Speaker 1: It's with Dan ray On de Boston.
Speaker 2: Treating the Boston Globe this morning. It was an interesting
Speaker 2: story out of Somerville, and it's a sad story. The
Speaker 2: headline on the Globe story was closing over misbehavior. The
Speaker 2: Central Library in Somerville now will close its doors on
Speaker 2: certain days because young people, teenagers, students, high school students
Speaker 2: apparently have been doing some really just crazy things inside
Speaker 2: of a library. Now, those of us who grew up
Speaker 2: with a library where if you talked of the library
Speaker 2: and would come over and say there's no talking in
Speaker 2: the library, or they tell us please sh no talking, Well,
Speaker 2: I guess the teens have been, amongst other things, lighting firecrackers,
Speaker 2: according to the Globe article, getting into fights inside the library.
Speaker 2: I mean, this is behavior that is way over the
Speaker 2: top and disturbing peers who would come to study relax
Speaker 2: after a long day at school. That some kids will
Speaker 2: lighten up whatever they will lighten up these days. I
Speaker 2: hope it's just cigarettes with us. Is a city councilor
Speaker 2: Kristin Stresso Council Stresso. Welcome to Nightside. How are you tonight?
Speaker 3: I'm doing well. Thank you, I'm just fine. Thanks thanks
Speaker 3: for having me.
Speaker 2: No, well, thank you very much, And again I just
Speaker 2: would like to get a sense from you what is
Speaker 2: going on here? You know, this is this is behavior
Speaker 2: that shouldn't happen. I think all of us would agree
Speaker 2: with that. But what's prompting it? And what do you
Speaker 2: think about the response of the library, which which is
Speaker 2: to close the library at hours during the week which
Speaker 2: would be most convenient to students when school closes. They
Speaker 2: basically are saying, Okay, the behavior of some has been abhorrent,
Speaker 2: and as a consequence, no one's going to have access
Speaker 2: to the library, whether you're someone who misbehaves or someone
Speaker 2: who comports themselves perfectly well.
Speaker 3: Right, and and that's a great way to summer summarize it.
Speaker 3: And I think that a lot of parents, residents, library patrons,
Speaker 3: and well everyone is really their mouths are open. However,
Speaker 3: the decision to do so was an absolutely last resort.
Speaker 3: And I am not speaking on behalf of the librarians,
Speaker 3: but it has been a complex issue that has the
Speaker 3: what I say by issue a situation of misbehavior happening
Speaker 3: inside the library, but it's a it's a culbination of
Speaker 3: a few things going on at the same time, and
Speaker 3: the decision that the library representatives UH and the trustees
Speaker 3: side on. This was the absolute worst of the last
Speaker 3: last desperate solution and of this So if we can
Speaker 3: break it down, it's it's a couple of things happening
Speaker 3: at the same time. We have we have some misbehavior
Speaker 3: of some teenagers, but but also we have to make
Speaker 3: sure everyone feels safe. So we have to make sure
Speaker 3: that everybody feels safe. So when we have incidences of
Speaker 3: teenagers dropping firecrackers in the book drop, that's a problem
Speaker 3: in our liberation correct during during business hours, not now.
Speaker 3: But we also, above everything, we have to make sure
Speaker 3: that our teenagers and our youth feel supported as well.
Speaker 3: And I'm going to try not to bounce and I'm
Speaker 3: gonna trying to talk about because it's the dialog, right,
Speaker 3: it's a very it's a couple of things going on.
Speaker 3: For while the librarians and the trustees have asked for
Speaker 3: over a year and a half now for more support
Speaker 3: on what's been going on in the library, more support
Speaker 3: via staff, more support the security measures such as cameras,
Speaker 3: and so we're really calling on the administration in the
Speaker 3: Mayor's office and our city departments to really hop out
Speaker 3: with this. There have been a lot of steps in
Speaker 3: the past to engage our Somerville youth, our teens and
Speaker 3: under under teenagers, such as we opened a team Center,
Speaker 3: and they pushed really hard as a counselor to make
Speaker 3: sure that happened, because that was one thing that our
Speaker 3: teenagers consistently said they wanted some spaces where they can
Speaker 3: be teenagers. We don't have that right now. We don't
Speaker 3: have we we had a team Center, it had.
Speaker 4: To be relocated.
Speaker 3: We had it when it was opened in November of
Speaker 3: twenty one, I believe.
Speaker 2: Can I ask you a couple of questions because I
Speaker 2: want to try to answer you. When it says Summerville
Speaker 2: Central Library, is that the main public library? I know
Speaker 2: there were branch libraries. Is that the big one?
Speaker 4: Correct? We have three?
Speaker 3: And the central Library is directly next door to the
Speaker 3: high school.
Speaker 2: Right, So, therefore, do we have any idea how long
Speaker 2: this level of really bad behavior has been going on?
Speaker 2: Is this something that has just propped up this summer
Speaker 2: or does it have a longer pedigree than that.
Speaker 3: It's been going on for a while. And again we're
Speaker 3: not I want to make very clear that there is
Speaker 3: no finger pointing of well, these how these teenagers are
Speaker 3: these kids? It's not like that at all. It's that
Speaker 3: there are numerous steps that we have to be taking.
Speaker 2: Oh no, no, I forget that, but I'm just I'm
Speaker 2: just focusing first. If I could, you know, just so
Speaker 2: I understand this, I don't want to overstate it. So,
Speaker 2: if is it been going on for a year? How
Speaker 2: long has the library been having to deal with this
Speaker 2: level of you know, we'll call it, you know, misbehavior
Speaker 2: or juvenile or whatever whatever phrase you want to use.
Speaker 2: It's been going on for more than a year.
Speaker 3: Definitely over a year.
