January 3, 2025 • 44 mins
Florida has a new law that just went into effect called the “HALO” law, “Honoring and Listening to Our Officers.” The law creates a 25-foot buffer zone around first responders. If a first responder asks you to back off during the course of their duties and you fail to do so, you could face a second-degree misdemeanor charge punishable by up to 60 days in jail or a $500 fine. Are you in favor or opposed to this law? Do you think a similar law should be enacted in Massachusetts?
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's night Side with Dan Ray. I'm going easy Boston
New Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
For those of you who missed the last hour, we'll
get back to that subject, I'm sure next week. And
I wished that I had heard from some of our
New York listeners. I think they're probably in a state
of shock. But I have another story that I'd like
to talk about, and that is a law which has
just gone into effect in the state of Florida, and
(00:30):
I think it's a pretty darn good law and I'd
love to hear what you think about it. This story
was actually found today and recommended to me by Marita,
the producer of Nightside. And the law that we're talking
about in Florida that has past, which is pretty innovative,
by the way, and I also think makes a lot
(00:52):
of sense. It's Florida's new Halo law, which creates a
buffer zone around first responders. Okay, what does it mean? So,
first of all, let's de find first responders. First responders
are police, fire EMTs, amongst others. Okay, the Halo law,
(01:14):
which went into effect on January first, Wednesday in Florida.
Halo is an acronym which stands for honoring and listening
to our officers honoring h and listening l to our
(01:34):
officers HALO. Under the law, if a first responder of
any type asks someone to stand back, and this could
be again firefighters, law enforcement, medical personnel, you must move
twenty five feet away. Now, twenty five feet is not
a huge difference. It's a very reasonable distance which would
(01:58):
allow fire fighters, police officers, or EMTs to deal with
what the whatever problem they're dealing with. Now. If you
do not, and you continue to interfere or harass these
first responders, you could face what they call a second
(02:19):
degree misdemeanor charge in Florida, which would potentially put you
in jail for sixty days or a five hundred dollars fine.
So it's it's a I think it's a very reasonable
effort to stop people from interfering with police officers, firefighters,
or EMTs. According to this article it's out of the
(02:42):
Tallahassee Democrat, which is a newspaper of the state capitol
in Florida. Support US say the twenty five foot buffer
zone increases safety, removes distractions, and protects first responders from threats, harassment,
and physical interference during stressful situations. Critics of course, they'll
always be critic say the law will be used to
prevent anyone from taking videos of law enforcement officers breaking
(03:05):
the law or brutalizing people. Now, let's assume that you
watching a police officer arrest someone. You can't take a
videotape twenty five feet away. I mean, how incompetent are you.
(03:25):
What this essentially is saying is that as the police
officer is effectuating an arrest, you don't have the right
to interfere with what he or she is doing. You
don't have the right to impede what he or she
is doing. You don't have the right to stick a
camera you're well, a camera or your smartphone in the
(03:46):
face of the officer while he or she is attempting
to do their job. Twenty five feet How long is
twenty five feet? Not very long when you think about it,
it's simply eight and a third yards. I mean it's
it's not a huge difference. They also have to be
(04:08):
five hundred feet away twenty five feet. Now. Of course,
the aclused Florida chapter predictably said the bill was quote
all about preventing bystanders from being able to observe with
their own eyes an officers excessive use of force and
(04:28):
record those images with their cell phone or other device
for the public to see. So I guess the ACLU
says that people from a distance of twenty five feet
cannot see something, or from a distance of twenty five
feet can't record something if they want to record it. Obviously,
police officers can be recorded. Police officer can't tell you
(04:52):
don't record them because they're in a public place. But
this is I think genuinely a piece of legislation that
every state should consider. It will diffuse some of these situations.
First of all, when a police officer is trying to
do what they have to do, which has questioned someone
(05:13):
and maybe in some cases arrest them and maybe arrest
the people with a use of force. If the person
who is not compliant, the police officer doesn't need someone
standing two feet away from them distracted. What are you doing?
They live them alone? Lord, he's not bothering anybody. Oh
simple as that. You know, we have lost in this
(05:34):
country all respect for all police officers because of the
excesses of a few. Now it's called in Florida, it's
SBE four makes it illegal. After you've been verbally worn
to approach a first responder or remain within twenty five
feet while the responder is performing a legal duty, which
(05:56):
to me is pretty simple. You can't block or interfere
with their ability to perform the duty, you can't threaten
the first responders with physical harm, and you can't harass
the first responders. Makes all the sense in the world.
Harassment in the laws to find as an action directed
and a first respondent that quote intentionally causes substantial emotional
(06:18):
distress in that first responder and serves no legitimate purpose.
Emotional distress, legitimate purpose and which parties may decide if
they apply were left undefined. However, now, as you would expect,
Representative Angela Nixon she's a Democrat from Jacksonville, introduced an
amendment to clarify that harass did not include asking a
(06:40):
first responder questions out of concern for the health, safety,
well being of the person that is being responded to.
So let's assume someone is on the street and the
EMT is attempting to perform CPR. I don't know, maybe
give them mouth to mouth, maybe chest compressions. So what
(07:04):
this knucklehead Democratic legislator wants to do is you could
go up.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
To the first Excuse me, excuse me. I notice you're
attempting to do mouth to mouth resuscitation. Is it really necessary?
Is this person really dying? What's going on here? Could
you explain? I'm just an interested bystander.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Moron, moron. The Another state representative from another Democratic representative,
Levaughn Bracy Davis, a Democrat, said would have to find
peaceful audio or video recording for photographing or eyewitness observing
of a first responder as a legitimate purpose. That failed
(07:44):
to pass. Also, the state rep. Who who Angela Nixon?
She's now my new favorite state rep in Florida, uh
said she. She proposed amendment to change the name of
the bill to the I don't want the world to
see the police kill an unarmed, innocent man like George
(08:05):
Floyd again, so I want to protect bad cops and
violate free speech. That did not pass. Surprisingly anyway, I
think this makes all the sense in the world. By
the way, the people who recorded Derek Chauvin murdering George
Floyd did so at distance of about twenty five feet.
(08:28):
They were not prevented from recording the arrogant actions of
that Minneapolis police officer keeping his knee on the neck
of George Floyd for uppers of ten or eleven minutes
and as the jury found him guilty of murder. So
my question to you is whether you're a police officer
or not, let's have a conversation. Do you think Massachusetts Now,
(08:50):
I do think Massachusets would pass such a law because
I think we're too progressive. But I would love to
know do you think that's a reasonable off. Twenty five feet?
I gotta tell you, twenty five feet is about halfway
between a Little League pitchers mound. A Little League pictures
(09:11):
mount I think is fifty two feet. So if you
can think of going to a Little League baseball game
and think about you could stand halfway between home plate
and the pitchers mound, and that's all the law would require.
Twenty five feet six one seven, four ten thirty six
one seven nine three one ten thirty. If you're a
(09:32):
law enforcement firefighters, firefighters respond to scenes where people throw
things at them. Believe it or not, that's happened a lot.
The EMTs respond to situations where people try to interfere
with them. Police officers all the time are getting harassed
when they're trying to do. Look, if police officers are
making a bad arrest, there are civil actions people can
(09:52):
take against police officers.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
And by the way, I don't know that any police
officer in his right mind, unless he wants to end
up in jail for the rest of us, like like
Jarff Chauvin or the Minneapolis police officer has found himself,
any officer in his right mind is not going to
do the sort of things that some police officers have done.
(10:17):
And I say you need more police training. I think
you need to probably do more psychological work with the
police department applicants to make sure that you're getting police
officers who are going to treat all of us, whether
it's you or me, respectfully when we're pulled over at night. Now, again,
we also have a responsibility to drive with the police
(10:39):
officer in a rational way. Where the police officer said,
would you police roll down your window, they can kind
of roll down your window. I always advise friends of mine,
both hands on the steering wheel, if you can put
the dome light on so the police officer can see you,
that's the way make it easier on the police officer.
(11:01):
Here are the number six months, seven two five, four,
ten thirty, six months, seven nine, three, one, ten thirty.
The Florida halo law makes sense to me? Does it
make sense to you? And if you're somebody who really
disagrees with it, tell me why, tell me why this is?
This is I think this is not twenty twenty anymore.
It's twenty twenty five. And I think that a piece
of legislation like this would not have passed in twenty
(11:23):
twenty in Florida or in any state. And I think
it could pass. I'd like to think Massachusetts, but realistically
I don't. Coming back on Night's side, let's have at
it back after this.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
By the way, I do want to talk about this issue,
and I'm I we'll be disappointed if more people aren't
interested in talking about this issue. At eleven o'clock, we
will change topics and we're going to talk about did
you make a New year? New Year's resolution? Rob Brooks
has the best New Year's resolution he makes. He makes
the resolution every year not to make a New Year's resolution.
