Cambridge Police today identified Supt. Jack Albert, who has been on the force for 32 years, as the person who mistakenly used the department Twitter feed to call US Rep. Joe Kennedy "a liberal fucking jerk" whose sole saving grace was that he was better than "the clown" Kennedy is running against, Sen. Ed Markey.
Police said, effective immediately, only the department's director of communications and media relations will have access to the department Twitter feed. The department also released a statement by Albert:
To the City of Cambridge, my colleagues at the Cambridge Police Department and my friends and family, I wanted to take full ownership and responsibility for my regrettable actions following inappropriate political commentary I inadvertently published on the Department’s Twitter account.
As a 32-year-member of the Cambridge Police Department, and someone who grew up in the City of Cambridge, I know the high standards the Cambridge Police are expected to uphold in the community. Those expectations are rightfully heightened with someone in my executive position - on and off-duty. Unfortunately, in a moment of heated political debate with friends, I posted commentary that was out of character and not something I am proud of. I - not the department - deserve the criticism that has been directed to the Police Department over the last 24 hours.
During this unprecedented time and COVID-19, my colleagues at the Cambridge Police Department have been doing extraordinary work supporting and protecting our residents. To detract from their exemplary efforts because of my poor lapse in judgement is something that I will forever carry with me.
I want to genuinely apologize to Senator Markey, Representative Kennedy, the Cambridge community, and the great men and women of the Cambridge Police Department.
The department added:
Superintendent Albert is subject to disciplinary action per Department policy and procedures. Pursuant to Massachusetts General Laws, the Department would be restricted from disclosing any specific disciplinary action involving such personnel matters. Rest assured, the Cambridge Police Department remains committed to providing the very highest-level of service to our community and will work tirelessly to restore any trust that may have been broken as a result of this unfortunate incident.
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Comments
I think whatever law they're referring to here
By boo_urns
Mon, 05/04/2020 - 7:03pm
It ought to be reconsidered. If a public official like this breaks public trust in some sort of manner, I think the public is owed actual assurance that there will be accountability.
He will get a written reprimand.
By Pete Nice
Mon, 05/04/2020 - 7:07pm
Probably a first time discipline incident for him, and for something like this, a written reprimand is pretty standard. (Although sometime when you achieve a rank this high, you can be demoted for something like this)
Ok, but,
By boo_urns
Mon, 05/04/2020 - 7:13pm
That doesn't sufficiently get to the core of the issue I stated. If what you suggested is what this constitutes (and probably taking away the keys to the Department's social media), I don't see what lawful need there is to withhold that information from the public.
Privacy issues I guess?
By Pete Nice
Mon, 05/04/2020 - 7:28pm
Just giving my guess as to what kind of punishment he might get.
I'm going to guess that it's
By Andres
Tue, 05/05/2020 - 11:58am
I'm going to guess that it's not MGL that limits Cambridge PD from sharing disciplinary action. Far more likely it's the result of the CBA between the city and whatever union Mr. Albert is a member of. That *sounds* like the kind of thing a union would push to keep confidential.
If that were the case,
By boo_urns
Wed, 05/06/2020 - 10:00pm
Then why would they start off the sentence with "persuant to Mass General Laws"? Unless it pertains to CBA and MGL, but either way that's a bit convoluted.
First time? How do you know,
By anon
Mon, 05/04/2020 - 7:23pm
First time? How do you know, we cant know since apparently the public isn't allowed to know how the perps are disciplined. What a coward this cop is. Cambridge cops have less and less respect by those of us that pay their extraordinarily inflated salaries. I hope he is fired but since Cambridge is already claiming they will hide his punishment he will continue to collect big bucks to lard around and tweet invectives like his orange haired hero.
Lol
By Pete Nice
Mon, 05/04/2020 - 7:04pm
This is awesome.
Lol
By The Beer Guy
Tue, 05/05/2020 - 5:01am
acab
Arrests
By Kaz
Mon, 05/04/2020 - 7:15pm
How many arrests did Albert contribute to where the person arrested was taking part of some sort of "liberal jerk" thing like a protest against government overreach?
How many "clowns" has he locked up?
None?
