An Undercover Police Officer At Georgetown High School: 10 Years Later (v2 submitted to the Georgetown Record)

Dear GHS Class of 2003,

Do you remember ten years ago, when there was an undercover police officer at Georgetown High School?

It was a secret operation that only three people knew about, the Superintendent, the Chief of Police and the undercover officer herself. One math teacher was quoted after the busts went down, devastated because he had thought she was the best math student he ever had.

The mission was for the officer infiltrate the school as a "student" and to determine which students were selling drugs. 

The definition of entrapment is:

The act of government agents or officials that induces a person to commit a crime he or she is not previously disposed to commit.

This is why I can't shake the dirty feeling, ten years later. The officer wasn't offered drugs by these children, she searched them out.  She ended up with small amounts of marijuana and pills.  Even that wasn't easy to scrape that up.  That was months of work. On our dime (rather, our parents).  

Yet I remember 6-10 kids being expelled. The Administration wrote letters to schools in the surrounding area recommending they don't take them in. Someone decided denying their education was surely the best way to help these kids.

I wonder why no prominent lawyers stepped in to protect them, or at least push the issue, ask some questions of the police and school about their motives. 

I assume they have all been better off without a High School that would hire the police for a secret mission to entrap them.  

I wonder if they will be invited to their 10 Year Reunion this summer and I wonder if they will be in the mood for attending.  

An Undercover Police Officer at Georgetown High School: 10 Years Later

My distrust of The Government began ten years ago when there was an undercover police officer at Georgetown High School.

It was a secret operation that only three people knew about (One math teacher was quoted after the busts went down, saying that he was devastated because he had thought she was the best math student he ever had)

Larry Borin - Superintendent of Schools at the time 

Richard Spencer - Chief of Georgetown Police Department at the time

Undercover Police Officer (known henceforth as Ladycop) 

Ladycop's mission was to infiltrate the school as a "student" and to determine which students were selling drugs. 

The definition of entrapment is:

The act of government agents or officials that induces a person to commit a crime he or she is not previously disposed to commit.

and that is basis of my beef. Ladycop wasn't offered drugs by these children, She searched them out.  She ended up with some weed and a few pills.  Even that wasn't easy to scrape up.  That was months of work. 

and yet I remember 6-10 kids being expelled. The Administration wrote letters to schools in the surrounding area recommending they don't take them in. 

Following up with the involved parties and asking them about this ordeal from the past would be Difficult and Emotional.  I'm not going to do that.  I don't see any reason to pry.  I assume they were all better off without a High School that would hire the police for a secret mission to entrap them.  

I wonder if they will be invited to their 10 Year Reunion this summer and I wonder if they will be up for going.  

I wonder why no prominent lawyers stepped in to protect these kids, or at least push the issue, ask some questions of the police and school about their motives. all I remember is a puff piece in the Georgetown Record lauding the efforts of the police.

Then again I don't check many facts, I never made it to the Library and the story is just old enough that nothing at all exists on the internet.  

If you know someone involved and they want to share their side of the story please send them my way, for some reason I can't shake the memory and enjoy discussing it. 

Christmas Tree Follow Up: 4 Months Later

Back in December 2012 my old lady wrote an essay about how we were going to adopt a baby potted pine tree for Christmas, instead of slaughtering (or embracing the slaughter of) a living tree.

The baby potted pine tree lived in the house these past four months, but not well.  She was rarely fed and never talked to and didn't get much sunlight either. 

I noticed her brown & bare spots and felt shame.  Then I remembered the hole.  

There was a hole in our backyard when we moved in.  I started filling it with grass clippings after mowing the lawn, eventually adding biodegradable food trash as well. 

so I gave the hole a modest stir with a shovel.  I bought a bag of fancy dirt, recommended by the unlucky garden store clerk who had to hear my sad tale of neglect.  I unplugged the baby pine from her potted existence, plucked her into the hole and surrounded her with the fancy dirt.

