May 1 is a big date for many reasons.

For a kid in Catholic elementary school, it began the Month of Mary with all sorts of Marian devotional events like crowning statues with flowers and walking in the annual “pilgrimage” which basically went around the block where the church was while singing “Oh, Mary we crown you with blossoms today”.

As a kid growing up in the 1950s, geopolitically, this was the day the godless communists in Russia had their big military parade.

As a Catholic I knew it was also Beltane, the day pagans, whose babies we were always “ransoming” with little in class collections, promote and celebrate fertility which, I assumed, was a reason for all the babies who needed to be ransomed gor Jesus.

This May First is the first anniversary of when, after dismissing criticism of policies and practices that would not end well and with people in a position to actually do something about it choosing to just let things slide, the C.Carlos Carreiro Immigration Detention Center, Unit B, run at the taxpayers’ expense by Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson blew up.

A months’ long investigation after the event ( AGO Report into BCSO Response to May 1 Disturbance (2020-12-15)that had been invited by the sheriff but later rejected because it was critical and had him demanding to know what right the state’s Attorney General, the head lawyer, top-cop of the state, and his supervisor, concluded that,

”The Bristol County Sheriff Office’s calculated use of force included the use of a variety of less-lethal but dangerous weapons— including a flash bang grenade, pepper-ball launchers, pepper spray canisters, anti-riot shields, and canines—against detainees who had exhibited calm and nonviolent behavior for at least an hour before this operation. The BCSO deployed these weapons both indiscriminately upon entry and also specifically against particular detainees who were not combative, assaultive, or otherwise actively resisting staff. Informing our conclusion that the BCSO’s use of force was excessive.”

“The BCSO violated the civil rights of the detainees …… by using excessive force against the ICE B detainees and by acting with deliberate indifference to a substantial risk of serious injury or harm to the detainees and their health.”

And, because,

“Our investigation revealed that the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office violated the rights of detainees by using excessive force and by seriously risking their health and safety. This callous disregard for the well-being of immigration detainees is unacceptable and must be addressed through the significant reforms we outline in our report,”

Yet, in spite of this and its being clearly a case of a sheriff violating his job and oath of office, and, in the case of his use of unmuzzled dogs and having inmates kneel or lie on the ground while ignoring the medical needs of those affected by the pepper spray, violating the law, no steps have been taken to discipline and/or remove someone who is so clearly in violation of policy, procedure, and law.

After the major altercation at the ICE detention center on the campus of the Bristol County House of Corrections in North Dartmouth, Massachusetts, Sheriff Thomas Hodgson received criticism for not only his handling of the actual incident, but also for the conditions in his facilities that made such an event inevitable.

Some have been calling for accountability for a number of years now, and this incident has prompted others to begin scrutinizing his job performance more closely with some calling for independent investigations with others, after weighing the sheriff’s history, calling for his resignation.

If people in authority are allowed to abuse that authority without question because there is no system for accountability, people are “too busy” to exercise that system, or that person’s actions, regardless how unacceptable, support certain political agendas, the intensity of the abuse increases. Over time, they become so used to their freedom to abuse, the assumption of the abuser is that it will continue to go unquestioned, and it usually does, resulting in the abuser not being prepared to react rationally, ignoring facts and grabbing at any straws that protect the abuser, going so far as to take on the part of a victim being persecuted unfairly, and jumping from one defense to another with them being unconnected or inconsistent.

The abuser often just keeps throwing defenses out as needed and related only to the moment as they come to mind.

When a person, who refers to the majority of people in his jails as “drug addicts” and people in the ICE detention center as “Criminal illegal aliens” to create a monster under the bed with which to frighten the people of Bristol County into accepting that he is more than what he really is, begins a defensive letter to the editor of local newspapers with

 “The motto of the left-wing activist groups, abolish-ICE advocates, Prisoners’ Legal Services and plain anti-Trumpers has always been, and continues to be, ‘Don’t let the facts interfere with your political agenda,’

the reader just knows that what follows is going to be well reasoned and unbiased.

