Friday, Sep 4

Without further ado, WBSM presents The Barry Richards Show, streaming live on WBSM.com and the WBSM app. Call 508-996-0500. Text us using app chat on the WBSM app. Now, The Barry Richards Show. Oh, indeed. Good afternoon, Brian. In for Barry today. I knew it. Barry, Barry is taking care of some good family fun, some family in from out of town. He will be back on Monday. I, I never thought that I would be talking about the Lindsay Clancy trial. I mean, and quite frankly, I really don't want to talk. I'm laughing. I'm really laughing. I'll tell you why in just a bit. This being September 4th and the entry point to Labor Day weekend. Can you believe it? Labor Day weekend is already here. I was lying in bed this morning and normally six o'clock, even five thirty, it's been fairly light outside. It's after six o'clock this morning when the sun said peekaboo. And we're you know, the weather is humid today, but I hear we're going to get some rain tomorrow. And then the temperature is not going to be summer. May may not be over officially, but it's feeling like a woman friend is trying to get one of her last few days in at the beach today. But anyway, it's September 4th, the beginning of Labor Day weekend. And on this Friday, it's bring your manners to work day. Be kind. Bring your manners to work. National Food Bank Day. And I know mothers don't like to hear this one. Lazy Mom's Day. Most mothers don't feel like they're lazy. And I'm going to say it like this to save my hide. Busy mothers, you don't know the lazy ones, that's all. And it's World Sexual Health Day. On this day in 1888, George Eastman patented the first roll film camera, got a trademark for it under the name Kodak. 1988, Google founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Interesting story. It's very similar to what happened with Zuckerberg. Instead, Page and Brin were on the West Coast at Stanford University when they figured out how to do Google. Now they are multi multi billionaires. If everything was perfect, you would never learn and you would never grow. If everything was perfect, you would never learn and you would never grow. Alright, 508-996-0500. I don't expect you to be listening to the radio every once in a while. You might have to go to the refrigerator, the bathroom, garage, whatever the case may be. But a mistrial has been declared in the Lindsay Clancy triple murder manslaughter trial. That's a lot to really throw out there for you. On the Friday leading into Labor Day weekend. Now, I'm not a hermit. And every once in a while I would hear echoes within the news that the defense and the judge were jawboning it with each other and whatnot. I walked into the chiropractor's office today and the two gibby gabs were in there. Oh, it's got to be a mistrial. They can't keep on going like that. And if it's a mistrial, then they're going to have to do this all over again at taxpayer expense. These are people that they they work a normal eight, nine hour day, and then they can hardly wait to get back home so they can turn on the Lindsay Clancy trial or or get the, you know, the highlights. I know a lot of people listening to this to this channel. You've been following the case. I know McCarthy has had an attorney on with him and they've talked about it once or twice a week. And I say this as a person who had to cover for an audience, the O.J. Simpson double murder trial and the Rodney King affair. And between both of those, not so much Rodney King, but certainly O.J., I just saw so much pomp and celebrity. I said, you is this really how our system works? And I've been in I've been in courtrooms before and I admit I've never been in for a murder trial, but I can't believe it. And if you think back, there have been high profile murders before, but I don't think anything has topped O.J. And then here in the Commonwealth over the past decade, and there may be more, but three come to mind, three trials come to mind, and they all featured women as defendants. We just got through with Karen Reed, Lindsay Clancy right now. And let's go back a decade. The girl and the and the Roy boy over by the Kmart, the former Kmart in Fairhaven. You get the cameras coming into the courtroom. I guess I don't want the cameras. I just don't want all of a hoopla dealing with this. I know. Get over it. So just get used to it. If you if you want to make a comment or two or three about what's going on in the Lindsay Clancy trial, you you are more than welcome to do so. I somebody I picked up somebody yesterday, gave him a ride, and he brought up the the trial and he asked me what I think. And I pretty much told him what I just expressed to you. And he goes, they got to put her behind bars for something. And what am I supposed to say to that? I don't know. I I don't want to try to be in a in a woman's head going through postpartum depression. And I can't do that. And I don't want to. Look, I don't