let me get this straight...

we've all read by now the lowell sun's latest article summarizing this past year's downtown violence and the growing consensus that the license commission is failing to do their part, along with the defensive statements by the license commissioners excusing themselves from all culpability, citing, among other things, a limited number of concerned residents (four? really? you only count four downtown residents with concerns about this???) and that they're really doing everything they can since they cited on bar for an underage patron once.

here's are the two beauties from where i'm standing: "weicker [license commissioner raymond weicker] said all complaints about downtown come from the same four residents". and "the license commission cannot be out on the street at 2 in the morning akashian [license commissioner brian akashian] said".

really???

so lemme get this straight. the license commission says it holds its meetings at three in the afternoon because this allows for bar managers to be in their bars during the important hours. doesn't this also, or am i missing something, make it just as easy for the license commissioners to do the same thing in pursuit of the duty to which they have been sworn? or is the inconvenience of altering their schedule and ZERO commissioners showing up somehow different than the inconvenience of altering their schedule and at least four downtown residents showing up at their license commission meetings???

and, pardon me for pointing it out, but more than four residents go to their meetings and voice their concerns, despite commissioners then claiming that the meeting times can't possibly be an inconvenience since they are there, and more than four residents regularly attend the meetings hosted by the superintendent bringing together downtown residents, business owners and police to discuss the situation, (with nary a license commissioner in sight, i might further mention), and more than four residents regularly attend downtown neighborhood association meetings where police and city council members and others find it possible to appear, and more than four residents are out on the neighborhood streets at 2am on a weekend wee-hour morning to see what is really going on.

so who you gonna believe?

the cops who are out there getting spit on and resisted from doing their extremely dangerous and far-too-little-thanked job? the residents who are out there both at 2am observing the causes, and at 8am the next morning stepping over and around and through the effects? the busines owners, who are paying the cost of vandalism repair and the heartache of learning that their doorsteps are becoming the scenes of far too many crimes? (all of whom who are on record in the sun as in agreement that the license commission is at the very least late to this party). or the license commissioners who feel that the full extent of their responsibility is to meet every couple of weeks at 3 in the afternoon, and take bar owners at their word that all is well, and do damn straight nothing constructive at all?

but one last raspberry to the well-intended but self-revealed to be ignorant city councilor rita mercier, who says in one breath that she has, in words paraphrased by the sun, "spoken with downtown residents about the problems", but in the next saying "we need to have another type of downtown summit whereby we can meet bar owners and residents and have a healthy discussion..."

um, rita, i think it's been happening every couple of months at the invitation of your own superintedent of police, and you'd be more than welcome to join if you for a moment stop talking about yourself talking to people, and actually come out and talk to a few closer to what's happening, and what is being done about it.

but, let's not lose sight of the problem:

we have license commissioners overseeing bars without any feeling of responsibility to actually familiarize themselves with what is going on there.

that's gotta change.

ray, brian, and walter, come on out. i'll buy the beer. you just see what it is that you don't know about your job.

please????