Speaker 1: It's Night Side with Dan Ray on w b Z
Speaker 1: Boston Radio.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much, Dan Watkins. Want to talk tonight
Speaker 2: with someone who have known for a long time. He's
Speaker 2: the former chief of police in Milton, Massachusetts. Currently now
Speaker 2: he represents that fine community at the state House state
Speaker 2: Representative Richard Wells. Representative Wells, welcome to NIGHTSID.
Speaker 3: How are you believing, my friend?
Speaker 2: How are you Dan doing? Great? Richard? You're a Democrat
Speaker 2: in the majority up there, but you're working with a
Speaker 2: Republican from another part of the state, Uh, which Marty
Speaker 2: Eggs areus? I believe how we represent from yah Republican.
Speaker 2: The common ally that that you have is that Representative
Speaker 2: Zarius uh has spent forty years in the the Armouth
Speaker 2: Police Department. And what we're concerned about, frankly, is a
Speaker 2: piece of legislation that I know was adopted in Florida.
Speaker 2: Has it been adopted in any other states that you're
Speaker 2: aware of?
Speaker 3: I'm not aware of it. It was adopted in Flarta
Speaker 3: I bloemd just before I entered the legislature, which was
Speaker 3: that the year I'm a freshman up and it was
Speaker 3: adopted last year, right, be honestly, It's not something I
Speaker 3: have a thought of, but it's badly what a point
Speaker 3: then in the career and a first professional first responders
Speaker 3: was something I needs to be enacted.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, we saw some craziness in Worcester the
Speaker 2: other day. I think back to what went on in
Speaker 2: the wake of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis
Speaker 2: and in other cities around the country a few years
Speaker 2: ago Seattle, there was a period of time where they
Speaker 2: had a zone out there, so called autonomous zone. Here
Speaker 2: in Boston police office have been confronted not only in
Speaker 2: demonstrations at night by the Boston common but there was
Speaker 2: a demonstration a few years ago when some of the
Speaker 2: right wing knuckleheads wanted to have a march in downtown
Speaker 2: Boston and they were doing something at the bandstand, and
Speaker 2: the police were there to simply protect their right to
Speaker 2: express themselves and a lot of folks ended up in
Speaker 2: confrontations with the police. Firefighters in New York City have
Speaker 2: been pelted with bottles at different times when they have
Speaker 2: tried to respond to fires, and I'm sure there are
Speaker 2: other instances that I can't recall on If there's anything
Speaker 2: that you want to add to it, being a first responder,
Speaker 2: a police officer, a firefighter, or an EMT can be
Speaker 2: First of all, it's very serious business. It's dangerous business,
Speaker 2: and if you have to have eyes in the back
Speaker 2: of your head, that can cause real problems. Would this
Speaker 2: piece of legislation would do It would protect officers from
Speaker 2: people interfering with them as they're attempting to, you know,
Speaker 2: to do their job. You describe it better than me,
Speaker 2: but feel free to let our listeners know what you
Speaker 2: think the legislature should pass so clearly.
Speaker 3: You know, my life has been dedicated to the professional
Speaker 3: policing and I'm very humble to now be a member
Speaker 3: of the Master's' Legislature. It's next to being a cop,
Speaker 3: which is probably the thing I identify with the most professionally.
Speaker 3: I find what takes place in the legislature each and
Speaker 3: every day among so many men and women to be
Speaker 3: truly honorable work. You know, you may not always agree
Speaker 3: whether I'm a nortre. They listen to everyone to watch
Speaker 3: them the door, and that's that's pretty admirable. But in
Speaker 3: the Hail Act. Since I retired from the police department
Speaker 3: almost eight years ago, I've been working as a police
Speaker 3: trainer for the karmawealth of them for police training communion.
Speaker 3: I've traveled, I travel extensively across the callon Wealth, teaching
Speaker 3: the police academies in all the various regions. But the
Speaker 3: halo actors created because even though police officers understand today
Speaker 3: when they walk out the door, you know, not only
Speaker 3: are they wearing a body camera probably now, but they're
Speaker 3: on camera every day, you know, everywhere the issues that's
Speaker 3: happened now with touch a degree of frequency, it's almost
Speaker 3: become a sport. Is that when an officer or a firefighter. Recently,
Speaker 3: I watched the case where two fire ms personnel working
Speaker 3: I think was a stabbing victim, was a very hectic
Speaker 3: at night seeing they were trying to and people were
Speaker 3: just harassing them, getting in their face, taunting them, and
Speaker 3: the camera sometimes is part of it. Sometimes it isn't
Speaker 3: you know, officers first response as they say it used
Speaker 3: to being videotaped. This has nothing to do with the
Speaker 3: first amount of videotaping people. But when you get to
Speaker 3: the point that you're active, actively interfering with them in
Speaker 3: the course of their duty, the point that someone could
Speaker 3: get hurt or potentially lose their life. That's where there
Speaker 3: has to be some type of deterrent, you know, as
Speaker 3: it's something that's going to be used every day. No,
Speaker 3: but and I'll bring it in. Just look at and
Speaker 3: I probably took six or eight incidents just from the
Speaker 3: Saint Patrick's Day Parade in Boston just this most reached
Speaker 3: of March, and there were so many incidents that I
Speaker 3: couldn't even count, to the point that it was you,
Speaker 3: the media who was reporting on these incidents. That's how
Speaker 3: they came to mind, or that's how I started to
Speaker 3: pay attention to them.
