Letters to the Editor:

Lt. R. Pedrini

Creating Safe Communities

Originally Published December 5, 2019 in the Arlington Advocate

​

Approximately 50 people gathered at First Parish Unitarian Universalist for “Creating Safe Communities,” organized by Arlington Fights Racism, facilitated by Dr. Rick Pinderhughes of Visions Inc. (which is conducting the bias evaluation of the Arlington Police Department), and co-sponsored by Arlington’s Diversity Task Group, Arlington-Teosinte Sister City Project, and the ArCS Cluster. AFR plans more such events as we work to reach additional Arlington residents, seeking to understand the state of our community today. Participants included everyone from longtime residents to the very newest, with the majority representing groups harmed by Lt. Pedrini’s words. Some members of the Arlington Human Rights Commission and one Select Board member also participated.

​

When town leaders learned that AFR organizers had brought in Dr. Pinderhughes with their own resources, they demonstrated their support by paying his fee on our behalf. They also sent a letter of support and, respecting our wishes, they were not present at the event.

​

Dr. Pinderhughes opened the event by explaining the norms and guidelines of this community forum and how to create a “brave” space. Some came to speak about how they have directly experienced racism, prejudice and bias in Arlington.

Some came to express their fears and concerns for our and our children’s future. Some came to share stories of people they know who did not yet feel safe to tell their own stories. Some came to respectfully listen, to gain a greater understanding of their neighbors. All were promised that their words would be held in anonymity and that they could speak without fear of reprisals. The group then came back together to share closing thoughts on how to address these harms. Recommendations included: holding public shows of support for the marginalized; continuing to push town leaders for open, transparent communication regarding the work being done with APD; requiring Lt. Pedrini to publicly address those he’s harmed; asking town leaders to acknowledge, in order to avoid setting precedents for other towns, that this restorative justice process was seriously flawed; and requiring the town to create a clear policy for all town employees about hate speech on social media.

​

This process of understanding how members of our community have been harmed is ongoing; we do not expect quick, easy answers to our problems. AFR will continue its efforts to build trust through reaching out to the community. Please visit our website, www.ArlingtonFightsRacism.com, for more information.

Lynette Martyn
Eustis Street

​

​

​

Pedrini’s Statewide Impact

Originally Published November 21, 2019 in the Arlington Advocate

​

I am writing in response to a recent letter to the editor that criticized the petition regarding Lt. Pedrini for including signatures of some who do not live in Arlington. The group that drafted the petition was transparent in allowing any Massachusetts resident to sign on, and welcomed those signatures for several reasons.

​

Lt. Pedrini’s racist articles were published in the statewide newsletter of the Massachusetts Police Association and read by law enforcement officers across the commonwealth. The influence of his hateful words therefore is statewide, impacting 350 other towns and cities, including some communities where police profiling of residents tends to be more commonplace and can have fatal repercussions. Also, Pedrini remains on the executive board of the MPA and continues to have influence there.

​

Some of us have friends and family who are part of the demographics targeted by Pedrini’s violent rhetoric; these loved ones now may not feel safe when they come to visit us or spend time in Arlington. Many people from other towns and cities work here or regularly patronize our parks and businesses; they may feel threatened by the reinstatement of an officer who has yet to demonstrate he really understands what he did wrong or express genuine remorse for his words. Anyone passing through Arlington can be stopped for minor traffic violations; those who are or may appear to be among the groups disparaged by Lt. Pedrini may now be afraid. (Police logs show that those arrested in Arlington for nonviolent offenses often are not Arlington residents.) All of these nonresidents have the right to not be profiled by law enforcement and may wish to have their voices heard on this matter, as it affects them personally.

​

Finally, in offering Pedrini a questionable and watered-down process as a path to reinstatement, the town has set a dangerous precedent for other municipalities in the state and nation in dealing with officers who express racist sentiments and advocate violence against civilians. This ripple effect can be far-reaching. A study from just this summer found that police shootings are a leading cause of death for Black men in the United States. Does Arlington want to be responsible for exacerbating this risk and enabling officers who harm or threaten those they are sworn to serve and protect to keep their positions of power? I hope not.