want to poo poo it. And I find it hard to believe that something like that happens. But she's not the first Lindsay Clancy and she won't be the last. So I look, one of the reasons I avoid. And it's the same thing with Karen Reed. Who are you supposed to believe? I'm not in the courtroom. I'm not going to follow this. I you know, I don't want to be there with all the other reporters. I've been there. I've done that. Like I said, not for murder, but I like to at some particular time say I want to keep my feet on the ground. Five zero eight nine nine six zero five hundred. Might as well get my two cents in right now dealing with the election that took place on Tuesday. I guess first things first, any fraud to report. Good thing we have the the Department of Justice to to keep an eye on everything that's stated. Are you OK with who won and who didn't see? I didn't think Sean Oliver was going to have such a problem getting the lieutenant governor's spot on the ticket with Mike Minogue. And to be honest with you, the guy who sits in this chair most of the time, Monday through Friday at this particular time. I know he was putting his his might, his microphone and his writings behind Brian short sleeve. But did he really have a chance short sleeve? Did he did he really hit any any buttons? Not that Minogue has, but I was saying to the former sheriff as he was leaving the room, I said, look, he's going to a Minogue thing and he's throwing a big Minogue party. I believe October 1st. Don't get don't quote me on that date, but it's it's a big party. I know because my chiropractor told me at any rate, I think that putting Minogue in the position that he is in right now with Sean Oliver, I'm going to I'm going to try to take the high road if you don't mind. Try to take the high road here. And here's that high road. I feel sorry for Sean Oliver. I really do. He is the second part of a ticket that really doesn't want him to be there. I have no idea if today when I was talking with Barry yesterday, he had mentioned that he had spoken to Sean Oliver and Sean Oliver and Mike Minogue had not spoken at that particular time. What does that tell you? Does that sound like a united front as the Republican Party gets ready for the big showdown now, a little bit less than two months away? If I'm a betting man, I'm not I can't put my money behind Mike Minogue. I would like to say that if there was a chance for a split ticket, what I mean by that is lieutenant governors run against each other and whomever wins that race gets it. But in the Commonwealth, and I looked it up, you can't do that. And so one of the questions I have for today, the main function of the lieutenant governor is to know I'm not going to I'm going to be nice. Well, twofold. One is you are a member of the governor's council. The other one is when the governor leaves the Commonwealth or is ill, going under the knife for whatever reason, incapacitated, passes away, decides to leave office. Then you step in temporarily or indefinitely or until the next election. Otherwise, you don't really get to do much. You get to you listen to what the governor says and you are the lackey for the governor. The other thing here in the Commonwealth, which would really work well because we have 40 members of the U.S. Senate, excuse me, of the state Senate, and the lieutenant governor could be a tie breaking vote. I don't know the last time there was ever a close vote in the state Senate, but the lieutenant governor could do that. But I looked under the duties of the job. I didn't see that. So why bother to have a lieutenant governor? Why not have it as such that if the governor leaves town, whatever the case may be, then either a constitutional officer or the Senate president takes over. Good idea, bad idea. I mean, look, the I think you make one hundred hundred fifty plus grand a year for the position to do what, to have somebody drive you down to New Bedford and say, oh, look at the windows. What do we pay a lieutenant governor to do? Sit on the governor's? I don't want to poo poo sitting on the governor's council. But look, you can have anybody sit on the governor's council, anybody the governor chooses. By the way, if the lieutenant governor is of the same party, isn't the lieutenant governor then going to be the mouthpiece of the governor on the governor's council? Five zero eight nine nine six zero five hundred. Thank you. Good afternoon. Hey, Brian, how you doing? I am. How are you? Well, take it one day at a time. That's all you can do. I had the opportunity to speak to police chief Jason Thody. Yes, I'm sitting here to be a seems to be a great guy. I love the guy. I told him that I did not like the Flock Safety Inc. company. I don't trust them, especially when this and I told him that there's a present lawsuit by the plaintiffs of different cities and towns all over the US. The plaintiffs argue that the company never adequately