By Lunchbox
Mon, 05/04/2020 - 8:27pm
People can separate their professional lives and their personal lives. And their Twitter lives, too.
Just because someone uses some PG-13 language, and doesn't properly genuflect before our (D) politicians, doesn't mean their a bad person or a bad cop.
That said - c'mon Superintendent, be a little more careful on the keyboard
You know this?
By lbb
Mon, 05/04/2020 - 8:32pm
You know this for a fact, do you?
Yes, but did he? That's the question.
I don't think someone like this belongs in his position. Too much bias married to too much power.
My arm for blind lady liberty
By fenway_guy
Mon, 05/04/2020 - 10:38pm
Just because he wrote something political?
Good luck finding a robot to lead our police force.
except he literally didn't
By anon
Mon, 05/04/2020 - 10:12pm
that's why we're reading all this...
What? He just didn't separate his lives!
By anon
Mon, 05/04/2020 - 11:16pm
That's the problem!
Sure, he made a big mistake on his phone over politics, but come on now, there's no way he would make a much worse mistake during the heat of the moment of a police interaction!
Is that your argument?
What the fuck are you smoking?
Severe reprimand is in order to set an example.
Extremely poor judgement to even send that tweet from the wrong account, never mind the disturbing message behind it.
If you think this guy is giving "liberal" protesters at a rally a fair shake I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.
I'm asking the question
By Kaz
Tue, 05/05/2020 - 12:52am
We don't know. But if I were in lockup, I'd have my lawyer appealing on the fact that his bias may easily be systemic. People often hire people they like. People working for him on the street know just what kind of opinions he has and would self-select to work under him or somewhere else.
I'd be expecting this might have some repercussions on some appeals going forwards.
Doubt it.
By Pete Nice
Tue, 05/05/2020 - 7:06am
You can find enough public police social media profiles with worse comments than this, and that’s against Trump, Obama, “liberals”, Hilary, you name it.
You would really need a lot more than this to over turn any conviction. This is despite the fact that this guy probably hasn’t made an arrest in 15 years and the ones that he did make are either out of prison, or did something serious enough that being a “liberal” had nothing to do with the arrest in the first place.
The bottom line is that if he put this in his own profile, there would be nothing the department could do about it (unless his position is a non civil service one and the chief/commissioner can demote him without cause) . He will be disciplined because he violated policies by misusing public social media accounts.
Yeah um
By Scratchie
Tue, 05/05/2020 - 10:58am
That's kind of a serious problem.
You think a black officers Facebook page....
By Pete Nice
Tue, 05/05/2020 - 11:05am
Which says. “I can’t wait until this racist POS is out of office” is a serious problem?
but trump IS a racist
By berkleealum
Tue, 05/05/2020 - 11:13am
objectively. why do we have to do the false equivalence thing?
Not false equivalence.
By Pete Nice
Tue, 05/05/2020 - 11:25am
You have to see the endless list of possibilities here right?
Bush is a terrorist
Tito Jackson is a goof
Trump is a rapist
Clinton is a rapist
Regan was a war criminal
Obama hates white people
Mitt Romney is a fucking clownfaced jerkoff
Deval Patrick was a snowflake fucking moonbat
Charlie Baker is a racist asshole
Ayanna Presley is an uneducated moron who should mind her business.
Which one of these warrants discipline? Only the ones you find “objectively” truthful?
Yeah, probably
By Scratchie
Tue, 05/05/2020 - 11:39am
Trump's obvious racism notwithstanding, yes. If there's any indication that an officer might treat a suspect differently depending on that suspect's political views (e.g. a bumpersticker on their car), then that's a problem, since it would open up legitimate questions about that officer's objectivity and bias that could be used to challenge their arrests in court.
A lot of journalists operate under a code of ethics that precludes them from expressing political opinions on any subject, even political races or politicians that they don't cover, because it opens up questions of bias. It doesn't seem like a huge imposition to expect public servants who literally have the power of life and death to follow a similar code.
Agreed in theory scratchie
By Pete Nice
Tue, 05/05/2020 - 11:41am
But you can see there is a huge gray area when it come to speech like this.
There shouldn't be.
By That person on the T
Tue, 05/05/2020 - 12:43pm
There shouldn't be.