​

Mary Fusoni
Grandview Road

​

​

​

What Is the Definition of a ‘Good Cop’?

Originally Published November 21, 2019 in the Arlington Advocate

​

It took too long for me to do this, but I finally read Lt. Pedrini’s articles in the Massachusetts Police Association newsletter. I encourage you to do the same: https://www.arlingtonfightsracism.com/the-issues/what-pedrini-said. The secondary sources and small quotations don’t convey the seriousness of his words.

​

Lt. Pedrini — like everyone on the Arlington Police force — has sworn himself to uphold a code of ethics. An excerpt of this code is: “As a Law Enforcement Officer, my fundamental duty is to mankind; to safeguard lives and property; to protect the innocent against deception, the weak against oppression or intimidation, and the peaceful against violence or disorder; and to respect the Constitutional rights of all man to liberty, equality and justice. I will keep my private life unsullied as an example to all…”

​

But Lt. Pedrini wrote about a human being this way: “This animal needs to be put down, but unfortunately this is Massachusetts.” (Pedrini also swore to uphold the constitution of our state, but this statement from him calls his allegiance into question.)

​

The Arlington Police Department also proclaims allegiance to values of respect, tolerance, partnership and understanding. But Lt. Pedrini wrote: “It’s time we forget about ‘restraint,’ ‘measured responses,’… and other feel-good BS… Let’s meet violence with violence and get the job done.”

I’ve heard several people say, “Trust me, he is a good cop.” But how does a “good cop” say these things? This “good cop” wrote and submitted these articles, and helped ensure they were distributed to a wide audience. His words explicitly violate the oath he took as a policeman. Frankly, his words are really frightening.

​

One person told me not to “go by Lt. Pedrini’s words.” What am I supposed to go by? And why would a good cop not stand by his word? I ask the APD and our town leadership to be noncompromising in requiring our force to stand by their oath and for there to be clear consequences if people don’t.

​

Sarah Glover
Franklin Street

​

​

​

Self-Reflection Needed to Fight Hate

Originally Published December 5, 2019 in the Arlington Advocate

​

The hate that we are seeing around the country and the violence that follows is deeply disturbing. It is also disturbing to see that there are people in Arlington who think that Lt. Pedrini’s hate-filled words were a joke or tongue in cheek and rush to defend him. It might be hard to confront a friend or family member when they step out of line morally, but to avoid doing so is enabling them and depriving them of an opportunity to face the consequences of their actions and to grow. I don’t know of any religion that says that hate is OK, I don’t know of any code of conduct that says hate is OK.

 

And yet when showing support to someone who spread hate and tearing down the very people who worked tirelessly to address it is what allows hate to continue, and gives the message that it is OK. It is not OK. Arlington Fights Racism is working to unite our town by addressing the harm done to our marginalized communities. Hate and indifference are dividing our town. How differently this might have turned out if the people who care about Rick Pedrini had helped him to see how his words hurt members of our community and offered him support to make it right. Perhaps there are people in town who share the same attitudes expressed by Pedrini.

 

This is racism and is harmful to everyone, and surprisingly even to the person who harbors hateful thoughts. Racism and bias only keeps us separated from each other. We live in a racist country with a racist history so none of us avoids having some version of it. For white people to recover from our racism, we need to deeply examine the biases we hold and the values we hold and see if they are in line with each other. If we don’t do this self-reflective work, we are living in the dark and miss the opportunity to connect with the cross section of people who make up our community.

 

The reality is that we have a rich and diverse country with people from all walks of life and all corners of the earth. We are a country of immigrants and the potential to break down barriers and learn about each other is endless. Arlington Fights Racism is encouraging people to talk with each other and seeking ways to make Arlington safe for all of its residents. Please join us if you would like to be part of this journey.

​

Lynette Culverhouse
Draper Avenue

​

​

​

Words Matter

Originally Published November 14, 2019 in the Arlington Advocate

​

At the Sept. 9 Select Board meeting, I listened as the chair spoke about how it’s important to make the town more welcoming, but ironically, her statements were only in regard to the town’s support of expanded public art programs.