disclosed what it was doing with data or how long it's kept its records. And the lack of transparency sits at the center of most of these lawsuits filed, not to mention offshore accounts that are being used by Flock Safety Inc. to train the AI systems in Eastern Europe and the Philippines. And there's also a well-known company out of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in Internet Protocol Video Market. It's for sure IPVM. They're an authority on physical security technology delivering in the delivering the industry's only independent research, reporting, testing and training. What does all that mean? Well, that means that they do an analysis and study different security and surveillance systems and industries, and they put out a trade publication. They're like U.S. Business Bureau or UL Listing or something like that? And that these components are explicitly banned by the U.S. Department of Defense. So that's another red flag. That's according to them. Okay. And what did the chief say when you said that? Well, I didn't tell him about the Chinese thing because I forgot to mention that, but I did talk to him about the AI system being trained overseas. But it was a lot of calls that came after me, so I didn't really get to answer that. So in general, what did you think of what Chief Thody had to say with Chris today? Well, let me just say that I think he's in favor of these cameras and Flock cameras. You know, it's interesting. Pardon me for cutting you off. No, go ahead. What I find interesting, if you were at that meeting at the Pulaski School, the chief was at best 50-50 on the Flock cameras. He came out, he stuck his head out there, and he made some admonishments, and he admitted at that time he wasn't quite sold on it. To hear you say what you are saying today sounds to me like somebody has gotten into his head. I can't say either way, but it gives the appearance of it, at least. But this company that's out there, the IPVM, Internet Protocol Video Market, and they put out publications. They're an authority on physical security technology and systems. And they're telling us that Flock Safety Cameras uses hardware, contains hardware components from Chinese companies that have ties to the Chinese military, and that these same components are explicitly banned by a U.S. Department of Defense, to me is absolutely troubling. Well, it sounds like it's illegal, if nothing else. Well, I told Police Chief Jason Thody this was a hot potato that was dropped on your lap. Obviously, this was Mayor John Mitchell in 2024 and former Police Chief Paul Oliveira. The blame is on the mayor. The mayor didn't go out and do extensive research and study about this company. Now we're stuck with it at $36,000. You don't know that the mayor did not do research on it. What you're right about is you're stuck with a system right now. Hey, thanks for the call. $36,000. Yeah, look, not to mention the $81,000 prior. So, not a lot of money, but money that could probably be spent a little differently. Thank you much for your call. I was definitely going to get into the fact that the chief was on with Chris today. But maybe I want to start it like this. Again, I have listened sparingly because it's been a very, very busy week for myself. But I got home Tuesday after a rather long day. And I found out from woman friend. Hey, did you see that Dartmouth is stopping the flock cameras? And I said, where did you see that? And so she texted me over the story and I'm reading the story. And I'm saying, wow, what timing? Because I was up on Friday at town hall getting the paperwork. You only need 10 signatures. Wasn't a difficult task at all. You only need 10 signatures. And earlier I talked to Stanley Mickelson, who used to be a select board member. And again, I don't know. But I find it odd that before the select board meeting that was going to come up to, again, review flock. The police chief decided that he was going to curtail it. Hmm. So now Dartmouth has pulled the cameras. And by the way, I pulled my papers. But I hold the right to resubmit the paperwork if Dartmouth decides to reinstitute the ALPR. That's right. License plate reader. Yeah. It's unbelievable. So here's how I'm looking at it now. We've got the move by Dartmouth. Town meeting in Fairhaven is set to vote to stop them. Again, I don't know how the town meeting vote's going to go. And then you've got New Bedford. And one of the things that I noticed and I'd actually heard because the press conference that the chief was giving was going on. Actually, during the time that I was here at the station yesterday. And so I found it not surprising that another police officer was caught misusing or maybe illegally using the flock system. So that's two. And the audit itself is not over. They may turn up two, three, four more people. But I'm cautious at what I'm hearing from some callers and others out there. In particular, if