Good Morning Billy T and the Somerville Speak Up Line,
With the end of the Trump era in sight, a large portion of the country is feeling rightfully optimistic and excited to see what the next president will bring to the table.
We have been lucky to not see widespread effects of Trump’s America here in Somerville, but I am writing this morning to bring a concerning abuse of power and hypocrisy to light, from one of our very own elected officials.
On Friday, 1/8/2021, while attending to some personal business at the Washington St. police station, I saw a man come into the lobby to speak with the officers about renewing his gun permit. The man was greeted politely by the officer and told that in order to renew his gun permit he would have to go to the West Somerville station. The man immediately became upset and demanded to speak to the “new chief”, threatening to “go upstairs and check [himself]” if the officer did not meet his demands. The officer then made a phone call and asked the man his name to let the chief know who was requesting an audience. This further angered the man and he pulled out a wallet, displayed a badge to the officer and said “JT Scott”. The officer then told JT to take a seat and the Chief would be right down to speak with him. Again, this angered JT and he said “or I could just go upstairs myself” and then began walking up a set of stairs in the lobby.
I was completely taken aback to see that the source of such disrespect and lack of basic human decency was the uber-progressive, hair dye fanatic, councilman of ward-2. Councilman Scott has long been a proponent of police accountability, a matter in which we agree upon. But what about accountability for our elected officials? The officer helping JT was being extremely polite and professional despite the rude and unacceptable behavior of the councilman. I know from first hand experience that in order to renew my gun permit I had to make an appointment at the West Somerville station and hand my application to a wonderful secretary in person. Now, does Councilman Scott feel that he is above the rest of the citizens of Somerville? That he can just waltz into police headquarters, disrespect an officer doing his job and use his elected position for personal favors? I understand this is often the case in Somerville politics, but JT has been the voice for complete transparency and holding police and government to a standard that he does not hold himself to.
Please Mr. Councilman, when you decide to throw a temper-tantrum because you did not get your way, make sure there aren’t people around to see what a hypocrite you are. Or better yet, don’t do it at all. I hope that in the future you will follow the rules and not use your political office for personal gain, just as you expect other city officials to do. I think that an apology to the officer you blatantly disrespected would be appropriate and in line with your expectations of our police officers. I would like to add how impressed I was with the officer dealing with JT. He showed how professional our police officers truly are, even when dealing with an arrogant and irrational person. Thanks again Billy T for what you do for the city and I look forward to you being our leader in the future.
Sincerely,
Disgusted Somerville Resident, and if need-be, we will testify along with security camera footage.
JT Scott did not represent our Ward during the initial Somerville guidelines of the pandemic. He made our concerns for local contractors defying the Mayor’s stop order and treated us as an inconvenience by not responding and smoking with the contractors in my driveway…this was beyond unprofessional! He clearly was more interested in their boys club chat than following the city’s guidelines at a time when Somerville’s Covid surge was at its highest in March. After many calls and email attempts to reach him he never responded after that day with his contractor buddies…it was more important for him to be liked by the contractor’s than to adhere to the safety of his neighborhood by wearing masks and socially distancing. I’m not surprised by his behavior at the police station after meeting him…luckily I don’t live in his Ward anymore but I will campaign for anyone that chooses to run against him.
I’ve seen JT Scott in action a few times and I can honestly say he offers nothing of value to this city. He’s a vindictive, bellicose, self-serving, narcissistic hothead who, like trump, aligned himself with a political movement purely out of a desire for attention. He’s a classic case of the perils when inattentive voters vote for a slate of candidates.
Unfortunately, this story is all too believable.
“I concur!” 100%