(12:04):
But for those of you who actually made a resolution
three nights ago, well, maybe two nights ago, now that
you think about now that I think about it gonna
but I mean, I think we're probably what seventy hours
into the new year at this point. Have you kept
your New Year's resolution? We'll talk about that at eleven
at the twenty hour, But I want to talk about
(12:26):
this halo law in Florida. I think it will do
a lot to take down the temperature when people see
a police officer, oh, for that matter, a firefighter, an
EMT doing what they're supposed to do. And again, I
think that that when you're in a situation where all
(12:47):
of a sudden there's police activity, it's normal for people
to to rubber neck. You always know when there's a
police car somewhere on the turnpike that maybe is pulled
over the side of the road, not even necessarily write
someone in a ticket, but to help them, everybody slows down.
(13:07):
Have you ever noticed that, no matter what, you look
in the distance and you see a blue light, and
the police car could be simply there helping somebody, just
helping somebody who has a flat tire, or even just
you know, preventing someone from running into the back of
(13:28):
the car. Everybody has to slow down. It's just normal
human nature to be intrigued and interested what's going on,
what's going on? But then you have situations when police
are arresting someone, and you know you've seen it on
TV many times people try to almost interfere with that arrest. Look,
(13:50):
police have a right to arrest you. If they have
arrested you improperly inappropriately, you have right to go back
and sue them in civil court. May not be easy
to win. In some cases you do they can, you
can win. But police officers, I think, in the wake
of George Floyd, have received better training and I think
(14:13):
that police officers the forces now are much more govors.
I can't help but thinking about this woman police superintendent
down in New Orleans who has just been horrific watching
her hold these news conferences. That she had no idea
(14:36):
that these materials were available in New Orleans. We mentioned
that the other night. So I just want to talk
about this law. Does it bother you or no? Does
it bother you? Do supported if this law was proposed
in Massachusetts might not have a chance to pass, And
I think it's a good law to be proposed. You
know where the American Civil Liberties union is gonna come down.
(14:58):
They're gonna say, oh no, no, oh no. This is
only intended as they have in Florida. So, if you're
a police officer out there, if you're the spouse of
a police officer, if you're the partner of a police officer,
does it make you if a law like this pass,
would it make you feel a little more comfortable knowing
that the person in your family, Again, whether it's a
(15:21):
son or a daughter, or a mom or dad. It's
a dangerous job, and it becomes most dangerous when they're
trying to effectuate an arrest. For firefighters, it becomes it
becomes a dangerous job. Every fire they respond to. They
have no idea what is inside the building that's burning,
(15:45):
and everybody wants to ask them questions, what's going on?
What's going on? Leave the firefighters alone, Leave the EMT alone.
Someone flops on the ground and the EMT comes by.
You don't have to go over what's going on. That
is unfair to the person on the ground. Never mind
the EMT. The EMP has to do their job. They
have to focus intently on what they're doing in order
(16:09):
to try to save someone's life. That's their purpose. They're
not there to answer your questions. When I was a
TV reporter out there, you would have people all the
time coming up to you like they wanted their own
personal broadcast. What's going on? Watch the news and I'll
tell you at six o'clock or I'll tell you at
eleven o'clock. Simple as that. So a halo law which
(16:32):
basically gives police officer, firefighter or an EMT a buffer zone.
We have buffer zones now at abortion sites where protesters
need to be kept a certain distance away. They can
still protest, but they can't protest in someone's face. And
it's the same principle when you think about it, it's
(16:53):
the exact same principle. The person who's interested in what's
going on, they can videotape, but from twenty five feet away,
the protest with the abortion clinic can protest, but they
can't impede someone who's going, however strongly they may feel.
Let's go to Matt in Southbridge. Matt, thanks for getting
this going here. Your thoughts on this piece of legislation
(17:14):
that's now Laura in Florida, good idea about it here?
Speaker 5 (17:16):
In your opinion, I think it's a great idea. I
think it will help lower stress levels at scenes where
involving first responders, where things can get a little hectic,
they get.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
More than hectic, they get more than hectic sometime. Are
you involved in it, either as a police officer, firefighter,
or EMT or do you have someone in your family?
Speaker 5 (17:40):
Yeah, yes, I'm a police officer.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Well, thank you very much. What has been your experience.
I have tried to report this as as honestly as
I can. I've read from the Jacksonville newspaper about this law.
Have you found that when you're out trying to an
effect situa and arrest people in any way, shape or form,
(18:04):
are at least at a minimum minimum distracting. Have you
ever had people interfering with you performing your duties?
Speaker 5 (18:13):
Yes, and, like you alluded to earlier, since twenty twenty,
it has become more prevalent. And what I can say is,
I've been a police officer approximately thirty years and the
last thing a police officer in my department, in most departments,
talking to other officers want to do is work inside
the building. So you would have all the junior officers
(18:35):
would be stuck working in the service division or the
cell room. Now that is the most highly coveted position,
which I think says a lot where the officers no
longer want to be on the street, they want to
be in the building away from the public.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
So you've worked for thirty years, have you noticed over
the course of your career, is this something that kind
of goes back and forth like a pendulum. My sense
is that after the horrific incident involving you know, George Floyd,
what that police officer did was was ah indefensible in
my opinion. I don't know how you feel about it,
(19:11):
but I agree.
Speaker 6 (19:12):
I agree.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
So obviously then people took that and everybody who was
wearing a badge and vis in the blue, we had
all of that that controversy. My sense is that the
pendulum is swinging back. What do you think.
Speaker 5 (19:26):
I think it is maybe not so much in Massachusetts,
but not as quickly as other parts of the country. Yeah,
but I think and you talked about training earlier, which
I think is very important, and what you what you
feel to mention though with training, with additional training comes
additional funds which we are not are not getting for
(19:49):
the training, not for the officer, for the training, and
what we're seeing in Massachusetts. Since COVID was the MPTC
that runs all our trainings state wide, it went to
an online training platform where it's a passive learning situation
where I literally will have to sit through eighteen hours
of videos this training session. And if you do any
(20:13):
studying on learning, passive learning is one of the worst
ways to learn or to teach. Rather, and you're an attorney, right, yes, sir.
Now you know case law and a constitutional law is
forever changing. Now think about it. I'm a new police officer.
I'm only twenty two and now I have to watch
a six hour video on constitutional law and I have questions,
(20:36):
but I can't ask any questions because I'm looking hearing
at a computer screen. Yeah, so I agree with this, Laar.
I think it would help you. I think it would
even help It would help the public out as well.
And you know, unfortunate events probably won't happen because you
have that buffer of twenty five feet and you can
still fail. From twenty five feet, you'll actually get a
picture of the whole scene instead of a close up,
(20:58):
or if you want to coach, you could.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Get absolutely no police officer wants someone with a camera
in they're face two feet away. Why are you doing this?
What are you doing this for? I mean, first of all,
I was distracting, and at that moment in time, if
you're really dealing with a suspect who's dangerous, that guy
might grab your gun while you're distracted. I mean, your
focus needs to be on the person you're you're trying
to to arrest. It's as simple as that. By the way,
(21:23):
when you talk about training working in radio and television,
I work in what's called the private sector. You're in
the public sector. Uh, there's a whole industry out there
of companies that have that have taken advantage, in my opinion,
of societal situations, so that everybody, I think every employee
(21:48):
has to sit there through this passive training and you
know that that it just doesn't it You listen to
it because you have to. Okay, you know what the
point is. It takes them six hours to tell you
something that they could that they could instruct you on
with for six minutes. But if they produced six minute videotapes,
(22:10):
they wouldn't be able to charge the exorbited prices. This
it's a cottage industry, is what it is. In my opinion.
Matt that the.
Speaker 5 (22:20):
But I've noticed the training with the younger officers it's
not working as well as when we had it in person,
where you could ask questions and get in the professor
or the instructors to bounce them back.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Of course. Yeah. And many people are going to say, well, gee,
I don't understand that. I mean, it isn't a question
of I disagree with it, uh and have a debate
with the person, but I don't understand what is meant
by that. That's that's the part of education.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (22:49):
Or you know, you're a police officer and you you know,
you read some case Laura, and you ask a question
of oh, I went on a call last week, but
you don't have that ability anymore to ask questions and
get at guidance.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
I agree with you. Look, thank you for your for
your career, thank you for your service, and stay safe
out there. And again, you sound like the sort of
police officer that that we should have. Look in Boston there,
they're now dying to recruit police officers they don't have.
They're down like four hundred police officers in the city
of Boston, down about forty.
Speaker 5 (23:23):
We're down about ten percent. No, it's it's unfortunate and
hopefully where else.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
In what other city of police officers the world? The
the roster is down New Orleans. I think I read
something today. They're down like seven hundred officers.