you can have the proper guardrails in there. Well, what are the proper guardrails? What are the proper guardrails? And the suspension. Chief Doty, I think I heard him say today, you know, they may start it back up. There was one thing, and you can see this at WBSM.com. Tim put the story up. Where is it? Here it is. Tim put the story up yesterday at some particular time. The, let's see. Community and stakeholder working group. Vendor evaluation. Establishing a working group consisting of representatives from the police department, elected officials, New Bedford residents and business owners to discuss the conditions under which New Bedford can continue the use of ALPR technology. Now, I want to hammer this part home. Establishing a working group consisting of cops, elected officials, residents, business owners to discuss the conditions under which New Bedford can continue the use of ALPR technology. Not whether it should still be used. The conditions under whether and how it should be used. And who are going to be these community stakeholders? Do you think you're going to get police officers that are against it? Don't want to use it in the field at all? Do you? Maybe Brian Gomes because he's on the public safety committee. He'll be there. But who else? Do you think Burgo gets a shot? Roy gets a shot. Shoket gets a shot. Maybe. Who knows? Residents. Who's going to pick the residents? Do you think Nick or Zara? Do you think they get the opportunity? Do you think any of the people that were peacefully sitting in the gallery or on the floor at that meeting two Thursdays ago? Do you think they get a chance, a bite at the apple? Think they're on the committee? Or more to the point, let's be fair about this. How do they get the opportunity to be on that committee? Again, to discuss the conditions under which New Bedford can continue the use of ALPR technology. Every obstacle you will ever face is not only an obstacle, it's also an opportunity. This is WBSM. The Brian's Beat Quote of the Day is posted daily on Facebook at briansbeat.com. Sometimes listeners agree, sometimes they don't. But that's where the conversation continues. Every business owner knows that sound. The moment a customer swipes their card, you smile, you say thank you. Every transaction carries a fee and they add up quickly. With Baystate Business Funders, many merchants are now lowering their processing fees to nearly nothing and retaining more money. Call Baystate Business Funders and ask us how to turn your processing fees into extra income. Baystate Business Funders, 774-473-5250. This portion of programming on WBSM is brought to you by Dee's Hot Dogs in New Bedford, where you can get two hot dogs, chips and a soda for just six bucks. Back to Barry Richard on WBSM. Call 508-996-0500. If I'm breaking a $100 bill, how many 20s am I getting back? Six. Yeah, I thought I'd have a little fun with something that I caught on YouTube. It's called America's Decline Caught on Tape. 508-996-0500. Now, next hour, if you want, I can easily switch away from Flock. I've got quite a few things that I want to bring up. But the so-called guidelines for Flock technology to be reacted in the city of New Bedford came out yesterday, courtesy of the police chief, and I believe he went over a few of them today. One of the large sticking points is data retention. According to the city, and I'm reading it right off of their website, actually something that Tim got from the police department's website. Data retention. Data retention would be reduced from 30 days to 14 days. Longer retention could be permitted when data is evidentiary in a specific investigation or when authorized by a warrant or court order. Okay. From 30 down to 14. Like that idea? Do you see the value of 16 fewer days? Flock, earlier in the last month now, came up with its data retention, what they're going to do. Flock cameras previously stored data for 30 days. Now, the default retention period has gone from 30 days down to 7. So, Flock, the company, is doing one week less than what the police chief in New Bedford is proposing as a guideline. And you know like I do, data can be deleted, but where does it go? You think about the idiots that are out there filming little kids, you know, doing the kiddie porn. If they were to delete it from their camera, it's out there somewhere for folks to pick up. And to Collar's point earlier, you know, it could be off in some foreign country where everybody else is drooling over the pictures or whatever the case may be. So, you've got your local police chief going from 30 to 14 days, but the Flock company, and again, that's just Flock. There are other ALPR systems out there, but Chief Thode wants those cameras to keep the data for 14 days. What else did they ask for? Simple language, not they, Flock. This is what the company, Flock, is going to do. To make this commitment easier to understand, next week we