Speaker 2: So what you're saying at the Saint Patrick's Day parade,
Speaker 2: some people were disorderly and police officers approach him, and
Speaker 2: I assume you're describing a situation where the crowd then
Speaker 2: turns on the police.
Speaker 3: Well, this is even more than that. This is where
Speaker 3: the officers are now decided to take an action where
Speaker 3: they're either trying to disperse someone, lose someonere actually and
Speaker 3: too often is where they go to have to make
Speaker 3: an arrest and go to take someone into custody. And
Speaker 3: that's where many of these cases are. From the point
Speaker 3: of a first responders, they start to work on someone else,
Speaker 3: they're trying to take action and they're suddenly surrounded where
Speaker 3: people are right in their face, tous and them. I
Speaker 3: don't know if you saw that video a couple of
Speaker 3: weeks ago to Boston police officer doing nothing, just assigned
Speaker 3: to a scene whose standing is completely surrounded, taking no
Speaker 3: action at all, just being harassed, called every name in
Speaker 3: the book, just as they say. It's I'm a sport
Speaker 3: and you know we have twenty mine hours school zones.
Speaker 3: In a speedless in the school zone is a deterrent
Speaker 3: to speeding badly would come to the point where there
Speaker 3: has to be some type of determ. It's not in
Speaker 3: arresting offense. It's a fine, and it only would would
Speaker 3: kick in after being ordered by the first responder to
Speaker 3: get back to stand back.
Speaker 2: While that is the analogy for me, representative is you
Speaker 2: and I go to a ballgame at Fenway Park and
Speaker 2: we think to ourselves, you know, I could do a
Speaker 2: better job than that third base coach. So I'm going
Speaker 2: to jump onto the field. I'm not going to interfere
Speaker 2: with anybody, but I'm just gonna stand next to a
Speaker 2: third base coach and when somebody you know, hits a double,
Speaker 2: I can wave the runner in or you know, I
Speaker 2: mean that sounds like a like a crazy idea, but
Speaker 2: obviously that third base coach is gonna wait, who are you?
Speaker 2: What are you doing here? Or you know, I'm going
Speaker 2: to walk into some doctor's office and when the doctor
Speaker 2: is calling the next patient in, I'll walk in with
Speaker 2: the next patient and just say, gee, doc, I want
Speaker 2: to see how good a job you do. I mean
Speaker 2: that this is insane. I mean, you know, or when
Speaker 2: there's a fire, maybe I want to climb up the
Speaker 2: fire ladder and see what it's like to go up
Speaker 2: that fire ladder and feel the heat of those flames
Speaker 2: coming out the window. I mean, there are people who
Speaker 2: were just I hate to use a technical term here representative,
Speaker 2: but there are people who were nuts, you know. I
Speaker 2: mean it's like the guy that runs out on the
Speaker 2: football field in the middle of a Patriots game and
Speaker 2: you know, some linebacker decides to knock him down. I mean,
Speaker 2: the you know what, right, just because you buy a
Speaker 2: ticket to a sporting event doesn't mean you could run
Speaker 2: out onto the field. We all understand that. And just
Speaker 2: because you happen to be in a neighborhood and come
Speaker 2: upon a police officer or an EMT or a firefighter
Speaker 2: doing their job. You don't have a right to crowd
Speaker 2: them and to distract from them as they're doing their job,
Speaker 2: any more than you have the right of walking into
Speaker 2: an operating room while surgery is going on and say, well, look,
Speaker 2: I want to scrub up here. I want to watch
Speaker 2: the surgeon make sure he doesn't make a mistake. People
Speaker 2: are nuts. People are nuts. How tough is it going
Speaker 2: to be to get the legislature to get behind something
Speaker 2: like this, Richard, I don't know.
Speaker 3: I did look today.
Speaker 4: I was.
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm brand new, and I understand I'm brand new.
Speaker 3: I'm not a chief and the legislature. I'm not the
Speaker 3: chair of the selectable, and I am a freshman legislator
Speaker 3: who I describe very much in an active apprenticeship, trying
Speaker 3: to learn things every day. I am. I know that,
Speaker 3: as you know, to pass legislature is a very difficult
Speaker 3: ill amount of climb, maybe amount of climb I'm mature,
Speaker 3: but I do worry that I will say this to you.