Speaker 2: Okay, so the librarians have been frustrated. Let me ask
Speaker 2: a really dumb question. Did anybody come up with the
Speaker 2: idea of, hey, why don't we post a police officer
Speaker 2: inside the library, you know during the afternoon, you know,
Speaker 2: from the time the kids get out of school two
Speaker 2: or two thirty until say five o'clock. I mean, did
Speaker 2: anyone I mean that I think would serve as that deterred,
Speaker 2: would it not?
Speaker 3: It's a good question. And however, we want to make
Speaker 3: sure that no and behavior gets completely out of hand.
Speaker 3: That is that is still uh that that is an option. However,
Speaker 3: we want to make sure that we are uh making
Speaker 3: the uh the how do I say this? It's it's
Speaker 3: it's ten ten at night. So I'll ask the question.
Speaker 2: Did anybody ever say, hey, look, let's have a police
Speaker 2: one police officer, just one police officer in that library
Speaker 2: beginning let's say two o'clock in the after whatever, you know,
Speaker 2: whenever the school gets out two o'clock in the afternoon,
Speaker 2: two to five whatever.
Speaker 3: There were questions of ken we hire security, and can
Speaker 3: we have security guards? And can we have can we
Speaker 3: have a police officer if necessary.
Speaker 2: A security guard? And those kids will laugh at a
Speaker 2: security guard, They'll laugh at some guy who shows up.
Speaker 2: We're in it, you know, I mean, you and I
Speaker 2: both know that. But but if they give a police
Speaker 2: officer a hard time, police officers simply calls for us
Speaker 2: some backup. And at this point we got kids who
Speaker 2: are who are down down in the station house, and
Speaker 2: mom and dad have to come by and and and
Speaker 2: and pick Junior up. It used to me like a
Speaker 2: pretty simple solution here, and the word would spread, Hey,
Speaker 2: you know, I mean, you know, let's let's find somewhere
Speaker 2: else to cause problems.
Speaker 3: And I haven't been right, and I haven't been in
Speaker 3: everyone of the conversations or this, but I know I
Speaker 3: do know, right, yeah, but I do know that that, yes,
Speaker 3: there have been questions of of everything, and we want
Speaker 3: to make sure that we're not we're not uganizing and
Speaker 3: criminalizing everything. That the goal is with teenagers, and you
Speaker 3: know how teenagers are because we were all teenagers once,
Speaker 3: is that we need But.
Speaker 2: I never flung flung. I'm with you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, animal house, it doesn't sound.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 3: And that is accountability too. It is very you don't
Speaker 3: throw firecrackers either in the book drop and because that
Speaker 3: is right next door to the children's section, but also
Speaker 3: you just don't do that. Of course they're calling for accountability,
Speaker 3: but at the same time, the goal of that first
Speaker 3: is to make sure that that we're checking in to
Speaker 3: not that that it's not not an issue of criminalizing,
Speaker 3: but also checking in what can we do to deflect
Speaker 3: and not deflect, but to make sure that we're addressing
Speaker 3: issues in front of that, keeping the teams busy, keeping
Speaker 3: them engaged, giving them opportunities to thrive, giving them seeing
Speaker 3: if we can job placement other things, keeping them busy,
Speaker 3: because we know when teenagers are bored, if keep them busy,
Speaker 3: because if they're not, they're going to find ways to
Speaker 3: not be bored. When teenagers find ways not to be bored,
Speaker 3: often things that are not preferred, right because.
Speaker 2: Well, Counselor, look, I appreciate, particularly on a Friday night
Speaker 2: at ten o'clock, the fact that you'd give us a
Speaker 2: little sense of it. I simply would suggest that maybe
Speaker 2: just a presence of a police officer would discourage that
Speaker 2: sort of behavior. And you know, police officers do have
Speaker 2: some authority, and they also have backup. I think a
Speaker 2: security guard, some poor guy with a security guard who's
Speaker 2: twenty two years old, they probably would be putting firecrackers
Speaker 2: down his pants if he was there or she was there.
Speaker 2: That's that's not fair. Counselor. Thank you so much for
Speaker 2: joining us. You've given us a pretty good sense of it.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna I don't want to subject you to phone
Speaker 2: lines here, so I'm going to invite folks to call us,
Speaker 2: and you probably have enough problems with constituents calling you,
Speaker 2: so you've been great to do.
Speaker 3: No, thank you very much for that. I do want
Speaker 3: to say that the goal is is that we want
Speaker 3: to make sure that that the that we're finding solutions,
Speaker 3: and that and that we're being as responsible responsive as possible,
Speaker 3: and that and that that city services are being provided.
Speaker 3: So we are, so we are so everybody gets a
Speaker 3: chance to thrive because it is not I I certainly
Speaker 3: don't want to shut out story time. I mean, I'm
Speaker 3: not the one who made the decision on closing the library,
Speaker 3: but I I can't imagine the concept of not being
Speaker 3: able to come for a storytelling with the toddler or
Speaker 3: looking at a picture book or teams. We need to
Speaker 3: make sure those that that that that that other teams
Speaker 3: or other kids that want to come after school and
Speaker 3: study and really get to the work, or just pick
Speaker 3: out a book that everyone.
Speaker 2: It's a few ruining it for for the for the
Speaker 2: for all, and and that has to stop. Keep us
Speaker 2: posting on this way, man, if you and if if
Speaker 2: you guys, if you guys, put a police officer in
Speaker 2: that and that and that calms it down. Give me credit,
Speaker 2: will you? Thanks counselor thanks to thank you? All Right,
Speaker 2: we take a quick break. If you'd like to join
Speaker 2: the conversation. I think that's a fairly straightforward suggestion. If
Speaker 2: you've got some rowdy teenagers doing stupid things. They're not
Speaker 2: necessarily criminal, but they're stupid. Call it what it is.
