When something deadly is caused, when politicians are attacked, the usual result is Cover-Your-Ass. When whistleblowers point out the cause of the terrible or deadly they are imprisoned or murdered. This is universal. The best example is Chernobyl

One Good Man Chernobyl - Every Lie We Tell Incurs A Debt To The Truth - Legasov's Speech with Vichnaya Pamyat

"Boris

“Do you anything about this town, Chernobyl?

Valera

“Not really, no.”

Boris

It was mostly Jews & Poles.”

The Jews were killed in pogroms, and Stalin forced the Poles out.

And then the Nazis came and killed whoever was left.

But after the war people came to live here anyway. They knew the ground under their feet was soaked in blood, but they didn’t care. 

Dead Jews, Dead Poles. But not them. No one ever thinks it’s going to happen to them. And here we are.”

Valera

“How much time?”

Boris 

“Maybe a year.” 

They call it a (coughs) They call it a long illness.”

It doesn’t seem very long to me. 

I know you told me and I believed you. But time passed and I thought, it wouldn’t happen to me.

I wasted it. I wasted it all for nothing.”

Valera

“For nothing?”

“Do you remember that first morning when I first called you how unconcerned I was? I don’t believe much that comes out of the Kremlin but when they told me they were putting me in charge of the cleanup and said it wasn’t serious, I believed them. You know why?”

Valera 

“Because they put you in charge”

Boris 

“Yeah.

I’m an inconsequential man, Valera. That’s all I’ve ever been. I hoped that one day it would matter, but it didn’t. I just stood next to people who did.”

Valera

“There are other scientists like me anyone of them could have done what I did. But you did everything we asked for everything we needed. Men, material, lunar rovers. Who else could have done these things. They heard me but they listened to you. Of all the ministers and all the deputies the entire congregation of obedient fools they mistakenly sent the one good man. For God’s sake, Boris, you were the one who mattered most.”

Boris 

Green caterpillar on hand.

 

Ah, it’s beautiful."

In 2006 Mikhail Gorbachev wrote , “The nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl… was perhaps the true cause of the collapse of the Soviet Union."

Will the COVD-19 pandemic and the efforts to cover it up be the cause of the collapse of the United States?

Meeting with Gorbechev. Ulana Khomyuk : We estimate between two and four megatons. Everything within a 30 kilometer radius will be completely destroyed, including the three remaining reactors at Chernobyl. The entirety of the radioactive material in all fo the cores will be ejected at force and dispersed by a massive shock wave, which will extend approximately 200 kilometers and likely be fatal to the entire population of Kiev, as well as a portion of Minsk. The release of radiation will be severe, and will impact all of Soviet Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Byelorussia, as well as Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, most of East Germany.

“Have you ever spent time with miners?”  

“No.”

“My advice tell the truth. These men work in the dark. They see everything.” 

“We need to install a liquid nitrogen heat exchanger underneath this concrete pad. There’s no way to reach it from the interior of the building. We have to get at it from underground. 

Mining chief,

“And what’s above the pad?”

“The core of the nuclear reactor.” 

Mining chief,

“Melting down.”

Final trial scene of Chernobyl

HBO Chernobyl, Valery Legasov vs KGB Chairman Charkov -- Episode 5 

KGB Chairman, “When the bullet hits you skull what will it matter why? No one’s getting shot Legsov. The whole world saw you and it would be embarrassing to kill you now… You will live as long as you have but not as a scientist, not anymore.”

Valery Legasov, 

“And if I refuse.”

KGB, 

“Why worry about something that isn’t going to happen?”

Valery,

“Why worry about something that isn’t going to happen? Ah, that’s perfect. They should put that on our money.”

"What is the cost of lies"

"Valery Legasov took his own life at the age of 51 on April 6, 1988 exactly two years after the explosion at Chernobyl. 

The audio tapes of Legasov’s memoirs were circulated among the Soviet scientific community..His suicide made it impossible for them to be ignored. 

In the aftermath of his death, Soviet officials finally acknowledged the design flaws of the BBMK nuclear reactor. 