And there she sits.  I look at her proudly on occassion, although I honestly have no idea if my transplant worked or not. 

time will tell. 

Marathon Thoughts 3: Summation(?)

EDITOR'S NOTE: These are my notes from the evening of Friday April 19th, written during the press conference BEFORE they caught the kid.  I did not post them in the moment because of the inherent negativity.  I debate posting them now for the same reason.  They are followed by my thoughts this morning.

Rough presser on both sides of the podium.

Lieutenant Colonel Alben, Superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police, looks angry and confused. He admits to knowing Nothing several times.

Deval Patrick and Mayor Menino haven't missed a press conference yet throughout the ordeal, and I don't mean that in a good way.

My screen is split, the podium on the left, an image of the kid on the right.  I'm having trouble buying in from this picture.  They should have found one where he was looking meaner.  or sadder.

A recap of FACTS I gleaned from this particular press conference:

1) The kid got away
2) The "stay in your home" mandate has been lifted
3) The MBTA is back online effective immediately
4) They are adding 10 stateys to every shift in Watertown, three times a day, through Monday

When asked if the additional manpower suggest they think the suspect is still in Watertown, Alben replied, "No."

When it came time for the Last Question someone shouted "How did he get away" and I shouted at my television "How was that not the first question?"

--------------------------------

Of course, the russian kid was very much still in Watertown, secretly trying to die alone and in peace, inside of a winterized boat he had slithered into.

There will be a million theories.  (He's the bottom rung of a Terrorist Cell!  Muslim Attack!  I personally expected it to be a Fat Guy who hated marathon runners)

It will be hard to avoid the darkness of the past week.  Can we return to normalcy without stopping at revenge and hatred along the way?  I hope so.

but if things were normal I wouldn't be writing this, I'd have been patting myself on the back about my 200th post (this one).

Marathon Thoughts 2: Spun

I'm spun. 

Part of me would like to omit this from the blog altogether. Hole up and not write for a while until it blows over.

Because it's hard to organize these thoughts, when your mind is spinning uncontrollably...

******

I am down on Smart Phones but am inspired at how they helped keep people safe. 

(I'm also listening to a civilian's recording of the audio from last night's gun fight while I compose this. what a world) 

I am down on Surveillance but am intrigued at how a Shoplift (Fear) Cam helped catch these monsters. 

I've admonished The News and the fear-mongering of the contemporary mini news cycle. I don't believe half of what I'm seeing and yet I cannot look away. 

I'm not afraid. I was afraid for a long time after 9/11 but won't be this time. 

I'm not angry. I'm disappointed. 

I was upset they killed the Older Brother. I would have liked to hear his side of the story.

I don't feel a stronger connection to Boston now. This bomb exploded in North Dakota and Kansas just as much as it exploded at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. 

I hope we don't start a Ten Year war with Russia. LOL. 

I'm spun. 

Marathon Thoughts 1: Mission Creep

the tendency for a task, esp a military operation, to become  

 unintentionally wider in scope than its initial objectives

The bombing at the Marathon was horrifying.

There's a Fred Rogers quote that he attributed to his Mother, who told him in times of great disaster to "Look for the helpers"

they were certainly there at the Finish Line.  Look for them when graphic images bombard you.  They will be there.

*****

Scarier to me now is that Wheel of Violence will only continue to spin

(maybe it's never stopped)

somewhere in Massachusetts today a teenage boy ponders a family member who lost a life or limb

and that boy will muster up the courage over the next several years to join the Army

and eventually he'll find himself in a country that has nothing to do with the Boston Marathon

and he will be assigned the task of killing people.  that will be his job.

because of this madness he'll probably be willing to do it.

To me that is scarier than a pressure cooker full of nails. 

Chronicles of Wasted Potential: Bet On Your Baby

Bet On Your Baby was right up my alley. in my mind.

The title implied that Gambling would be a central theme of the show. Check.