Speaker 2: Put a police officer there. I would bet you in
Speaker 2: a week that problem would go away, because I think
Speaker 2: the word would spread amongst the teenagers. You don't want
Speaker 2: to go down there and do something stupid in the library. Look,
Speaker 2: libraries are having a tough time because fewer and fewer
Speaker 2: people are using them. Many people are just relying on computers.
Speaker 2: I want to hear from you, particularly if you live
Speaker 2: in Somerville. Come on, what's going on over there? You
Speaker 2: know this is this is something that is unacceptable. Now again,
Speaker 2: this is not MS thirteen. I get that this is
Speaker 2: not kids using knives or guns. But you're going to
Speaker 2: throw firecrackers inside a library. You're gonna be smoking inside
Speaker 2: a library. Give me a break, Give me a break.
Speaker 2: Get one police officer inside that building beginning the first
Speaker 2: day of school, and I guarantee you the problems, the
Speaker 2: problems will move. You will not have the problem in
Speaker 2: the library anymore, if you agree with me. Again, sometimes
Speaker 2: the easiest solutions are the ones that stare you in
Speaker 2: the in the eye. More programs wonderful. I don't think
Speaker 2: that's going to solve the problem, because if you got
Speaker 2: some kids who just want to go in and raise
Speaker 2: hell in the library, they're going to do it until
Speaker 2: somebody's there to stop them. Coming back on Night Side
Speaker 2: six one seven, two, five, four, ten thirty six one seven, nine, three, one,
Speaker 2: ten thirty, you don't coddle problem children. You give them
Speaker 2: some guidance, and nothing would be would provide more guidance
Speaker 2: than officer friendly inside the library, ready to deal with
Speaker 2: whatever comes through the door. I'm convinced any say, any
Speaker 2: Summerville police officer could handle that task, and if necessary,
Speaker 2: you bring in the cavalry and you deal with whatever occurs.
Speaker 2: Coming back on night let's have at it now.
Speaker 5: Back to Dan Ray live from the Window World Nightside
Speaker 5: Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm reading the Global article here. There's a
Speaker 2: young woman named Autumn Lane. She's an eighth grader. Closing
Speaker 2: the library and get riding or getting rid of the
Speaker 2: safe space altogether is only going to make the problem worse.
Speaker 2: You should be the mayor of Somerville, Autumn Lane.
Speaker 1: That's absolutely true. And the way to make the library
Speaker 1: a safe space, a safer space than it is with
Speaker 1: kids throwing firecrackers, fights.
Speaker 2: Very simple. My solution Somerville. You don't even have to
Speaker 2: pay me as a consultant. But one police officer, one
Speaker 2: you know, younger police officer, maybe one of the police
Speaker 2: officers in the late twenties, early thirties, stationed in the
Speaker 2: mins the library and if the problem continues, then you
Speaker 2: call in the cavalry if you have to. Uh, that's
Speaker 2: the problem. And you know, I know that my my friend,
Speaker 2: the counselor O Streso was was a little hasardant to
Speaker 2: endorse my idea, but I think that she had some
Speaker 2: respect for it, although she talked about we need more
Speaker 2: programs and all of that. I think again, you got
Speaker 2: to say to people, Okay, you you can't behave in
Speaker 2: a library, then you don't belong in a library. And
Speaker 2: if when we tell you to leave, you don't leave,
Speaker 2: you'll be you'll be taken into custody and we will
Speaker 2: will bring the wagon up, and we'll bring a few
Speaker 2: more people up, and we'll take you down the police
Speaker 2: station and we'll call you parents if you have some parents,
Speaker 2: or we'll call your guardians or whomever, uh, and they'll
Speaker 2: they'll get you out and we'll see you in court.
Speaker 2: The next morning, you won't have to go to school.
Speaker 2: The next day you get a appointment in front of
Speaker 2: the judge. Simple as that. This is crazy. Apparently, this
Speaker 2: is the decision that's been made that the library until
Speaker 2: further notice would be closed from eleven thirty to two
Speaker 2: pm on Wednesdays. That's apparently the half day in school
Speaker 2: that the summer those students again, and on the other
Speaker 2: weekdays Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday from two to four. Let
Speaker 2: me go to Gary see what he has to say.
Speaker 2: I will bet you he agrees with me. I could
Speaker 2: be wrong, but maybe he has a more innovative idea. Gary, welcome.
Speaker 2: How are you well?
Speaker 4: Way back one going to high school between eight years
Speaker 4: of combination of seventy seven to eighty one. How I
Speaker 4: feel is this when I was in the library, way
Speaker 4: back when I was a big kid myself. But I
Speaker 4: wasn't one of those separate guys that got jollies out
Speaker 4: of beating up somebody and punch them in the face,
Speaker 4: because some guys did. Way back. When you get that
Speaker 4: certain kid, I knew you'd be in the library, Joey,
Speaker 4: I can't find you in school and you punch the
Speaker 4: guy in the face. What I'm getting I'm getting a
Speaker 4: little graphic here is you get a combination of violence
Speaker 4: in libraries that go unreported. You get the facing of
Speaker 4: books that go unreported. I mean, where are all the
Speaker 4: cameras in a library, because the way I look at it,
Speaker 4: like it was a floodgated with cameras in a library.
Speaker 4: You get that kid audio in video of him, whether
Speaker 4: it's the facing or this that, And somehow the cops
Speaker 4: get involved and grab those parents and bring them into
Speaker 4: court and say you represent your child, your child did wrong,
Speaker 4: and throw out the fines like crazy. You can get
Speaker 4: them in the pockets.
Speaker 2: Agree, well, that's that's a way to go about it.
Speaker 2: I mean, some would argue that the parent, it's very difficult.