The reactors were retrofitted to prevent an accident like Chernobyl from happening again. 

Legasov was aided by dozens of scientist who worked tirelessly along side him at Chernobyl 

Some spoke out against the official account of events and were subject to denunciation, arrest and imprisonment. 

Bpris Sccherbina dies on August 22, 1990

 

In 2006 Mikhail Gorbachev wrote , “The nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl… was perhaps the true cause of the collapse of the Soviet Union."

Will the COVD-19 pandemic and the efforts to cover it up be the cause of the collapse of the United States?

If you watched "Chernobyl" on HBO watch it again.

If you don't have HBO get it. Just this one series is worth the price. 

One of my earliest memories is of a horse laboriously pulling an Amish farmer’s wagon coming from the farmer’s market on Fleetwood Street up Blackhorse Hill Road. My son knows a man who has had COVID twice. What works is vaccinations.

Betsy taught 3rd grade in rural Lancaster County. Several of her students were Amish.

Betsy’s maternal side of the family are the King’s. King could be a Mennonite name.

When my son was little he looked like an Amish boy.

A Mennonite friend of Betsy was married. The only thing unusual, music entirely a cappella. It was nice.

“I just think the Plain community has to get involved in a public-health sense,” said Morton, founder of the Central Pennsylvania Clinic in Belleville, Mifflin County.

Morton, who first created the Clinic for Special Children in Strasburg, is renowned for his pioneering work on genetic diseases among Plain children.

“Just because you’re Plain doesn’t mean you’re exempt,” Morton said. “God helps those who help themselves.” 

 

MORE AT:

 Patriot News

90% of Lancaster County’s Plain community households believed hit by COVID-19 

When pay to play brings death. Cuomo allegedly made a deal with the nursing home lobbies then hid the bodies. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is a high profile long term menace to the Democratic Party.

Legislation allegedly written by the nursing home lobby groups giving sweeping immunity to nursing homes was signed into law by Governor Cuomo. Cuomo then tried to hide the actual number of dead from COVID at nursing homes. 

 “I would imagine that [the lobby groups] don’t want any more investigations into their potential pay to play schemes,” said New York Assembly Member Ron Kim, a Democrat. “The timeline proves [pay to play] may have happened around corporate immunity."

"Many actors benefited from the immunity provision. LeadingAge New York, a trade association for nursing homes, told the Wall Street Journal that it had requested the provision. Anonymous sources quoted by the Wall Street Journal said that the powerful Greater New York Hospital Association did not lobby for the nursing home provision, but the association bragged in an April 2 press release flagged by the Daily Poster that the immunity provision, which it 'drafted,' included “nursing homes.' The Greater New York Hospital Association has donated over $1 million to pro-Cuomo committees since 2018, the Daily Poster has reported. GNYHA has also retained DeRosa’s father, Giorgio DeRosa, as a highly-compensated lobbyist."

***

Numerous lawsuits have been filed as class action suits, with the class consisting of all residents of a particular nursing home who were injured or died as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.16

16 In Pennsylvania, a class of plaintiffs sued a long-term care facility alleging violations of numerous federal laws, such as the ADA, and even one international human rights law. Gill et al. v. PA Dep’t of Health (E.D. P.A. 2020), case no. 2:20-cv-02038. 

MORE AT:

COVID-19 Liability Shields for Nursing Homes and Long-Term Care Facilities in the U.S.

A full spectrum investigation by James into the Cuomo administration’s handling of the nursing home crisis could expose a much broader set of powerful actors in the state — actors that DiNapoli, who is considering a run for governor, would confront by making the referral demanded by the families of nursing home Covid-19 victims. “I would imagine that [the lobby groups] don’t want any more investigations into their potential pay to play schemes,” said New York Assembly Member Ron Kim, a Democrat. “The timeline proves [pay to play] may have happened around corporate immunity.”

New York Attorney General Letitia James needs a referral from Comptroller Tom DiNapoli to investigate the Cuomo administration’s mishandling of coronavirus.

