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Whee: State official forced out after using emergency lights and sirens for joyride through Seaport traffic
By adamg on Sun, 10/02/2016 - 11:03am
Sure, Matthew Sisk wasn't looking too good after using DCR resources for a private party for Republicans, but the Herald reports what got his superiors to show him the door was the way he used the sirens and lights in his state car to blast through traffic on Congress Street.
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Comments
What an amateur.
What an amateur.
At least total a state owned car in the dead of night speeding for undisclosed reasons covered up by the State Police.
Kids these days can't even achieve being properly crooked anymore.
When you take a state job ...
You don't get to pretend that all the rules are the same as they are in corporate life.
Only with lights, sirens, and plum seats at the Hatch Shell.
I've always wondered about
I've always wondered about this.. what type of event warrants an administrator of an agency needing emergency lights and sirens in their vehicle? I couldn't imagine an event where a delayed response from this individual would result in the loss of life or or destruction of property.
probably some legit reasons but they should be trained ...
I can see why DCR may need a vehicle or two that can do this - maybe to respond to an incident on their turf or (more helpfully) get onsite quickly to unlock something or provide access.
My beef with civilian lights/sirens is that (like the Herald article said) people behave differently/unexpectedly when faced with such vehicles. Any civilian with lights/sirens on their issued vehicle should probably also have to be forced to take some sort of emergency driving training class so that they can do it safely. At least the cops and ambulance drivers do it often enough they know what to look out for when responding rapidly -- I can totally see some uptight civilian manager T-boning an inattentive driver or smashing a pedestrian/cyclist while thinking of their lights/sirens as some sort of magic road-clearing thing.
There are some good reasons
If they were pulled off a rural road inspecting storm damage, the lights might come in handy. The DCR also works on emergency response issues regarding public parklands - like fires, spills, landslides - so the lead administrator might need to respond to an emergency by getting past stopped traffic (e.g. the tanker spill into the Mystic River,etc.)
clearly you dont know the DCR
clearly you dont know the DCR
You don't know
What I know. Or where I work.. Or what I do.
I don't know the entire organization,true. However, I do know what some of the duties of the commissioners, deputies, and directors are, and that they involve on-call emergency response capabilities as part of coordination across departments and directorates and with MEMA.
This is true of DCR, DEP, DPH, DCF, etc. Which is why they get the cars with the lighting systems.
No DCF State Cars
I work at DCF - no state cars are given to our agency, Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner or otherwise...let alone state cars with emergency lights. There are very limited circumstances under which a social worker can request the use of a state car - the majority of the time they must use personal vehicles to transport clients. I have no idea where you got the impression that DCF higher ups drive state vehicles "with the lighting systems".
Please
Amber lights are used for most of those sutuations. If this nitwit had to get somewhere immediately to handle a life threatening situation, something in my experience political appointees are not required to do, put his butt in an actual state police cruiser with a trained officer driving it. Worked for Doug Mirabelli, oops, thaft was just to get to a game.
Please read the entire thread
I didn't say it was acceptable use.
The comment above mine asked why the cars had lights and sirens.
I merely answered his question: there are legitimate reasons that the Deputy Commissioner might need to use them as part of emergency management duties.
I never said that I thought this was a legitimate reason.
Only VFIPs
get sirens and flashing lights.
So because he associated with
So because he associated with Republicans you put up a smary pants headline and bash republicans? If your gal Liz warren did his you would understand
Hahahaha
The key thing is, she didn't.
The Republican angle comes from the earlier event, where he was using state resources for a, what's the term, oh, yeah, Republican event.
Oh, lookee here, even Republicans are disgusted
From a month ago, no less: Massachusetts Republican Assembly Demands Governor Charlie Baker End His Culture of Corruption, Matthew Sisk’s Resignation from Public Post and Party Committee.
As a regular Herald reader
I can tell you that the tabloid has been dreaming of the day when this guy would be out the door. Howie Carr has even been keying in on the history of hackdom in the Commonwealth- first the T, then Massport, then, after 9/11, the MDC (oops, DCR.)
So yup, sometimes the desire for rooting out corruption in government transcends partisanship.
Yeah, okay.
I wonder what local columnist and radio host had this to say?
"That’s the worst thing about this administration. They’ve taken ...it took 230 years to make this the greatest country, the greatest society in human history, and they are trying to unravel it and destroy it for... I don’t know why. I still don’t know why. What is ... this country handed everything to Barack Obama. He didn’t have to work for anything. Just because of the color of his skin he was given everything. And he still hates the country."
That's no dog whistle. That's sowing some visceral hate right there and it's okay by republicans.
Huh?
Please unbunch your panties. It's okay that Howie Carr and yourself agree on this issue. There are still many, many more issues where you can hate his stance.
That's some alt right
nuanced spin.
Well, it's true
Here's the thread in brief-
-Some anon notes that Adam posted this because he hates Republicans
-Adam notes that even Baker dislikes the guy
-I note even further that the conservative paper in this town, the one that practically claimed Trump won the debate last Monday, has been out for this guy since it surfaced that he's been using the office for political purposes, essentially, noting that even Howie Carr has been raking the guy over the coals.
-You note that Carr has an over the top hatred of Obama that most likely stems from racism.
Which one of those comments is the furthest from the topic?
I mean, unless you are somehow mad that Matthew Zisk lost his job. Then it all makes sense.
Sisk not Zisk and spare me the good government watchdog spin.
As a Herald reader you must be aware of the battle their most prominent columnist had as an active member of the state GOP with Governor Bakers state committee slate. All emulating from Bakers refusal to endorse Trump. Bakers boobs served up this political softball for his intra party enemies to hit. The Herald's rotund editor along with his serial racist lead columnist are focused solely on their brand of alt right republicanism and scaring older white people . How can one explain the publishing of opinion columns by an alt right GOP political consultant who's writings are incoherent at best and placed solely for the benefit of her paying clients? They read like an angry junior high students Facebook posts. I happen to enjoy this feeding frenzy among the GOP.
A certain column written today
pretty much describes my observation.
Okay
I wasn't planning on buying the Herald today, but if you insist, I will.
I, for one
I, for one welcome our smary pants headlines.
So is every state and local cop next?
I can't be the only one to frequently see various levels of police to turn on their signals, go through an intersection, and then turn them off. (Yes, there are legit reasons why they might need to do this, but it happens all the time.)
Report it when you see it
That's how Sisk got caught doing it in a state car.
And video.
There was video.
Next stop MBTA
Besides the Transit Police how many MBTA vehicles are equipped with lights and sirens?
Weird what gets one in trouble.
Matt Sisk presided over the infamous Mass GOP Convention of 2014. That was the one with allegations of vote rigging to keep Charlie Baker from having a challenger.
Clearly the challenger “didn’t have a case’’ but the party decided to settle anyways for $240,000 after having already spent $170,000 in legal fees.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/massachusetts/2015/02/12/fisher/AVtXy6eIYVGP6KVnP2C9NO/story.html
Nothing to see here. Move along.
I'm confused.
I'm confused.
Where does the article say that he has a state police cruiser?
It doesn't
You're right. My stupid mistake. I've changed the headline accordingly.