Speaker 1: It's night Side with Dan Ray. I'm going easy Boston
Speaker 1: New Radio.
Speaker 2: For those of you who missed the last hour, we'll
Speaker 2: get back to that subject, I'm sure next week. And
Speaker 2: I wished that I had heard from some of our
Speaker 2: New York listeners. I think they're probably in a state
Speaker 2: of shock. But I have another story that I'd like
Speaker 2: to talk about, and that is a law which has
Speaker 2: just gone into effect in the state of Florida, and
Speaker 2: I think it's a pretty darn good law and I'd
Speaker 2: love to hear what you think about it. This story
Speaker 2: was actually found today and recommended to me by Marita,
Speaker 2: the producer of Nightside. And the law that we're talking
Speaker 2: about in Florida that has past, which is pretty innovative,
Speaker 2: by the way, and I also think makes a lot
Speaker 2: of sense. It's Florida's new Halo law, which creates a
Speaker 2: buffer zone around first responders. Okay, what does it mean? So,
Speaker 2: first of all, let's de find first responders. First responders
Speaker 2: are police, fire EMTs, amongst others. Okay, the Halo law,
Speaker 2: which went into effect on January first, Wednesday in Florida.
Speaker 2: Halo is an acronym which stands for honoring and listening
Speaker 2: to our officers honoring h and listening l to our
Speaker 2: officers HALO. Under the law, if a first responder of
Speaker 2: any type asks someone to stand back, and this could
Speaker 2: be again firefighters, law enforcement, medical personnel, you must move
Speaker 2: twenty five feet away. Now, twenty five feet is not
Speaker 2: a huge difference. It's a very reasonable distance which would
Speaker 2: allow fire fighters, police officers, or EMTs to deal with
Speaker 2: what the whatever problem they're dealing with. Now. If you
Speaker 2: do not, and you continue to interfere or harass these
Speaker 2: first responders, you could face what they call a second
Speaker 2: degree misdemeanor charge in Florida, which would potentially put you
Speaker 2: in jail for sixty days or a five hundred dollars fine.
Speaker 2: So it's it's a I think it's a very reasonable
Speaker 2: effort to stop people from interfering with police officers, firefighters,
Speaker 2: or EMTs. According to this article it's out of the
Speaker 2: Tallahassee Democrat, which is a newspaper of the state capitol
Speaker 2: in Florida. Support US say the twenty five foot buffer
Speaker 2: zone increases safety, removes distractions, and protects first responders from threats, harassment,
Speaker 2: and physical interference during stressful situations. Critics of course, they'll
Speaker 2: always be critic say the law will be used to
Speaker 2: prevent anyone from taking videos of law enforcement officers breaking
Speaker 2: the law or brutalizing people. Now, let's assume that you
Speaker 2: watching a police officer arrest someone. You can't take a
Speaker 2: videotape twenty five feet away. I mean, how incompetent are you.
Speaker 2: What this essentially is saying is that as the police
Speaker 2: officer is effectuating an arrest, you don't have the right
Speaker 2: to interfere with what he or she is doing. You
Speaker 2: don't have the right to impede what he or she
Speaker 2: is doing. You don't have the right to stick a
Speaker 2: camera you're well, a camera or your smartphone in the
Speaker 2: face of the officer while he or she is attempting
Speaker 2: to do their job. Twenty five feet How long is
Speaker 2: twenty five feet? Not very long when you think about it,
Speaker 2: it's simply eight and a third yards. I mean it's
Speaker 2: it's not a huge difference. They also have to be
Speaker 2: five hundred feet away twenty five feet. Now. Of course,
Speaker 2: the aclused Florida chapter predictably said the bill was quote
Speaker 2: all about preventing bystanders from being able to observe with
Speaker 2: their own eyes an officers excessive use of force and
Speaker 2: record those images with their cell phone or other device
Speaker 2: for the public to see. So I guess the ACLU
Speaker 2: says that people from a distance of twenty five feet
Speaker 2: cannot see something, or from a distance of twenty five
Speaker 2: feet can't record something if they want to record it. Obviously,
Speaker 2: police officers can be recorded. Police officer can't tell you
Speaker 2: don't record them because they're in a public place. But
Speaker 2: this is I think genuinely a piece of legislation that
Speaker 2: every state should consider. It will diffuse some of these situations.
Speaker 2: First of all, when a police officer is trying to
Speaker 2: do what they have to do, which has questioned someone
Speaker 2: and maybe in some cases arrest them and maybe arrest
Speaker 2: the people with a use of force. If the person
Speaker 2: who is not compliant, the police officer doesn't need someone
Speaker 2: standing two feet away from them distracted. What are you doing?
Speaker 2: They live them alone? Lord, he's not bothering anybody. Oh
Speaker 2: simple as that. You know, we have lost in this
Speaker 2: country all respect for all police officers because of the
Speaker 2: excesses of a few. Now it's called in Florida, it's
Speaker 2: SBE four makes it illegal. After you've been verbally worn
Speaker 2: to approach a first responder or remain within twenty five
Speaker 2: feet while the responder is performing a legal duty, which
Speaker 2: to me is pretty simple. You can't block or interfere
Speaker 2: with their ability to perform the duty, you can't threaten
Speaker 2: the first responders with physical harm, and you can't harass
Speaker 2: the first responders. Makes all the sense in the world.
Speaker 2: Harassment in the laws to find as an action directed
Speaker 2: and a first respondent that quote intentionally causes substantial emotional
Speaker 2: distress in that first responder and serves no legitimate purpose.