will publish an easy to read, plain English explanation of our contract on our website. Organized section by section. The principles are simple. Customers own the data. Customers decide who has access and customers choose who they share with. There were three other towns besides Dartmouth over the past week, maybe go 10 days, that have gotten rid of Flock or have ordered the suspension of Flock. Ayr, Groton, and I'm going to say some town closer to us, but I don't remember its name. It should be interesting to see how all this plays out. I did try to reach out to Leo Choquet. He's busy working today. I did try reaching out to Ian Abreu. He is also working today. I did reach out to Shane Burgo. He didn't respond. Again, I am curious, really curious to see how the folks representing the City of New Bedford and the City Council, how they're going to respond to this. They have their motions. I'm going to take a guess here. I'm going to take a guess. Councilor Gomes is down with this particular type of guideline. He may have even been a part of it. I don't know if he was asked. But my guess is he would be pretty okay with it. Because I think he believes the technology is good and shouldn't be eliminated. In fact, he is one of those that publicly stated at a City Council meeting. He believes it's an effective tool with the proper guidelines. And I believe a lot of people believe that. I'm going to raise my hand. I believe the same thing, too. But the question is, what are the proper guidelines? And who decides what those proper guidelines are? And I state this openly. The Police Department can come up with guidelines. City Council can vote on guidelines. Commonwealth has a bill, no good anymore because the session is over. There's going to be a new session starting in January. So somebody's going to have to refile the bill that was currently sitting there, sitting idly by, and put that out there for the people. Now, again, I stated this before, but it's worth repeating. How is it possible that a bill as important as this ALPR technology, which needs guardrails, never got worked on by the Bacon Hill lawmakers? How did that happen? How did FD Cabral, how did any of the delegation down here, Montigny, how did they just not work on it? If I'm you, I'm thinking as hard about it as I am. Look, I'm happy right now that Dartmouth has said no to FLOC. It's a temporary no. Let me rephrase that. It's an indefinite no because the order is for FLOC to come in to take down the cameras that they have installed. But it doesn't mean that when proper guidelines come about, and whatever those proper guidelines may be, that they won't be reinstalled. And as I've stated time and again, this is something that the people should vote on because if it's not unconstitutional, it skates that border. And that should be something, you know, when it's that close, I think it's best that the people vote. The people want it, and the people can have it. But if they don't, then why are we going down this particular road? Every business owner knows that sound. The moment a customer swipes their card, you smile, you say thank you. Every transaction carries a fee, and they add up quickly. With Baystate Business Funders, many merchants are now lowering their processing fees to nearly nothing and retaining more money. Call Baystate Business Funders and ask us how to turn your processing fees into extra income. Baystate Business Funders, 774-473-5250. Broadcasting live from the Carefree Homes studios, this is WBSM, Carefree Homes, your home improvement experts, roofing, siding, windows, and more. Get a free quote at carefreehomescompany.com. Carefree Homes, trusted local family. Who was the very first president of the United States? Oh, wait, why am I blanking on this? I don't know, bro, I'm horrible in geography. George Washington. Bill Clinton. Bill was actually the 42nd president. Oh, wow, okay, so I have a lot to go. Oh, God. Calling Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard. ABC's going to tell us what they want to know at the top of the hour. I mentioned earlier I'm kind of feeling a bit sorry for Sean Oliver. I know he won on Tuesday, but where's the support? Maybe it comes. I've spoken to two people seemingly in the know, and they didn't really know if Mike Minogue had reached out to Sean Oliver or Sean Oliver had reached out to Mike Minogue. And as far as the gubernatorial campaign right now, as much as I don't want to admit this, I have to state that I do believe that this is going to be going Maura Healey's way. And I think Barry has been right along the lines, and I'm tired to disagree. Maura Healey's going to hit on abortion. She's going to hit on Trump. And it's going to blow Mike Minogue away. That's my gut feeling that's going to blow Mike Minogue out of the water. How's he going to retort in the Commonwealth? Do you think more people, more voters, favor the right to choose?