Speaker 3: You know, I do sit in the Public Safety Committee,
Speaker 3: and I every day you meet with different constituencies that
Speaker 3: come before you, and one of the things that truly
Speaker 3: does bother me today that concerns me, and I felt
Speaker 3: this a little before I got there, But it's I mean,
Speaker 3: these types of assaults and interferings with not just police officers,
Speaker 3: firefighters and EMTs. It's emergency on nurses, mental health worker
Speaker 3: is probatient, it's correctionally, it's everywhere. I listened to testimony
Speaker 3: a couple of weeks ago from a professional medical group
Speaker 3: that like one every twenty seconds a hospital workers assaulted
Speaker 3: in a hospital in the common Like that's who think
Speaker 3: that would even be, you know, a possibility. But I
Speaker 3: often say in my causes that I teach in the
Speaker 3: police and my dad is the greatest terry nation. A
Speaker 3: lowatu guy or the police department. In nineteen forty nine,
Speaker 3: he was issued a revolver, a six bullets, a pair
Speaker 3: of handcuffs, and a twelve in nightstick. About a year later,
Speaker 3: I think he went to the police academy for two weeks.
Speaker 3: In nineteen eighty four, I came on the job, I
Speaker 3: was issued to revolve a speed over as a can
Speaker 3: of pepper spray, and I was the police academy for
Speaker 3: twelve weeks. Today, a police officer in the United States
Speaker 3: come into the profession that issued everything from a body
Speaker 3: camera to a pistol to the days that all these things,
Speaker 3: all types of equipment, and they go to the police
Speaker 3: academy almost over six months now, you nor I any legislation.
Speaker 3: None of us made that happen. That's the complexity of society.
Speaker 3: And look at I wish they didn't have to be
Speaker 3: a Hale act, but I've watched so many of these incidents,
Speaker 3: and the officers and the first responders, the firefighters, the
Speaker 3: mts have to have some type of ability. It's not
Speaker 3: the nice You want a videotape, videotape, videotape from twenty
Speaker 3: five feet a window, don't be five inches from their face.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, that's the point with the camera.
Speaker 3: Just don't do it.
Speaker 2: That's why you need this piece of legislation. What my
Speaker 2: concern is is that the legislature does not prioritize not
Speaker 2: only the safety of police officers, firefighters, EMTs, but also
Speaker 2: prioritize the safety of individual citizens. I mean, the problems
Speaker 2: like this can occur at the drop of a hat.
Speaker 2: You had that guy who went into a Chick fil
Speaker 2: A was it last January on Boylston Straight and got
Speaker 2: into a gunfight with an off duty police officer. I'm
Speaker 2: sure the police officer didn't start the gunfight. He finished it,
Speaker 2: But I didn't start the gunfight. Just don't know. There
Speaker 2: are a lot of people out there who feel as
Speaker 2: if they have the authority to basically take control of
Speaker 2: a situation, and I just hope the legislature doesn't look
Speaker 2: at this as some sort of a piece of legislation
Speaker 2: which is going to prohibit or restrict First Amendment activities
Speaker 2: of individuals, all of us who are lawyers, and I
Speaker 2: believe you're a lawyer as well.
Speaker 3: I know, okay, a graduate school appeal instead of going
Speaker 3: to a lot of school.
Speaker 2: Okay, well, master's and urban.
Speaker 3: Affairs and of administration, so.
Speaker 2: Okay, well, look, look, I'm an absolutist in the First Amendment.
Speaker 2: But however, however, I don't have a right to walk
Speaker 2: into the Red Sox broadcast booth someday and take over
Speaker 2: the microphone. I don't have a right to walk up
Speaker 2: to you in the middle of the street and insult
Speaker 2: you and your HEROD and your family tree. That's what's
Speaker 2: called fighting words. I don't have the right to go
Speaker 2: and yell fire, just for the fun of it in
Speaker 2: the theater and see how people react. There are limitations.
Speaker 2: I can't defame you, you know. There are limitations on
Speaker 2: the First Amendment, and this is one that I think
Speaker 2: is justified. There's a buffer zone at abortion clinics here
Speaker 2: in Massachusetts, which I think most members of the legislature
Speaker 2: have supported, so that people want to go in and
Speaker 2: avail themselves of the services. However strongly some of the
Speaker 2: protesters might disagree. They don't have the right to impede
Speaker 2: the person, just as the students at all of these
Speaker 2: schools and universities in the last year or so don't
Speaker 2: have the right to impede other students. Richard Wells is
Speaker 2: my guest, the state representative, former police chief in Milton, Massachusetts.
Speaker 2: If all the Democrats were as levelhead as as Richard
Speaker 2: Wells would be in a much better shape to stand
Speaker 2: that I have. It was me that said It was
Speaker 2: me that it said that.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 2: But I and I think that some of the legislators
Speaker 2: in Massachusetts can get off the fence, uh, and they
Speaker 2: can go ahead, uh and support you on this one.
Speaker 2: Let's let's take a break. I want to get some
Speaker 2: phone calls. Can I can you stick with me for
Speaker 2: a while here and take some phone calls there? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: six one, seven, two, five, four ten thirty six one seven, nine, three,
Speaker 2: one ten thirty. Coming right back on Knightside of State
Speaker 2: Representative Richard Wells with the piece of legislation that I
Speaker 2: think is long overdue.
Speaker 1: Night Side with Dan Ray. I'm telling you Bes Boston's
Speaker 1: News Radio.