Speaker 2: Just as you don't visit the sins of the father
Speaker 2: upon the son, I guess you also don't visit the
Speaker 2: sins of the son upon the father. And some would
Speaker 2: argue that, hey, even though the parents did allows e
Speaker 2: job bringing the kid up, so he's not small not
Speaker 2: to do facebooks in the library or throw firecrackers. But
Speaker 2: I'm not opposed to that idea that there should be
Speaker 2: some responsibility if the kids aren't responsible, parents are responsible.
Speaker 2: I just think that it's it's pretty old school when
Speaker 2: I'm suggesting, but it's pretty simple. It's pretty straightforward. Put
Speaker 2: a police officer inside the library. So when the kids
Speaker 2: come in, and they come in, you'll pack four or
Speaker 2: five and they're gonna do this, and they're gonna do
Speaker 2: something really stupid, and they're gonna be more stupid than
Speaker 2: their stupid friends. So we're friend's gonna throw a firecracker
Speaker 2: in the library. I got it. I got a Blockbuster
Speaker 2: or a cherry baumb You know, you gotta deal with
Speaker 2: these kids at their own mentality, which is you do
Speaker 2: something stupid, say hello is some new jewelry. We're going
Speaker 2: to put you in handcuffs, and we're going to put
Speaker 2: you in the wagon or in the squad car, and
Speaker 2: we're gonna hold you down in a cell for a
Speaker 2: few hours. We're gonna call you parents, and tomorrow morning
Speaker 2: you won't have to go to school. Go see the
Speaker 2: tell it to the judge. That's all.
Speaker 4: The other fact too, what back one, what I experienced,
Speaker 4: And like I said, I was never a choir boy
Speaker 4: all the time.
Speaker 2: But I wouldn't expect Dary that you were a quire boy.
Speaker 2: I think I know you well.
Speaker 4: Enough to know that, Okay, harassing librarians who are traditionally
Speaker 4: usually women, but there are men, and you get the
Speaker 4: punky kids that would harass librarians way back when or
Speaker 4: even now in the last fifty years. And what I
Speaker 4: say to that is this audio video harassment time these kids,
Speaker 4: and don't wastn't get away with it and say you
Speaker 4: got a summons and find them. I go to your
Speaker 4: homes and say your son or daughter is acting very inappropriate.
Speaker 4: Your summons to court because of his bad behavior, harassing
Speaker 4: a library, just like McDonald's all these past food places
Speaker 4: I experienced this cause I go, I drink dis.
Speaker 2: Look, if they're doing stupid stuff at McDonald's, it's up
Speaker 2: to McDonald's to take care of them. And if McDonald's
Speaker 2: really needs to prevent kids from doing stupid stuff, they
Speaker 2: will hire a police officer. As a detail, the city
Speaker 2: of Somerville has a police force, and they need to
Speaker 2: use the police force win a problem arises. Anyway, Gary,
Speaker 2: I think you and I pretty much on the same page,
Speaker 2: and I think we're just going at it a little differently.
Speaker 2: Thanks man, have a great weekend. Okay, thanks by the
Speaker 2: way for those of you who are waiting around for
Speaker 2: our presidential poll. We do it every I pledged earlier
Speaker 2: this year, and we began doing this, believe it or not,
Speaker 2: in March, April, May, June, July, and August. This is
Speaker 2: our sixth month doing this. So in the eleven o'clock hour,
Speaker 2: about a half an hour from now, once the newscast
Speaker 2: is over, we're going to open up the phone lines
Speaker 2: and give you an opportunity to cast a vote for
Speaker 2: whichever presidential candidate you like or you would like to
Speaker 2: see win. It's down to, and neither one of them
Speaker 2: named Biden. I think this would be the first pole
Speaker 2: that we've done without Biden. Technically, well, he wasn't on
Speaker 2: the ballot in July, but RFK was. So now we
Speaker 2: will see where this pole will go next hour. But
Speaker 2: for now, I want to hear from some of you
Speaker 2: in Somerville, Okay, and I want to hear from you
Speaker 2: in other communities. If this was going on in your library,
Speaker 2: in your town, whether it's Medford or Malden or Methuen,
Speaker 2: Haveral or Quincy, Broxton, wherever, what would you expect your
Speaker 2: political leaders to do? Now? I did talk earlier this
Speaker 2: Hour with Somerville City Councilor Kristin Stresso, and she seemed
Speaker 2: to stress that maybe there've had to be some more programs,
Speaker 2: and she talked about idle minds, idle hands and all
Speaker 2: of that sort of stuff. Devil's Workshop. No, if you
Speaker 2: do something that's stupid in a library, okay, you do
Speaker 2: something really stupid on the street, you get a little
Speaker 2: bit more flexibility. Okay, but you've light a fire cracker,
Speaker 2: light a cigarette. Are you going to vape inside the library?
Speaker 2: Not going to happen. Well, if it happens, we're going
Speaker 2: to have a police officer there who's going to go
Speaker 2: over and escort you to the door. And if you don't,
Speaker 2: and you're going to be told also, you're not welcome
Speaker 2: to come back here for thirty days. Okay take the name,
Speaker 2: can't come back band for thirty days. That way, you
Speaker 2: don't penalize the good people, the good kids who want
Speaker 2: to use the library. It's simple. It's simple. So where
Speaker 2: is the political leadership in Somerville? I have no clue.
Speaker 2: I used to know off the top of my head
Speaker 2: who the mayor was. If you're out there, give us
Speaker 2: a call. Anyone in Cambridge, Somerville. These are problems that
Speaker 2: we're having with young people. It's as simple as that.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of reasons, sociological reasons. You know, single
Speaker 2: family parents, single parents and all of that tougher to
Speaker 2: raise kids when there's just a mom or dad. We
Speaker 2: know that. Okay, However, however, that's a problem that has
Speaker 2: to be fault have to be solved. If it's not
Speaker 2: solved by the parent or parents in the home, eventually
Speaker 2: you got to get the police involved. And it's better
Speaker 2: to get them involved early than later. We're coming right
Speaker 2: back on Nightside. Light these phone lines up. And by
Speaker 2: the way, you know that you have a hall past
Speaker 2: at eleven o'clock, so if you if you call anytime
Speaker 2: this week up till eleven, you can always participate in
Speaker 2: our Friday evening eleven PM straw Pole one hour every month,
Speaker 2: and we're going to do this again in September and October,
Speaker 2: and we'll kind of see if there's a trend amongst
Speaker 2: our listeners or not. And of course we'll see you
Speaker 2: on November fifth, who's elected. We'll be right back on
Speaker 2: Nightside six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty. Those
Speaker 2: lines are wide open. Right now, let's have at it.