Speaker 2: Emotional distress, legitimate purpose and which parties may decide if
Speaker 2: they apply were left undefined. However, now, as you would expect,
Speaker 2: Representative Angela Nixon she's a Democrat from Jacksonville, introduced an
Speaker 2: amendment to clarify that harass did not include asking a
Speaker 2: first responder questions out of concern for the health, safety,
Speaker 2: well being of the person that is being responded to.
Speaker 2: So let's assume someone is on the street and the
Speaker 2: EMT is attempting to perform CPR. I don't know, maybe
Speaker 2: give them mouth to mouth, maybe chest compressions. So what
Speaker 2: this knucklehead Democratic legislator wants to do is you could
Speaker 2: go up.
Speaker 3: To the first Excuse me, excuse me. I notice you're
Speaker 3: attempting to do mouth to mouth resuscitation. Is it really necessary?
Speaker 3: Is this person really dying? What's going on here? Could
Speaker 3: you explain? I'm just an interested bystander.
Speaker 2: Moron, moron. The Another state representative from another Democratic representative,
Speaker 2: Levaughn Bracy Davis, a Democrat, said would have to find
Speaker 2: peaceful audio or video recording for photographing or eyewitness observing
Speaker 2: of a first responder as a legitimate purpose. That failed
Speaker 2: to pass. Also, the state rep. Who who Angela Nixon?
Speaker 2: She's now my new favorite state rep in Florida, uh
Speaker 2: said she. She proposed amendment to change the name of
Speaker 2: the bill to the I don't want the world to
Speaker 2: see the police kill an unarmed, innocent man like George
Speaker 2: Floyd again, so I want to protect bad cops and
Speaker 2: violate free speech. That did not pass. Surprisingly anyway, I
Speaker 2: think this makes all the sense in the world. By
Speaker 2: the way, the people who recorded Derek Chauvin murdering George
Speaker 2: Floyd did so at distance of about twenty five feet.
Speaker 2: They were not prevented from recording the arrogant actions of
Speaker 2: that Minneapolis police officer keeping his knee on the neck
Speaker 2: of George Floyd for uppers of ten or eleven minutes
Speaker 2: and as the jury found him guilty of murder. So
Speaker 2: my question to you is whether you're a police officer
Speaker 2: or not, let's have a conversation. Do you think Massachusetts Now,
Speaker 2: I do think Massachusets would pass such a law because
Speaker 2: I think we're too progressive. But I would love to
Speaker 2: know do you think that's a reasonable off. Twenty five feet?
Speaker 2: I gotta tell you, twenty five feet is about halfway
Speaker 2: between a Little League pitchers mound. A Little League pictures
Speaker 2: mount I think is fifty two feet. So if you
Speaker 2: can think of going to a Little League baseball game
Speaker 2: and think about you could stand halfway between home plate
Speaker 2: and the pitchers mound, and that's all the law would require.
Speaker 2: Twenty five feet six one seven, four ten thirty six
Speaker 2: one seven nine three one ten thirty. If you're a
Speaker 2: law enforcement firefighters, firefighters respond to scenes where people throw
Speaker 2: things at them. Believe it or not, that's happened a lot.
Speaker 2: The EMTs respond to situations where people try to interfere
Speaker 2: with them. Police officers all the time are getting harassed
Speaker 2: when they're trying to do. Look, if police officers are
Speaker 2: making a bad arrest, there are civil actions people can
Speaker 2: take against police officers.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 2: And by the way, I don't know that any police
Speaker 2: officer in his right mind, unless he wants to end
Speaker 2: up in jail for the rest of us, like like
Speaker 2: Jarff Chauvin or the Minneapolis police officer has found himself,
Speaker 2: any officer in his right mind is not going to
Speaker 2: do the sort of things that some police officers have done.
Speaker 2: And I say you need more police training. I think
Speaker 2: you need to probably do more psychological work with the
Speaker 2: police department applicants to make sure that you're getting police
Speaker 2: officers who are going to treat all of us, whether
Speaker 2: it's you or me, respectfully when we're pulled over at night. Now, again,
Speaker 2: we also have a responsibility to drive with the police
Speaker 2: officer in a rational way. Where the police officer said,
Speaker 2: would you police roll down your window, they can kind
Speaker 2: of roll down your window. I always advise friends of mine,
Speaker 2: both hands on the steering wheel, if you can put
Speaker 2: the dome light on so the police officer can see you,
Speaker 2: that's the way make it easier on the police officer.
Speaker 2: Here are the number six months, seven two five, four,
Speaker 2: ten thirty, six months, seven nine, three, one, ten thirty.
Speaker 2: The Florida halo law makes sense to me? Does it
Speaker 2: make sense to you? And if you're somebody who really
Speaker 2: disagrees with it, tell me why, tell me why this is?
Speaker 2: This is I think this is not twenty twenty anymore.
Speaker 2: It's twenty twenty five. And I think that a piece
Speaker 2: of legislation like this would not have passed in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty in Florida or in any state. And I think
Speaker 2: it could pass. I'd like to think Massachusetts, but realistically
Speaker 2: I don't. Coming back on Night's side, let's have at
Speaker 2: it back after this.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: By the way, I do want to talk about this issue,
Speaker 2: and I'm I we'll be disappointed if more people aren't
Speaker 2: interested in talking about this issue. At eleven o'clock, we
Speaker 2: will change topics and we're going to talk about did
Speaker 2: you make a New year? New Year's resolution? Rob Brooks
Speaker 2: has the best New Year's resolution he makes. He makes
Speaker 2: the resolution every year not to make a New Year's resolution.