MORE AT:

One Man Is Standing in the Way of an Investigation into Cuomo’s Nursing Home Scandal

Senator Warnock is already a statesman leading the fight to save democracy. The issue is, do we continue as a Democracy or do we accept fascist government?

 “Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock has said that the state's new law, which adds restrictions to voting, should be of concern to all Americans—calling their response a "defining moment" for U.S. democracy.

The law passed by Georgia's GOP-majority legislature creates stricter ID requirements for absentee voting limits drop boxes and makes it a crime to offer food and water to people lining up to cast their ballot.

"These are politicians who are trying to hold on to power," Sen. Warnock told The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC on Friday. "That's what this is, it's a power struggle and they've decided they're going to hold on to power no matter what, even if it costs the democracy itself.

"The only people who can ultimately correct this are the people themselves. So we've all got to stand up and say 'no' to this.”

Warnock told the MSNBC anchor that the legislation had wider ramifications for the U.S.

"If this is happening in the state Capitol in Georgia, it will not take very long for it to visit a state Capitol near you," the Democrat lawmaker said.

He added: "If you think this is something happening down in Georgia, you are misapprehending the moment that we are living in," he said, "this is a defining moment for the American democracy.”

"In a real sense this is about something much more profound. It is about whether we are who we say we are. Either we're a democracy or we're not.

"Either we believe in the idea of one person, one vote or we don't. Either I'm a citizen or I'm not," he added.”

Similar law changes are being considered in legislatures across the country. Georgia has joined Iowa in passing changes to voting rules, and there are 253 such bills in 43 states, according to the left-leaning Brennan Center for Justice think tank.

MORE AT:

Raphael Warnock Urges Americans to 'Stand Up' to Georgia Voting Law Change

By Brendan Cole On 3/27/21 at 8:35 AM EDT

I posted the current laws concerning voting in Pennsylvania. Keep checking this site for updates:

State Voting Bills Tracker 2021

We don’t need stronger anti-trust laws. To curb Amazon. We need workers unions.

It appears to me that Louis Brandeis wrote his anti-monopoly opinions at a time when union members were controlled by corporations shooting them dead with the full cooperation of law enforcement and anti-trust could function as a more effective protection to ordinary people.

 

“Khan sees the new antitrust movement, above all, as a revival. Well before Brandeis’s day, Thomas Jefferson sought to add an anti-monopoly clause to the Constitution. Andrew Jackson said Americans should “take a stand against all new grants of monopolies.” And some legal scholars even see an anti-monopoly instinct in the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal-protection clause, since monopolies can assert claims to special protections of the law. “If American democracy was founded on this set of ideas and traditions,” Khan said, “then we just took a knife and lopped off one half of it. It’s just gone.”

This is true, but the most effective way to give representation to workers is through unions:

“That was the insight of Brandeis,” Khan told me. “For most people, their everyday interaction with power is not with their representative in Congress, but with their boss. And if in your day-to-day life you’re treated like a serf in your economic relationships, what does that mean for your civic capabilities—for your experience of democracy?” - Lina Kahn

MORE AT:

 

The Atlantic

How to Fight Amazon (Before You Turn 29)]

Lina Khan has a novel theory about monopolies—and her sights are set squarely on the company.

ROBINSON MEYER

“In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson nominated Brandeis to become a member of the Supreme Court. His nomination was bitterly contested, partly because, as Justice William O. Douglas later wrote, "Brandeis was a militant crusader for social justice whoever his opponent might be. He was dangerous not only because of his brilliance, his arithmetic, his courage. He was dangerous because he was incorruptible ... [and] the fears of the Establishment were greater because Brandeis was the first Jew to be named to the Court."^[4] On June 1, 1916, he was confirmed by the Senate by a vote of 47 to 22,^[4] to become one of the most famous and influential figures ever to serve on the high court. His opinions were, according to legal scholars, some of the "greatest defenses" of freedom of speech and the right to privacy ever written by a member of the Supreme Court.”

MORE AT:

Louis Brandeis

James A Pitcherella on the 

ladder to his gantry crane 

at Lukens Steel Co.