​

As a full-time working artist myself, I appreciate more support for the arts and recognize the positive impact they have in the town. But at the same meeting, those of us who spoke out critically about the town’s mishandling of the Lt. Pedrini’s case, after last year’s discovery of his racist and hate-filled columns in a statewide police newsletter, were dismissed and scolded and told “words matter.” This was even more ironic as there has been so little acknowledgement that his words, which suggested use of violence towards refugees, progressive activists, people of color, disabled and others, were words that matter and there has been little attempt to hear the words of those who have been the most harmed by them and no longer feel safe here. Nationally, we have seen, increasingly, the power of words to incite violent acts and we should not be condoning them here in Arlington.

​

As noted in the report commissioned by the Consensus Building Institute about how to heal the town on this issue and emphasized by an Arlington Advocate headline, the “town should listen to it’s residents more.” Words do matter, and the town needs to make it clear to those in the community — especially those groups targeted by Pedrini — that the officer’s words are both racist and unacceptable. They need to work together with concerned residents to create policies and procedures that ensure this cannot happen again here.

​

As someone who has experienced intimidating behavior by a police officer, I know how frightening it can be, so putting Pedrini back on the force with a gun scares me. In order for the town to truly be more welcoming and inclusive, as well as feel safe, the needs and concerns of all of its residents, particularly immigrants, people of color and other vulnerable people targeted by his words need to be considered. The town needs to listen and act with our shared best interests in mind.

​

Robin Bergman
Park Avenue

​

​

​

AFR Letter to Select Board

Originally sent to the Arlington Select Board November 8, 2019

​

Dear Select Board Members: Joseph A. Curro, Jr., Stephen W. DeCourcey, Daniel J. Dunn, John V. Hurd, Diane M.Mahon, Chair

​

We are writing in reply to the Town Manager’s response to the petition at the Select Board meeting on October 28, 2019. Arlington Fights Racism (AFR) was surprised not to have been provided notice by the Town Manager or the Select Board that this would be an agenda item. As a result of this lack of clear communication, transparency and respect for our work, many of us were unable to be there to hear his words for ourselves. We would have liked to have had the opportunity to invite the over 1000 petition signers to participate or watch the live broadcast.  However, due to the lack of notification, that opportunity to participate in our town’s democracy was denied to us. This is a repeat of the same issue from the Select Board meeting on September 9th, 2019 when the Select Board put to a vote the agenda item, “Support of the Town Manager’s Open Letter to the Community Regarding Lt. Pedrini” without notifying community members who had been intimately involved in this issue. This continued lack of transparency and open communication has been interpreted as a preference for us not to show up.

​

We are gratified to finally have the Select Board’s full attention, to know that our many months of organizing and testifying before you have resulted in a more respectful interaction, a change in tone, and an acknowledgment that there have been missteps, and that there is much work to be done.  We appreciate the Town Manager’s clear labelling of Lt. Pedrini’s words as racist. However, we were extremely disappointed that he immediately countered this statement by clarifying that he was “not saying that Lt. Pedrini is a racist”. That unnecessary qualifying of the statement harms residents whose personal experience indicates otherwise, and lessens the impact of the town owning that the words are indeed racist.  As they say, one step forward, two steps back. The well worn trope of “this act was racist, but he’s not racist” or “I’m not racist” also exemplifies the core problem AFR has been signaling, which is a lack of cultural competency and a great need for education and training of our town leaders and employees by AFR vetted, diverse-led organizations.

​

We welcome the opportunity to work with you moving forward and appreciate your stated long term commitment for this work to “last as long as it needs to”.  We will continue to hold the Town Manager and the Select Board accountable for their promises of transparency. In that spirit we request that the lack of transparency in the following areas be immediately addressed;

​

In accordance with Open Meeting Law, we would like to be sure that our verbal and written testimonials are part of the public record. Therefore we ask that they be represented in more detail in your meeting minutes and that those testimonials we have submitted are accessible on line as part of the public record.  That is currently not the case.