Speaker 2: All right, we're going to try to get to as
Speaker 2: many people as possible. I think this is a piece
Speaker 2: of legislation that is long overdue. With me as state
Speaker 2: Representative Richard Wells represents, do you represent the entire town
Speaker 2: of Milton or do you have other.
Speaker 3: Other Milton and a big piece of Randolphs as well.
Speaker 2: Okay, two great towns. Let's go Tom. Tom, you were
Speaker 2: next on night Side with Richard Wells talking about the
Speaker 2: idea of a Halo Act.
Speaker 6: Go right ahead, Hey, Dan, I just want to inform
Speaker 6: you I changed my voter registration in twenty twenty. I
Speaker 6: own two pieces of property, one in Brockton, Massachusetts, one
Speaker 6: in West Virginia, Massachusetts. I gave up on a change
Speaker 6: voter registration. However, I'm going to change it back to Massachusetts.
Speaker 6: I support this legislation, and can I mention my state
Speaker 6: rep in Brockton about the George Floyd police reform about uh.
Speaker 2: Stay community, I'd rather stay talking.
Speaker 6: About Dan Dan All right, well I won't I won't digress,
Speaker 6: thank you. But here's the bottom line. We we need
Speaker 6: to have police officers and firemen and emergency medics that
Speaker 6: don't need armchair quarterbacks screaming up at them at the
Speaker 6: time of there's an incident that gets settled in a
Speaker 6: court of law, and I would support this. I am
Speaker 6: going to tell you one thing. When I reregister in
Speaker 6: the state of Massachusetts, I will register as an unenrolled
Speaker 6: and there is absolutely no way I'm going to vote
Speaker 6: for my current state representative who will remain nameless, as
Speaker 6: well as the current sitting governor, because in my opinion, look,
Speaker 6: all right, I'm done. I'm done with the Democratic Party.
Speaker 6: That's all I can tell you.
Speaker 2: This is a Democrat who is supporting this piece of legislation.
Speaker 2: Just remember that Tom Saalo to forman Milton police.
Speaker 6: Hang on, hang on. This is one Democrat that has
Speaker 6: some common sense that is not the case and the
Speaker 6: majority of Democrats in Massachusetts.
Speaker 2: You got it, You got it. Thank you. Tom Richard,
Speaker 2: I got to take a newsbreak here. Stick with me.
Speaker 2: I want to get some other points of view on this.
Speaker 2: I think I want to get people back to the
Speaker 2: to the issue at hand, and that is the Halo Act,
Speaker 2: a twenty five foot barffer zone around police, firefighters or
Speaker 2: e mts as they are attempting to execute their office,
Speaker 2: whether it's arresting someone, helping someone, aiding someone. We should
Speaker 2: we should all understand that we're not the people who
Speaker 2: were called into life saving situations. We're not called into
Speaker 2: situations to disarm somebody who has a knife for a
Speaker 2: gun in a crowd. Let the police do their job.
Speaker 2: If they overreact. There's plenty of police officers who have
Speaker 2: lost their jobs as a consequence and as a result.
Speaker 2: I think police today are better trained and probably better
Speaker 2: behaved than police have ever been in the history of
Speaker 2: this country. And you keep pushing them and pushing them
Speaker 2: and pushing them, and now make them the subject of
Speaker 2: abuse to which they have no protection. That gets real dangerous.
Speaker 2: We'll take a quick break back with State Representative Richard Wells. Folks,
Speaker 2: I want to hear you on this. The only line
Speaker 2: that is open right now if you want to get
Speaker 2: through is six one, seven ninety coming right back on Nightside.
Speaker 1: You're on night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's
Speaker 1: news radio.
Speaker 2: All right, my guess State Representative Richard Wells he along
Speaker 2: with a Republican colleague, have filed a pretty simple piece
Speaker 2: of legislation called the Halo Act. And I hope that
Speaker 2: people here in Massachusetts, even in our legislatus, will realize
Speaker 2: that this could could prevent injuries not only to police officers, firefighters,
Speaker 2: and EMTs, but also to civilians. It's this, this will
Speaker 2: only take the temperature down, Steven Cambridge. Steve, to me,
Speaker 2: this is a no brain of what says Dan High.
Speaker 7: Representative Wells Well, I mean one of the problems is
Speaker 7: this is in a public space. It's not in a
Speaker 7: doctor's office or a private space. So and in addition
Speaker 7: to that, I mean I can see a problem with
Speaker 7: how do you know that what twenty five feet is?
Speaker 7: And I guess my last question or comment would be
Speaker 7: for the representative. I assume this does not have anything
Speaker 7: to do with speech. This is merely people can must
Speaker 7: be twenty five feet away, but they can hurl. Not
Speaker 7: that I approve of it, but nonetheless we do have
Speaker 7: a First Amendment.
Speaker 2: Of course they do.
Speaker 7: They can hurrow as many insults as they wish as
Speaker 7: long as they're twenty five feet away.
Speaker 3: Is that correct, Yes, Richard, that's correct. That's correct. So
Speaker 3: I know a little bit about your city. That's correct.