I don't see why there's any
By Scratchie
Tue, 05/05/2020 - 3:01pm
I don't see why there's any "grey area" when it comes to a cop expressing disdain for the people he's supposed to "serve and protect."
In terms of discipline?
By Pete Nice
Tue, 05/05/2020 - 3:17pm
If I hate trump, I can’t say it at all because of trump supporters who I’m supposed to protect?
Not in public, on social
By Scratchie
Tue, 05/05/2020 - 3:29pm
Not in public, on social media.
Avoids my point
By Kaz
Tue, 05/05/2020 - 1:23pm
My point is that as the superintendent of operations (patrols, tac-ops, and traffic enforcement), his officers under him know exactly what kind of person he is. They probably even like him or are like him because he's hired people he likes and they've self-selected to work for him rather than join a different unit/police force to be out from under a guy who occasionally likes to pop off about "liberal jerks and clowns".
Sure, he might not have any arrests still in jail, but his subordinates do. Is there a thin blue line in Operations for making sure "liberal jerks and clowns" get theirs? Does Cambridge inordinately spend too much on something that would get at those liberals...like bike traffic enforcement relative to the cost to society of say motor vehicle traffic enforcement?
My point is that these sorts of bias easily become endemic. They don't write down on the duty roster "I wanna see 10 liberals cry today"...but everyone knows what the big guy at the top wants.
Meh still a stretch.
By Pete Nice
Tue, 05/05/2020 - 1:59pm
Legally you have no shot to get anything overturned from this, unless you can show extreme bias (in this case against rich white male liberal politicians). Just not that many scenarios I can think of in my experience where someone’s political leanings even came into factor in any arrest.
Plus a department like Cambridge (and Boston) is going to be so diverse that political leanings take a back seat to race all the time. And any division is going to be diversified in so many ways deputies never can being an entire unit into his way of thinking.
You take the most dangerous neighborhood in Boston, I wouldn’t call the residents liberal by any stretch of the imagination. And these are the places where most of the arrests and complaints are made.
In the end, no, I don’t think systemically a guy like this can pollute his subordinates in anyway, and definitely not in a way where someone could take legal action/appeal based on it.
What are you talking about?
By lbb
Wed, 05/06/2020 - 10:35am
Who's trying to get anything overturned? The discussion is whether this unprofessional clown should be in a position of authority with the power of life and death over people whom he holds in contempt.
Would you know, really?
Kaz was talking about taking court action..
By Pete Nice
Wed, 05/06/2020 - 1:11pm
And I’ve seen a few thousand arrests, testified in a few hundred cases, seen another thousand overturned for various reasons, etc etc. Never seen white rich liberal men targeted for anything unless they were from Weston or Wellesley (often time cops will give heavy fines to suburbanites over city residents).
Tell me what your experience is? (Besides being a white female gentrifier and the experiences that go along with them)
FWIW
By boo_urns
Wed, 05/06/2020 - 11:30pm
I didn't read Kaz's point to be that limited in scope re: court action. It seemed like they were making a point about squad culture that was influenced by people in leadership positions.
Here's hoping he drags those
By Milwaukee Mike
Mon, 05/04/2020 - 7:17pm
Here's hoping he drags those knuckles of his right out the door.
Fire him.
By jmeltzer
Mon, 05/04/2020 - 7:18pm
Fire him.
He is in Cambridge
By StillFromDorchester
Mon, 05/04/2020 - 7:20pm
If he called non liberal politicians jerks he would be fine.
Maybe a stern talking to is the worst he would have to endure.
Again the only problem
By Stephen Bickerton Sr
Mon, 05/04/2020 - 7:23pm
He used the wrong twitter handle.
Its still ok to have an opinion in USA.
Or it use to be I guess
Right, thats the point, he
By anon
Mon, 05/04/2020 - 7:43pm
Right, thats the point, he used the official Cambridge Police dept. account to not just make a poitical statement (which is unlawful) he used it to make a profane political statement. Thats what people are upset about, using an official government account to make profane political statements. No one said anything about his personal one, which he seemed to delete, Jack Albert (@Redlight79).