​

We request an open, transparent conversation about Arlington Police Officers being deployed to Select Board and Human Rights Commission meetings to discourage dissent, an honored and protected part of our democracy.

​

We request that the misrepresentation to the public and to Town Meeting members regarding Lt. Pedrini’s past record be rectified.  The Town Manager continues to publicly state that a thorough investigation was done into Lt. Pedrini’s police record and that no evidence was found of “on-duty” misconduct.  Public records requested by the news publication DIG Boston and made available on the Arlington Fights Racism website clearly demonstrate this statement to be false. Community trust will continue to erode until the Town Manager publicly and transparently addresses this issue.

​

We expect to be notified well in advance of any changes to the work assignment of Lt. Rick Pedrini, or when anything related to this issue (such as assessing the APD for bias) is  placed on the Select Board Meeting agenda, so that we are afforded an opportunity to respond and participate.

​

Many community members who have been harmed by Pedrini’s words and by the Town’s failure to lead in this area have taken a great risk by coming forward and testifying in your chambers and on public TV. Several of you took the important step of acknowledging their bravery in your remarks.  In a gesture to rebuild trust, we ask that you contact them individually and thank them for their courage.

​

We are at the beginning of a long journey towards learning and healing.  Arlington Fights Racism will work with the Select Board, the APD and the Town Manager in a partnership based on respect, with clear communications and transparency.  We expect the same in return.

​

Respectfully,
Arlington Fights Racism

​

​

​

Sonbonmatsu Letter to Select Board

Originally sent to the Arlington Select Board September 11, 2019

​

Dear Members of the Select Board:

​

For many months now, I have been made deeply upset by the Town leadership’s inept handling of the Officer Pedrini case.  Up until last Monday night, though, I had viewed the Select Board itself neutrally, and I had been willing to give Board members, whom I do not know personally, the benefit of the doubt.  I am writing you now to say that I no longer feel this way. I can see clearly now that the Board has become part of the problem. Though Chair Mahon said at the meeting that she hoped the hearing would calm the waters and enable our community to “move on,” her own actions and words will produce exactly the opposite effect, exacerbating the divisions in our community.

​

Let me say first that I appreciated the thoughtfulness and sincerity of the alternative proposal that was put forward during the meeting by Mr. Curro at Monday’s meeting, and that I was also moved by the courage shown by Mr. DeCourcey during the meeting, when he expressed his reservations about voting to “endorse” the Town Manager’s letter.  These, to me, were the high points in the proceedings. Alas, these conscientious interventions came to little in the end, for reasons I will now explain. 

​

Here’s what happened on Monday night, when we get down to it:  incredibly, after sitting on its hands for a year and failing to issue a single public statement or to hold a single hearing inviting commentary about the Pedrini crisis, the Board decided to hold a vote to *endorse* the Town Manager’s entirely self-serving and self-exculpatory letter, released last month, which portrayed the town as having made all the right calls in handling the Pedrini case, and, by extension, in handling too the ensuing public outcry over its botched approach to that same case. 

​

The fact that the Board publicly reaffirmed its confidence in the Town Manager’s handling of this case, in spite of the testimony by numerous citizens expressing serious concerns about it, was a heavy blow for me and others.  What that vote in effect said to me, to others in the room, and to hundreds of other Arlington residents who have felt angry, hurt, confused, and upset by the Town’s handling of Pedrini’s case, was this: “We reject, unequivocally and in toto, your criticisms of the Town’s handling of the case.   Thank you for your comments: now, sit down, shut up, go away, and let our community get back to healing.” 

​

It is difficult, surely, to imagine a more insulting response by elected officials to the valid, heartfelt, well-reasoned, well-documented concerns of hundreds of residents.  Many, many residents have invested dozens and hundreds of hours of their personal time to research the Pedrini case over the last half year. They have lobbied town officials and committees, investigated the APD’s past performance, sought to raise public awareness about racism in our town.  They have issued FOIA requests and written articles, held protests, written and circulated petitions. And they have done all this in good faith, in a sincere effort to better our community and to promote social justice. Yet these are the very people whom Chair Mahon publicly belittled and bullied in her remarks, even as she piled encomiums on the Town Manager and the APD.  The Chair and at least two other Board members indeed fell over themselves in lavishing praise on the APD, without however evincing any similar passion or concern for the thousands of vulnerable Arlington residents put at risk by Officer Pedrini and other officers who share his views. It was Orwellian to hear.