Speaker 3: This has nothing I mean, I'll be very bud. I
Speaker 3: say this publicly in my classes of sent us and speeches.
Speaker 3: There are no greater protectors of the United States Constitution,
Speaker 3: including the First Amendment, than those in the front line
Speaker 3: who to do it every single day. And again, you
Speaker 3: can videotape from twenty five feet away. You can, as
Speaker 3: I said, this case on the boss, the case and
Speaker 3: I referred to from a couple of weeks ago. I mean,
Speaker 3: they were in his face, calling him. I don't know
Speaker 3: how he kept his composure. It goes to the just
Speaker 3: how well trained he's done A women are today. But no,
Speaker 3: it would not affect speech. But it would not just
Speaker 3: be in a public place. If you were in a
Speaker 3: doctor let's say something happened. Emergency departments are where things
Speaker 3: happen all too frequently. Now it could, It would be depending,
Speaker 3: but it would. There are two key aspects to it. A.
Speaker 3: The officers in the in the in the courts of
Speaker 3: some type of duty action, the other responders have taken
Speaker 3: some type of action, and b they make verbal notice
Speaker 3: of you to stand back, you know, twenty five feet
Speaker 3: with a with a day with a favorite. I don't
Speaker 3: know if they'd be able, but being able to tell
Speaker 3: them to stand back and stay twenty five feet away
Speaker 3: would be a lawful lot. And you know, and to
Speaker 3: the point of the other issues in first generational protests
Speaker 3: take place each and every day. I mean the stadeoffs.
Speaker 3: We am outside of Cambridge, Boston. You've seen countless protests
Speaker 3: since the attacks in Israel two years ago now and
Speaker 3: very rarely do alloted for us or make any arrests
Speaker 3: or any castle raises at all. And this is only
Speaker 3: again why you're in the courts of taking some type
Speaker 3: of action, be it saving someone's life or taking someone
Speaker 3: into customer.
Speaker 2: See what what what do you think think about abortion
Speaker 2: clinic buffer zones?
Speaker 7: No, I think they're reasonable. Of course, you know Dan
Speaker 7: that the Supreme Court unanimously struck down a Massachusetts law
Speaker 7: where they had the buffer zones the Supreme Court felt
Speaker 7: were unreasonable and violated the Amendment.
Speaker 2: I'm aware of that, but but I don't think twenty
Speaker 2: five feet is a reasonable district.
Speaker 7: I mean, twenty five the law sounds great to me.
Speaker 7: I think it's a shame that we even think we
Speaker 7: need such a law, and I think it's a shame.
Speaker 7: And I think for people to hurl insults at first
Speaker 7: responders is terrible. But unfortunately that is part of the part.
Speaker 2: That's part of the first part of.
Speaker 7: The bad with the good we get from a first Amendment.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what to say, the vast majority of it is
Speaker 2: absolutely good. Again, if you and I are walking down
Speaker 2: the street and I happened to bump into you inadvertently, ever,
Speaker 2: and if I say, gee, I'm really sorry, you don't
Speaker 2: then have a right to get right in my face
Speaker 2: you look at me. You do this again? If that's
Speaker 2: called fighting words, you can't do that. Okay, now you
Speaker 2: know more?
Speaker 8: Question Dan and Rep.
Speaker 7: Well, has any other jurisdiction tried this Florida?
Speaker 4: Oh? Is that right?
Speaker 3: Past and past?
Speaker 7: How long has it been in effect?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I believe he two years and it's something.
Speaker 7: They haven't had any problems with it to your knowledge.
Speaker 2: At some point someone will will will challenge it, and
Speaker 2: it's then up to the courts to decide and if
Speaker 2: they feel twenty five Look the bottom lines. You know,
Speaker 2: when you're doing something and you're concentrating on anything in
Speaker 2: your home and someone has to kind of be looking
Speaker 2: over your shoulder to make sure that you're you're cooking
Speaker 2: this right, or you're aware of their presence, and it's
Speaker 2: distracting when you're trying to save someone's life or you're
Speaker 2: trying to handcuff someone. You don't need someone over your should. Well,
Speaker 2: that's to me, this is a no brainer, Steve.
Speaker 7: But well, it certainly sounds very reasonable to me. But again,
Speaker 7: it's a shame that we even need such a law.
Speaker 2: I'm with you, thanks man, We'll talk to him.
Speaker 7: Okay, thank you.
Speaker 2: Let me go to a responder, Scott and Quincy, who
Speaker 2: I know is an EMT responder. Go ahead, Scott, Dan.
Speaker 9: I think this law is a is a really good idea,
Speaker 9: and I think it needs to be implemented. The one
Speaker 9: thing I would say is, you know it uses twenty
Speaker 9: five feet as a number. There are a lot of
Speaker 9: people who would be challenged to understand where twenty five
Speaker 9: feet twenty five foot line would be. I might want
Speaker 9: to rephrase it like three, three or four body lengths.
Speaker 9: You know, yeah you could.