Speaker 2: But for those of you who actually made a resolution
Speaker 2: three nights ago, well, maybe two nights ago, now that
Speaker 2: you think about now that I think about it gonna
Speaker 2: but I mean, I think we're probably what seventy hours
Speaker 2: into the new year at this point. Have you kept
Speaker 2: your New Year's resolution? We'll talk about that at eleven
Speaker 2: at the twenty hour, But I want to talk about
Speaker 2: this halo law in Florida. I think it will do
Speaker 2: a lot to take down the temperature when people see
Speaker 2: a police officer, oh, for that matter, a firefighter, an
Speaker 2: EMT doing what they're supposed to do. And again, I
Speaker 2: think that that when you're in a situation where all
Speaker 2: of a sudden there's police activity, it's normal for people
Speaker 2: to to rubber neck. You always know when there's a
Speaker 2: police car somewhere on the turnpike that maybe is pulled
Speaker 2: over the side of the road, not even necessarily write
Speaker 2: someone in a ticket, but to help them, everybody slows down.
Speaker 2: Have you ever noticed that, no matter what, you look
Speaker 2: in the distance and you see a blue light, and
Speaker 2: the police car could be simply there helping somebody, just
Speaker 2: helping somebody who has a flat tire, or even just
Speaker 2: you know, preventing someone from running into the back of
Speaker 2: the car. Everybody has to slow down. It's just normal
Speaker 2: human nature to be intrigued and interested what's going on,
Speaker 2: what's going on? But then you have situations when police
Speaker 2: are arresting someone, and you know you've seen it on
Speaker 2: TV many times people try to almost interfere with that arrest. Look,
Speaker 2: police have a right to arrest you. If they have
Speaker 2: arrested you improperly inappropriately, you have right to go back
Speaker 2: and sue them in civil court. May not be easy
Speaker 2: to win. In some cases you do they can, you
Speaker 2: can win. But police officers, I think, in the wake
Speaker 2: of George Floyd, have received better training and I think
Speaker 2: that police officers the forces now are much more govors.
Speaker 2: I can't help but thinking about this woman police superintendent
Speaker 2: down in New Orleans who has just been horrific watching
Speaker 2: her hold these news conferences. That she had no idea
Speaker 2: that these materials were available in New Orleans. We mentioned
Speaker 2: that the other night. So I just want to talk
Speaker 2: about this law. Does it bother you or no? Does
Speaker 2: it bother you? Do supported if this law was proposed
Speaker 2: in Massachusetts might not have a chance to pass, And
Speaker 2: I think it's a good law to be proposed. You
Speaker 2: know where the American Civil Liberties union is gonna come down.
Speaker 2: They're gonna say, oh no, no, oh no. This is
Speaker 2: only intended as they have in Florida. So, if you're
Speaker 2: a police officer out there, if you're the spouse of
Speaker 2: a police officer, if you're the partner of a police officer,
Speaker 2: does it make you if a law like this pass,
Speaker 2: would it make you feel a little more comfortable knowing
Speaker 2: that the person in your family, Again, whether it's a
Speaker 2: son or a daughter, or a mom or dad. It's
Speaker 2: a dangerous job, and it becomes most dangerous when they're
Speaker 2: trying to effectuate an arrest. For firefighters, it becomes it
Speaker 2: becomes a dangerous job. Every fire they respond to. They
Speaker 2: have no idea what is inside the building that's burning,
Speaker 2: and everybody wants to ask them questions, what's going on?
Speaker 2: What's going on? Leave the firefighters alone, Leave the EMT alone.
Speaker 2: Someone flops on the ground and the EMT comes by.
Speaker 2: You don't have to go over what's going on. That
Speaker 2: is unfair to the person on the ground. Never mind
Speaker 2: the EMT. The EMP has to do their job. They
Speaker 2: have to focus intently on what they're doing in order
Speaker 2: to try to save someone's life. That's their purpose. They're
Speaker 2: not there to answer your questions. When I was a
Speaker 2: TV reporter out there, you would have people all the
Speaker 2: time coming up to you like they wanted their own
Speaker 2: personal broadcast. What's going on? Watch the news and I'll
Speaker 2: tell you at six o'clock or I'll tell you at
Speaker 2: eleven o'clock. Simple as that. So a halo law which
Speaker 2: basically gives police officer, firefighter or an EMT a buffer zone.
Speaker 2: We have buffer zones now at abortion sites where protesters
Speaker 2: need to be kept a certain distance away. They can
Speaker 2: still protest, but they can't protest in someone's face. And
Speaker 2: it's the same principle when you think about it, it's
Speaker 2: the exact same principle. The person who's interested in what's
Speaker 2: going on, they can videotape, but from twenty five feet away,
Speaker 2: the protest with the abortion clinic can protest, but they
Speaker 2: can't impede someone who's going, however strongly they may feel.
Speaker 2: Let's go to Matt in Southbridge. Matt, thanks for getting
Speaker 2: this going here. Your thoughts on this piece of legislation
Speaker 2: that's now Laura in Florida, good idea about it here?
Speaker 5: In your opinion, I think it's a great idea. I
Speaker 5: think it will help lower stress levels at scenes where
Speaker 5: involving first responders, where things can get a little hectic,
Speaker 5: they get.
Speaker 2: More than hectic, they get more than hectic sometime. Are
Speaker 2: you involved in it, either as a police officer, firefighter,
Speaker 2: or EMT or do you have someone in your family?
Speaker 5: Yeah, yes, I'm a police officer.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you very much. What has been your experience.
Speaker 2: I have tried to report this as as honestly as
Speaker 2: I can. I've read from the Jacksonville newspaper about this law.
Speaker 2: Have you found that when you're out trying to an
Speaker 2: effect situa and arrest people in any way, shape or form,
Speaker 2: are at least at a minimum minimum distracting. Have you
Speaker 2: ever had people interfering with you performing your duties?