​

It was also Orwellian, the height of bad faith and hypocrisy, for Ms. Mahon to claim repeatedly at the meeting that the Board was prohibited, due to “the separation of powers,” from responding in any substantive way to citizens’ concerns about the Town’s handling of the Pedrini case (despite the fact–by the Board’s own admission–that the Town Manager serves at the leisure of the Board itself, and is accountable to it).  I say it was bad faith and hypocrisy for the Chair to say all this while at the same time calling for a vote to endorse the Town Manger’s handling of the Pedrini case, in effect giving the Town Manager the Board’s Good Housekeeping seal of approval on his actions to date. 

​

According to Chair Mahon, the Board put the Pedrini case on the Board’s agenda on Monday night out of a desire to “hear from the community” and to allow “healing” to occur.  But “hearing” the public means just that: it means taking their complaints seriously and addressing them in good faith; it means admitting error when error is noted, and seeking to remedy past mistakes.  The Board, however, did none of these things. Instead, it circled the wagons by rallying around the Town Manager and dismissing his critics as “undermining” his “leadership.” Literally adding insult to injury, moreover, the Chair Mahon angrily accused the town leadership’s critics of hurting the “morale” of the APD and sullying the good name and reputation of our fair community–as if this whole controversy were their fault, and the APD and the town were blameless.  Talk about shooting the messenger: I’m still pulling out the buckshot. 

​

It disturbs me greatly that members of this Board still seem to see nothing amiss in anything the town’s behavior in the past year.  The Board chair repeatedly urged that critics of the town “move on” and find “closure” with the process. But there remain too many unanswered questions in this case for anyone with a social conscience, or merely with an interest in transparent government, to rest content.  Why wasn’t Officer Pedrini wasn’t fired outright, as should have occurred? Why weren’t former APD chief Ryan’s warnings that Officer Pedrini was unlikely to express sincere “remorse” for his statements not heeded? Why was his case, in a completely unprecedented action, shunted through such an absurdly flawed restorative justice process?  

​

When acting APD chief Julie Flaherty and the Town Manager very briefly fielded questions a few months ago at the only public hearing held in Arlington on the Pedrini matter (under the auspices of the Diversity Task Force), and Chief Flaherty was asked whether other APD officers sympathize with Officer Pedrini’s side of this case, she frankly acknowledged that opinion was divided.  That told me and others everything we needed to know about the APD and the attitudes of its officers: that there should be even a single officer on the town’s payroll who agrees with the racist, violent, xenophobic attitudes spewed by Pedrini in the MPA newsletter was shocking news. It was however as clear a sign as one could ask for that the town urgently needs to investigate the attitudes and behavior of its officers, all of them.

​

As the Town Manager himself makes clear in his public letter, he and the APD unilaterally set up the parameters of Pedrini’s “rehabilitation” from the start, holding three “circles” consisting entirely of Town leaders and police officials and officers.  Incredibly, these same individuals then went on to participate also in the second “circle.” Much has been made of the fact that five people of color and/or representatives of various underserved communities in Arlington had been invited to participate in this process, but of the 14 people present in the second circle, 70% were apparently white, and there were as may town and police officials participating as citizens representing various token segments of the population.  No one to this day knows exactly how these individuals were picked. But it is evident that the Town Manager exercised unilateral discretion in forming the circles. What will be done to ensure that similar cases are handled differently in future? 

​

From the start, the Town Manager seems to have sought a path designed to rescue Pedrini’s career and to rehabilitate his public reputation, while at the same time enabling the town to sweep the whole matter under the rug as swiftly and with as little liability as possible.  But to have believed, if he and other town officials truly did believe, that such a process could be relied upon to “redeem” a veteran officer, a man in his 50s, who has developed extremist right-wing views over the course of a lifetime, and who was bold enough even to publish them in a newsletter to his peers across the state:  I say, to have believed that such an individual was likely to achieve some good Christian epiphany and suddenly “see the light” as a result of a speaking, for a few hours, to a handful of town officials and cherry-picked citizens: such a conceit demonstrates either stunning liberal naivete or startling Machiavellian cynicism. In either case, it was a terrible error of judgment and a travesty of true justice. 

