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 offens
Tisbury Police Ask Voters for Staff Help
Union Wants Two Additional Officers;Issue Will Appear as April
Article on Town Meeting Warrant
By JOSHUA SABATINI
An unprecedented move by the Tisbury police union will put the
debate over staffing of the town police force before the voters at town
meeting time in April.
Tisbury Police Department Size Debated
By JOSHUA SABATINI
At a Tisbury police labor management meeting Tuesday afternoon,
patrolmen said their own safety and that of the public is jeopardized by
having a department of only 11 men.
The union wants an increase in manpower. But selectmen have been
considering cutting back the department since more than a month ago,
when police chief John McCarthy asked the board's permission to
hire a patrolman to replace one who recently retired. Selectman Tristan
Israel questioned the need, and the debate was on.
"The Tisbury Police Department environment is dysfunctional,
at best, with continual tension between police officers and
management," declares a new report made public at the Feb. 27
meeting of the Tisbury board of selectmen. The 22-page report is the
product of a four-month study commissioned by selectmen and undertaken
by seasonal Island resident Robert Wasserman of the consulting firm
PSComm LLC.
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.
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.
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."
