidate to become Chief of Police. So it’s not much of a “conspiracy” [and I did not use that term] when the paper’s position is so clear.
You’re a professional journalist, Greg. And you may be able to distinguish between the paper’s “official voice” vs. the voice of an individual who writes opinion pieces for the paper. But as a reader, in this particular case, I think that distinction lends too much cover to the Globe’s agenda, [the term I did use].
Why the extensive coverage and editorializing over an egging incident? I don’t ever recall any egging incident in history getting so much attention. Okay, so this particular incident involved police officers. That makes it unusual and newsworthy. But does it really warrant the coverage it’s gotten?
On the rare occasion I turn on Fox News, I know they have an agenda. Their lead story for months was the Benghazi attack. Of course that was a newsworthy story, but it got the extensive coverage it did from Fox, because they had an agenda. Despite the obvious difference in scale between Benghazi and this egging incident, I’m not naive enough to believe the Globe is above agenda driven news.
A Globe editor signed off on the op/ed. A Globe editor assigned Deirdre Fernandes to write this most recent story. Is it really unfair to suggest the Globe may be motivated by something other than news value?
Egging is something I associate with high school students on Halloween. I think it would be news if a group of adults of any occupation did this. And by this account, they bought the eggs first, and then tried to think of a target – it just seems really juvenile! And what happened to “Leave no man behind”?
Then there’s this from the article:
It’s the whole frat-house mentality that I find disturbing. I hope and believe it’s not the whole department. It’s not consistent with my admittedly limited encounters with Newton police personnel, mainly about 20 years ago when I went to what may have been the last Citizen’s Police Academy (back when there was still money for things like that), and all the presenters seemed quite sober, professional and adult.
Maybe this is reverse-sexist, but I suspect they could use a binder full of women. Below a critical mass, or without women senior officers, the women officers — or women in any environment – are going to feel pressured to go along to fit in. Above a critical mass, it’s more like the real world, and people would act accordingly. (One hopes.)
@ Julia, do you really buy the assertion that they bought eggs first, and then tried to figure out who to target? To me, that stretches credulity.
I don’t know, Dan, I just don’t see how making up that part makes them look any better.