Speaker 5: Yes, and, like you alluded to earlier, since twenty twenty,
Speaker 5: it has become more prevalent. And what I can say is,
Speaker 5: I've been a police officer approximately thirty years and the
Speaker 5: last thing a police officer in my department, in most departments,
Speaker 5: talking to other officers want to do is work inside
Speaker 5: the building. So you would have all the junior officers
Speaker 5: would be stuck working in the service division or the
Speaker 5: cell room. Now that is the most highly coveted position,
Speaker 5: which I think says a lot where the officers no
Speaker 5: longer want to be on the street, they want to
Speaker 5: be in the building away from the public.
Speaker 2: So you've worked for thirty years, have you noticed over
Speaker 2: the course of your career, is this something that kind
Speaker 2: of goes back and forth like a pendulum. My sense
Speaker 2: is that after the horrific incident involving you know, George Floyd,
Speaker 2: what that police officer did was was ah indefensible in
Speaker 2: my opinion. I don't know how you feel about it,
Speaker 2: but I agree.
Speaker 6: I agree.
Speaker 2: So obviously then people took that and everybody who was
Speaker 2: wearing a badge and vis in the blue, we had
Speaker 2: all of that that controversy. My sense is that the
Speaker 2: pendulum is swinging back. What do you think.
Speaker 5: I think it is maybe not so much in Massachusetts,
Speaker 5: but not as quickly as other parts of the country. Yeah,
Speaker 5: but I think and you talked about training earlier, which
Speaker 5: I think is very important, and what you what you
Speaker 5: feel to mention though with training, with additional training comes
Speaker 5: additional funds which we are not are not getting for
Speaker 5: the training, not for the officer, for the training, and
Speaker 5: what we're seeing in Massachusetts. Since COVID was the MPTC
Speaker 5: that runs all our trainings state wide, it went to
Speaker 5: an online training platform where it's a passive learning situation
Speaker 5: where I literally will have to sit through eighteen hours
Speaker 5: of videos this training session. And if you do any
Speaker 5: studying on learning, passive learning is one of the worst
Speaker 5: ways to learn or to teach. Rather, and you're an attorney, right, yes, sir.
Speaker 5: Now you know case law and a constitutional law is
Speaker 5: forever changing. Now think about it. I'm a new police officer.
Speaker 5: I'm only twenty two and now I have to watch
Speaker 5: a six hour video on constitutional law and I have questions,
Speaker 5: but I can't ask any questions because I'm looking hearing
Speaker 5: at a computer screen. Yeah, so I agree with this, Laar.
Speaker 5: I think it would help you. I think it would
Speaker 5: even help It would help the public out as well.
Speaker 5: And you know, unfortunate events probably won't happen because you
Speaker 5: have that buffer of twenty five feet and you can
Speaker 5: still fail. From twenty five feet, you'll actually get a
Speaker 5: picture of the whole scene instead of a close up,
Speaker 5: or if you want to coach, you could.
Speaker 2: Get absolutely no police officer wants someone with a camera
Speaker 2: in they're face two feet away. Why are you doing this?
Speaker 2: What are you doing this for? I mean, first of all,
Speaker 2: I was distracting, and at that moment in time, if
Speaker 2: you're really dealing with a suspect who's dangerous, that guy
Speaker 2: might grab your gun while you're distracted. I mean, your
Speaker 2: focus needs to be on the person you're you're trying
Speaker 2: to to arrest. It's as simple as that. By the way,
Speaker 2: when you talk about training working in radio and television,
Speaker 2: I work in what's called the private sector. You're in
Speaker 2: the public sector. Uh, there's a whole industry out there
Speaker 2: of companies that have that have taken advantage, in my opinion,
Speaker 2: of societal situations, so that everybody, I think every employee
Speaker 2: has to sit there through this passive training and you
Speaker 2: know that that it just doesn't it You listen to
Speaker 2: it because you have to. Okay, you know what the
Speaker 2: point is. It takes them six hours to tell you
Speaker 2: something that they could that they could instruct you on
Speaker 2: with for six minutes. But if they produced six minute videotapes,
Speaker 2: they wouldn't be able to charge the exorbited prices. This
Speaker 2: it's a cottage industry, is what it is. In my opinion.
Speaker 2: Matt that the.
Speaker 5: But I've noticed the training with the younger officers it's
Speaker 5: not working as well as when we had it in person,
Speaker 5: where you could ask questions and get in the professor
Speaker 5: or the instructors to bounce them back.
Speaker 2: Of course. Yeah. And many people are going to say, well, gee,
Speaker 2: I don't understand that. I mean, it isn't a question
Speaker 2: of I disagree with it, uh and have a debate
Speaker 2: with the person, but I don't understand what is meant
Speaker 2: by that. That's that's the part of education.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Or you know, you're a police officer and you you know,
Speaker 5: you read some case Laura, and you ask a question
Speaker 5: of oh, I went on a call last week, but
Speaker 5: you don't have that ability anymore to ask questions and
Speaker 5: get at guidance.
Speaker 2: I agree with you. Look, thank you for your for
Speaker 2: your career, thank you for your service, and stay safe
Speaker 2: out there. And again, you sound like the sort of
Speaker 2: police officer that that we should have. Look in Boston there,
Speaker 2: they're now dying to recruit police officers they don't have.
Speaker 2: They're down like four hundred police officers in the city
Speaker 2: of Boston, down about forty.
Speaker 5: We're down about ten percent. No, it's it's unfortunate and
Speaker 5: hopefully where else.
Speaker 2: In what other city of police officers the world? The
Speaker 2: the roster is down New Orleans. I think I read
Speaker 2: something today. They're down like seven hundred officers.
