By Ross E. Blouin
Publisher of The Somerville Times

I CAN’T STAND IT ANYMORE! The recent editorial in the Somerville Journal, July 30, 2015 (“De-escalate Police Aggression”) has driven me over the edge. The facts in the editorial are sketchy. Seems a 16-year-old bike rider, Osvaldo Lima, was pulled over by the Somerville Police for riding down a one-way street the wrong way. Lima did not offer proper identity. The bike rider was rude and uncooperative with the officer. A skirmish broke out as the officers tried to make an arrest and the officers tried to use pepper spray. The bike rider broke free from the police and ran away. Those are the facts according to the Somerville Journal editorial.

The Somerville Journal editorial goes on to say, “Lima (the bike rider) was hardly a menace to society. Somerville PD’s response was far more menacing. It implies no violation is too small for police to use as an excuse for demanding obedience and enforcing the maximum punishment for failing to obey. That doesn’t serve the city of Somerville and it doesn’t protect residents either.”

What a complete load of rubbish! Especially coming from someone who was not there! How did the Somerville Journal know that Mr. Lima wasn’t a menace? How many policemen have we seen seriously injured or murdered in cases like this? The number of assumptions made in the editorial was irresponsible. I took the time to read the complete police report and, clearly, this is another case of assault on a police officer and resisting arrest. We, at The Somerville Times think our police department is very well run, professional, well trained and very courteous to everyone. The Somerville Journal editorial was completely irrational, sensational and in lock step with the recent wave of anti-police rhetoric that only an anarchist would love. Newsflash for Mr. Dan Atkinson, Editor of the Somerville Journal; your editorial is complete crap, sir, and belongs with the other propaganda blogs on the numerous fallacious web sites currently infesting the internet and desperately trying to pass as news.

The editorial says, “Lima reportedly also yelled and cursed at (police officer) Hickey, but (according to the Somerville Journal) that is not currently a punishable offense in Massachusetts.”

It is very interesting that the Somerville Journal condones the verbal abuse of a police officer, by a perpetrator, while resisting arrest.

The editorial goes on to demand, “Police Chief David Fallon needs to change how his officers view the citizens they are sworn to protect. Cracking down on … scofflaw cyclists puts SPD (Somerville Police Dept.) in their bad company. That’s bad PR for them. It’s bad news for us.”

I wonder if the fact that the Somerville Police are making cyclists obey the traffic laws is really what is infuriating the folks over at the Journal? I wonder who the Somerville Journal thinks they are by printing such irrational garbage and then demanding the Somerville Police Department adhere to their new “bicyclist vision” of Somerville, thereby making bicyclists a special group of untouchables who are free to verbally abuse and assault the police?

The Somerville Journal used to be a highly respected newspaper run by an obstinate New Englander named William Dole. The Journal has since gone through several owners. According to a recent marketing study by Tufts University, the Somerville Journal is no longer the leading newspaper in Somerville, nor is it even close in circulation to The Somerville Times, which I am proud to say, is the number one newspaper, according to the findings of the Tufts marketing study and current circulation figures. It is apparent that The Somerville Journal has abandoned sound journalism for the current fad of slanting the news for political purposes. Such blatant propaganda has no place in an editorial section of any responsible news publication.

That whirring sound you hear is not the press running at the Somerville Journal … it is, rather, the sound of old Bill Dole spinning in his grave.