January 15, 2009
by Ed Naile
Every citizen has the right to redress – except of course in Atkinson, NH. They have limited rights because of a thuggish, ego-powered, part time police chief, Phil Consentino.
In a normal town, a citizen has only to walk around and get signatures on a petition if he or she wants to have a warrant article placed on the Town Warrant for Town Meeting.
Ah, but in Atkinson you need a doctored up, used Atkinson Police cruiser to drive elderly residents to the drug store, and along the way, to collect signatures.
Without matching hardware, any taxpayer competing with the small time hood Consentino would soon be bankrupt. You see Consentino has a nifty little pay to play deal in town where his PRIVATE non-profit 501c3 gets to use Atkinson’s resources to politic and – anti-politic. A nice weekly pay check comes from the town – the Bulgers should have had it so good.
“Anti-politic” is a word I have coined to describe what the chief is up to as you are reading this blog. Anti-politic means: to engage in politics on your own behalf and to use a public position to undermine anyone else’s, preferably a citizen without government resources.
Chief Constantthuggo is driving around town in an arrogant panic, escorting people to the Selectman’s Office to withdraw their names from a petition, circulated by taxpayers, to make the Police Chief’s position FULL time.
This citizen’s petition makes the hair on the back of Consentino’s neck stand up (gee, must look like a hog hair paint brush). See, the standards for full time police are a bit higher than part time police standards. Could Consentino pass a full time police chief test? Is he qualified?
Consentino is certainly sneaky enough to run a vote buying deal such as using town equipment to “help” people who sometimes donate to his non-profit and vote for his candidates and issues.
But what to do, what to do, when things get out of control – like someone actually gets a legal petition submitted with which voters could challenge the scam Consentino has worked on so long?
Time will tell.