Speaker 5: No, it's it's nationwide. There is a recruitment and retention
Speaker 5: crisis that no one's talking about. Yeah to the points. Yeah,
Speaker 5: we're going to see it in my my location. We're
Speaker 5: gonna I think we'll start seeing forced overtime in the
Speaker 5: next year or so, which is unfortunate.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and which which is forced overtime means you're forced
Speaker 2: to work in a high stress job where you're making
Speaker 2: decisions on you know, do I draw my weapon or whatever,
Speaker 2: and you should not. Forced overtime is not consistent with
Speaker 2: good police work in my opinion, it absolutely I agree.
Speaker 5: I agree, Dan, I appreciate you're taking the time and
Speaker 5: have a happy New Year.
Speaker 2: Happy New Year to you and say say, okay, thanks, Matt,
Speaker 2: appreciate you. All Right, Well you heard what Matt had
Speaker 2: to say. I would love to hear what you have
Speaker 2: to say. I think it's a fascinating topic. But I
Speaker 2: may be barking up the wrong tree, and if I am,
Speaker 2: we'll change topics. But I would like to talk about this.
Speaker 2: Should police officers, firefighters, and EMTs have the right to
Speaker 2: say to people who are in any way, shape or
Speaker 2: form interfering with them conducting their what they do to
Speaker 2: stay back twenty five feet. That's a great piece of
Speaker 2: legislation in my mind, despite what the American cent for
Speaker 2: Liberties Union says, if you disagree, bring it on. If
Speaker 2: you agree, you could bring it on as well. Six
Speaker 2: one seven four ten thirty six one seven thirty Coming
Speaker 2: right back on night Side.
Speaker 1: It's night Side with Ray Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much. Al. Let's get back to the call.
Speaker 2: I was going to go to Eric in Natick next, Eric,
Speaker 2: welcome next to on Nightside. How are you serving time?
Speaker 7: I am out there here.
Speaker 2: Eric, got to turn that radio. Don go right ahead.
Speaker 7: I'm sorry, Happy New Year, Happy.
Speaker 2: New Year to you, Eric. Thanks you gotta you guys
Speaker 2: got to turn that radio down because we have a delay.
Speaker 2: As I'm sure you know. What's your thought about this
Speaker 2: Haylo law in Florida. You like it or not?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 7: I love it. I'm actually I don't want to be
Speaker 7: too harsh, but it's actually sickening that a lot like
Speaker 7: this even needs to exist because you know, everyone does
Speaker 7: their job and you can't stop people from doing their job.
Speaker 7: So even while you're doing the radio, imagine if someone
Speaker 7: is two feet away from you, like staring at you
Speaker 7: or distracting you while you're trying to talk to your audience.
Speaker 7: Like and I think, I think, I.
Speaker 2: Just think that's a great point.
Speaker 7: Yep, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: I think that I think that's a great point. I mean,
Speaker 2: can you imagine if uh if if when people are
Speaker 2: out trying to you know, work as a roof or
Speaker 2: work as a plumber. Uh, you know, get up on
Speaker 2: the roof there, like it was this guy putting the
Speaker 2: nails in right. Of course you it just makes absolute
Speaker 2: great common sense, Eric, but we we can't in this society.
Speaker 2: Remember after the George Flay Floyd murder, it was every
Speaker 2: police officer was looked at with suspicion. It didn't matter
Speaker 2: that they were a good, decent police officer who was
Speaker 2: trying to go out and do the right thing by
Speaker 2: his community. Because he was because he had a badge
Speaker 2: and he was a police officer, he was looked at derisively.
Speaker 2: And it still happens in the eyes of some people.
Speaker 7: Yes, and I think there's a lot of things that
Speaker 7: attribute to that, like like news media coverage of it,
Speaker 7: like negative stories about other instances where I mean you're
Speaker 7: talking about small fractions. I mean this, for every one
Speaker 7: bad interaction where a cop went overboard, there's at least
Speaker 7: one hundred good interactions where cops went above and beyond
Speaker 7: and did what they were supposed to do.
Speaker 2: I couldn't agree with you more. Now, do you think the.
Speaker 7: Media small stuff?
Speaker 2: Yeah? But I look, the George Floyd circumstance was an
Speaker 2: abomination that was, in my opinion, out now cold blooded murder.
Speaker 2: And I'm glad that there were people there when I
Speaker 2: don't know if you remember the the demeanor of the police,
Speaker 2: the police officer, uh and I don't even want to
Speaker 2: call him a police officer. Derek Chauvin from Minneapolis that
Speaker 2: after he got up and took his knee off the
Speaker 2: neck of George Floyd, he struted around like a peacock,
Speaker 2: like somehow he had just done something heroic, when what
Speaker 2: he had done was was the cowardice. You know, basically,
Speaker 2: while others kept him Floyd from your breathing, getting up,
Speaker 2: he basically killed the guy. But but the media didn't
Speaker 2: put it in any context. They didn't say, look, this
Speaker 2: is a guy who who went way beyond what he
Speaker 2: ever should have done and put him in jail. That
Speaker 2: I talked about that from the first night. Put him
Speaker 2: in jail. Uh, he's he's he's not a police officer,
Speaker 2: he's a criminal. Put it in some context. But he
Speaker 2: doesn't represent the most police officers, just just just as
Speaker 2: if as the pedophile priests didn't represent. I have friends
Speaker 2: of mine who are Catholic priests, good Catholic priests, who
Speaker 2: they told me they no longer would when they would
Speaker 2: go up to a public restaurant, they would never wear
Speaker 2: their collar because people would look would look at them like, well,
Speaker 2: you must be like those other pedophile priests. It's just
Speaker 2: not fair.