Speaker 5 (23:42):
No, it's it's nationwide. There is a recruitment and retention
crisis that no one's talking about. Yeah to the points. Yeah,
we're going to see it in my my location. We're
gonna I think we'll start seeing forced overtime in the
next year or so, which is unfortunate.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Yeah, and which which is forced overtime means you're forced
to work in a high stress job where you're making
decisions on you know, do I draw my weapon or whatever,
and you should not. Forced overtime is not consistent with
good police work in my opinion, it absolutely I agree.
Speaker 5 (24:20):
I agree, Dan, I appreciate you're taking the time and
have a happy New Year.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Happy New Year to you and say say, okay, thanks, Matt,
appreciate you. All Right, Well you heard what Matt had
to say. I would love to hear what you have
to say. I think it's a fascinating topic. But I
may be barking up the wrong tree, and if I am,
we'll change topics. But I would like to talk about this.
Should police officers, firefighters, and EMTs have the right to
(24:47):
say to people who are in any way, shape or
form interfering with them conducting their what they do to
stay back twenty five feet. That's a great piece of
legislation in my mind, despite what the American cent for
Liberties Union says, if you disagree, bring it on. If
you agree, you could bring it on as well. Six
(25:08):
one seven four ten thirty six one seven thirty Coming
right back on night Side.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
It's night Side with Ray Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Thank you very much. Al. Let's get back to the call.
I was going to go to Eric in Natick next, Eric,
welcome next to on Nightside. How are you serving time?
Speaker 7 (25:31):
I am out there here.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Eric, got to turn that radio. Don go right ahead.
Speaker 7 (25:37):
I'm sorry, Happy New Year, Happy.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
New Year to you, Eric. Thanks you gotta you guys
got to turn that radio down because we have a delay.
As I'm sure you know. What's your thought about this
Haylo law in Florida. You like it or not?
Speaker 4 (25:49):
Oh?
Speaker 7 (25:50):
I love it. I'm actually I don't want to be
too harsh, but it's actually sickening that a lot like
this even needs to exist because you know, everyone does
their job and you can't stop people from doing their job.
So even while you're doing the radio, imagine if someone
is two feet away from you, like staring at you
(26:12):
or distracting you while you're trying to talk to your audience.
Like and I think, I think, I.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Just think that's a great point.
Speaker 7 (26:22):
Yep, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
I think that I think that's a great point. I mean,
can you imagine if uh if if when people are
out trying to you know, work as a roof or
work as a plumber. Uh, you know, get up on
the roof there, like it was this guy putting the
nails in right. Of course you it just makes absolute
great common sense, Eric, but we we can't in this society.
(26:45):
Remember after the George Flay Floyd murder, it was every
police officer was looked at with suspicion. It didn't matter
that they were a good, decent police officer who was
trying to go out and do the right thing by
his community. Because he was because he had a badge
and he was a police officer, he was looked at derisively.
(27:06):
And it still happens in the eyes of some people.
Speaker 7 (27:10):
Yes, and I think there's a lot of things that
attribute to that, like like news media coverage of it,
like negative stories about other instances where I mean you're
talking about small fractions. I mean this, for every one
bad interaction where a cop went overboard, there's at least
(27:33):
one hundred good interactions where cops went above and beyond
and did what they were supposed to do.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
I couldn't agree with you more. Now, do you think the.
Speaker 7 (27:42):
Media small stuff?
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Yeah? But I look, the George Floyd circumstance was an
abomination that was, in my opinion, out now cold blooded murder.
And I'm glad that there were people there when I
don't know if you remember the the demeanor of the police,
the police officer, uh and I don't even want to
(28:07):
call him a police officer. Derek Chauvin from Minneapolis that
after he got up and took his knee off the
neck of George Floyd, he struted around like a peacock,
like somehow he had just done something heroic, when what
he had done was was the cowardice. You know, basically,
while others kept him Floyd from your breathing, getting up,
(28:30):
he basically killed the guy. But but the media didn't
put it in any context. They didn't say, look, this
is a guy who who went way beyond what he
ever should have done and put him in jail. That
I talked about that from the first night. Put him
in jail. Uh, he's he's he's not a police officer,
(28:51):
he's a criminal. Put it in some context. But he
doesn't represent the most police officers, just just just as
if as the pedophile priests didn't represent. I have friends
of mine who are Catholic priests, good Catholic priests, who
they told me they no longer would when they would
go up to a public restaurant, they would never wear
(29:13):
their collar because people would look would look at them like, well,
you must be like those other pedophile priests. It's just
not fair.
Speaker 7 (29:21):
I know, it's definitely not fair. And the old expression
one bad apple ruins the entire bunch. I mean, that's
why expressions like that exist, because you know, like you said, priests,
just because there's a segment of them that were pedophiles,
it doesn't mean the entire priesthood are pedophiles. It just
(29:43):
means that there was a small section. And yes, it's
unfortunate that it was hidden for so long, and there's
more and more cases that came out about it, But
that doesn't the gate everyone who is our good priest
and who do do their job and do believe and
follow the right path. And yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Mean, the thing that's interesting is that when we hear
a horrific story about I don't know, you know, Diddy
or or some entertainer who's accused of, you know, doing
inappropriate things, we don't project that on all entertainers. If
we hear about some you know, famous athlete who does
(30:31):
something really stupid Pete Rose, for example, we don't assume
that all athletes were gambling on the sport in which
they participated. We look at those cases on very much
of an individual basis. But when it comes to a
bad police officer comes to a bad priest, maybe because
they are people who are perceived as in positions of authority.
I don't know. We don't field in terms. We don't
(30:54):
field in terms of teachers. You know, you'll have some
high school teacher who hits on a fourteen year old girl. Uh,
we don't assume every high school teacher is doing that.
But with the police, the police were given a bum
rap because of Derek chovin uh. And and I think
that this law would go a long way to to
(31:15):
maybe restoring some faith in our police life.
Speaker 7 (31:17):
I hope so too. And like I said, it's very
surprising that there even needs to be a law. You
said it yourself. It's common sense, like let people do
what they're supposed to be doing. And as far as
I'm just gonna say one more thing, as far as
like when you get pulled over, you're absolutely right. The
smartest thing as a pedestrian you can do or a
citizen is put your hands on the wheel whatever. As
(31:42):
soon as the police officer exits their vehicle, anything that
you can do to keep them at ease because they
are heightened, the adrenaline kicks in. Uh, they don't know
the person has a weapon, if they're reaching for something,
they have no idea. They don't know you. They just
pulled you over. They may they may have ran your plate,
(32:03):
but they don't know your story. So you do anything
in your power to alleviate any concern they might have.
And the the interaction between the two of you, or
between the citizen and the police officer, guaranteed nine times
out of ten, is going to go smoothly, and maybe
if you were speeding and how you if you were
(32:24):
respectful and you know, honest and you know, just care
free and just you know, let the make the officer
be at ease, maybe they'll say, you know what, make
sure you're just slow down next.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
Time, exactly exactly you you. Sometimes people talk themselves into
tickets when they can talk themselves out of tickets and
just get a warning if they if they treat the
officer respectfully. Because I got to tell you from my
experience officers that I know there's a lot of really
dumb people. Would you pull me over? What do you do?
(32:56):
We are you doing? What are you doing? And you
know immediately that kind of sets the tone for the conversation. Eric,
I loved you call. Please keep calling the show. Thank you, sir,
thank you.
Speaker 7 (33:06):
Happy to hear to you and your family.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
Right back at you, Eric, Happy New Year to you
as well. We have a lot of listeners in Natick,
that's for sure one of my favorite communities. Take a
quick break one line at six one seven, two four
ten thirty. Also, if you want to try to get
through six one seven nine three one ten thirty, we
will change topics at eleven o'clock, we go to the
twentieth hour, though it's only for me the twelve hour
this week, gonna want to know about your New Year's
(33:30):
resolutions and they still intact, probably some of them have
already been broken. We'll be back on night Side more
calls right after this.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
Now back to Dan Way live from the Window World
night Sight Studios on' WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
By the way, you know, last home, we talked about
New York City's congestion pricing. Well, there was a federal
it was an effort by the state of New Jersey
to stop it, saying that this was going to have
an impact on New Jersey roads because people would use
the Jersey bridges to avoid it. And a federal judge
has cleared the way for the Sunday launch of congesting
(34:09):
congestion pricing in New York City. Good luck, New York City.
Let's keep going here. I'm gonna go next. Who's up next? Down?
Greg is in Boston. Hey, Greg, welcome. We're talking about
the Florida law, the so called Halo law, which creates
a twenty five foot buffer zone for police officers, responding
police officers, firefighters, and EMTs. Your thoughts, Greg? Hello, Hello Greg,
(34:34):
your thoughts? What's your thought on this?
Speaker 8 (34:38):
Yes, this is Hubert, I'm I'm sorry. This is Frank.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
This is Frank. Okay, so let's get that squared away.
This is not Greg, this is Frank. Yeah, okay, Well, Frank,
go right ahead.