His go to tactic is to claim that people are criticizing his deputy sheriffs when they are actually against many of his practices that are bad for the incarcerated people in his facilities, most yet to be proven guilty in a court of law.

Things like suicides, poor medical treatment, attempts to deny them legitimate family contact, having no programs for re-entry into the community that results in a ridiculously high return rate were concerns before the time of COVID-19 and are what his critics have been addressing, knowing full well that the deputies must follow his directives and orders.

He claimed in his defense after the “riot” that there were surveillance tapes that showed his version was the true version.

They actually did the opposite. His abusive behavior before, during, an after the event is clear from the surveillance videos.

His claim that his actions had guaranteed that no inmates in his facilities had COVID-19,

 “We’ve not had any circumstances with any inmates here indicating [that they had the corona virus].

was based on not having tested his inmates.

How would he have known if no one had the virus if he had not tested all his inmates?

When a court demanded testing be done, staff and inmates were found to have the virus.

When COVID-19 began its evolution to a pandemic and social distancing and quarantining became a way to slow its spread, people expressed concern for those incarcerated in federal and state prisons, county jails, and ICE detention centers. Unlike those on the outside, these people are at a decided disadvantage when it comes to preventative practices, so it was proposed that those whose sentences were just short of being completed, those only sitting in jails waiting for their day in court for an alleged nonviolent crime because they could not make bail, and those who had been convicted of minor nonviolent crimes be released with provisions made, such as house arrest, for those who would have to return.

Bristol County Sheriff, Thomas Hodgson, with more than half of his inmates yet to have their day in court, and according to common law are still considered innocent as they have yet to be found guilty, was dead set against the idea.

When he had no choice but to comply, he released a “Prisoner Release Alert on Facebook and his website that listed what he claimed are criminal charges and convictions against individual immigration detainees, implying these are who is being released when, not only not connecting any names to the alleged crimes as Massachusetts law governs the way criminal records are publicized, but knowing no one can verify his claims.

It was only a generic list of crimes which might have no relation to the people in ICE Detention, but it sure was a scary list.

Either he is purposely lying to the people of Bristol County to create the fear of “Others”, or he is deliberately releasing people not included in the court Basically erectile dysfunction is something wherein a man viagra pills price fails to give his performance on the bed to his partner, it is said to be an erectile dysfunction. The partner not only remains sexually dissatisfied, but at the same sildenafil buy online time, you need to take care of your body. Another cialis india online reason for the increasing popularity of Kamagra jelly 100mg drug is PDE5 blocker drug. Rush and bring home Maha Rasayan capsules and King Cobra oil are the renowned and efficient herbal cures to prescription viagra without combat the bad sexual performance in men. decision or the advocacy of social justice groups and the inmates’ attorneys as a way to thumb his nose at them.

In the days after the “riot” at his ICE detention facility, the sheriff explained away those demanding an independent investigation of what led up to the incident and how it was handled because the detainees were,

“the same people who have been calling their attorneys and advocate groups, saying that they need to be released because they’re going to get contaminated because it’s too dangerous in here.”

And, he asks,

“Why do you guys keep listening to inmates who lie to you and then take it as gospel?”

It might not have been “Gospel”, but the investigation of the event showed that what they had been saying was true.

As a court ruling found,

Previous to this, a Judge had found, that in spite of assurances and some changes made,

     “Nonetheless there remains critical safety gaps that establish a likelihood of irreparable harm in the absence of preliminary equitable relief.  Testing of both Staff and detainees has been minimal, so the real infection rate is a mystery.”

      “A related problem is the “insufficient and ad hoc contact tracing of detainees and BCHOC staff who may have interacted with COVID-19 positive individuals.”
       “Of particular concern is the contradictory evidence in the record regarding monitoring of those Detainees who are especially vulnerable to COVID-19.”
      “Had the Court stayed its hand little or no progress would have been made at BCHOC towards accurately determining the virus presence among the Detainees and Staff and towards effectively separating potential carriers from others…”

      “Keeping individuals confined closely together in the presence of a potentially lethal virus, while neither knowing who is carrying it nor taking effective measures to find out, likely displays deliberate indifference to a substantial risk of serious harm. That is what the evidence shows here.”