Speaker 7: I know, it's definitely not fair. And the old expression
Speaker 7: one bad apple ruins the entire bunch. I mean, that's
Speaker 7: why expressions like that exist, because you know, like you said, priests,
Speaker 7: just because there's a segment of them that were pedophiles,
Speaker 7: it doesn't mean the entire priesthood are pedophiles. It just
Speaker 7: means that there was a small section. And yes, it's
Speaker 7: unfortunate that it was hidden for so long, and there's
Speaker 7: more and more cases that came out about it, But
Speaker 7: that doesn't the gate everyone who is our good priest
Speaker 7: and who do do their job and do believe and
Speaker 7: follow the right path. And yeah, I.
Speaker 2: Mean, the thing that's interesting is that when we hear
Speaker 2: a horrific story about I don't know, you know, Diddy
Speaker 2: or or some entertainer who's accused of, you know, doing
Speaker 2: inappropriate things, we don't project that on all entertainers. If
Speaker 2: we hear about some you know, famous athlete who does
Speaker 2: something really stupid Pete Rose, for example, we don't assume
Speaker 2: that all athletes were gambling on the sport in which
Speaker 2: they participated. We look at those cases on very much
Speaker 2: of an individual basis. But when it comes to a
Speaker 2: bad police officer comes to a bad priest, maybe because
Speaker 2: they are people who are perceived as in positions of authority.
Speaker 2: I don't know. We don't field in terms. We don't
Speaker 2: field in terms of teachers. You know, you'll have some
Speaker 2: high school teacher who hits on a fourteen year old girl. Uh,
Speaker 2: we don't assume every high school teacher is doing that.
Speaker 2: But with the police, the police were given a bum
Speaker 2: rap because of Derek chovin uh. And and I think
Speaker 2: that this law would go a long way to to
Speaker 2: maybe restoring some faith in our police life.
Speaker 7: I hope so too. And like I said, it's very
Speaker 7: surprising that there even needs to be a law. You
Speaker 7: said it yourself. It's common sense, like let people do
Speaker 7: what they're supposed to be doing. And as far as
Speaker 7: I'm just gonna say one more thing, as far as
Speaker 7: like when you get pulled over, you're absolutely right. The
Speaker 7: smartest thing as a pedestrian you can do or a
Speaker 7: citizen is put your hands on the wheel whatever. As
Speaker 7: soon as the police officer exits their vehicle, anything that
Speaker 7: you can do to keep them at ease because they
Speaker 7: are heightened, the adrenaline kicks in. Uh, they don't know
Speaker 7: the person has a weapon, if they're reaching for something,
Speaker 7: they have no idea. They don't know you. They just
Speaker 7: pulled you over. They may they may have ran your plate,
Speaker 7: but they don't know your story. So you do anything
Speaker 7: in your power to alleviate any concern they might have.
Speaker 7: And the the interaction between the two of you, or
Speaker 7: between the citizen and the police officer, guaranteed nine times
Speaker 7: out of ten, is going to go smoothly, and maybe
Speaker 7: if you were speeding and how you if you were
Speaker 7: respectful and you know, honest and you know, just care
Speaker 7: free and just you know, let the make the officer
Speaker 7: be at ease, maybe they'll say, you know what, make
Speaker 7: sure you're just slow down next.
Speaker 2: Time, exactly exactly you you. Sometimes people talk themselves into
Speaker 2: tickets when they can talk themselves out of tickets and
Speaker 2: just get a warning if they if they treat the
Speaker 2: officer respectfully. Because I got to tell you from my
Speaker 2: experience officers that I know there's a lot of really
Speaker 2: dumb people. Would you pull me over? What do you do?
Speaker 2: We are you doing? What are you doing? And you
Speaker 2: know immediately that kind of sets the tone for the conversation. Eric,
Speaker 2: I loved you call. Please keep calling the show. Thank you, sir,
Speaker 2: thank you.
Speaker 7: Happy to hear to you and your family.
Speaker 2: Right back at you, Eric, Happy New Year to you
Speaker 2: as well. We have a lot of listeners in Natick,
Speaker 2: that's for sure one of my favorite communities. Take a
Speaker 2: quick break one line at six one seven, two four
Speaker 2: ten thirty. Also, if you want to try to get
Speaker 2: through six one seven nine three one ten thirty, we
Speaker 2: will change topics at eleven o'clock, we go to the
Speaker 2: twentieth hour, though it's only for me the twelve hour
Speaker 2: this week, gonna want to know about your New Year's
Speaker 2: resolutions and they still intact, probably some of them have
Speaker 2: already been broken. We'll be back on night Side more
Speaker 2: calls right after this.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Way live from the Window World
Speaker 1: night Sight Studios on' WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: By the way, you know, last home, we talked about
Speaker 2: New York City's congestion pricing. Well, there was a federal
Speaker 2: it was an effort by the state of New Jersey
Speaker 2: to stop it, saying that this was going to have
Speaker 2: an impact on New Jersey roads because people would use
Speaker 2: the Jersey bridges to avoid it. And a federal judge
Speaker 2: has cleared the way for the Sunday launch of congesting
Speaker 2: congestion pricing in New York City. Good luck, New York City.
Speaker 2: Let's keep going here. I'm gonna go next. Who's up next? Down?
Speaker 2: Greg is in Boston. Hey, Greg, welcome. We're talking about
Speaker 2: the Florida law, the so called Halo law, which creates
Speaker 2: a twenty five foot buffer zone for police officers, responding
Speaker 2: police officers, firefighters, and EMTs. Your thoughts, Greg? Hello, Hello Greg,
Speaker 2: your thoughts? What's your thought on this?