You're right
By Ricky Stevens
Mon, 05/04/2020 - 8:14pm
He didn't do anything illegal. Mixing up Twitter handles is stupid, but that's not a crime in this country. But the problem isn't stupidity. It's how he puts his clearly strong view of people into the world. How he acts and treats those "liberal jerks". And he's not just "some guy". He's a police officer, tasked with protecting the rights and safety of the people of Cambridge, a lot of whom probably are liberal jerks. With what power he has, those people shouldn't feel like someone meant to protect them might actually be working against them.
Not just a police officer
By anon
Mon, 05/04/2020 - 11:20pm
A superintendent. A supposed leader and supervisor. Revealing himself as a dope with poor judgement.
I want to see his real Twitter now.
What kind of other anti-American douchebaggery has he been posting?
It's Cambridge
By Lunchbox
Mon, 05/04/2020 - 8:28pm
Only 100% approved and vetted opinions are allowed.
"the wrong twitter handle"
By lbb
Mon, 05/04/2020 - 8:33pm
This may come as a rude shock to you, but many companies have social media policies that forbid employees from making social media posts that are detrimental to the company. These are 100% enforceable. Why do you think this cop should be coddled?
Once you can read their minds,
By anon
Mon, 05/04/2020 - 9:39pm
you won't have any more cops with your standards.
Hate to break it to you
By lbb
Tue, 05/05/2020 - 3:22pm
...but don't ever try to get a job in the private sector.
And that sucks
By Anon
Mon, 05/04/2020 - 11:15pm
So it's OK that Amazon fires employees who criticize its actions?
"OK"?
By lbb
Tue, 05/05/2020 - 3:25pm
Depends on what you mean by "criticize its actions". In some cases, I believe, that wasn't "criticism" but labor organizing, which is protected. Running your (figurative) mouth about your employers, your coworkers, your workplace...isn't. Not for me, not for you. I know people who were fired for trash-talking their workplace on social media. It isn't protected speech, and you'll have to create a whole new chain of legal precedent if you think that this is not "ok".
tl;dr: as in so many cases, speech is usually free, but is not usually free of consequences.
Stricter than detrimental
By tachometer
Tue, 05/05/2020 - 7:30am
I've seen it where there is an introductory social media training. Once you take that you can do things like share a company post on your own Facebook or LinkedIn but you can't editorialize or comment any further about the content. So you can do a generic "Look at the cool stuff we're doing" but that's about it. Then there are higher level trainings for people who are in a position to post and comment safely (e.g. without violating SEC regulations) or to create the posts. Welcome to the modern world.
contagion
By lobster nanny
Mon, 05/04/2020 - 7:40pm
When someone in a senior administrative role lets loose like this, you can betcha that it isn't confined to this one statement. This contaminates the culture of the entire organization. it's one thing to criticize a public figure's actions or statements of fact or opinion using facts and evidence. But it's another entirely when the ad hominems and condemnation fly free.
There's a dispatcher there who speaks contemptuously to callers. He was on duty when the superintendent tweeted his opinion. I'm guessing that dispatchers are influenced by senior departmental personnel.
The public will think long and hard about volunteering information or help when the police department doesn't rid itself of bad actors. Mr. Albert has a long way to go to build any sort of trust, and now, so does the entire Cambridge Police Department.
Exactly
By lbb
Tue, 05/05/2020 - 11:29am
Exactly. This gives permission to subordinates to express and act on similar attitudes.
Good on him for apologizing,
By anon
Mon, 05/04/2020 - 7:46pm
Good on him for apologizing, but I seriously doubt that it was “out of character”. You don’t just spew shit like that because things get heated.
Will he keep his job?
By Will LaTulippe
Mon, 05/04/2020 - 7:51pm
Or will the Cambridge Police Department have Jack Albert in a can?
make
By Luke Warmer
Mon, 05/04/2020 - 7:59pm
an example of this munch but short of firing him. don't fife him. give the goddamn police political bias training, they are completely stupid--it has to be possible to create a training that isn't entirely top-down neoliberal nonsense, but can without bullshit remind the police that part of their duty as Americans is to have a functioning mind--it also feels better than a malfunctioning mind. the reality is if we want police departments that are not full of psychotic oafish bigots then we are going to have to provide them with actual information and training, lest they try to get all that from resentful pill poppers like Limbaugh
Munch?
