Two men are facing criminal charges after an incident at a largely peaceful demonstration at Five Corners Monday afternoon that included verbal and physical altercations.
Although it is still without furniture and there are files on the floors, the new $1.4 million Tisbury Police and Ambulance Facility was open for business this week. Still located on Water street and 10 times the size of its 700 square foot predecessor, it shadows the four parking spaces where the old station was once situated.
"I am extremely pleased now that we have something decent to work in," said Tisbury police chief John McCarthy. "We have a building that will serve the community for a minimum of 20 to 30 years. It's great."
The Tisbury police and ambulance facility is nearing completion. According to police chief John J. McCarthy, the department will move into the $1.4 million building within three weeks. "I do see the light," he said. "And that's the first time I've ever said that."
The chief and Allen M. Lieb Architects of Marblehead currently are tracking all expenses to date, giving them an idea how much money they have left for furnishings.
The Martha's Vineyard NAACP this week called for the immediate dismissal of John Dillon, a Tisbury police patrolman who has been charged with racism by a fellow officer.
In a three-page letter to the Gazette, the NAACP lists a series of alleged offenses by Mr. Dillon, highlighted by an incident in which the officer parodied stereotypical African-American speech when rewriting a computer document authored by Theophilus M. Silvia 3rd, the town's only year-round African-American patrolman.
Tisbury police officer John Dillon -- who has been under fire from the NAACP for allegedly racist acts against the town's only African-American patrolman -- is on indefinite paid administrative leave this week.
Charges of racism erupted this week at the Tisbury police department, with the town's only African-American year-round officer saying he has been the subject of harassment, jokes and even an offensive caricature displayed in the station.
The allegations of Theophilus M. (T.M.) Silvia III, filed over a period of 12 months with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, were made public this week by the Vineyard chapter of the NAACP, where officials were dissatisfied with the town's response to the issue.
Attorneys on both sides of a bitter, four-year dispute which centers on painful charges of racism against the town of Tisbury and its police department announced yesterday that a settlement has been reached in the case.
Attorneys for Theopholis M. (T.M.) Silvia 3rd and the town of Tisbury said yesterday that the terms of the settlement are extremely complicated and will not be disclosed until the agreement is approved by both the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD) and a Superior Court judge.
Two young girls from New Jersey got their first exposure to overt racism this week when they returned from a morning walk into downtown Vineyard Haven and found a racial slur spray-painted in letters two feet tall in the street by the house their family was renting at Clough Lane and Pine street.
Tisbury police are investigating the vandalism that happened Wednesday — possibly in broad daylight — and police chief John McCarthy is looking into whether the incident should be considered a hate crime.