Speaker 8 (34:54):
I think it's gonna be a very troublesome law because
now you're gonna tell the person in the goal twenty
five feet, So you got to figure out the twenty
five feet and how many other people you're gonna tell
go twenty five feet? So now you may end up
having the rest two three, four people beside the suspect something.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
Well, if if they don't, if they don't comply with
let me ask you this, Frank. Let's assume you're driving
down the street and a police officer steps in front
of your car and says you got to stop, okay,
and you don't know why you're being told to stop.
What do you do?
Speaker 8 (35:33):
I stopped?
Speaker 2 (35:34):
You bet you?
Speaker 8 (35:35):
So, if people there's this notion that people are are
putting police officers down because of certain instances is overblown.
We still respect the police. People still respect the police,
they still obey the law, and this kind of stuff
is troublesome, and it's also indicative of what's happening in
(35:57):
Florida and if people of Florida gonna have to get off,
but they did. They they're abandoned books. They're saying if
they have elections or or they're.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
Not banning books in Florida. I don't know what what
what stations you're watching, they're not banning books in Florida.
What books? What books have been banned in Florida, Frank.
Speaker 8 (36:16):
He's already they've already had laws that said you can't
have this book, you can't have that book. And also
they named.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
Me one of the books that are Frank doing you
a favor? Okay, Frank, respectfully, could you name me one
of the books that were banned in Florida.
Speaker 8 (36:34):
I can't tell you which ones, but I can say
they have been banned books.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
Well, you're you're you're telling me. Here's what. Let me
explain to you what happened in Florida if I could,
because I looked into this. They have taken some books
that were in portions of the public library which were
called you know, children's sections, and they have moved those
books into you know, teen sections or adult sections. There
(37:02):
were certain books that get into certain topics that people
in the state of Florida, and you know, libraries and
also representatives felt that kids should not be exposed to
those type of books at that age. There have been
no books that there's no book that has been banned
in Florida. Frank, it's it's it's just a misnomer. It's
(37:23):
it's incorrect.
Speaker 8 (37:23):
Florida and Florida just had a ballot question that they
said couldn't pass on less sixty percent the people voted
for it, when in any normal situation, if you were
over fifty percent, the ballot or the election was won
or lost. Now that they're even restricted.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
On so, let me ask you this. I'm unfamiliar with that.
What was the What was the ballot question, Frank? What
was the ballot question?
Speaker 8 (37:53):
They want? They want the constitutionalized abortion and you had
to have at least six days. I made it so
that you had to have sixty percent, and since it
only came out to like fifty five percent, the measure failed.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
You might you might be correct on that. Frank, I'm
not familiar with it, but I will grant you you
might be correct on that. It could be within the floridaction.
It could be within the Florida State Constitution that in
order to amend the constitution you have to get over
a certain percentage, because sometimes it's harder to amend the
(38:29):
constitution than just by a majority vote. Frank, I appreciate it.
We've covered I got three more folks before. I'm just
telling you that. I'm telling you you might be correct
on that. But for example, do you know how how
many states it takes. Frank just hung up. I didn't
hang up on him. It takes three quarters of the
(38:52):
states to amend the US Constitution. Okay, that's what the
US Constitution says. Let's go next to Glenn and Brighton. Glenn,
get me back on track. Please go ahead, and Glynn.
Speaker 4 (39:02):
Yeah, I love this topic. I wish I knew Harvard
Hilbergrace you wanted number one and number two. I wish
it could extend it in the next do because it's
a very good, very good topic. Because I agree with
the tone into theear part. I don't agree with the
you know, buff I don't like any kind of buffer
zone twenty five. They do it with tobacco abortion. I
remember the Supreme Court struck down the Bufferson or on
(39:25):
abortion the you know, I think the idea.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
Is that, well, the idea is that if someone's going
into receive a medical procedure, whether you agree with it
or not, whether I agree with it or not, you
can sit there and have a sign. You can protest,
but you can't be in someone's face. That's all they're saying.
I mean, if you all of a scientist.
Speaker 4 (39:46):
The part I find arbitrarian capricious is I mean, do
people carry tape measures? Now, no, you're half a foot
two clothes. I mean you're forty four. I mean, Hannah, they.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
Put they they're able to put up barricades, okay, and
basically that you can't cross over the barricade. I mean
it's like when when the President of the United States
comes and speaks at a public event, they have you know,
they have police. Look, when there's a crime scene, they
put up the yellow tape. You know that, Glenn, And
(40:16):
you can't say, oh, I'm going to go Crocker, I
want to investigate that crime scene. So no, I think
the same piece of legislation that has some merit. I
wish Harvey called in and we'll get Harvey on this
as a matter of fact, some night. How's that?
Speaker 4 (40:28):
Yeah, because he's the first person I thought of when
you brought this up, because I remember the buffers oone
thing on the ambush that was McClellan versus Cokeley. I
don't remember know mccollan's first name. It was Martha Coakley.
And I thought the Supreme Court struck a down ninety zero.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
No, I do not. I believe so they don't have
the right to protest. But you don't have the right
to sit on the stairs and impede people's walking in.
You don't have a right using and be shouting in
their ear from two feet away as as they're walking
in the door. That's home. I mean, if you're going
(41:07):
in to have your appendix taken out, and and I did,
and I think, no, you know, Glenn, you should not.
I can't prevent you physically. No, Glenn, you can't take
your appendix out. Come on.
Speaker 4 (41:21):
I think it could be fine tuned a little bit.
And I'm not saying it's a bad look.
Speaker 2 (41:26):
Twenty five feet is not is not a huge distance.
I mean you can videotape police officers from twenty five
feet pretty easily. Okay, Yeah, I mean, if they said
you've got to stand back one thousand feet five hundred feet,
that would be arbitrary and capricious. But I think twenty
five feet is a reasonable distance in my opinion. I
think it'll I think it will with stand constitutional review.
(41:48):
I really do.
Speaker 4 (41:50):
Let me get one.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
More India before the break. Okay, huh, I'm gonna get
one more in before the break.
Speaker 4 (41:55):
Thanks buddy, I'm.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
Gonna give you. We always give the right in the
in the final hour of the week, and even though
it's really a hybrid twentieth hour. Absolutely, Thanks Glenn, talk
to you later.
Speaker 4 (42:06):
Thank you too.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
All right, Thank you much. Jim and Roxford. Jim, you're
next on Nightside. Gotta get more.
Speaker 6 (42:12):
That point of view. They're not doing it on this
point of you.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
Are you talking to me or you're having a conversation
of your own? Jim, you're in the air.
Speaker 6 (42:20):
Oh okay, so I didn't know. Okay, did That'll be
real quick. I know it's time to go. Okay. I
heard you guys comps story, and I know you gots
talking about mister Floyd. Guess what, reader, why Tom's got
a bad reputation because they act bad no matter what
if you look at what's beyond the tailor. They broke
(42:43):
into her apartment and she's innocent and it shot her.
Uh huh yeah, Okay, I got a lot of incidents. Okay,
some reads they seem to all be with minority.
Speaker 2 (42:53):
What so, Jim, let me ask you this. Let me
because we're a little bit tight on time. What percentage
of cops do you think are Derek Chauvin type cops?
What percentage?
Speaker 6 (43:05):
I can tell you fifty percent?
Speaker 2 (43:08):
Okay, I think you're dreaming about that. There's no way
you can prove that, but I think the statistic that
you u if it was fifty percent, you'd have many
more George fully cases.
Speaker 6 (43:19):
And many Why is every case you guys at the
media include wonder one. It's always a minority, is never
any other. It's always minorities getting hit. And guess who
are hurting us? It is the European, Caucasians or white
or snowflakes.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
What.
Speaker 2 (43:38):
Let me ask you this, Jim, what what percentage of
Boston you live in Roxbury? What percentage of Boston police
officers are minority in your opinion?
Speaker 6 (43:48):
Oh, that's easy, that is totally forty. The rest is
everything else well, so you.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
Have forty percent in your opinion already. Okay, yes, what
percentage of the American population happens to be minority? Do
you know?
Speaker 6 (44:07):
I think No, I don't.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
It's about about it's about ten percent black, about ten
percent black, about twelve percent Hispanic, and maybe three percent Asian.
Speaker 6 (44:19):
So okay, it is minorities getting shot, stabbed, Rundo was
sprayed and do ooh, I'm afraid because we moved. But
as the Caucasian cops, nothing happens too.
Speaker 2 (44:30):
Because yeah, I think I think you're looking at through
a pretty biased lens. But I'm glad you called, and
I'm glad I wish you called earlier because we could
talk longer. But keep calling the show. We'll have conversations.
Speaker 6 (44:41):
Okay, Okay, bye bye.
