Request to Produce Vecchi's Disciplinary Records Results in a Veiled Threat - Intended to Suppress a Citizens Free Exercise of his Civil Rights
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The federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and state Public Records laws
were intended to promote openness, transparency and accountability in government, and
to help keep citizens informed about the activities of their government. It is the civil right
of the citizenry of the United States to freely exercise those laws in order to keep their
government honest.
On Friday, June 3, 2016 Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker signed a
bipartisan "Public Records" bill, heralded as "the first major overhaul of the state's public
records law in more than 40 years." Carol Rose, Executive Director of the American Civil
Liberties Union of Massachusetts, said the new law will help foster trust in government
(by Colin A. Young of the [Massachusetts] State House News Service on June 3, 2016).
It should rightfully be assumed that when individuals run for public office they
willingly forfeit some of their expectation of privacy, particularly as they become public
figures who are subject to the scrutiny of the voters. Likewise, any public official or
employee should expect to be held to a high standard of conduct in the performance of
their duties, and subject to close examination in the execution thereof.
For a public employee to run for elective office and not expect to be vetted
relative to their suitability to hold such office shows a basic misunderstanding of how a
healthy and honest government is supposed to work. A public employee who would use
their official authority to suppress the exercise of a citizen's civil rights in vetting them as
a suitable candidate to hold public office is, by definition, unsuitable to hold such office.
On Friday, May 5, 2016 a formal, written Public Records request was served upon
the Plymouth Police Department pursuant to Massachusetts General Laws chapter 66,
section 10, via the U.S. Postal Service, certified mail (see "G"). That request
sought certain personnel and disciplinary records concerning Plymouth Police Sergeant
Scott Vecchi, who was seeking the office of Plymouth County Sheriff. Apparently, Sgt.
Vecchi was advised of the public records request and took it upon himself to mail the
requesting party a signed card sarcastically thanking him for his "contribution" to
Vecchi's campaign. The so-called "Thank You" card was postmarked on Monday, May 9,
2016 and mailed to the requesting party at the address from which the public records
request was mailed (see "H").
Clearly, Vecchi was sending the requesting party a veiled threat: i.e. "I know who
you are, where you are, and what you are up to." Vecchi obviously knew the requesting
party had not contributed any money to his campaign, and intended that his authority as a
law enforcement officer would have a stifling effect on future efforts to investigate his
background. In fact, what Vecchi did was an attempt to discourage that citizen's exercise
of his civil rights to use all available legal tools to better evaluate his suitability to hold
public office.
Had Vecchi mistakenly believed he had actually received a campaign contribution
from the requesting party, one would expect that he would have followed the law (MGL
c. 55, s. 2(1) & (2), et seq), and filed a timely report listing that contribution with the
state's Office of Campaign and Political Finance. That did not happen, however, as
further evidence that Vecchi's conduct was in fact, actually intended as a veiled threat.
Such petty and suppressive conduct proves Vecchi to be unfit to hold public office,
particularly one requiring discretion, restraint and respect for the civil rights of others.
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Allegations of Excessive Use of Force, Rudeness, Threatening, Yelling at Citizens and Other Abusive Conduct »
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