The sheriff’s response to this was to allow conditions to continue as they were, resulting in the May 1, 2020 disturbance.

After months of the demands made by detainees and community advocacy groups to institute testing and employ stricter protocols than the faulty and incomplete, obsolete ones he was using, he defended himself by claiming that those involved in the altercation had been opposed to being tested. The suddenness of the timing, speed, and the need for detainees to pack their things for possible removal immediately while not employing any translators on a regular basis meant all commands to the detainees were in English so many could not understand them.

After an hour of calm that began after the initial commands to gather their things for testing was met with verbal objections and demands for explanation, while some detainees had no idea what was going on and why it had to be so sudden and swift, the sheriff returned with deputies in riot gear and dogs, some of whom were not muzzled, a violation of state law when it comes to the use of police dogs.

Rather than looking at the abusive treatment of detainees by the sheriff and looking for excuses to let it slide because, well, “That’s our Tom”, those in positions to do so, and that includes the federal, state, and local government in the person of the Attorney General, and his employers, the county taxpayers, should look at the totality of the long outdated racism, xenophobia, macho posturing, and the use of petty little punishments that are the hallmarks of the Bristol County Sheriff have no place in Massachusetts.

It is one thing to spend taxpayer money investigating what is essentially a rogue, politically motivated public employee and arriving at conclusions that call for addressing problems, but not doing anything about it is another thing that makes the expenditure wasted money.

Inaction required by the conclusions is a dereliction of duty.

As it stands now with a sheriff who has been able to abuse people in the name of the law, as he sees it, behind the jailhouse walls by the,

“calculated use of force included the use of a variety of less-lethal but dangerous weapons— including a flash bang grenade, pepper-ball launchers, pepper spray canisters, anti-riot shields, and canines—against detainees who had exhibited calm and nonviolent behavior for at least an hour before this operation,” deploying weapons indiscriminately upon entry and also specifically against particular detainees who were not combative, assaultive, or otherwise actively resisting staff”,  using excessive force, violating the civil rights of detainees, and “acting with deliberate indifference to a substantial risk of serious injury or harm to the detainees and their health”,

the people of Bristol County, without giving permission or even aware of the situation have become the sheriff’s Ghislaine Maxwell who recruited underage girls for Jeffrey Epstein to abuse, although she chose to do this where the citizens of the county have not.

It is extremely convenient that the person who so easily abused those in his care is provided victims on an ongoing basis.

It has been a year since the “riot” at the Bristol County House of Correction Fifty Shades of Grey Pleasure Dungeon, and the sheriff is still running around the country pushing his white supremacist ideas whenever he can and serving on the board of an organization whose goal is to keep the country white.

He might have had cover when he praised the previous president and begged to be a chairperson of his Massachusetts reelection campaign, only to be thrown the crumb of being the “Honorary Chair”, but times have change.

People are taking note of racism and abuse in law enforcement and are demanding human changes.

They notice when a Law and Order Sheriff who demands every one follow the law chooses to ignore those legal actions he does not agree with and makes his refusal public and political.

Clearly, he needs to be suspended pending the results of a complete investigation of his policies, practices, and rather questionable financial dealings, or removed as it is clear that he violated the law by, for example, using unmuzzled dogs on detainees.

Many people in his facilities are there for violating lesser laws.

And the people of Bristol County Massachusetts, when they see how they are being used, will refuse to keep being his procurers.

Those who are in a position to do so must do something with what was found in ONE investigation on a specific issue.

To do nothing sends the message that laws only apply to the common people and not politicians, and is a dereliction of duty.

Governments are supposed to protect the people, not act as the nobility with no controls or accountability.

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