Speaker 2: But if you could come up with something like that,
Speaker 2: and that would be fine. But the idea is you
Speaker 2: don't have someone who is hovering over an e M
Speaker 2: T as they're trying to resuscitate someone. Or a firefighter
Speaker 2: who is trying to, you know, direct the hose toward
Speaker 2: a fire. You don't need someone say won't you won't
Speaker 2: you point it over there? I think there's more flames
Speaker 2: going out of that wind though, you know, I mean,
Speaker 2: that's that's what you know. Or a police officer who's
Speaker 2: trying to effectuate an arrest and and the guy who's
Speaker 2: trying to arrest is drunk and so on, three of
Speaker 2: his buddies and his buddies are gonna come over and
Speaker 2: we're going we're not gonna let adrest off pal tonight Oway. Guys.
Speaker 2: Now you've got a very dangerous situation going on. I just.
Speaker 9: And ask the representative what type of an exception there
Speaker 9: might be for the say a say a child is
Speaker 9: down and the mother comes running up again.
Speaker 2: You know, police officers will use they're not going to
Speaker 2: arrest the mother if a child Go ahead, representative.
Speaker 3: Go ahead. Thomit sense is something that dictates. As you know,
Speaker 3: if you're an EMT comment sense comes into so many
Speaker 3: particularly critical situations. That's completely I mean, I'm sure you've
Speaker 3: been to an incident where as young child has heard
Speaker 3: tapis fighting for their life. Good taking care of the
Speaker 3: parents and having to deal with frantic parents. This part
Speaker 3: of the profession. This is completely completely I like this
Speaker 3: is about someone who intentionally is trying to interfere with
Speaker 3: you to keep you from performing your duties.
Speaker 2: A great, great question. Thank you very much. That's a
Speaker 2: good one. Appreciate it. Thank you. Stay safe, Scott. We'll
Speaker 2: take a quick break only line is six one, seven, two, five, four,
Speaker 2: ten thirty back with State Representative Richard Wells of Milton, Massachusetts.
Speaker 2: Coming back after this.
Speaker 1: It's Night Side with Dan Ray on Way Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2: So far, you have a lot of support on this virtue.
Speaker 2: Let's keep rolling, John and Boston. John next on nice
Speaker 2: Side with state Representative Richard Wells.
Speaker 4: Go ahead, John, Thanks Dan, Thank you Representative Wealth. I
Speaker 4: think it's a great idea Representative. I've talked. I've been
Speaker 4: on in Boston, seen police, just a couple of officers
Speaker 4: walking on a beat and kids, especially in the summertime,
Speaker 4: like teenage kids, they get a rise out of circling
Speaker 4: the cops. I started rolling, circling the cops as they're
Speaker 4: walking on harassing them, taunting just for fun. I've talked
Speaker 4: to many firefighters. They get on their bikes or in
Speaker 4: the schools while they're fighting fires, or while they're on
Speaker 4: UH someone in an accent and they're circling, taunting and
Speaker 4: harassing them. This has got to stop because the police
Speaker 4: officers trying to arrest someone they don't know if the
Speaker 4: guy's got a gun and someone's distracting them or taunting
Speaker 4: them and the guy pulls out a gun or knife
Speaker 4: in a taxi officer right now, I believe you had
Speaker 4: the chief police are on the last year, Dan, listen,
Speaker 4: I know it listened to you ago. Boston is short
Speaker 4: four hundred police officers right now.
Speaker 2: That has been what Larry called a road in. The
Speaker 2: Boston Police Patrolman's Association has kind of claimed yeah, which
Speaker 2: I think it's true. I think it's very true that
Speaker 2: that even had a tough time getting offering jobs to
Speaker 2: UH to officers and other departments, including giving them signing bonuses.
Speaker 2: It's been tough. It's tough. To get someone to be
Speaker 2: a police officer. These days, they when all.
Speaker 4: The cameras around Boston on any given day, you'll see
Speaker 4: this kind of thing going on. I've see this so
Speaker 4: many times on bikes, just kids harassing cops. They think
Speaker 4: it's fun in the summer time. Whatever they're doing. Gangs,
Speaker 4: you know, and talk to any any firefight, any department
Speaker 4: of the city of Boston. I'm sure what the cameras
Speaker 4: that must be on cameras all over the city. They
Speaker 4: must be any given day you'll see it happening. So
Speaker 4: it's it's got to stop because it's endangering And I
Speaker 4: think it's a good idea, Dan, what would you do it.
Speaker 2: One of the things is that a lot of the
Speaker 2: groups that do this, you know, are coming from one
Speaker 2: side of the political aisle. But then you got the
Speaker 2: folks the j six people who went into the Capitol
Speaker 2: and and and attacked capitol police officers and smashed property,
Speaker 2: and they were, you know, from the other side, the
Speaker 2: other extreme. So there are extremists on both ends of
Speaker 2: the spectrum here. Who who The one thing they have
Speaker 2: in common is they tend not to respect authority and
Speaker 2: they tend not to like police. Fire or e mts,
Speaker 2: unless it's their own house that's on fire, or their
Speaker 2: own house that's been broken into, their own family member
Speaker 2: who needs a burgency assistance.