Speaker 8: Yes, this is Hubert, I'm I'm sorry. This is Frank.
Speaker 2: This is Frank. Okay, so let's get that squared away.
Speaker 2: This is not Greg, this is Frank. Yeah, okay, Well, Frank,
Speaker 2: go right ahead.
Speaker 8: I think it's gonna be a very troublesome law because
Speaker 8: now you're gonna tell the person in the goal twenty
Speaker 8: five feet, So you got to figure out the twenty
Speaker 8: five feet and how many other people you're gonna tell
Speaker 8: go twenty five feet? So now you may end up
Speaker 8: having the rest two three, four people beside the suspect something.
Speaker 2: Well, if if they don't, if they don't comply with
Speaker 2: let me ask you this, Frank. Let's assume you're driving
Speaker 2: down the street and a police officer steps in front
Speaker 2: of your car and says you got to stop, okay,
Speaker 2: and you don't know why you're being told to stop.
Speaker 2: What do you do?
Speaker 8: I stopped?
Speaker 2: You bet you?
Speaker 8: So, if people there's this notion that people are are
Speaker 8: putting police officers down because of certain instances is overblown.
Speaker 8: We still respect the police. People still respect the police,
Speaker 8: they still obey the law, and this kind of stuff
Speaker 8: is troublesome, and it's also indicative of what's happening in
Speaker 8: Florida and if people of Florida gonna have to get off,
Speaker 8: but they did. They they're abandoned books. They're saying if
Speaker 8: they have elections or or they're.
Speaker 2: Not banning books in Florida. I don't know what what
Speaker 2: what stations you're watching, they're not banning books in Florida.
Speaker 2: What books? What books have been banned in Florida, Frank.
Speaker 8: He's already they've already had laws that said you can't
Speaker 8: have this book, you can't have that book. And also
Speaker 8: they named.
Speaker 2: Me one of the books that are Frank doing you
Speaker 2: a favor? Okay, Frank, respectfully, could you name me one
Speaker 2: of the books that were banned in Florida.
Speaker 8: I can't tell you which ones, but I can say
Speaker 8: they have been banned books.
Speaker 2: Well, you're you're you're telling me. Here's what. Let me
Speaker 2: explain to you what happened in Florida if I could,
Speaker 2: because I looked into this. They have taken some books
Speaker 2: that were in portions of the public library which were
Speaker 2: called you know, children's sections, and they have moved those
Speaker 2: books into you know, teen sections or adult sections. There
Speaker 2: were certain books that get into certain topics that people
Speaker 2: in the state of Florida, and you know, libraries and
Speaker 2: also representatives felt that kids should not be exposed to
Speaker 2: those type of books at that age. There have been
Speaker 2: no books that there's no book that has been banned
Speaker 2: in Florida. Frank, it's it's it's just a misnomer. It's
Speaker 2: it's incorrect.
Speaker 8: Florida and Florida just had a ballot question that they
Speaker 8: said couldn't pass on less sixty percent the people voted
Speaker 8: for it, when in any normal situation, if you were
Speaker 8: over fifty percent, the ballot or the election was won
Speaker 8: or lost. Now that they're even restricted.
Speaker 2: On so, let me ask you this. I'm unfamiliar with that.
Speaker 2: What was the What was the ballot question, Frank? What
Speaker 2: was the ballot question?
Speaker 8: They want? They want the constitutionalized abortion and you had
Speaker 8: to have at least six days. I made it so
Speaker 8: that you had to have sixty percent, and since it
Speaker 8: only came out to like fifty five percent, the measure failed.
Speaker 2: You might you might be correct on that. Frank, I'm
Speaker 2: not familiar with it, but I will grant you you
Speaker 2: might be correct on that. It could be within the floridaction.
Speaker 2: It could be within the Florida State Constitution that in
Speaker 2: order to amend the constitution you have to get over
Speaker 2: a certain percentage, because sometimes it's harder to amend the
Speaker 2: constitution than just by a majority vote. Frank, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2: We've covered I got three more folks before. I'm just
Speaker 2: telling you that. I'm telling you you might be correct
Speaker 2: on that. But for example, do you know how how
Speaker 2: many states it takes. Frank just hung up. I didn't
Speaker 2: hang up on him. It takes three quarters of the
Speaker 2: states to amend the US Constitution. Okay, that's what the
Speaker 2: US Constitution says. Let's go next to Glenn and Brighton. Glenn,
Speaker 2: get me back on track. Please go ahead, and Glynn.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I love this topic. I wish I knew Harvard
Speaker 4: Hilbergrace you wanted number one and number two. I wish
Speaker 4: it could extend it in the next do because it's
Speaker 4: a very good, very good topic. Because I agree with
Speaker 4: the tone into theear part. I don't agree with the
Speaker 4: you know, buff I don't like any kind of buffer
Speaker 4: zone twenty five. They do it with tobacco abortion. I
Speaker 4: remember the Supreme Court struck down the Bufferson or on
Speaker 4: abortion the you know, I think the idea.
Speaker 2: Is that, well, the idea is that if someone's going
Speaker 2: into receive a medical procedure, whether you agree with it
Speaker 2: or not, whether I agree with it or not, you
Speaker 2: can sit there and have a sign. You can protest,
Speaker 2: but you can't be in someone's face. That's all they're saying.
Speaker 2: I mean, if you all of a scientist.
Speaker 4: The part I find arbitrarian capricious is I mean, do
Speaker 4: people carry tape measures? Now, no, you're half a foot
Speaker 4: two clothes. I mean you're forty four. I mean, Hannah, they.
