There was what could be called a riot at the ICE detention center at the Bristol County House of Correction. The sheriff, Thomas Hodgson, usually speaks of his detainees and the general immigrant population with loaded words, often misrepresenting them as “criminal Illegal Aliens” which implies a degree of dangerousness when in reality most have only committed the civil crime of being in the country without the proper papers. Had Sheriff Hodgson simply held a press conference where he described his version of what transpired and then took questions even though there might have been a certain amount of distrust of his answers, he decided to go on a political screed that put another spin on his telling of the tale.
People have been calling for releasing those detainees with no criminal record to help control the spread of COVID-19, and the sheriff has consistently opposed this saying that these people would then be free to roam the streets committing crimes and terrorizing the county. Again, the people who would be released would be those with no record of having done that to get arrested.
When a court decision had some detainees released, both in ICE detention and the general population, the sheriff released a list of crimes that he alleges they had committed, and that list was of the most serious crimes a person could commit, short of murder. However, by state law, names could not be connected to the list of crimes, and without the ability to verify those released had committed those crimes, the question is if these were crimes actually committed by those released, or just a list of crimes to instill fear and distrust in the people of the county, or simply to support his promoted image that he is all that stands between safety and terror.
The sheriff’s main thrust of his version of events was that after some detainees had been demanding they be tested for the corona virus, when ten of them were told that they were going to be brought to the clinic for testing, their objection became violent after demanding they be tested where they were, and their violent actions called for him, his corrections officers, and K-9 teams to enter the ICE detention area. to quell the riot which caused thousands of dollars in damage.
The next day he allowed the media to view the damage done after he held a press conference about the matter.
Although the general public may have accepted his word without question, there are those in the community who have been watching him more closely than most and were not disappointed if they thought the sheriff would be less than forthcoming.
The sheriff is known for his overuse of solitary confinement as a first resort not a last, poor treatment of inmates, and the number of suicides attempted and completed.
In contrast to the sheriff’s explanation according to a lawyer who had been on the phone with a client at the time leading up to the “riot” and was able to speak to a client after, the sheriff arrived and informed about ten of the detainees that they needed to pack their things because they were going to be moved to another building to be tested for the corona virus. Since they were just going to get a test they demanded the test be given where they were, fearing that they were going to be moved to Solitary immediately after the test and be exposed to people in from the street and from other units who might have the virus. After having complained about symptoms for weeks, some of those to be suddenly moved questioned why they were to be suddenly removed from the unit to be tested when these were not new symptoms.
While one detainee was talking to the lawyer on the phone, the sheriff ripped the phone out of his hand and things escalated from there.
During the press conference, rather than just present either just his own version or perhaps both in an attempt to support his while discounting the other, the sheriff took the opportunity to, again, misrepresent those in detention and introduced politics.
It should be mentioned that the sheriff is the state co-chair for Trump’s reelection campaign in the state, and he has had a very public record of taking actions that would bring him to the president’s attention from volunteering his county jail inmates to help build The Wall, always being the one to hand Trump some award from his sheriffs’ association, and his recently discovered emails to Stephen Miller in which he pledged his undercover unit would report any pro-immigrant activity taking place in the county.
So his using this event as a chance to further solidify his image with Trump and the state and national Republican Party and misrepresent anyone who opposes him came as no surprise.
Although ICE said it would conduct an investigation of the event, no bias there, Representative Joe Kennedy who represents Bristol County, called for an independent investigation. The sheriff said he welcomed such an investigation but only if Representative Kennedy was in no way involved.
Would he support an independent investigation?
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The man who said that he is open to an independent investigation provided it isn’t part of a political agenda revealed he had a political agenda in that regard.
If the investigation of him is independent, why would the sheriff have any say in who is doing the investigation? Obviously he wants to have some control over it.
That would not be independent.
And then going for the heart strings and presenting himself as more interested in the people of the county than anyone else, ignoring that people can fact check what he says on their computers and in quarantine have plenty of time to do it, and not missing the opportunity to use veterans as a political pawn, he veered to making false claims about the Democratic state delegation in Washington and their ignoring of the elderly and veterans in senior housing.
He claimed that while they express concern for his ICE detainees they do not care about our veterans who are dying from COVID-19 in Veteran Homes.
However, In early April, members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation expressed their concern about the spread of the corona virus at veterans’ homes with Senators Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren and Representatives Richard Neal and Ayanna Pressley sending a letter to Ryan Lilly, network director at the VA New England Healthcare System, expressing concerns about COVID-19 and asking that more resources be obtained and deployed to mitigate the spread of the virus in veteran’s homes.
They not only addressed Homes where there had already been a problem, but the possibility of problems in Homes yet to have them.
They were concerned that staff lacked needed personal protective equipment, were being directed to continue working even after exposure to corona virus, and were not effectively isolating potentially infected veterans.
Things changed.
As far as the problems in nursing homes, Governor Charlie Baker, a Republican, is giving that his attention and his virus response team is addressing it as the local problem it is, unlike veterans’ homes which are under the VA, a national entity.
The sheriff pivoted at one point to complain that any criticism of him is purely political. He is the victim of human rights activists and the lawyers who represent the inmates.
He is the beleaguered victim in spite of the court cases he has lost over the years that showed that things of which he has been accused, like mistreatment and abuse, were true.
There is a surveillance camera in the unit where the “riot” took place, and according to the sheriff captured it on video. Right now the video is being reviewed, one has to expect by the sheriff and ICE, and will be released after the ICE investigation.
The sheriff said that criminal charges are likely to follow with arraignments done by video. If so the complete recording would have to be available to the court, not just the parts the sheriff wants to be seen, but all of it.
What will be telling is what parts of the video have been lost and what parts damaged. During the media walk through a sheriff Department spokesperson pointed out the camera at which a cup of coffee was thrown, but as the recording device would certainly be housed elsewhere, will we be expected to accept that had that coffee not been thrown we would have a complete tape to see?