I didn't work long enough at Lukens Steel Company to join the United Steelworkers Union   

My dad started at Lukens in the 1920s. He worked a 70 hour work week, 12 hours 5 days a week and 10 hours on Saturday. He often worked an "extra", a 12 hour day shift plus a 12 hour night shift and then a 12 hour day shift, 36 hours straight. I could see the pain in his eyes when he talked about the "extra."

“There are unions of Amazon workers in other countries, but no one has gotten this far in organizing the company’s US facilities. Only a fool would presume to know what these workers are capable of, and what their victory might inspire among a working class that has been pushed to the brink.”

JACOBIN

The Clock Is Ticking for the Amazon Union Vote in Bessemer, Alabama

03.12.2021

"One of the conversations I had was with a part-time worker who is also a social worker. He doesn’t make enough from his other job to make ends meet, so he works part-time on the weekends at the warehouse. He is in the drive because he saw the disparities in how people were treated and the disrespect. His parents and his grandparents were union members, so he grew up hearing about the importance of the union and has a deep understanding of the labor movement. So it was a natural fit for him. He wasn’t one of the ones who started the campaign, but he’s showing up all the time now. One of his issues was that as a part-time employee, he makes, I think, $3 an hour more than the full-time employee who’s even doing overtime hours. He was turned off by the unfairness of it and wants to make a difference.

What really stuck with me was that he described the importance of people taking ownership of their own power. One of the union leaders, an older black man who was in the hall listening to all of this, nearly came to tears talking about how excited he was to see this come to fruition. He was hearing this young man and his counterparts in the warehouse finally saying, “We’re not okay with being treated this way, and we’re going to do something about it.” The worker said to me, “It really means something to me to make my dad proud.” There’s solidarity expressed there between the generations and a continuity of the struggle for racial justice, which is the underlying tone of the entire campaign."

MORE AT:

Flight Attendants’ Leader Sara Nelson: “You Have to Look for the Next Fight”

03.19.2021

This week, AFA-CWA president Sara Nelson traveled to Bessemer, Alabama, where Amazon workers are now voting on unionization. We spoke to Nelson about the union drive, Amazon’s tone-deafness, and how her members are doing one year into the pandemic.

Interview by

Alex N. Press

Corporate Democratic Leadership in New York State is stuck in the 1990s/1840s Tammany Hall style politics. it’s a losing strategy in 2021. Assemblywoman Jessica González-Rojas, said “Ive had enough Cuomo must be impeached.”

 

Tammany Ring by Thomas Nast;
"Who stole the people's money?" / "'Twas him."

@votejgr

New York Times

Cuomo Faces New Threat: Impeachment Inquiry Led by Democrats

The move by the State Assembly sets the stage for what could be the state’s first impeachment effort in more than a century.

Our current Corporate Democratic leadership could snatch defeat from the jaws of incredibly easy victory over desperate Republicans that are enlisting terrorists to win elections. 

Bernie Sanders & the Mother Jones of the 21st Century Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have, in abundance, laid a how to win elections game plan for Democrats. And how to win popular support across political boundaries. 

 

READ the instruction book for Democrats on how to win elections in the 21st Century: 

WE’VE GOT PEOPLE by RYAN GRIM

We've Got People: From Jesse Jackson to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the End of Big Money and the Rise of a MovementPaperback – May 28, 2019

The only New York Governor to be impeached was William Sulzer.

Basically Sulzer was impeached because he was too virtuous. Tammany Hall impeached Governor Sulzer:

“According to the 1914 book The Boss or the Governor by Samuel Bell Thomas, a crowd of 10,000 gathered outside the Executive Mansion on the night Governor Sulzer left Albany, leading to an exchange as follows:

Mr. Sulzer: "My friends, this is a stormy night. It is certainly very good of you to come here to bid Mrs. Sulzer and me good-bye."

A voice from the crowd: "You will come back, Bill, next year."

Mr. Sulzer: "You know why we are going away."

A voice: "Because you were too honest."

Mr. Sulzer: "I impeach the criminal conspirators, these looters and grafters, for stealing the taxpayers' money. That is what I never did."

