What Will It Take?


By DIA, Section News
Posted on Tue Aug 05, 2008 at 03:54:04 AM EST

This blog was pretty much born out of Paul Clyne's depiction of people asking for fair elections as "rabble rousers". That seemed very wrong to me. I was already pissed off about how Bush/Cheney were treating this country and that seemed un-American to me. And then we found out the police chief lied to cover up an illegal investigation. Are you kidding me?! And Jerry Jennings did nothing. Not a word on the subject. It couldn't get worse than that, I thought. What a naive person I was.

Since then we've gotten a new police chief. He has lied to cover up several issues in the APD. Not a word from the mayor. Since then we've had the assistant manager of DGS directly involved in stealing tax dollars from the citizens. He has been promoted to run DGS. We've had news that thirty or so members of the APD used the police department as a front to buy illegal machine guns, evade taxes and in some cases then resell those guns (big time crime). We've heard that the US attorney didn't want to prosecute this because it would be politically unpleasant. Cops have shown up to work drunk, blown over the limit, and nothing has happened. A cop has shown up to work high. Nothing has happened. Chief Tuffey does nothing. A cop pulled a gun on a secretary at the local station. A loaded gun. Business as usual. Chief Tuffey and Mayor Jennings do NOTHING about it. Everyone is still on the payroll. Another cop was buying steroids on line. Another was involved in large scale mortgage fraud. Nothing happens. The head of the police union says the President of the common council should resign because she expressed concern that the union was endorsing a man for elected office who had obvious issues relating to women. He has since been charged with stalking. He also is known to be evading his taxes by lying about exemptions. Recently all of this insanity has led to calls for resignation...not of the police chief but BY the police chief. He thinks other people should resign because they have questioned his ability to investigate himself. After all this he comes right out and says everyone else should stop asking questions. To the average law abiding honest person, this is sickening. But that wasn't enough. Chief Tuffey and Mayor Jennings want to make it very very clear that they are above the law. Somewhere Dick Cheney is clapping in appreciation.
Once again, the Albany Police Department and Chief James Tuffey are stonewalling a request for information, this time from a Menands family trying to make sense of their son's untimely death in an accident involving a driver who was fleeing police.

So, one more time, Albany Police Department: Public information belongs to the public. Not to you.

It's not yours to decide if you feel like releasing it or not.

When a citizen follows the rules and goes through the process of filing a Freedom of Information request, you must comply if the information is public.

You don't get to invent privacy issues and decide you're going to withhold certain things, like the names of police officers or witnesses.

You can't claim the information is exempt from disclosure because it's the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation if in fact there is no investigation going on.

You're can't blanketly deny information under the cover of an internal affairs investigation.

You can't decide, just because the information might be embarrassing, or uncomfortable, or give people grounds to sue you, that you're justified in withholding it and breaking the law.
The mayor and the police chief repeatedly break the law in Albany. And cover up for others who work for them who do the same. The district attorney has done nothing. I don't see how any rational person can say that we have a functioning system of law and order in Albany. There is a group of people who can do whatever they want. Every time you think that they have gone too far, they top themselves. And nothing happens to them.

Meanwhile this group has bankrupted our city during economic boom times. Taken our money and squandered it.

We need to establish the rule of law in Albany. As the parents of this boy have said, this is an issue of right and wrong.

Very simple. Right and wrong. There is no need to further discuss any of Jennings' or Tuffey's actions. They are so firmly on the side of wrong that it is pointless. If that works for you, fine. For the rest of us, we have a job to do. What will it take for us to accept that responsibility and do what is right?

< Jennings vs Soares | Desperation in Albany >

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What Will It Take? | 3 comments (3 topical, 0 hidden)
Elliott Ness? (none / 0) (#1)
by makome on Tue Aug 05, 2008 at 11:52:49 AM EST
Where is he when you need him?  The only way this administration is going down is to be voted out of office.  That being said, who will be the replacements?  Same old, same old, or is there new blood on the horizon to give us any hope at all?  Colosaro?  Any other squeaky clean council members?  Ellis?  Unless there is some massive sea change in what is going on here in Albany that "wakes" up the residents, then we could be stuck with this disaster or variations of it for years to come.  Taxes through the roof, some outside investigation that topples the powers that be?  I wouldn't count on either as Jerry will hold back taxes as long as he can get away with it and no one seems to want to upset the apple cart to prosecute in this town, so we get what we vote for, lousy leaders doing lousy things with our money.  In the end the taxpayers of Albany will be holding the bag asking "what happened" when the answer has been screaming at us for more than a decade now.  

We are all elliot ness (none / 0) (#2)
by Tom Paine on Tue Aug 05, 2008 at 01:05:10 PM EST
If you are waiting for someone else to rescue us, good luck with that - we've already lost. Remember Jennings rode in on the white horse of reform too.

It is up to all of us together to be elliot ness and clean up our own city. There's no time like the present to get started.

[ Parent ]

No One Is Squeaky Clean (none / 0) (#3)
by A Muse on Fri Aug 08, 2008 at 09:07:26 AM EST
You do not need a person who is squeaky clean.  You need a person who is honest with the residents, hires and is able to supervise people smarter than him/her, is willing to ask the residents for help and take it, is willing and able to fire at will those who are a drag on the City, and who sets expectations and rewards for employees.  This City is a corporation and should be run as such.  The Mayor hires people like himself without the tan.  The residents are the stockholders and as such have the ability to replace the CEO.  The taxpayers' better get off their rear ends now.   In the end Jennings will be remembered only the man who had the most orange tan of anyone in the State.  
What Will It Take? | 3 comments (3 topical, 0 hidden)
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