​

I am not writing here to demonize Adam Chapdelaine, a man I do not know and towards whom I feel not the slightest personal animus. Perhaps he acted in good faith, and to the best of his abilities–I have no way of knowing.  But that is simply not to the point here. Good people, too, sometimes make mistakes, even serious ones. And that is what has happened here: the Town Manager, however well-meaning, has made a series of terrible blunders that have had the consequence of endangering the vulnerable members of our community, eroding the public’s trust in its local officials, and sending the dangerously equivocal message to the wider world that, in essence, the Town of Arlington is willing to tolerate violent forms of hate speech within the ranks of its police force–so long as the perpetrator issues an equivocal, self-serving “apology” for his behavior, afterwards.

​

What troubles me even more that Pedrini’s original comments is the way our town’s leaders have dealt with them.  It is not right that the Board has thrown the weight of its authority and reputation behind the Town Manager’s handling of this case.  It is not right, either, that some members of the Board have taken to publicly belittling the valid concerns and complaints of numerous its citizens in our community. 

​

I urge members of the Board to chart a new, different course, under new leadership.  I urge you to be open to a genuine dialogue with members of this community, about how we might all move forward together.  Until the town’s leadership frankly admits to its errors, however, and begins to remedy them, our community will be on the road neither to truth nor to reconciliation.  Nor will this matter be put to rest. As the saying goes: No justice, no peace.

​

Sincerely,

John Sanbonmatsu, Ph.D.
Arlington resident
Associate Professor of Philosophy
Worcester Polytechnic Institute

​

​

​

Pokress Letter to Select Board

Originally sent to the Arlington Select Board September 10, 2019

​

To the Select Board of Arlington, MA

​

First, I want to thank the two members of the Select Board, Mr. Curro and Mr. DeCourcy, who argued against an outright endorsement of Mr. Chapdelaine’s letter in an attempt to understand whether it addresses the concerns of our very diverse community. However, I feel that last night’s meeting did not even scratch the surface of beginning to rebuild trust between community members, our Town Management, and the Arlington Police Department.

​

I feel that is important to acknowledge the privilege that allowed me to stand before you at last night’s Select Board meeting, as a white person possessing good physical and mental health as well as financial stability. And I ask you to consider why the Select Board heard from me rather than someone who better represents the marginalized communities against which Officer Richard Pedrini holds dangerous bias, as he has revealed on multiple occasions.

​

Last night I urged the Select Board to delay voting to endorse Mr. Chapdelaine’s letter to the town, and to instead revisit the following important issues. It was my hope that the Board would persuade the Town Manager to amend his letter to better reflect the following requests from the townspeople.

​

1 – We would like to see Lt. Pedrini remain on administrative assignment for the remainder of his contract with the town.

2 — We ask that he NOT be assigned to school events or given any supervisory roles involving children, such as his assignment in June 2019 to the Last Blast overnight event at the high school.

​

I wonder what he thinks when he sees students with obvious “liberal” leanings, perhaps wearing an Elizabeth Warren t-shirt or a Black Lives Matter button? Does Lt. Pedrini carry a gun in the presence of these kids whose opinions he despises? Pedrini’s alignment with the MA Police Association (MPA), which has, for example, issued official statements urging police officers to protest against Senator Warren, gives me serious pause. Imagine what goes through Pedrini’s mind if one of these young people wears the jersey of Colin Kaepernick — a person he openly wished to see dead.

​

3 – The town should formally request that Lt. Pedrini step away from all MPA connections. As of today his name and picture still appear on the MPA website under Executive Board.

