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Herald too cruel to Matt Amorello?
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Comments
WBZ Radio
Jon Keller made essentially the same observation in his daily comments this morning at 8 am. I would have to agree - the guy has hit bottom - let justice and the system take care of that. It IS news - report on it - don't roll in it.
Fallen Fall Guy
Emily Rooney said pretty much the same thing yesterday on the radio. She also stated that it was the pack of Murrow's over at the Herald that had called up the DOT in Denver (or wherever out west it was) where Amorello had been applying for a job and basically sabotaged his chances at moving on with his life. And of course the Globe (and boston.com) is getting mileage out of those mug shots as well. Sure, Amorello was a hack and a schmuck, but why bully him any worse than all the others, especially since the guy's not going to have much of an impact on anyone's life any more (unless he hits you while drunk driving). Seems pretty needless and certainly not newsworthy. Is it too much effort to do real research on actual scandals than can affect our lives, like the Probation Dept?
The Globe made a disgusting
The Globe made a disgusting misjudgement in printing that photo. I can't really even think why they would have done it. I wonder if they will make any comment about it?
Whit
The real question is this:
Why was the mug shot even released to the media in the first place?
As for why the Globe chose to print it, the answer is simple: Because the Herald and the Metro both printed it as well. In other words - monkey see, monkey do.
Mugshot Question 2
Why the hell was he even being booked in that condition? He looked like he needed medical treatment! Tossing him in the cell with Senator Hittenrun can wait.
Send them all to South Hadley
This is bullying, pure and simple. It comes from insecure name-calling jerks who get their jollies and feel-goods and better-than-thou kicks from piling on and pummeling.
Amarillo should be locked up, and is responsible for his failings. That's what the justice system is for.
Is This Joe Sciacca's Handiwork?
I thought that a sensible-appearing man like Joe Sciacca might take the rough edges off the Herald, but N-O-O-O! He even let that pit bull Howie Carr "write" (or should I say "regurgitate"?) a typical anti-Amorello screed on a day when he usually doesn't publish. One commenter at bostonherald.com noted that the Herald utilized half the remaining "reporters" still on the payroll on this story.
I'm surprised
the admirable SwirlyGrrl engages in place-ism? Tut tut. One can't judge a town by the actions of a few "kewl kids" ;-P I'm not serious. I know you're impeaching the character of the South Hadley "kewl kids" who bully only.
Do you know anything about the new bully law? How it works. What's the standard, What obligation teachers, adults and students have? What consequences are prescribed?
The Point is ...
The Herald engaged much of its reporting power on the South Hadley case, and is now exhibiting many of the same behaviors toward Amarillo. That's all about feelgood outrage and not about consistent thinking.
pciky-picky
Not to nit-pick, but "Amarillo" is a town in Texas (once known as the Helium Capital of the World! Thank You, Wikipedia!). His name is Amorello, which is now pronounced [muhd].
Or is there an inside joke somewhere in there?
Nope
Just lazy spelling and bad hearing.
Always! You say picky, I say pciky
I say Amarillo, you say Amarello
Amarillo Amarello picky pciky
Let's call the whole thing off.
Sounds more like
... we're all pickled!
Nonsense...
...I meant to write pciky.... yeah.. it was a ...uh ...pun. You just weren't cool enough to get it.
(We can put a man on the goddamnedd moon, so why the frig can't spellcheck work on subject heading fields???)
you 2
are fun.
spellcheck
Firefox' built-in spellchecker will do that if you change a setting.
great tip
thanks
How's this for an inside joke
the word "Amorello" *roughly* translated from Italian means the diminutive for "loved one"
The guy aint' getting any love from the press is he.
Keller
Funny how Keller had no sympathy for Gallucio.
Keller's compassion or is it sympathy ?
I didn't know Keller was rough on Gallucio but Gallucio crossed my mind when I read Keller's post on Amorello.
Gallucio had repeat offenses, had received extraordinary accommodations (leniency aka non prosecution), and then after finally receiving a serious consequence from a judge, violated the terms and blamed the violation incredulously on a dental hygiene product.
Keller's compassion isn't for the power alcohol holds over some people but for the events that brought Amorello to his lowest low and greatest shame.
I do however wonder if Keller had some personal experience with alcoholics. His dogmatic and unexamined moral compass points to it.
There are two issues here, Amorello deserves sympathy on one
Amorello deserves no sympathy on the criminal charges if it's proven that he drove drunk and left the scene of the accident. He should be treated no better and no worse than anyone else accused of those crimes.
A separate issue is whether there was any level of police misfeasance after the arrest. Having worked in law enforcement for years, I've seen many prisoners temporarily labeled "too drunk to book". At a minimum, an ambulance is called and even if the prisoner isn't taken to the hospital, all questioning /photographing / fingerprinting is put on hold until the prisoner can actively participate in the process, sometimes hours later. I've also seen diabetics among others with medical issues, give the appearance of being very drunk when they've had nothing to drink at all, making a cellblock evaluation by EMTs a must. The so-called mugshot is troubling and has little value to law enforcement other than to embarrass. Amorello's appears to be seated, eyes are closed, face bloody, gloved hands of another in the photos. It's so unorthodox and prejudicial that police certainly wouldn't be able to use it in a photo array if someone of Amorello's description committed a future crime and witnesses came to the station to look at pictures. I can see if it was taken merely to document the condition of Amorello when he arrived at the station, but I don't think it should have been released.
A garden variety, misdemeanor DUI turned into something very different with the government's release of the "mugshot". For that, I find some sympathy for the guy. I'm also sympathetic that anyone holds him to blame for the Big Dig woes, seeing that he came aboard when it was almost complete. Even if he failed an an administrator, blaming him for all of the Big Digs failures goes too far.