Speaker 2 (44:44):
Have a happy New Year to those of you in
the line. I apologize, sure, wish you called earlier. We're
going to go to New Year's Resolutions right after the
break one night side
It's night Side with Dan Ray. I'm going easy Boston
New Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
For those of you who missed the last hour, we'll
get back to that subject, I'm sure next week. And
I wished that I had heard from some of our
New York listeners. I think they're probably in a state
of shock. But I have another story that I'd like
to talk about, and that is a law which has
just gone into effect in the state of Florida, and
(00:30):
I think it's a pretty darn good law and I'd
love to hear what you think about it. This story
was actually found today and recommended to me by Marita,
the producer of Nightside. And the law that we're talking
about in Florida that has past, which is pretty innovative,
by the way, and I also think makes a lot
(00:52):
of sense. It's Florida's new Halo law, which creates a
buffer zone around first responders. Okay, what does it mean? So,
first of all, let's de find first responders. First responders
are police, fire EMTs, amongst others. Okay, the Halo law,
(01:14):
which went into effect on January first, Wednesday in Florida.
Halo is an acronym which stands for honoring and listening
to our officers honoring h and listening l to our
(01:34):
officers HALO. Under the law, if a first responder of
any type asks someone to stand back, and this could
be again firefighters, law enforcement, medical personnel, you must move
twenty five feet away. Now, twenty five feet is not
a huge difference. It's a very reasonable distance which would
(01:58):
allow fire fighters, police officers, or EMTs to deal with
what the whatever problem they're dealing with. Now. If you
do not, and you continue to interfere or harass these
first responders, you could face what they call a second
(02:19):
degree misdemeanor charge in Florida, which would potentially put you
in jail for sixty days or a five hundred dollars fine.
So it's it's a I think it's a very reasonable
effort to stop people from interfering with police officers, firefighters,
or EMTs. According to this article it's out of the
(02:42):
Tallahassee Democrat, which is a newspaper of the state capitol
in Florida. Support US say the twenty five foot buffer
zone increases safety, removes distractions, and protects first responders from threats, harassment,
and physical interference during stressful situations. Critics of course, they'll
always be critic say the law will be used to
prevent anyone from taking videos of law enforcement officers breaking
(03:05):
the law or brutalizing people. Now, let's assume that you
watching a police officer arrest someone. You can't take a
videotape twenty five feet away. I mean, how incompetent are you.
(03:25):
What this essentially is saying is that as the police
officer is effectuating an arrest, you don't have the right
to interfere with what he or she is doing. You
don't have the right to impede what he or she
is doing. You don't have the right to stick a
camera you're well, a camera or your smartphone in the
(03:46):
face of the officer while he or she is attempting
to do their job. Twenty five feet How long is
twenty five feet? Not very long when you think about it,
it's simply eight and a third yards. I mean it's
it's not a huge difference. They also have to be
(04:08):
five hundred feet away twenty five feet. Now. Of course,
the aclused Florida chapter predictably said the bill was quote
all about preventing bystanders from being able to observe with
their own eyes an officers excessive use of force and
(04:28):
record those images with their cell phone or other device
for the public to see. So I guess the ACLU
says that people from a distance of twenty five feet
cannot see something, or from a distance of twenty five
feet can't record something if they want to record it. Obviously,
police officers can be recorded. Police officer can't tell you
(04:52):
don't record them because they're in a public place. But
this is I think genuinely a piece of legislation that
every state should consider. It will diffuse some of these situations.
First of all, when a police officer is trying to
do what they have to do, which has questioned someone
(05:13):
and maybe in some cases arrest them and maybe arrest
the people with a use of force. If the person
who is not compliant, the police officer doesn't need someone
standing two feet away from them distracted. What are you doing?
They live them alone? Lord, he's not bothering anybody. Oh
simple as that. You know, we have lost in this
(05:34):
country all respect for all police officers because of the
excesses of a few. Now it's called in Florida, it's
SBE four makes it illegal. After you've been verbally worn
to approach a first responder or remain within twenty five
feet while the responder is performing a legal duty, which
(05:56):
to me is pretty simple. You can't block or interfere
with their ability to perform the duty, you can't threaten
the first responders with physical harm, and you can't harass
the first responders. Makes all the sense in the world.
Harassment in the laws to find as an action directed
and a first respondent that quote intentionally causes substantial emotional
(06:18):
distress in that first responder and serves no legitimate purpose.
Emotional distress, legitimate purpose and which parties may decide if
they apply were left undefined. However, now, as you would expect,
Representative Angela Nixon she's a Democrat from Jacksonville, introduced an
amendment to clarify that harass did not include asking a
(06:40):
first responder questions out of concern for the health, safety,
well being of the person that is being responded to.
So let's assume someone is on the street and the
EMT is attempting to perform CPR. I don't know, maybe
give them mouth to mouth, maybe chest compressions. So what
(07:04):
this knucklehead Democratic legislator wants to do is you could
go up.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
To the first Excuse me, excuse me. I notice you're
attempting to do mouth to mouth resuscitation. Is it really necessary?
Is this person really dying? What's going on here? Could
you explain? I'm just an interested bystander.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Moron, moron. The Another state representative from another Democratic representative,
Levaughn Bracy Davis, a Democrat, said would have to find
peaceful audio or video recording for photographing or eyewitness observing
of a first responder as a legitimate purpose. That failed
(07:44):
to pass. Also, the state rep. Who who Angela Nixon?
She's now my new favorite state rep in Florida, uh
said she. She proposed amendment to change the name of
the bill to the I don't want the world to
see the police kill an unarmed, innocent man like George
(08:05):
Floyd again, so I want to protect bad cops and
violate free speech. That did not pass. Surprisingly anyway, I
think this makes all the sense in the world. By
the way, the people who recorded Derek Chauvin murdering George
Floyd did so at distance of about twenty five feet.
(08:28):
They were not prevented from recording the arrogant actions of
that Minneapolis police officer keeping his knee on the neck
of George Floyd for uppers of ten or eleven minutes
and as the jury found him guilty of murder. So
my question to you is whether you're a police officer
or not, let's have a conversation. Do you think Massachusetts Now,
(08:50):
I do think Massachusets would pass such a law because
I think we're too progressive. But I would love to
know do you think that's a reasonable off. Twenty five feet?
I gotta tell you, twenty five feet is about halfway
between a Little League pitchers mound. A Little League pictures
(09:11):
mount I think is fifty two feet. So if you
can think of going to a Little League baseball game
and think about you could stand halfway between home plate
and the pitchers mound, and that's all the law would require.
Twenty five feet six one seven, four ten thirty six
one seven nine three one ten thirty. If you're a
(09:32):
law enforcement firefighters, firefighters respond to scenes where people throw
things at them. Believe it or not, that's happened a lot.
The EMTs respond to situations where people try to interfere
with them. Police officers all the time are getting harassed
when they're trying to do. Look, if police officers are
making a bad arrest, there are civil actions people can
(09:52):
take against police officers.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
And by the way, I don't know that any police
officer in his right mind, unless he wants to end
up in jail for the rest of us, like like
Jarff Chauvin or the Minneapolis police officer has found himself,
any officer in his right mind is not going to
do the sort of things that some police officers have done.
(10:17):
And I say you need more police training. I think
you need to probably do more psychological work with the
police department applicants to make sure that you're getting police
officers who are going to treat all of us, whether
it's you or me, respectfully when we're pulled over at night. Now, again,
we also have a responsibility to drive with the police
(10:39):
officer in a rational way. Where the police officer said,
would you police roll down your window, they can kind
of roll down your window. I always advise friends of mine,
both hands on the steering wheel, if you can put
the dome light on so the police officer can see you,
that's the way make it easier on the police officer.
(11:01):
Here are the number six months, seven two five, four,
ten thirty, six months, seven nine, three, one, ten thirty.
The Florida halo law makes sense to me? Does it
make sense to you? And if you're somebody who really
disagrees with it, tell me why, tell me why this is?
This is I think this is not twenty twenty anymore.
It's twenty twenty five. And I think that a piece
of legislation like this would not have passed in twenty
(11:23):
twenty in Florida or in any state. And I think
it could pass. I'd like to think Massachusetts, but realistically
I don't. Coming back on Night's side, let's have at
it back after this.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
By the way, I do want to talk about this issue,
and I'm I we'll be disappointed if more people aren't
interested in talking about this issue. At eleven o'clock, we
will change topics and we're going to talk about did
you make a New year? New Year's resolution? Rob Brooks
has the best New Year's resolution he makes. He makes
the resolution every year not to make a New Year's resolution.
(12:04):
But for those of you who actually made a resolution
three nights ago, well, maybe two nights ago, now that
you think about now that I think about it gonna
but I mean, I think we're probably what seventy hours
into the new year at this point. Have you kept
your New Year's resolution? We'll talk about that at eleven
at the twenty hour, But I want to talk about
(12:26):
this halo law in Florida. I think it will do
a lot to take down the temperature when people see
a police officer, oh, for that matter, a firefighter, an
EMT doing what they're supposed to do. And again, I
think that that when you're in a situation where all
(12:47):
of a sudden there's police activity, it's normal for people
to to rubber neck. You always know when there's a
police car somewhere on the turnpike that maybe is pulled
over the side of the road, not even necessarily write
someone in a ticket, but to help them, everybody slows down.