Speaker 2: It's Nightside with.
Speaker 4: Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2: Thank you all, let's continue to talk. I'm a little
Speaker 2: disappointed in my audience. I think this is a really
Speaker 2: simple solution, and I also think that all of the
Speaker 2: sociologists and this is not a criticism of my guests,
Speaker 2: the City Council of Kristen Stresso. She had a very thoughtful,
Speaker 2: I thought thoughtful response, but her emphasis she did not
Speaker 2: warm to the idea of putting a police officer inside
Speaker 2: the library. Why would you not? Could someone explain to
Speaker 2: me maybe why that would not be a good idea,
Speaker 2: And if you think it's a good idea, please back
Speaker 2: me up on it, because I think that too many
Speaker 2: of these cities have said, well, we don't want to
Speaker 2: have this is sort of the George Floyd consequence. Because
Speaker 2: one police officer loses his mind in Minneapolis and literally
Speaker 2: kills an individual that now we have to assume in
Speaker 2: some of these progressive communities, and some of it would
Speaker 2: be in that category, we don't need the police. Oh,
Speaker 2: if there's somebody with a machine gun killing people dout, yeah,
Speaker 2: we'll call the police in. But on something like this,
Speaker 2: this is you work on something like this, and you
Speaker 2: get it done early, and you send a message to kids.
Speaker 2: This sort of behavior will not be tolerated in our community.
Speaker 2: Plain and simple. I'm going to go to Marty and
Speaker 2: Marty down down in Saint Augustine. Marty, welcome back.
Speaker 4: How are you pleasure? And I could relate to this,
Speaker 4: but an opposite way.
Speaker 2: Sure.
Speaker 4: I moved to Saint Augustine in nineteen ninety three. I
Speaker 4: bought my house in nineteen ninety four. I'll be in
Speaker 4: here thirty years.
Speaker 2: Beautiful, beautiful community. I was there once once. Yeah it's
Speaker 2: twice Williams great.
Speaker 4: I mean I'm in a neighborhood. I call it a
Speaker 4: gated community without a without a gate.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 4: The community is over one hundred years old. It has
Speaker 4: some old houses, new houses and anyway. I used to
Speaker 4: ride around several days, five o'clock at night. We don't
Speaker 4: have any youth, as they say in Brooklyn. We don't
Speaker 4: have no youth problems. We have no graffiti, no vandalism.
Speaker 4: Most people don't have boys on a windows. Some of
Speaker 4: them you alarms, which I don't like because neighbors look
Speaker 4: out for neighbors. However, I was in contact with some
Speaker 4: people I went to a meeting and I was talking
Speaker 4: to some women from what they call communities. They have
Speaker 4: too much development over here, and they're putting what they
Speaker 4: call communities and they have what they call amenities that there,
Speaker 4: which is the clubhouse. And these women were telling me
Speaker 4: about the kids, what they're doing over there and what
Speaker 4: it is is because in most cases the parents are
Speaker 4: too busy working and they don't have any contact with
Speaker 4: the kids or whatever. Now, as far as the library,
Speaker 4: I live near the main library in Saint John's County,
Speaker 4: ten blocks away. I love my librarians. They go above
Speaker 4: and beyond and they have private security there. I guess
Speaker 4: what for. I'm a big champion of homeless people. I work,
Speaker 4: I support, I'm a representative, and I just look out
Speaker 4: for homeless people. They get a lot of stuff is
Speaker 4: blamed on them over here, but they come to the
Speaker 4: library mostly to use the computer. Some of them come
Speaker 4: into the library, they stay there as the air condition until
Speaker 4: the library closes and then they go to a field.
Speaker 4: So therefore, we do have a private guard company, and
Speaker 4: some of these guards I'm six three. Some of these
Speaker 4: guards look like if I sneeze, they would fall down.
Speaker 4: But there's a presence and.
Speaker 2: At that how does that relate to the problem of teenager.
Speaker 2: I'm just trying to make that connection to unruly, belligerent
Speaker 2: teenagers in a Somerville is a is a suburb of Boston,
Speaker 2: just like probably.
Speaker 4: Let me ask you is there?
Speaker 2: Let me let me finish body if I could, because
Speaker 2: I want to ask you a question. You have experience
Speaker 2: in law enforcement, Okay. Somerville is a suburb of Boston,
Speaker 2: kind of like what Yonkers would be to New York.
Speaker 2: It's not part of New York New York City, Yonkers,
Speaker 2: as I understand it, It's not one of the boroughs.
Speaker 2: So Somerville is close to bar But you got these
Speaker 2: kids who are trouble. They got too much time in
Speaker 2: the hands. Not too many of the kids who are
Speaker 2: coming out of Somerville are coming out as you know,
Speaker 2: there's a lot of them who don't see the value
Speaker 2: of high school. Let me put it as gently as
Speaker 2: I can, okay, And they don't realize that education is
Speaker 2: going to be the key to their success in life.
Speaker 2: So they go into the library and they raise hell
Speaker 2: in the afternoon, fire throws a few firecrackers around the library.
Speaker 2: Behavior that is just way over the top. My simple solution,
Speaker 2: put a genuine police officer in there, not a security guard,
Speaker 2: a genuine Somerville cop, and guess what that will tamt
Speaker 2: this whole thing down in about two days.