I assumed the clientele would be Struggling-Wannabe-Hollywood-Actors-with-Kids,

and I imagined how much Satisfaction I would get from watching these horrible people pimp out their children to the Television

for what: a cash prize, a new car, a union card...

my hopes were high until the show actually started.  mere seconds in and I knew we were doomed.

they kept alluding to a "College Fund" the cash prize was seemingly connected too.  There would be no news reports 5 years from now about parents squandering the prize money the children had earned. Damn.

the host is an obnoxious woman and the first Mother was equally wretched. the baby was adorable but her husband was an immasculated shell of man who quickly hopped into a pink ballerina's tutu, just to get off stage and away from the two horrible women.

the editing was so poor in the Very First Game (a countdown clock, a poorly generated "dramatic" finish) that my old lady and I both vomited and vowed to never watch television again without waiting thirty minutes after dinner.

Excerpts From A Public Discussion Regarding Written Music (or perhaps something deeper)

(Editor's Note: This conversation was not at all hostile, as most public forums tend to be. I admire the man who started this discussion, but not for that reason. Authors here are initialed because the identities are insignificant. I don't know most of these cats. I've pulled my favourites from this discussion and left them chronological, if only to accent how late I joined the party)

Cliffs Notes personal background, aka: why Joey's simple status hit home so hard:

-Dad taught me to play by ear.
-self schooled thereafter in punk rock.
-wrote letters above every note of walking basslines to survive jazz band SENIOR YEAR in high school
-felt childish because of this
-honed reading skills
-took every sight reading bass class Berklee offered (because there was no homework. You just had to sight read)
-still enjoy flipping open the book to a tune I don't know, pulling up the audio online, giving a listen and reading it down, then trying to play it.

JUjr: I hope I never learn how to read music. I mean, given that attitude, I doubt I will. But still.

ESR: there is nothing that you can know that you will be a worse/less creative musician for knowing

JUjr: I have no use for it. You can do it. I choose not to. I tried a bit to. It's just none of my business. Charts are for dorks. Math is dumb

CC: math is for people. so is music. don't put us down

JUjr: It's true. But it's more fun to ignorantly whack away at them. Reading music is like reading spoilers. I don't wanna know how it ends!

JOEYJIVES: If you read tabs you read music if you jot down chords on a napkin then play them later than you read music don't argue against knowledge MAN it's not becoming

CS: It's not for everyone. I think it was Dizzy Gillespie who said he liked to play with mostly "ear players". You need to be able to mark a chart to compose and arrange for a few different instruments tho.

JUjr: I get where you're coming from. And it's worked well for you. And you're one of the cooler ppl I've known and don't really have the 'tude of people who can read. And you joe are an ear player who can read well. It's different for me. Everybody plays different right? Different things work for different people right. Just pull it outta you, if it's there. Z'what I'M sayin.

JUjr: With yo HEART not yo HANDS.

SG: How is this different than reading any other second language nomenclature in a post-Cagean world and if it's not then is this racist?

GH: When I started playing out, there was a stigma against knowing too much theory - you were either "too Berklee" (code for having studied somewhere) or condescended to by slumming fusioneers ("I love punk rock - it's so primitive!"). I used to hear both.

As far as I can tell, there's nothing wrong with either approach, though the idea that theory & such can ruin your playing still seems kind of ridiculous. I saw an interview in the 90's where Bill Frisell was asked about that & he replied - I'm paraphrasing here - "you can also make crappy music without learning to read."

JUjr: And now I'm a racist. This has taken some interesting turns.

JUjr: I also hope that I haven't discouraged anyone from reading music, and realize that it can sound alittle ignorant. Maybe I'll learn one of these days my girlfriend Jess has talked about teaching me in the past. But the idea of lording an inability over someone is something I've always been against. But so is taking pride in ignorance. Maybe we'll all be able to laugh over a cup of tea about it. Or whatever.