From the crowd: Cheers.

Mr. Sulzer: "Yes my friends, I know that the court of public opinion before long will reverse the judgement of Murphy's 'court of infamy.'"

From the crowd: Cheers.

Mr. Sulzer: "Posterity will do me justice. Time sets all things right. I shall be patient."

From the crowd: Cheers.

SEE:

“Impeachment

As the conflict between Sulzer and Tammany moved on, accusations of perjury arose against the Governor, stemming from an 1890 lawsuit accusing him of involvement in fraudulent companies in Cuba while a Congressman. It was also rumored that he was sued by a Philadelphia woman for breaking a 1903 promise to marry her. He rejected all these claims and characterized the breach of promise lawsuit as a “frame-up."^[16]

In May 1913, the state legislature established a Joint Committee to investigate the financial conduct of state institutions, chaired by Senator James J. Frawley, a loyal Tammany Hall Democrat. In the summer of 1913 this committee, using Tammany-provided information,^{[citation needed]} accused Sulzer of diverting campaign contributions to purchase stocks for himself and perjuring himself under oath. Sulzer and his supporters averred that the charges were made under instructions from Murphy in order to remove Sulzer as an obstacle to Tammany Hall. Some historians have corroborated Sulzer's version of events. Sulzer also questioned the constitutionality of the committee itself. But as evidence emerged regarding his use of campaign funds, he began to lose the support of the national Democratic Party."

MORE AT: 

William Sulzer

Watching “The Informer” on Amazon & remembering former Chester County DA Bill Lamb’s star witness Daniel Joseph who fingered 2 PA State Police for selling “French Connection heroin. Joseph was murdered while in federal protection.

 

Former Chester County DA Bill Lamb’s witness Daniel Joseph fingered 2 PA State Police for selling “French Connection” heroin.

State Police who sold heroin got 23 months probation.

Daniel Joseph was the star witness in 32 arrests. Richard Legree of Coatesville PA was one of the 32 people arrested. 

Richard Legree was called the “Biggest drug pusher in Chester County” by Bill Lamb. 

Mr. Legree began serving his sentence at Graterford Prison. All of Chester County District Attorney Bill Lamb’s prosecution fell apart when Joseph was murdered while protected by federal marshals. 

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1955&dat=19770623&id=y9ohAAAAIBAJ&sjid=a6AFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5384,1200110&hl=en

President Carter appointed a special unit that reported only to him to investigate the Chester County FBI.

SEE:

Friday, October 14, 2011

How Richard Legree went from " Biggest drug pusher in Chester County"to CCRC Area 14 Chair

***

Chester County has long periods of intense corruption and brief exposures of that corruption.

Friday, November 1, 2019

Even after his imprisonment for extortion former Chester County Commissioner & CCRC Chair Theodore Rubino is highly revered among Republicans.

Theodore “Teddy” Rubino was Chester County Commissioner and Republican Party Chair he ran Chester County as Angelo Bruno ran the Delaware Valley. Business owners would put a “tribute” into Rubino’s desk drawer when he left the room. If a business owner did not pay “insurance” to Rubino his business could be in trouble. 

***

Coatesville PA has really been massively screwed over by Republicans. 

Chester County wealth John Birch Society Chapter Leader Pat Sellers, the wealthy Chester County residents that backed the JBS, CCRC Area 14 Chair Richard Legree and Andrew Lehr’s & Harry Walker’s alleged attempt to grow wealthy from Florida Power and Light electric generation elected

Pat Sellers selected candidates known as the “Bloc of Four” took over the Coatesville City Council. 

The drug business was good again, murders, gunshots kept us away from windows and we slept downstairs with a fire extinguisher. 