Speaker 4: Now. Mostly all of our schools in Saint John's County
Speaker 4: have what they call a school resource deputy, Okay, And
Speaker 4: I really don't like that because, in other words, you're
Speaker 4: telling me that somebody is there would have gone in
Speaker 4: order to keep order. However, Mike County is known as
Speaker 4: people getting involved. So when you're telling me people throwing
Speaker 4: firecrackers in the library, that's called apathy because I'll tell
Speaker 4: you right now, me or a lot of people I know,
Speaker 4: somebody's throwing firecrackers in the library, somebody's going to grab them,
Speaker 4: or they're going to follow them. We don't take that
Speaker 4: over here to a large.
Speaker 2: One, okay. So in some of them, in some of
Speaker 2: the same quality of people who live down where you are, okay,
Speaker 2: And I understand the community you live in all of you,
Speaker 2: and I think you would be the sort of guy
Speaker 2: who would step up and help out. But in some
Speaker 2: of them, it's like the lunatics run the asylum, Okay,
Speaker 2: in the sense that you know, you have a you
Speaker 2: have a bunch of politicians over there who are progressive, uh,
Speaker 2: and they don't want to This all comes out of
Speaker 2: the George Floyd era.
Speaker 4: Where people said you a question, we'll go right ahead.
Speaker 4: The question is I guess I was trying to ask
Speaker 4: you before, trying to keep it very gentle. Is there
Speaker 4: an ethnic component to those who no, no, no, the
Speaker 4: perpetrators are all white kids.
Speaker 2: No, they're all mixed kids. You have all sorts of kids.
Speaker 4: White kids do things bad too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, of course they do. What I'm saying is I
Speaker 2: haven't gone over there and decided what percentage of this
Speaker 2: what percentage? Because I don't care. They're teenagers. They're teenagers
Speaker 2: who have no direction. They're teenagers who no one has
Speaker 2: even disciplined them. There's teenagers who have never suffered consequences
Speaker 2: for their actions. And so now they're getting to the point. Look,
Speaker 2: once you get away throwing firecrackers in a in a library,
Speaker 2: or or smoking in a library. You imagine smoking in
Speaker 2: the library, then the next thing is, you know what,
Speaker 2: I can go in and steal a case of beer.
Speaker 4: Is you a police department and active or a type
Speaker 4: that does nothing well?
Speaker 2: First of it's not my police department. It's one city.
Speaker 2: Some of them has a bunch of tough police officers. Okay,
Speaker 2: we'd be proud to be a member of the somervill PD.
Speaker 2: But it's your leadership, your political the leadership in that community.
Speaker 4: Who wants to New York City.
Speaker 2: Well maybe on writ large, ritt large, but no, this
Speaker 2: is a very progressive city. They call it the People's
Speaker 2: Republic of Somerville. That's all you need to know, Marty.
Speaker 4: Thank you. Well anyway, listen, listen, the progressive politics doesn't work.
Speaker 4: And my city of Saint Augustine is also a socialist city.
Speaker 4: But the County of Saint John's has twice as many
Speaker 4: Republicans as Democrats. And it's regarded as well actually North
Speaker 4: Florida as a law in order to place the sheriff's
Speaker 4: like to say, if you do something over, he's going
Speaker 4: to go to jail.
Speaker 2: Well, I love most of those sheriffs in Florida. I
Speaker 2: see some of them as had very creative mechanisms to
Speaker 2: invoke and involve law enforcement earlier, earlier in the lives
Speaker 2: of young people. They got to understand it when I
Speaker 2: was growing up. The police officer was not your enemy.
Speaker 2: The police officer was your friend. If you got lost
Speaker 2: in a city and you were going into the big
Speaker 2: city and you and you were eleven or twelve years old,
Speaker 2: you go to a police officer, officer, I'm not sure
Speaker 2: where I am. Yeah, but it's all changed money. And
Speaker 2: that's why I'm using this as an example.
Speaker 4: I figure, well, then people, if the people are the
Speaker 4: way they are progressive and if they vote a certain way,
Speaker 4: the problems are going to be there. It's like it's
Speaker 4: like having German cockerroaches and just praying when that's not
Speaker 4: the way to get rid of them.
Speaker 2: All right, I gotta go money. I'm up against that.
Speaker 2: I'm normally you and I are on the same wavelength.
Speaker 2: I think that we're in a different wavelength early on,
Speaker 2: but I think I.
Speaker 4: Think I when I'm voting, I'm voting for Donald Trump,
Speaker 4: not some communists.
Speaker 2: Well you got to call back during the and she's
Speaker 2: not a communist. Come on, they're real. The communists are real, bad, bad,
Speaker 2: bad people. We've got a different view of the world
Speaker 2: that you.
Speaker 4: And I that you and I might have eleven All.
Speaker 2: Right, thanks, money, appreciate it. Thank well, We'll take a break.
Speaker 2: Coming right back at night Side. Now back to Dan
Speaker 2: Way live from the Window World Nice Side Studios on
Speaker 2: WBZ News Radio. Just to emphasize it. The Boston Globe
Speaker 2: says one of the members of the school committee there,
Speaker 2: he said, we're all kind of blindsided. This school comp
Speaker 2: member said he was dismayed to see that one of
Speaker 2: the last remaining third spaces in somer of It where
Speaker 2: young people can gather without having to buy anything, would
Speaker 2: close his stores. Not to mention a library which is
Speaker 2: supposed to be a refuge for kids, perhaps especially for
Speaker 2: those who were bored and prone to trouble if left unattended.
Speaker 2: Here's a quote. Too many disengaged kids in the library
Speaker 2: is not a problem, It's an opportunity. I'm hoping we
Speaker 2: have the leadership to seize that opportunity. What problem. Let's
Speaker 2: go next to Sandy and West Roxbury. She knows libraries, Hi, Sandy,
Speaker 2: how are you good? I think it's a simple solution.