Speaker 4: Well, the only difference to that jan in January sixth,
Speaker 4: there were officers undercover offices. Welcoming to the police officers.
Speaker 4: Welcome Capital Office, Welcome to January sixth.
Speaker 2: People. Again, all I'm just saying there were a lot
Speaker 2: of people who struck. There were a lot of people
Speaker 2: who struck police officers. I'm just saying is that the
Speaker 2: violent reaction has come in different directions, that's all. And
Speaker 2: no one should be violent or a police officer. If
Speaker 2: I'm going to be arrested by a police officer, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna say, cuff me and we'll see you in court.
Speaker 2: As simple as that. Thanks, John, appreciate it.
Speaker 4: It's it's a great lot. Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 2: Okay, so far it's been unanimous. Let me go to Chris,
Speaker 2: down to the cave. Chris, you're next on Nice with
Speaker 2: State Representative Richard Wells. Go ahead, Chris, Yes, hello, yes,
Speaker 2: you're here. Yeah, we can hear you. Find your right ahead,
Speaker 2: I said earlier. You're on the air with State Representative
Speaker 2: Richard Wells of Milton, go right ahead.
Speaker 8: Yeah, it's a great Yeah, it's a great overture that
Speaker 8: is greatly needed. But twenty five feet I'm looking in
Speaker 8: my home, which is forty feet wide. Twenty five feet
Speaker 8: is like really nothing. And we do have on the books,
Speaker 8: and I'm not trying to minimize the effect here, but
Speaker 8: we have a disorderly conduct statue Chapter two seventy two
Speaker 8: that could be I think implemented in the event that
Speaker 8: public safety is at risk here, and I'm wondering in
Speaker 8: order for that, let.
Speaker 2: Me just can I speak to you as a lawyer, Chris.
Speaker 2: In order for a disorderly conduct charge to actually take
Speaker 2: the person's going to have to be engaged in conduct
Speaker 2: which would be disorderly. It would have to get to
Speaker 2: the point where they would really have to be in
Speaker 2: the officer or the firefighter of the empty's face and
Speaker 2: almost come nose to nose with them. Because but if
Speaker 2: some goofball decides to come over.
Speaker 10: Hey, what's going on here? Looks like you're arresting someone.
Speaker 10: Why is this guy being arrested? You know that police
Speaker 10: officer has to focus on the arrest that's being made
Speaker 10: that's not disorderly contact. Now you could get to disorderly contact.
Speaker 10: But in the meantime, when the officer's you know, attention
Speaker 10: is distracted, that could be the moment where somebody could
Speaker 10: pull out a knife or something. And it's not as
Speaker 10: if it was intentional by the guy that's coming over.
Speaker 10: It's just it's like the person who when you're driving
Speaker 10: and all of a sudden, traffic is backed up and
Speaker 10: you realize there's no accident on your side of the road,
Speaker 10: the accidents on the other side of the road, but
Speaker 10: so many people have to slow down. Hey, Muriel, there's
Speaker 10: a car accident over there. Let's take a good look.
Speaker 2: You know. It's like that's this human nature, unfortunately, and
Speaker 2: I think it also works with police and firefighters and empts.
Speaker 2: Were trying to do their job and someone's walking down
Speaker 2: the street, give them the opportunity to steer clear of them.
Speaker 2: That's all we're saying. Go ahead, Chris, I interrupted you.
Speaker 2: I didn't mean to go right ahead.
Speaker 8: No, No, that's that's quite all right. I think I
Speaker 8: agree with all the points, and I agree with the
Speaker 8: intent purpose of the proposed statute, but twenty five feet
Speaker 8: seems to be you know, kind of even even there.
Speaker 8: It's kind of close, and I'm coming into the conversation late.
Speaker 8: I'm sorry, that's.
Speaker 2: Okay, thank you, thank you for calling. Well yet Richard, Well,
Speaker 2: let's get Richard, who's the sponsor of the one of
Speaker 2: the two sponsored legislation, to react to that. I think
Speaker 2: that they tried to.
Speaker 5: Pick I just have one other question that I I
Speaker 5: won't have.
Speaker 2: To I won't we won't hang out. Let's just get
Speaker 2: a quick call on him. I assume you picked twenty
Speaker 2: five feet Richard, to make it so it wasn't onerous,
Speaker 2: You're not.
Speaker 3: Going to right reasonable and just to comment on his
Speaker 3: the disorderly you know, I listen, I'm gonna use the
Speaker 3: fire slidus or fire chiefs make good description the other
Speaker 3: day of when a piece of fire apparatus comes what's on,
Speaker 3: and he described it as a big toolbox with all
Speaker 3: different types of things for all types of incidents, and
Speaker 3: the same one the police officer comes. They have all
Speaker 3: different tools that they had description to use. This is
Speaker 3: not the intention of this law was not to arrest
Speaker 3: more people who used to make it a criminal offense,
Speaker 3: to deter individuals who think it has now become almost
Speaker 3: a sport. Actively interfere and engage. Maybe sometimes it could
Speaker 3: go to a level disorderly, but just to do it,
Speaker 3: it's kind of like you described it with him, to
Speaker 3: get right in their face, whether in their performance and
Speaker 3: their duties, and to refuse to move and ask to
Speaker 3: do so.
