Barbara Benda Jenkins: Belchertown chief’s free pass on suspected OUI put others in jeopardy

PELHAM — The ongoing story about the Granby Police Department’s unwillingness to arrest the Belchertown police chief for observable and self-acknowledged drunken driving alerts citizens once again to the importance of being ever-vigilant about transparency in government.



The Granby police chief repeatedly excuses his department’s lack of appropriate action by pointing out that the Belchertown police chief put them in an “awkward situation” when he pulled the camaraderie plea.



That sounds like a child who points to the other kid and says, “He made me do it,” as if he were powerless to act otherwise and to accept responsibility.



If a regular citizen got picked up for a driving infraction of this magnitude, the officer would not use the “discretion when it comes to issuing traffic citations” that is now being touted as the explanation for why it wasn’t absolutely critical to cite such dangerous driving.



Also, the explanation that the officer drove the inebriated police chief home only to “promote public safety” is laughable if it weren’t so serious. The safety concern here was the horrific driving that caused a good citizen to follow the dangerously swerving car and to report where it was in the hope of averting a true “public safety” incident.



A different scenario would have the Granby police chief report to the public that at least 30 Massachusetts law enforcement officials from 2012-2014 have been charged with drunken driving while off duty, but not arrested (Daily Hampshire Gazette quoting a Boston Globe story).



Then, he would go on to announce that such a pattern was going to stop now with his department’s full cooperation in seeing that justice was done in this case.



I know none of the parties involved. What I do know is that a vehicle becomes a lethal weapon when its driver is severely impaired and that such a driver must be held responsible.



I also know that the Belchertown police chief needs help. Assisting him in hiding from this fact does him no service and certainly does not serve the citizens he has sworn to protect.



Barbara Benda Jenkins lives in Pelham.