Speaker 2: Put they they're able to put up barricades, okay, and
Speaker 2: basically that you can't cross over the barricade. I mean
Speaker 2: it's like when when the President of the United States
Speaker 2: comes and speaks at a public event, they have you know,
Speaker 2: they have police. Look, when there's a crime scene, they
Speaker 2: put up the yellow tape. You know that, Glenn, And
Speaker 2: you can't say, oh, I'm going to go Crocker, I
Speaker 2: want to investigate that crime scene. So no, I think
Speaker 2: the same piece of legislation that has some merit. I
Speaker 2: wish Harvey called in and we'll get Harvey on this
Speaker 2: as a matter of fact, some night. How's that?
Speaker 4: Yeah, because he's the first person I thought of when
Speaker 4: you brought this up, because I remember the buffers oone
Speaker 4: thing on the ambush that was McClellan versus Cokeley. I
Speaker 4: don't remember know mccollan's first name. It was Martha Coakley.
Speaker 4: And I thought the Supreme Court struck a down ninety zero.
Speaker 2: No, I do not. I believe so they don't have
Speaker 2: the right to protest. But you don't have the right
Speaker 2: to sit on the stairs and impede people's walking in.
Speaker 2: You don't have a right using and be shouting in
Speaker 2: their ear from two feet away as as they're walking
Speaker 2: in the door. That's home. I mean, if you're going
Speaker 2: in to have your appendix taken out, and and I did,
Speaker 2: and I think, no, you know, Glenn, you should not.
Speaker 2: I can't prevent you physically. No, Glenn, you can't take
Speaker 2: your appendix out. Come on.
Speaker 4: I think it could be fine tuned a little bit.
Speaker 4: And I'm not saying it's a bad look.
Speaker 2: Twenty five feet is not is not a huge distance.
Speaker 2: I mean you can videotape police officers from twenty five
Speaker 2: feet pretty easily. Okay, Yeah, I mean, if they said
Speaker 2: you've got to stand back one thousand feet five hundred feet,
Speaker 2: that would be arbitrary and capricious. But I think twenty
Speaker 2: five feet is a reasonable distance in my opinion. I
Speaker 2: think it'll I think it will with stand constitutional review.
Speaker 2: I really do.
Speaker 4: Let me get one.
Speaker 2: More India before the break. Okay, huh, I'm gonna get
Speaker 2: one more in before the break.
Speaker 4: Thanks buddy, I'm.
Speaker 2: Gonna give you. We always give the right in the
Speaker 2: in the final hour of the week, and even though
Speaker 2: it's really a hybrid twentieth hour. Absolutely, Thanks Glenn, talk
Speaker 2: to you later.
Speaker 4: Thank you too.
Speaker 2: All right, Thank you much. Jim and Roxford. Jim, you're
Speaker 2: next on Nightside. Gotta get more.
Speaker 6: That point of view. They're not doing it on this
Speaker 6: point of you.
Speaker 2: Are you talking to me or you're having a conversation
Speaker 2: of your own? Jim, you're in the air.
Speaker 6: Oh okay, so I didn't know. Okay, did That'll be
Speaker 6: real quick. I know it's time to go. Okay. I
Speaker 6: heard you guys comps story, and I know you gots
Speaker 6: talking about mister Floyd. Guess what, reader, why Tom's got
Speaker 6: a bad reputation because they act bad no matter what
Speaker 6: if you look at what's beyond the tailor. They broke
Speaker 6: into her apartment and she's innocent and it shot her.
Speaker 6: Uh huh yeah, Okay, I got a lot of incidents. Okay,
Speaker 6: some reads they seem to all be with minority.
Speaker 2: What so, Jim, let me ask you this. Let me
Speaker 2: because we're a little bit tight on time. What percentage
Speaker 2: of cops do you think are Derek Chauvin type cops?
Speaker 2: What percentage?
Speaker 6: I can tell you fifty percent?
Speaker 2: Okay, I think you're dreaming about that. There's no way
Speaker 2: you can prove that, but I think the statistic that
Speaker 2: you u if it was fifty percent, you'd have many
Speaker 2: more George fully cases.
Speaker 6: And many Why is every case you guys at the
Speaker 6: media include wonder one. It's always a minority, is never
Speaker 6: any other. It's always minorities getting hit. And guess who
Speaker 6: are hurting us? It is the European, Caucasians or white
Speaker 6: or snowflakes.
Speaker 1: What.
Speaker 2: Let me ask you this, Jim, what what percentage of
Speaker 2: Boston you live in Roxbury? What percentage of Boston police
Speaker 2: officers are minority in your opinion?
Speaker 6: Oh, that's easy, that is totally forty. The rest is
Speaker 6: everything else well, so you.
Speaker 2: Have forty percent in your opinion already. Okay, yes, what
Speaker 2: percentage of the American population happens to be minority? Do
Speaker 2: you know?
Speaker 6: I think No, I don't.
Speaker 2: It's about about it's about ten percent black, about ten
Speaker 2: percent black, about twelve percent Hispanic, and maybe three percent Asian.
Speaker 6: So okay, it is minorities getting shot, stabbed, Rundo was
Speaker 6: sprayed and do ooh, I'm afraid because we moved. But
Speaker 6: as the Caucasian cops, nothing happens too.
Speaker 2: Because yeah, I think I think you're looking at through
Speaker 2: a pretty biased lens. But I'm glad you called, and
Speaker 2: I'm glad I wish you called earlier because we could
Speaker 2: talk longer. But keep calling the show. We'll have conversations.
Speaker 6: Okay, Okay, bye bye.
Speaker 2: Have a happy New Year to those of you in
Speaker 2: the line. I apologize, sure, wish you called earlier. We're
Speaker 2: going to go to New Year's Resolutions right after the
Speaker 2: break one night side