(13:07):
Have you ever noticed that, no matter what, you look
in the distance and you see a blue light, and
the police car could be simply there helping somebody, just
helping somebody who has a flat tire, or even just
you know, preventing someone from running into the back of
(13:28):
the car. Everybody has to slow down. It's just normal
human nature to be intrigued and interested what's going on,
what's going on? But then you have situations when police
are arresting someone, and you know you've seen it on
TV many times people try to almost interfere with that arrest. Look,
(13:50):
police have a right to arrest you. If they have
arrested you improperly inappropriately, you have right to go back
and sue them in civil court. May not be easy
to win. In some cases you do they can, you
can win. But police officers, I think, in the wake
of George Floyd, have received better training and I think
(14:13):
that police officers the forces now are much more govors.
I can't help but thinking about this woman police superintendent
down in New Orleans who has just been horrific watching
her hold these news conferences. That she had no idea
(14:36):
that these materials were available in New Orleans. We mentioned
that the other night. So I just want to talk
about this law. Does it bother you or no? Does
it bother you? Do supported if this law was proposed
in Massachusetts might not have a chance to pass, And
I think it's a good law to be proposed. You
know where the American Civil Liberties union is gonna come down.
(14:58):
They're gonna say, oh no, no, oh no. This is
only intended as they have in Florida. So, if you're
a police officer out there, if you're the spouse of
a police officer, if you're the partner of a police officer,
does it make you if a law like this pass,
would it make you feel a little more comfortable knowing
that the person in your family, Again, whether it's a
(15:21):
son or a daughter, or a mom or dad. It's
a dangerous job, and it becomes most dangerous when they're
trying to effectuate an arrest. For firefighters, it becomes it
becomes a dangerous job. Every fire they respond to. They
have no idea what is inside the building that's burning,
(15:45):
and everybody wants to ask them questions, what's going on?
What's going on? Leave the firefighters alone, Leave the EMT alone.
Someone flops on the ground and the EMT comes by.
You don't have to go over what's going on. That
is unfair to the person on the ground. Never mind
the EMT. The EMP has to do their job. They
have to focus intently on what they're doing in order
(16:09):
to try to save someone's life. That's their purpose. They're
not there to answer your questions. When I was a
TV reporter out there, you would have people all the
time coming up to you like they wanted their own
personal broadcast. What's going on? Watch the news and I'll
tell you at six o'clock or I'll tell you at
eleven o'clock. Simple as that. So a halo law which
(16:32):
basically gives police officer, firefighter or an EMT a buffer zone.
We have buffer zones now at abortion sites where protesters
need to be kept a certain distance away. They can
still protest, but they can't protest in someone's face. And
it's the same principle when you think about it, it's
(16:53):
the exact same principle. The person who's interested in what's
going on, they can videotape, but from twenty five feet away,
the protest with the abortion clinic can protest, but they
can't impede someone who's going, however strongly they may feel.
Let's go to Matt in Southbridge. Matt, thanks for getting
this going here. Your thoughts on this piece of legislation
(17:14):
that's now Laura in Florida, good idea about it here?
Speaker 5 (17:16):
In your opinion, I think it's a great idea. I
think it will help lower stress levels at scenes where
involving first responders, where things can get a little hectic,
they get.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
More than hectic, they get more than hectic sometime. Are
you involved in it, either as a police officer, firefighter,
or EMT or do you have someone in your family?
Speaker 5 (17:40):
Yeah, yes, I'm a police officer.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Well, thank you very much. What has been your experience.
I have tried to report this as as honestly as
I can. I've read from the Jacksonville newspaper about this law.
Have you found that when you're out trying to an
effect situa and arrest people in any way, shape or form,
(18:04):
are at least at a minimum minimum distracting. Have you
ever had people interfering with you performing your duties?
Speaker 5 (18:13):
Yes, and, like you alluded to earlier, since twenty twenty,
it has become more prevalent. And what I can say is,
I've been a police officer approximately thirty years and the
last thing a police officer in my department, in most departments,
talking to other officers want to do is work inside
the building. So you would have all the junior officers
(18:35):
would be stuck working in the service division or the
cell room. Now that is the most highly coveted position,
which I think says a lot where the officers no
longer want to be on the street, they want to
be in the building away from the public.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
So you've worked for thirty years, have you noticed over
the course of your career, is this something that kind
of goes back and forth like a pendulum. My sense
is that after the horrific incident involving you know, George Floyd,
what that police officer did was was ah indefensible in
my opinion. I don't know how you feel about it,
(19:11):
but I agree.
Speaker 6 (19:12):
I agree.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
So obviously then people took that and everybody who was
wearing a badge and vis in the blue, we had
all of that that controversy. My sense is that the
pendulum is swinging back. What do you think.
Speaker 5 (19:26):
I think it is maybe not so much in Massachusetts,
but not as quickly as other parts of the country. Yeah,
but I think and you talked about training earlier, which
I think is very important, and what you what you
feel to mention though with training, with additional training comes
additional funds which we are not are not getting for
(19:49):
the training, not for the officer, for the training, and
what we're seeing in Massachusetts. Since COVID was the MPTC
that runs all our trainings state wide, it went to
an online training platform where it's a passive learning situation
where I literally will have to sit through eighteen hours
of videos this training session. And if you do any
(20:13):
studying on learning, passive learning is one of the worst
ways to learn or to teach. Rather, and you're an attorney, right, yes, sir.
Now you know case law and a constitutional law is
forever changing. Now think about it. I'm a new police officer.
I'm only twenty two and now I have to watch
a six hour video on constitutional law and I have questions,
(20:36):
but I can't ask any questions because I'm looking hearing
at a computer screen. Yeah, so I agree with this, Laar.
I think it would help you. I think it would
even help It would help the public out as well.
And you know, unfortunate events probably won't happen because you
have that buffer of twenty five feet and you can
still fail. From twenty five feet, you'll actually get a
picture of the whole scene instead of a close up,
(20:58):
or if you want to coach, you could.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Get absolutely no police officer wants someone with a camera
in they're face two feet away. Why are you doing this?
What are you doing this for? I mean, first of all,
I was distracting, and at that moment in time, if
you're really dealing with a suspect who's dangerous, that guy
might grab your gun while you're distracted. I mean, your
focus needs to be on the person you're you're trying
to to arrest. It's as simple as that. By the way,
(21:23):
when you talk about training working in radio and television,
I work in what's called the private sector. You're in
the public sector. Uh, there's a whole industry out there
of companies that have that have taken advantage, in my opinion,
of societal situations, so that everybody, I think every employee
(21:48):
has to sit there through this passive training and you
know that that it just doesn't it You listen to
it because you have to. Okay, you know what the
point is. It takes them six hours to tell you
something that they could that they could instruct you on
with for six minutes. But if they produced six minute videotapes,
(22:10):
they wouldn't be able to charge the exorbited prices. This
it's a cottage industry, is what it is. In my opinion.
Matt that the.
Speaker 5 (22:20):
But I've noticed the training with the younger officers it's
not working as well as when we had it in person,
where you could ask questions and get in the professor
or the instructors to bounce them back.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Of course. Yeah. And many people are going to say, well, gee,
I don't understand that. I mean, it isn't a question
of I disagree with it, uh and have a debate
with the person, but I don't understand what is meant
by that. That's that's the part of education.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (22:49):
Or you know, you're a police officer and you you know,
you read some case Laura, and you ask a question
of oh, I went on a call last week, but
you don't have that ability anymore to ask questions and
get at guidance.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
I agree with you. Look, thank you for your for
your career, thank you for your service, and stay safe
out there. And again, you sound like the sort of
police officer that that we should have. Look in Boston there,
they're now dying to recruit police officers they don't have.
They're down like four hundred police officers in the city
of Boston, down about forty.
Speaker 5 (23:23):
We're down about ten percent. No, it's it's unfortunate and
hopefully where else.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
In what other city of police officers the world? The
the roster is down New Orleans. I think I read
something today. They're down like seven hundred officers.
Speaker 5 (23:42):
No, it's it's nationwide. There is a recruitment and retention
crisis that no one's talking about. Yeah to the points. Yeah,
we're going to see it in my my location. We're
gonna I think we'll start seeing forced overtime in the
next year or so, which is unfortunate.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Yeah, and which which is forced overtime means you're forced
to work in a high stress job where you're making
decisions on you know, do I draw my weapon or whatever,
and you should not. Forced overtime is not consistent with
good police work in my opinion, it absolutely I agree.