Speaker 2: Put officers friendly in there who can maintain some order,
Speaker 2: and if not, he can call in the count.
Speaker 5: But look what happened when they tried to well, when
Speaker 5: they had police in the schools, and then they got
Speaker 5: rid of them.
Speaker 4: Well know that parents.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what happened is is you know, I know, got crazy.
Speaker 2: The schools aren't safe. Look what's going on down in
Speaker 2: place like Brockton. My god, that that's them system out
Speaker 2: of control, out of control.
Speaker 5: It's it's parents.
Speaker 2: I don't think it is. I think the parents are
Speaker 2: they're concerned about the safety of their own kids. But
Speaker 2: what happens is they vote in the progressive politicians whose
Speaker 2: attitude is like the fellow, who's whose I just read that? Uh,
Speaker 2: to many disengaged kids in the library. It's not a problem,
Speaker 2: it's an opportunity. I'm hoping.
Speaker 5: It goes back to the broken windows thing. I know
Speaker 5: when I was growing up, I talked once during lunch
Speaker 5: I did, I admit it. I tell my parents had
Speaker 5: my father had to take that day off from work.
Speaker 5: My parents had to come to school. And that was
Speaker 5: in second grade. And I'll tell you I never talked
Speaker 5: again in months until I was there.
Speaker 2: You used to have the nuns. They were great. You'd
Speaker 2: hear the nuns coming down the hall and everybody would
Speaker 2: shush up and they'd blow into the into the classroom,
Speaker 2: which by the way, was forty five students. Okay, that's
Speaker 2: how many kids I had in all of my classes
Speaker 2: in eighth grades at Saint Anne's and Reidville. There were
Speaker 2: no classes with twenty kids. It was forty five kids anyway,
Speaker 2: And the nuns would control us and then walk in
Speaker 2: and the nuns will say I heard people talking. Who
Speaker 2: was talking? Identify yourselves. Nobody would fess up, Okay, you're
Speaker 2: all staying late after school. I mean you know they
Speaker 2: had it down. They had it down. Yeah, And look,
Speaker 2: you want to if libraries are not a safe place
Speaker 2: and a safe refuse, put a police officer in there.
Speaker 4: Oh.
Speaker 5: I agree that it's not going to happen.
Speaker 2: Well in the progressive community like the People's Republic of Somerville.
Speaker 2: Maybe not, But I don't know. I'm hoping to hear
Speaker 2: from some Somerville people who might agree with me. Who knows.
Speaker 5: I was teaching in a Catholic school on time, and
Speaker 5: I had this small group of kids that just wouldn't
Speaker 5: stop talking. And they weren't bad kissed, but they were
Speaker 5: just stopping the class because it wouldn't stop talking. So
Speaker 5: you couldn't keep them after school because of the buses.
Speaker 5: So the principal said, no, I wouldn't think of keeping
Speaker 5: them after school. I'm going to keep the parents after school.
Speaker 2: How did they do that? What did they do?
Speaker 5: And they just said, if you don't show up here
Speaker 5: and sit detention, So three days in a row, your parents,
Speaker 5: your children will be stuff. And the parents showed up
Speaker 5: and the kids didn't make a problem after that.
Speaker 2: It's just knowing a pressure point.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you really have to get it. Well, it's all
Speaker 5: one word respect. When I was growing up, we everybody
Speaker 5: respected everybody else until somebody broke a rule, you know, and.
Speaker 4: Then it was looked.
Speaker 2: I was watching the news tonight. There's a young police
Speaker 2: officer in Dallas, Texas assassinated in a squad car last night.
Speaker 2: Looked to me like a young minority officer. There was
Speaker 2: a young female officer in Baltimore who was assassinated in
Speaker 2: her squad car by a year and a half, more
Speaker 2: than a little bit more than a year and a
Speaker 2: half an hour ago. You know, we got to basically say, hey, look,
Speaker 2: you know there are some police who have done who
Speaker 2: have done the wrong things, but we're paying a much
Speaker 2: greater price. No one cares about the death of this
Speaker 2: police officer in Dallas.
Speaker 5: You got it.
Speaker 2: Thanks Andy, Love, your good night. All right, good night.
Speaker 2: That's next. Up is we're going to go next let's
Speaker 2: go to Mike and Newton and we're going to get
Speaker 2: Dave and Worcester in as well. Michael, I'm doing great, Mike.
Speaker 2: What's your take on this? Uh?
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 6: My take on it is, uh, you know, the parents
Speaker 6: they cannot tell the kids no anymore. The kids don't
Speaker 6: know the word no, and and and I've seen it.
Speaker 6: I've seen it over here. I'm here to get into it.
Speaker 6: But the parents give the as everything they want.
Speaker 4: The kids do this, they do that. They say, oh no, no,
Speaker 4: well it's not all it's not all kids.
Speaker 2: By the way, Mike, are you want to Are you
Speaker 2: on to speak a phone?
Speaker 4: Uh?
Speaker 6: Yeah, I'm on my uh cell phone.
Speaker 2: So you're talking right into the cell phone and you're
Speaker 2: not on it. You're not standing five feet away while
Speaker 2: you got it on speaker on the on the on
Speaker 2: the desk of the table.
Speaker 4: I'm right here talking to you. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Okay, Well here's what it sounds like. It sounds like
Speaker 2: you're talking to me like this. Why don't you put
Speaker 2: the cell phone right by your mouth so I can
Speaker 2: hear you better? Okay, please go ahead?
Speaker 4: Is that better right there.
Speaker 2: Much better, much better, Thank you. It's it's not all
Speaker 2: all what I'm saying. It's not all kids. It's a
Speaker 2: bunch of trouble makers. And you got to you gotta
Speaker 2: corral the trouble makers because it's going to metastasize it.