By Will LaTulippe
Mon, 05/04/2020 - 10:05pm
I believe it's spelled "mensch." And I don't think he is one.
munch
By Luke Warmer
Tue, 05/05/2020 - 12:28am
was not a typo. 'fife' was, but fuck maybe even fife applies in some way
Your 90s references are failing
By tachometer
Tue, 05/05/2020 - 7:32am
Pretty sure it was short for "buttmunch" a la Beavis & Butthead
I knew that
By Will LaTulippe
Tue, 05/05/2020 - 10:22am
You dillhole.
This is bullshit
By Fenway Crank
Mon, 05/04/2020 - 8:10pm
This is bullshit. Not for one second do I believe this is a mistake. This is an abuse of power by a public official. He should be removed from his post.
If this was a black guy shouting “Black Power” from the Cambridge Police official Twitter feed you can bet your ass he would be removed from his post immediately, and he wouldn’t be allowed to classify it as a mistake.
So, he purposely posted this
By Lmo
Mon, 05/04/2020 - 8:12pm
So, he purposely posted this from the CPD account knowing he would be caught?
Abuse of power?
By Rozzieguy
Mon, 05/04/2020 - 8:32pm
Abuse of power? For using the department twitter handle? We've gone to plaid. Pump the brakes.
Is...
By lbb
Tue, 05/05/2020 - 11:30am
Is "pump the brakes" what the kids are saying now when someone's just hit a nerve with an entirely on-target shot?
The apology is certainly due...
By lbb
Mon, 05/04/2020 - 8:34pm
...and so is his resignation. Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out.
Community outreach might be a
By anon
Mon, 05/04/2020 - 8:47pm
Community outreach might be a good new assignment...
Does not inspire confidence
By Former Cambridg...
Mon, 05/04/2020 - 9:47pm
Although it's a pretty great back-handed Markey endorsement. I was already leaning his way, but do we need another rich, coddled Kennedy, particularly when Ed's been doing pretty good work? It's a genuine question.
Highly doubt this was a voluntary apology
By anon
Mon, 05/04/2020 - 11:24pm
Don't kid yourself, folks.
Department found out it was him and forced his "voluntary" apology.
Next it gets swept under the rug.
I have utmost respect for honest cops.
Despise assholes like this and those who cover up for them.
I'd be fired for posting a partisan political perspective
By MC Slim JB
Tue, 05/05/2020 - 3:10am
on the company Twitter feed, left or right.
My job is like this guy's in that putting a hard political slant on company social-media posts would seriously undercut my professional credibility. Take your anti- or pro-Trump ravings to your personal Facebook account, dipshit. It's easier to pretend later you were being sarcastic, never mind that you don't appear to know what that word means.
That's a really dumb but only partly self-inflicted wound. It's an old, still frequently-unlearned lesson: tightly manage privileged access to critical applications, especially public-facing ones, or prepare to be expensively embarrassed.
Maybe he should have a beer with Skip Gates
By bulgingbuick
Tue, 05/05/2020 - 8:58am
and Sgt. Crowley. Remember how enraged the flag waiving, constitutionalist, law and order folks were after Gates was arrested trying to enter his own home? Good times....
Oh please. It was Obama
By Patriciax
Tue, 05/05/2020 - 9:14am
Oh please. It was Obama inserting himself into the situation calling Cambridge cops doing something "stupid".
I think you knew that.
But...
By lbb
Tue, 05/05/2020 - 3:27pm
...they WERE stupid. And racist.
Racist?
By Pete Nice
Tue, 05/05/2020 - 3:35pm
Lol
What's your reason...
By lbb
Wed, 05/06/2020 - 10:41am
...for why a black man was arrested in his own home?
By the way, here's the full Obama quote. What exactly is your beef with it?
""I don't know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that. But I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home, and, number three, what I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there's a long history in this country of African Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately.""
Gates walks with a cane, so thankfully he won't
By bulgingbuick
Wed, 05/06/2020 - 11:52am
be jogging in Georgia.
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