Speaker 2: And it also distracts from what you're trying to accomplish,
Speaker 2: which is maybe arrest someone, maybe save someone's life. You
Speaker 2: had one other question. I'm sorry, Chris, I want to
Speaker 2: get this one in for you. Go ahead.
Speaker 8: I know that there are other statutes. I mean, I've
Speaker 8: seen people sort of draft emergency vehicles and the crowded,
Speaker 8: congestive traffic situation to get to where they want to
Speaker 8: go earlier. But I believe there's one hundred foot setback
Speaker 8: on that.
Speaker 5: I just know.
Speaker 8: I'm just not it's either one hundred and then a
Speaker 8: fire five hundred feet. How do these sort of offset
Speaker 8: one another? And I know it's an additional two million
Speaker 8: tool box. And I'm offended by the reports of people
Speaker 8: getting in the face of people of e MT police
Speaker 8: and fire trying to do their job, particularly if they're
Speaker 8: saving trying to save somebody.
Speaker 5: And I certainly with you with.
Speaker 2: Fire engines, with fire engines is a different situation because
Speaker 2: it's a vehicle. The ability for a vehicle to stop
Speaker 2: it takes uh, you know enough you know distance fire
Speaker 2: engines going into high rate of speed, someone's drafting behind
Speaker 2: them and the fire engine has to stop, and that
Speaker 2: person isn't paying attention. So that's a whole different story.
Speaker 2: This is people who are intentionally trying to interfere with
Speaker 2: what an officer, firefighter at EMT is trying to accomplish.
Speaker 5: So on, all my comments are meant to be is
Speaker 5: to you.
Speaker 8: Know, sort of put out there or devil's advocate. What
Speaker 8: might be some issues in the opposition Number one, I
Speaker 8: am fully supportive of it. But one issue, maybe you
Speaker 8: talked about it earlier.
Speaker 2: But what Chris, we've done. We've done five minutes, Chris
Speaker 2: have done five.
Speaker 5: What is a penalty? That's all I wanted to know
Speaker 5: for this.
Speaker 3: It could be between I think up to five hundred
Speaker 3: dollars on a first offense and up to one thousand
Speaker 3: on a second. But the police don't determine the penalty
Speaker 3: that a judge of court would.
Speaker 2: Yeah, fair enough, all right, thanks Chris, I got to run.
Speaker 2: You had to listen earlier, Okay, thank you very much.
Speaker 2: Thank you real quick. Darryl in New Brunswick. Darryl, I'm
Speaker 2: killed on time.
Speaker 11: Here go right ahead, Hey, Dan represented wells a great
Speaker 11: bill to put forward. It's you're talking about first Amendment.
Speaker 11: So therefore people in the all the different emergency services
Speaker 11: fields have to good have good hearing. So therefore your
Speaker 11: bill would go forward. Two vehicles would be equivalent to
Speaker 11: twenty five feet. So if people cannot comprehend that one
Speaker 11: being a police officer in Edmonton when you're doing crowd control,
Speaker 11: I got stabbed multiple times and nobody came forward to
Speaker 11: help him. So therefore this would assist other officers and
Speaker 11: other emergency service people to outch the act and be
Speaker 11: in the right all.
Speaker 2: Right, we got that, Darrel. Appreciate the information. Always good
Speaker 2: to talk with you. Thank you much. Richie, it was
Speaker 2: great to talk with you tonight. Thanks for sticking around.
Speaker 2: Please say he to Pauline for me.
Speaker 3: I want one final problem. I do want to say
Speaker 3: going into the State House is a police officer. I
Speaker 3: am beyond humble the number of reps and colleagues that
Speaker 3: have come to me. I didn't go there to do
Speaker 3: police any things. I don't even thought of filing this bill,
Speaker 3: but the ones that have asked me so many questions
Speaker 3: about police you only went through police reform prior to
Speaker 3: me getting there for a post state. Now I'm really
Speaker 3: I'm so grateful to how much help and how many
Speaker 3: questions and how much trust placed into me as a
Speaker 3: former police officer, just asking me questions about issues in
Speaker 3: the common wealth, and that gives me hope and that
Speaker 3: we may be able to pass the Massachusetts.
Speaker 2: Well, I appreciate anything that I can do. Please let
Speaker 2: the other representative know there'll be more than happy to
Speaker 2: have you back.
Speaker 3: Okay, thank you much, Dan, thank you.
Speaker 2: This is one that I'd be proud to have your
Speaker 2: name on it. Thank you so much. All right, when
Speaker 2: we get back, thanks Richard. When we get back, we're
Speaker 2: going to talk about a Supreme Court decision today that
Speaker 2: has basically stripped Venzuelan's of their temporary protected status here
Speaker 2: in this country. We will talk about that right after
Speaker 2: the news at ten o'clock.