To the clip of new subscribers here in the past few days welcome to Outdoor Cats, the audio companion to Worcester Sucks! It’s me (Bill) and Chris Robarge, a longtime community organizer and advocate in these parts, with experience at the ACLU, Mass Bail Fund and elsewhere. We talk shit and try to pull the humor out of what can be very very very humorless material. Humor-averse, even. This week more than most. (If podcasts aren’t your thing you can adjust which sections—Outdoor Cats, Bad Advice, WPS In Brief, etc—come to your inbox in your settings.)
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Today we bring on Ellen Shemitz, the dedicated police reformer that the city manager kicked off the closest thing we have to a civilian review board, the Human Rights Commission. (Does not bode well for his CRB proposal being at all serious, me thinks.) We talked to her last Friday—after she knew she was kicked off, and before she knew Eric Batista replaced her with the opposite of a police reformer: the police chaplain, one Jonathan Slavinskas, a close friend of the union presidents and council cranks. Shemitz was punished for doing the job well, and replaced by someone sure to not do it at all.
It isn’t until the ~50 minute mark we get to Ellen though. Before that me and Chris have to attempt to catch up on a few days of absolutely surreal bullshit from the cops, city hall and the wider fascistic community. Such as: the police union heads and chief and ICE trying to turn the narrative around by blaming Councilor Etel Haxhiaj for “inciting a riot” and accusing her of “putting hands” on an officer. The full Globe story from today is worth a read, but here’s the upshot:
Police Chief Paul Saucier said in a statement Sunday Worcester officers don’t enforce federal immigration law or ask anyone their immigration status, and do not coordinate with federal immigration authorities. He also accused Haxhiaj of interfering with city officers.
“It is disappointing and unacceptable that a Worcester city councilor put her hands on our officers during the incident on Eureka St. Regardless of the charged political climate, physical violence is never an acceptable response to policy disagreements,” he said.
And here’s the ICE statement so you can read along courtesy Spectrum News:
“The target of this ICE operation was a violent criminal illegal alien, Ferreira de Oliveira. She was arrested by local police for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and assault and battery on a pregnant victim. District Councilor for the City of Worcester Haxhiaj pulled a political stunt and incited chaos by trying to obstruct law enforcement. ICE officers and local police regained control of the situation and ICE arrest [sic] Ferreira de Oliveira.
"The previous administration's open border policies, allowed [sic] this criminal to illegally enter our country in August of 2022. Thanks to President Trump and Secretary Noem this criminal is off our streets.
"Parents, who are here illegally, can take control of their departure. Through the CBP Home App- the Trump Administration is giving parents illegally in the country a chance to take full control of their departure and self-deport, with the potential ability to return the legal, right way and come back to live the American dream."
After we wrapped recording, around 1 p.m., the hits kept on coming. Since then we’ve learned:
that ICE misprinted the name of the woman they kidnapped, via MassLive and that she is being held in Rhode Island.
that the “violent criminal” act was a small dispute with a relative, the weapon a “cell phone charging cord,” also via MassLive.
that city hall is shutting down for the council meeting tomorrow and the public safety subcommittee meeting on Wednesday, going all virtual for both, citing “public safety concerns” per a widely mocked Instagram post on the city’s page.
Woof.
My take on that last item: it’s the surfacing of an underlying reality: that city hall is unable to control its police department, is deeply afraid of it, and made devil’s bargain after devil’s bargain to keep the extent of it hidden.
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—Intro music: “Roaming The Cosmic Winds” by Mystic Realm, Worcester-based dungeon synth project by Kevin Fitzgerald. Check out the full album, Forsaken Kingdom, on the Mystic Realm Bandcamp.
—Cold open: my arrangement of Roaming The Cosmic Winds with an audio collage of the Eureka scene from my tape recorder. Here’s a Drive file.
—Outro music: “the body the blood the machine” by The Thermals.
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