Speaker 5 (24:20):
I agree, Dan, I appreciate you're taking the time and
have a happy New Year.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Happy New Year to you and say say, okay, thanks, Matt,
appreciate you. All Right, Well you heard what Matt had
to say. I would love to hear what you have
to say. I think it's a fascinating topic. But I
may be barking up the wrong tree, and if I am,
we'll change topics. But I would like to talk about this.
Should police officers, firefighters, and EMTs have the right to
(24:47):
say to people who are in any way, shape or
form interfering with them conducting their what they do to
stay back twenty five feet. That's a great piece of
legislation in my mind, despite what the American cent for
Liberties Union says, if you disagree, bring it on. If
you agree, you could bring it on as well. Six
(25:08):
one seven four ten thirty six one seven thirty Coming
right back on night Side.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
It's night Side with Ray Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Thank you very much. Al. Let's get back to the call.
I was going to go to Eric in Natick next, Eric,
welcome next to on Nightside. How are you serving time?
Speaker 7 (25:31):
I am out there here.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Eric, got to turn that radio. Don go right ahead.
Speaker 7 (25:37):
I'm sorry, Happy New Year, Happy.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
New Year to you, Eric. Thanks you gotta you guys
got to turn that radio down because we have a delay.
As I'm sure you know. What's your thought about this
Haylo law in Florida. You like it or not?
Speaker 4 (25:49):
Oh?
Speaker 7 (25:50):
I love it. I'm actually I don't want to be
too harsh, but it's actually sickening that a lot like
this even needs to exist because you know, everyone does
their job and you can't stop people from doing their job.
So even while you're doing the radio, imagine if someone
is two feet away from you, like staring at you
(26:12):
or distracting you while you're trying to talk to your audience.
Like and I think, I think, I.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Just think that's a great point.
Speaker 7 (26:22):
Yep, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
I think that I think that's a great point. I mean,
can you imagine if uh if if when people are
out trying to you know, work as a roof or
work as a plumber. Uh, you know, get up on
the roof there, like it was this guy putting the
nails in right. Of course you it just makes absolute
great common sense, Eric, but we we can't in this society.
(26:45):
Remember after the George Flay Floyd murder, it was every
police officer was looked at with suspicion. It didn't matter
that they were a good, decent police officer who was
trying to go out and do the right thing by
his community. Because he was because he had a badge
and he was a police officer, he was looked at derisively.
(27:06):
And it still happens in the eyes of some people.
Speaker 7 (27:10):
Yes, and I think there's a lot of things that
attribute to that, like like news media coverage of it,
like negative stories about other instances where I mean you're
talking about small fractions. I mean this, for every one
bad interaction where a cop went overboard, there's at least
(27:33):
one hundred good interactions where cops went above and beyond
and did what they were supposed to do.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
I couldn't agree with you more. Now, do you think the.
Speaker 7 (27:42):
Media small stuff?
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Yeah? But I look, the George Floyd circumstance was an
abomination that was, in my opinion, out now cold blooded murder.
And I'm glad that there were people there when I
don't know if you remember the the demeanor of the police,
the police officer, uh and I don't even want to
(28:07):
call him a police officer. Derek Chauvin from Minneapolis that
after he got up and took his knee off the
neck of George Floyd, he struted around like a peacock,
like somehow he had just done something heroic, when what
he had done was was the cowardice. You know, basically,
while others kept him Floyd from your breathing, getting up,
(28:30):
he basically killed the guy. But but the media didn't
put it in any context. They didn't say, look, this
is a guy who who went way beyond what he
ever should have done and put him in jail. That
I talked about that from the first night. Put him
in jail. Uh, he's he's he's not a police officer,
(28:51):
he's a criminal. Put it in some context. But he
doesn't represent the most police officers, just just just as
if as the pedophile priests didn't represent. I have friends
of mine who are Catholic priests, good Catholic priests, who
they told me they no longer would when they would
go up to a public restaurant, they would never wear
(29:13):
their collar because people would look would look at them like, well,
you must be like those other pedophile priests. It's just
not fair.
Speaker 7 (29:21):
I know, it's definitely not fair. And the old expression
one bad apple ruins the entire bunch. I mean, that's
why expressions like that exist, because you know, like you said, priests,
just because there's a segment of them that were pedophiles,
it doesn't mean the entire priesthood are pedophiles. It just
(29:43):
means that there was a small section. And yes, it's
unfortunate that it was hidden for so long, and there's
more and more cases that came out about it, But
that doesn't the gate everyone who is our good priest
and who do do their job and do believe and
follow the right path. And yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Mean, the thing that's interesting is that when we hear
a horrific story about I don't know, you know, Diddy
or or some entertainer who's accused of, you know, doing
inappropriate things, we don't project that on all entertainers. If
we hear about some you know, famous athlete who does
(30:31):
something really stupid Pete Rose, for example, we don't assume
that all athletes were gambling on the sport in which
they participated. We look at those cases on very much
of an individual basis. But when it comes to a
bad police officer comes to a bad priest, maybe because
they are people who are perceived as in positions of authority.
I don't know. We don't field in terms. We don't
(30:54):
field in terms of teachers. You know, you'll have some
high school teacher who hits on a fourteen year old girl. Uh,
we don't assume every high school teacher is doing that.
But with the police, the police were given a bum
rap because of Derek chovin uh. And and I think
that this law would go a long way to to
(31:15):
maybe restoring some faith in our police life.
Speaker 7 (31:17):
I hope so too. And like I said, it's very
surprising that there even needs to be a law. You
said it yourself. It's common sense, like let people do
what they're supposed to be doing. And as far as
I'm just gonna say one more thing, as far as
like when you get pulled over, you're absolutely right. The
smartest thing as a pedestrian you can do or a
citizen is put your hands on the wheel whatever. As
(31:42):
soon as the police officer exits their vehicle, anything that
you can do to keep them at ease because they
are heightened, the adrenaline kicks in. Uh, they don't know
the person has a weapon, if they're reaching for something,
they have no idea. They don't know you. They just
pulled you over. They may they may have ran your plate,
(32:03):
but they don't know your story. So you do anything
in your power to alleviate any concern they might have.
And the the interaction between the two of you, or
between the citizen and the police officer, guaranteed nine times
out of ten, is going to go smoothly, and maybe
if you were speeding and how you if you were
(32:24):
respectful and you know, honest and you know, just care
free and just you know, let the make the officer
be at ease, maybe they'll say, you know what, make
sure you're just slow down next.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
Time, exactly exactly you you. Sometimes people talk themselves into
tickets when they can talk themselves out of tickets and
just get a warning if they if they treat the
officer respectfully. Because I got to tell you from my
experience officers that I know there's a lot of really
dumb people. Would you pull me over? What do you do?
(32:56):
We are you doing? What are you doing? And you
know immediately that kind of sets the tone for the conversation. Eric,
I loved you call. Please keep calling the show. Thank you, sir,
thank you.
Speaker 7 (33:06):
Happy to hear to you and your family.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
Right back at you, Eric, Happy New Year to you
as well. We have a lot of listeners in Natick,
that's for sure one of my favorite communities. Take a
quick break one line at six one seven, two four
ten thirty. Also, if you want to try to get
through six one seven nine three one ten thirty, we
will change topics at eleven o'clock, we go to the
twentieth hour, though it's only for me the twelve hour
this week, gonna want to know about your New Year's
(33:30):
resolutions and they still intact, probably some of them have
already been broken. We'll be back on night Side more
calls right after this.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
Now back to Dan Way live from the Window World
night Sight Studios on' WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
By the way, you know, last home, we talked about
New York City's congestion pricing. Well, there was a federal
it was an effort by the state of New Jersey
to stop it, saying that this was going to have
an impact on New Jersey roads because people would use
the Jersey bridges to avoid it. And a federal judge
has cleared the way for the Sunday launch of congesting
(34:09):
congestion pricing in New York City. Good luck, New York City.
Let's keep going here. I'm gonna go next. Who's up next? Down?
Greg is in Boston. Hey, Greg, welcome. We're talking about
the Florida law, the so called Halo law, which creates
a twenty five foot buffer zone for police officers, responding
police officers, firefighters, and EMTs. Your thoughts, Greg? Hello, Hello Greg,
(34:34):
your thoughts? What's your thought on this?
Speaker 8 (34:38):
Yes, this is Hubert, I'm I'm sorry. This is Frank.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
This is Frank. Okay, so let's get that squared away.
This is not Greg, this is Frank. Yeah, okay, Well, Frank,
go right ahead.
Speaker 8 (34:54):
I think it's gonna be a very troublesome law because
now you're gonna tell the person in the goal twenty
five feet, So you got to figure out the twenty
five feet and how many other people you're gonna tell
go twenty five feet? So now you may end up
having the rest two three, four people beside the suspect something.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
Well, if if they don't, if they don't comply with
let me ask you this, Frank. Let's assume you're driving
down the street and a police officer steps in front
of your car and says you got to stop, okay,
and you don't know why you're being told to stop.