SEE:

Coatesville arsons: city and feds unite

COATESVILLE, Pa. - January 26, 2009

***

Also SEE:

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Some previous actions of Coatesville Police Chief Matthews and Coatesville City Manager Harry G. Walker:

I believe that when Lt. Fitzgerald of the Philadelphia PD was interviewed by Harry G. Walker at the King of Prussia Mall for the position of Coatesville Chief of Police, Walker was accompanied by Richard Legree. I think Lt. Fitzgerald said Walker demanded that Fitzgerald appoint Legree as his first Lieutenant or Assistant Chief. Lt. Fitzgerald said “would not hire Legree due to his ‘checkered’ background”. I think that Lt. Fitzgerald may have been referring Legree’s conviction of selling 145 bags of heroin and a separate conviction of selling nine bags of heroin to undercover agents in Coatesville in1975. 

It may be a little thing but in my opinion Richard Legree appeared to be treated by the “bloc of four” as almost god like. For instance: the time limit rule for citizen’s comments is 5 minutes. Richard Legree went on as long as he wanted. I watched as the minutes went past 7 and Don Wilkinson laid the timing clock down on its face. Legree spoke for 22 uninterrupted minutes.  

Richard went all over the country in his capacity as Administrator of the Laborers' Health & Safety Fund of the Philadelphia LECET. When he was in Coatesville he was at city hall. 

Richard was also Chair of Area 14 of the Chester County Republican Committee (Coatesville, Modena, Valley North and Valley South). 

Richard’s son is now awaiting sentencing on February 24th in his conviction of selling Crack Cocaine in Coatesville. 
And From: 

“UNITED STATES OF AMERICA : CRIMINAL NO. 06-504
v. :
RICHARD LEGREE, JR. :
GOVERNMENT’S MOTION FOR PRETRIAL DETENTION 

1. Although the defendant has considerable ties to the Coatesville area, he is currently unemployed and has been captured on audiotape arranging drug deals while residing in his father’s house on home confinement.” 
http://www.box.net/shared/6xa2stfhbo

Soon after Matthews was given the job as Chief of Police the word spread that the city was considering laying off Coatesville Police Officers. The lay off did not happen but did result in about 15 officers leaving. The officers that were concerned with job security looked elsewhere. You see before Walker and Matthews the Coatesville Police Department was the envy of small PD’s all across Pennsylvania. Five years of serving in Coatesville under former Coatesville Police Chief Dominic Bellizzie was said equal to a lifetime of extremely good training in most Pennsylvania small town police departments. Coatesville police officers could nearly double their salaries in another police department.

Lieutenant Matt Gordon, referred to by Chester County DA Joe Carroll as “the Coatesville PD’s very best narcotics investigator, a man who knew all the “players” in Coatesville”, was put on administrative leave for years and eventually retired. Even when 200 police officers and police chiefs from all over Eastern Pennsylvania paid a surprise visit to a Coatesville City Council meeting and District Attorney Joe Carroll pleaded that he needed Lt. Gordon for his narcotics and murder investigations; the city council and city administration would not budge. “I need Matt Gordon back,” he said to the council. “If you could handle that as soon as possible, it would be greatly appreciated.” “Schenk was the lone council member to voice his unequivocal support for Matthews”. I believe that the actions toward Lt. Matt Gordon were an effort to remove him and replace him with Richard Legree. 


The bike squad was extremely effective in squashing drug dealer activity. The lookout system of the dealers did not work well against the Coatesville Police Bike Squad. The bike squad was squashed by Chief Matthews. 

In my opinion the news that “the money is good again in Coatesville” spread all over the nation. We rapidly had dealers from Philly and New York taking up residence in Coatesville. SUR-13, KOD, Cripps and other gang recruiters came to Coatesville. The guns poured in with them. Gunshots were heard and people were picking bullets out of walls and vehicles almost daily. Armed robberies and muggings, nearly all of them unreported in the press, rocketed up.  

At about the same time the arson began.

Take all this into consideration and then ask yourself why did the city administration resist implementing a Town Watch for more than 3 years?

Take all this into consideration and then ask yourself why is Matthews resisting implementing a curfew for adults?

See:

“Daily Local News 
Pusher called "danger to community', 

Friday, September 10, 1976
By BRUCE MOWDAY (Of the Local News Staff) 

Richard "Stretch" Legree of Coatesville, named as the number one drug pusher in Chester County by District Attorney William H. Lamb, was convicted last night of selling 145 bags of heroin to an undercover agent in January.”