Speaker 2: Instead of having five percent trouble makers, you'll let fifty
Speaker 2: percent trouble makers go ahead.
Speaker 4: And I totally agree with that. Put a police officer
Speaker 4: in there. I got paddled.
Speaker 6: I grew i Central Pennsylvania, Williamsport, Pennsylvania. I got paddled
Speaker 6: from sixth grade on two or three times a year.
Speaker 4: And I went home and I go, my, hey, dad,
Speaker 4: I got paddled. What you do wrong?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that's not a good move. But your father
Speaker 2: probably paddled you again. So you grew up in Williamsport, Pennsylvania,
Speaker 2: home of the Little League World Series.
Speaker 4: Right yeah, home in Little League Baseball? Yeah uh yeah uh.
Speaker 2: And also the home the hometown of great pitcher for
Speaker 2: for the Yankees and the Oriols, Mike Messina.
Speaker 6: Oh Messin he was eva grew up and williams Sport Mattersdale.
Speaker 4: Actually so okay, well he played by Maturersaw High School.
Speaker 2: Gotta be close, gotta be close. I almost saw. I'm
Speaker 2: no hit the Red Sox back a weekend before nine
Speaker 2: to eleven. Mike, I'm with you, and I'm not advocating
Speaker 2: corporal punishment, but I'm advocating having a police officer in
Speaker 2: that library. And I think you're the first caller who
Speaker 2: has agreed with me.
Speaker 4: Totally, and I completely agree with you.
Speaker 2: Thanks man, I appreciate it. Have a great labor day weekend. Okay,
Speaker 2: thank We're going to get one more caller in here,
Speaker 2: uh this hour before you wrapped there are going to
Speaker 2: go to a David in Worcester. David, we got a
Speaker 2: couple of minutes for you, go right ahead.
Speaker 4: I want to say that I agree with you, except
Speaker 4: when you just said that you don't. You're not advocating
Speaker 4: corporal punishment. As a parent, you know, father or grandfather,
Speaker 4: great grandfather. I know that there's a certain age at
Speaker 4: which children bologna and just stand, you know, you know,
Speaker 4: certain seeing uh uh instructions and and then there would
Speaker 4: begin learn to respect rules. But I want to say
Speaker 4: it about some of them.
Speaker 2: So I'm confused. I said, I am not an advocate
Speaker 2: of corporal punishment in the classroom. I'm not suggesting that.
Speaker 2: Do you agree with me on that or do you
Speaker 2: think there's a place for corporal punishment?
Speaker 4: Uh, you know, I'm not here just agree to do
Speaker 4: you know? Some people say only in the headmaster's office,
Speaker 4: but I say that sometimes it has to be in
Speaker 4: the classroom.
Speaker 2: So I don't think it should be in the head masters.
Speaker 2: I think it's up to the parents and and and
Speaker 2: they should not abuse their kids physically, you know, to
Speaker 2: give a little kid a tap on the butt that
Speaker 2: that's you know, when they're five or six years old,
Speaker 2: just to get their attention, Okay, but much more than that.
Speaker 2: I'm not a fan of that at all. But I
Speaker 2: am a fan of police being in the library and
Speaker 2: maintaining order and decor in the library and telling the
Speaker 2: kids who are troublemakers. If you cause trouble, you're out
Speaker 2: of here. And if and if you don't go quietly,
Speaker 2: we'll take you down and you'll have an appointment to
Speaker 2: see the judge in the morning.
Speaker 4: I qulled about that. I quote about that. I wanted
Speaker 4: to say this, we have to be fair and decent
Speaker 4: to policemen. You cannot send one policeman, just one policeman
Speaker 4: to that library. If there's not much kills, there should
Speaker 4: be in my opinion, at least four policemans in every
Speaker 4: in every library.
Speaker 2: No, I only David would think that that it would
Speaker 2: be uh to send four. Some of these cities only
Speaker 2: have you know, ten police officers on a shift. I
Speaker 2: think one is fine. And if if a police officer
Speaker 2: is going to be in trouble in a library with
Speaker 2: some teenagers, he could call in the cavalry pretty quickly.
Speaker 4: In my opinion, maybe maybe then they should call some
Speaker 4: of the parents to actually be reserved reserved police to
Speaker 4: watch you land the library and understand the rules of
Speaker 4: the library that they should be not talking right alone
Speaker 4: during firecrack.
Speaker 2: I'm with you totally, David. Sometimes we agree, sometimes they disagree,
Speaker 2: but I think on this one you and I are
Speaker 2: on the same page of common sense. Thank you, my friend.
Speaker 2: Have a great weekend.
Speaker 4: We just don't want to overburden one policeman.
Speaker 2: I'm with you. I don't want to I don't want
Speaker 2: to endanger policeman, but I think that there are more
Speaker 2: dangerous spots to be than monitoring in a library. Thanks David.
Speaker 2: I appreciate your call, have a great one. All right,
Speaker 2: we come back our presidential poll for August. This is
Speaker 2: the last Friday eleven o'clock hour, twentyeth hour coming up,
Speaker 2: so dial away, get on early. Who are you gonna
Speaker 2: Who will it be? Will it be Donald J? Trump?
Speaker 2: Or Vice President? Come Kamala Harris?
Speaker 5: Uh?
Speaker 2: Those are the two choices. Joe Biden's off the board.
Speaker 2: RFK is off the board. We're gonna take your phone calls.
Speaker 2: If you've called this week, you get a free haul
Speaker 2: pass to call again in the eleven o'clock hour. Who
Speaker 2: will you be voting for if the election were held today?
Speaker 2: Six one, seven, two, five, four ten thirty six one seven, nine,
Speaker 2: ten thirty. We'll be right back on night side.