What do you do?
Speaker 8 (35:33):
I stopped?
Speaker 2 (35:34):
You bet you?
Speaker 8 (35:35):
So, if people there's this notion that people are are
putting police officers down because of certain instances is overblown.
We still respect the police. People still respect the police,
they still obey the law, and this kind of stuff
is troublesome, and it's also indicative of what's happening in
(35:57):
Florida and if people of Florida gonna have to get off,
but they did. They they're abandoned books. They're saying if
they have elections or or they're.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
Not banning books in Florida. I don't know what what
what stations you're watching, they're not banning books in Florida.
What books? What books have been banned in Florida, Frank.
Speaker 8 (36:16):
He's already they've already had laws that said you can't
have this book, you can't have that book. And also
they named.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
Me one of the books that are Frank doing you
a favor? Okay, Frank, respectfully, could you name me one
of the books that were banned in Florida.
Speaker 8 (36:34):
I can't tell you which ones, but I can say
they have been banned books.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
Well, you're you're you're telling me. Here's what. Let me
explain to you what happened in Florida if I could,
because I looked into this. They have taken some books
that were in portions of the public library which were
called you know, children's sections, and they have moved those
books into you know, teen sections or adult sections. There
(37:02):
were certain books that get into certain topics that people
in the state of Florida, and you know, libraries and
also representatives felt that kids should not be exposed to
those type of books at that age. There have been
no books that there's no book that has been banned
in Florida. Frank, it's it's it's just a misnomer. It's
(37:23):
it's incorrect.
Speaker 8 (37:23):
Florida and Florida just had a ballot question that they
said couldn't pass on less sixty percent the people voted
for it, when in any normal situation, if you were
over fifty percent, the ballot or the election was won
or lost. Now that they're even restricted.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
On so, let me ask you this. I'm unfamiliar with that.
What was the What was the ballot question, Frank? What
was the ballot question?
Speaker 8 (37:53):
They want? They want the constitutionalized abortion and you had
to have at least six days. I made it so
that you had to have sixty percent, and since it
only came out to like fifty five percent, the measure failed.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
You might you might be correct on that. Frank, I'm
not familiar with it, but I will grant you you
might be correct on that. It could be within the floridaction.
It could be within the Florida State Constitution that in
order to amend the constitution you have to get over
a certain percentage, because sometimes it's harder to amend the
(38:29):
constitution than just by a majority vote. Frank, I appreciate it.
We've covered I got three more folks before. I'm just
telling you that. I'm telling you you might be correct
on that. But for example, do you know how how
many states it takes. Frank just hung up. I didn't
hang up on him. It takes three quarters of the
(38:52):
states to amend the US Constitution. Okay, that's what the
US Constitution says. Let's go next to Glenn and Brighton. Glenn,
get me back on track. Please go ahead, and Glynn.
Speaker 4 (39:02):
Yeah, I love this topic. I wish I knew Harvard
Hilbergrace you wanted number one and number two. I wish
it could extend it in the next do because it's
a very good, very good topic. Because I agree with
the tone into theear part. I don't agree with the
you know, buff I don't like any kind of buffer
zone twenty five. They do it with tobacco abortion. I
remember the Supreme Court struck down the Bufferson or on
(39:25):
abortion the you know, I think the idea.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
Is that, well, the idea is that if someone's going
into receive a medical procedure, whether you agree with it
or not, whether I agree with it or not, you
can sit there and have a sign. You can protest,
but you can't be in someone's face. That's all they're saying.
I mean, if you all of a scientist.
Speaker 4 (39:46):
The part I find arbitrarian capricious is I mean, do
people carry tape measures? Now, no, you're half a foot
two clothes. I mean you're forty four. I mean, Hannah, they.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
Put they they're able to put up barricades, okay, and
basically that you can't cross over the barricade. I mean
it's like when when the President of the United States
comes and speaks at a public event, they have you know,
they have police. Look, when there's a crime scene, they
put up the yellow tape. You know that, Glenn, And
(40:16):
you can't say, oh, I'm going to go Crocker, I
want to investigate that crime scene. So no, I think
the same piece of legislation that has some merit. I
wish Harvey called in and we'll get Harvey on this
as a matter of fact, some night. How's that?
Speaker 4 (40:28):
Yeah, because he's the first person I thought of when
you brought this up, because I remember the buffers oone
thing on the ambush that was McClellan versus Cokeley. I
don't remember know mccollan's first name. It was Martha Coakley.
And I thought the Supreme Court struck a down ninety zero.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
No, I do not. I believe so they don't have
the right to protest. But you don't have the right
to sit on the stairs and impede people's walking in.
You don't have a right using and be shouting in
their ear from two feet away as as they're walking
in the door. That's home. I mean, if you're going
(41:07):
in to have your appendix taken out, and and I did,
and I think, no, you know, Glenn, you should not.
I can't prevent you physically. No, Glenn, you can't take
your appendix out. Come on.
Speaker 4 (41:21):
I think it could be fine tuned a little bit.
And I'm not saying it's a bad look.
Speaker 2 (41:26):
Twenty five feet is not is not a huge distance.
I mean you can videotape police officers from twenty five
feet pretty easily. Okay, Yeah, I mean, if they said
you've got to stand back one thousand feet five hundred feet,
that would be arbitrary and capricious. But I think twenty
five feet is a reasonable distance in my opinion. I
think it'll I think it will with stand constitutional review.
(41:48):
I really do.
Speaker 4 (41:50):
Let me get one.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
More India before the break. Okay, huh, I'm gonna get
one more in before the break.
Speaker 4 (41:55):
Thanks buddy, I'm.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
Gonna give you. We always give the right in the
in the final hour of the week, and even though
it's really a hybrid twentieth hour. Absolutely, Thanks Glenn, talk
to you later.
Speaker 4 (42:06):
Thank you too.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
All right, Thank you much. Jim and Roxford. Jim, you're
next on Nightside. Gotta get more.
Speaker 6 (42:12):
That point of view. They're not doing it on this
point of you.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
Are you talking to me or you're having a conversation
of your own? Jim, you're in the air.
Speaker 6 (42:20):
Oh okay, so I didn't know. Okay, did That'll be
real quick. I know it's time to go. Okay. I
heard you guys comps story, and I know you gots
talking about mister Floyd. Guess what, reader, why Tom's got
a bad reputation because they act bad no matter what
if you look at what's beyond the tailor. They broke
(42:43):
into her apartment and she's innocent and it shot her.
Uh huh yeah, Okay, I got a lot of incidents. Okay,
some reads they seem to all be with minority.
Speaker 2 (42:53):
What so, Jim, let me ask you this. Let me
because we're a little bit tight on time. What percentage
of cops do you think are Derek Chauvin type cops?
What percentage?
Speaker 6 (43:05):
I can tell you fifty percent?
Speaker 2 (43:08):
Okay, I think you're dreaming about that. There's no way
you can prove that, but I think the statistic that
you u if it was fifty percent, you'd have many
more George fully cases.
Speaker 6 (43:19):
And many Why is every case you guys at the
media include wonder one. It's always a minority, is never
any other. It's always minorities getting hit. And guess who
are hurting us? It is the European, Caucasians or white
or snowflakes.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
What.
Speaker 2 (43:38):
Let me ask you this, Jim, what what percentage of
Boston you live in Roxbury? What percentage of Boston police
officers are minority in your opinion?
Speaker 6 (43:48):
Oh, that's easy, that is totally forty. The rest is
everything else well, so you.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
Have forty percent in your opinion already. Okay, yes, what
percentage of the American population happens to be minority? Do
you know?
Speaker 6 (44:07):
I think No, I don't.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
It's about about it's about ten percent black, about ten
percent black, about twelve percent Hispanic, and maybe three percent Asian.
Speaker 6 (44:19):
So okay, it is minorities getting shot, stabbed, Rundo was
sprayed and do ooh, I'm afraid because we moved. But
as the Caucasian cops, nothing happens too.
Speaker 2 (44:30):
Because yeah, I think I think you're looking at through
a pretty biased lens. But I'm glad you called, and
I'm glad I wish you called earlier because we could
talk longer. But keep calling the show. We'll have conversations.
Speaker 6 (44:41):
Okay, Okay, bye bye.
Speaker 2 (44:44):
Have a happy New Year to those of you in
the line. I apologize, sure, wish you called earlier. We're
going to go to New Year's Resolutions right after the
break one night side
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Cold Case Files: Miami
Joyce Sapp, 76; Bryan Herrera, 16; and Laurance Webb, 32—three Miami residents whose lives were stolen in brutal, unsolved homicides. Cold Case Files: Miami follows award‑winning radio host and City of Miami Police reserve officer Enrique Santos as he partners with the department’s Cold Case Homicide Unit, determined family members, and the advocates who spend their lives fighting for justice for the victims who can no longer fight for themselves.