"DAILY LOCAL NEWS
04/24/2007
CHIEF NOT RULING OUT LEGREE 
JENNIFER MILLER , Staff Writer 

BUT WILLIAM MATTHEWS ALSO SAYS HE DOES NOT HAVE PLANS TO REORGANIZE COATESVILLE POLICE DEPARTMENT “

COATESVILLE — One year has passed and the matter of an inactive police lieutenant remains unresolved.
http://www.zwire.com/site/index.cfm?newsid=19949657&BRD=1671&PAG=461&dept_id=17782&rfi=8



SOMEBODY IS GOING TO GET HURT
FORMER DETECTIVE CRITICIZES COATESVILLE CHIEF FOR PERSONNEL, SAFETY DECISIONS
Saturday, December 1, 2007 3:00 AM EST
By R. JONATHAN TULEYA and JENNIFER MILLER

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration revealed Operation Trickle Down in May.

It was the code name for a two-year investigation by various federal authorities, the Coatesville Police Department and other Chester County law enforcement agencies into a cocaine pipeline connecting Philadelphia to Coatesville…

’The sad truth is that although continuing drug investigations and arrests are necessary, Matthews wrote, they rarely make a real difference on the street. Simply put, we cannot arrest our way out of the illegal drug culture’,,,

Murrin, 41, worked eight years for the Coatesville police, including 3� years as a narcotics detective. Matthews’ reaction to Operation Trickle Down was not the only reason he left, but it contributed to his decision….

I was one of the guys (saying) ;don’t leave, don’t leave. It’s going to get better, Murrin said.

Seven officers, including Murrin, have left Coatesville’s department since Matthews took over in March. An eighth, former Lt. Matthew Gordon, remains suspended with pay as a result of a dispute with the chief about vacation time.

Murrin said he left reluctantly, and it was not until he felt concerned for his safety, mostly because of the Coatesville’s manpower shortage, that he made his decision. There were nightshifts, he said, being covered by only two officers.

‘That’s crazy. That’s scary crazy. Somebody is going to get hurt,’ Murrin said. The problem with that is you have to be reactive instead of proactive…

One former candidate for chief, Philadelphia Lt. Joel Fitzgerald, confirmed he met with Walker and Legree, who was not on the appointed search committee and is not a city employee, at the King of Prussia shopping mall. 

During the meeting, Fitzgerald said, Legree tried to negotiate a position for himself in the police department as well as convince Fitzgerald to fire one of the department’s two lieutenants. 

Roughly two months after the secret meeting, police arrested Legree’s son, Richard Legree Jr., on drug charges as part of Operation Trickle Down. Legree Jr., who earlier had been convicted of drug charges in the county court, still has pending drug distribution charges in federal court in Philadelphia.”

http://www.dailylocal.com/articles/2007/12/01/past%20stories/19941502.txt


Daily Local News
EDITORIAL 
Wake up chief, you are putting the city in danger
Tuesday, October 23, 2007 3:00 AM EDT

People being kind would say Coatesville Police Chief William Matthews and Councilman Kurt Schenk are unrealistic; others would say they�re delusional.
We think it’s the latter.”

http://www.dailylocal.com/articles/2007/10/23/past%20stories/19943361.txt


DAILY LOCAL NEWS
10/03/2008
Police dispute still on 
By JENNIFER MILLER, Staff Writer 

http://www.dailylocal.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20149013&BRD=1671&PAG=461&dept_id=635398&rfi=6 “


Daily Local News
Monday, September 11, 2006

Controller questioning transport
Eight constables provided security
By MICHAEL P. RELLAHAN
Staff Writer

…In addition to DiGiorgio’s concerns, the transportation arrangements for the defendant, Odell Cannon, are drawing some scrutiny from Sheriff Carolyn “Bunny” Welsh. She said she was alarmed when told that Cannon may be related to one of the constables chosen by Davis to take him to the hearing, Richard Legree."