​

In regard to this, it is important to be aware of the following words uncovered in the FOIA request:

​

From Police Chief Fred Ryan, dated March 2019, emphasis is mine:

​

Rick’s MPA work has become a distraction to his duties at APD and the culture of the MPA is not reflective of the culture of the Town of Arlington nor the APD. That is not likely to change anytime in our lifetime. The last time I attended one of their meetings they gave a standing ovation in response to an announcement of a fatal police shooting [of a suspect]. As an element of any credible restorative contract I think that he needs to step away from the MPA. …As I understand it, Rick recently attended a Patrol Officer union event and accepted some sort of “best supervisor” award. …a snub in the nose to the TM, his management team,the restorative process, and to the community as a whole. … Failure to address these issues will have a long-term adverse impact on the credibility of the APD.

​

4 – The town should revisit the decision to have community policing in the schools. At a minimum, we would like to have the town conduct a third party assessment for bias. Additionally, we should carefully consider why a school resource officer needs to open-carry a gun.

​

In closing, I just want to share that I have a college-aged daughter who is in her third year of studying criminology & criminal justice. Through her, my eyes have been opened to the far-reaching effects of police bias, and the abuse of power. I urge you to learn everything you can about the Pedrini case, in particular by reading the content exposed by the FOIA requests, so that you can make informed decisions on behalf of all the people of Arlington, especially those who may not make their voices heard out of fear, lack of agency, or myriad other reasons.

​

Thank you for your time.

Shaileen Pokress
Crosby Street

​

​

​

Friedman Letter to Town Manager

Originally sent to the Arlington Town Manager August 14, 2019

​

Law Offices of Howard Friedman, P.C. 
92 State Street, 9th Floor
Boston, MA 02109
www.civil-rights-law.com
Telephone 617-742-4100 
Fax 617-303-3938

​

August 14, 2019

​

Adam Chapdelaine, Arlington Town Manager
730 Mass. Ave., Annex
Arlington, MA 02476 

​

Dear Mr. Chapdelaine, 

I am writing in response to your August 8, 2019 open letter to the Arlington community regarding Lt. Pedrini’s racist and violent views expressed in an article. I am a civil rights attorney with over forty years of experience. My practice focuses on representing victims of police abuse. I represented the estate of Patrick Barry on a negligence claim against the Town of Arlington. Then Sgt. Pedrini was one of the negligent employees; he failed to follow a policy requiring him to provide a medical evaluation of Mr. Barry. The delay in care resulted in Mr. Barry’s death. 

​

You say Lt. Pedrini’s comments were so problematic that termination of his employment would be appropriate. But, because termination could result in an expensive appeal and Lt. Pedrini might win his job back, you decided to use restorative justice, which is not a punishment at all. Your actions set the standard for the department. If another employee makes similarly racist comments, and you attempt to punish the person by a suspension without pay or demotion, that employee will argue you are treating them differently than Lt. Pedrini. Your fear that you can’t terminate a police officer will become reality. 

​

Your lenient treatment was opposed by former Chief Ryan, the chief at the time of Lt. Pedrini’s comments. Chief Ryan stated that while Lt. Pedrini would say the right things, restorative justice was not likely to change his behavior because his expressed views were “not likely to change in any meaningful way.” 

​

Your effort to save money could backfire. By failing to discipline a lieutenant you have sent a message to other officers that making racist comments and statements about using violence is acceptable and therefore even using violence is acceptable in Arlington. After the Barry incident, then Sgt. Pedrini was made a lieutenant, which tells officers that failure to follow policies will not prevent promotions. You also open the Town treasury to civil rights suits. Plaintiffs will argue the town has a policy of failing to properly discipline police officers, which results in police misconduct. 

​

Finally, it appears in deciding Lt. Pedrini’s discipline you did not consider his history. I was told by Town Counsel that Lt. Pedrini was suspended without pay for his role in Mr. Barry’s death. But this does not appear in the documents released in response to a public records request. 

​

Approving restorative justice for Lt. Pedrini may have seemed like an easy solution to a tough problem. It was a mistake. Comments from people in Arlington show they have noticed that instead of doing what was right, you decided to do what seemed easy. 

​

Sincerely, 

Howard Friedman

​