Dear John Lanni:

I appreciated your comments regarding my request that you use all of the privileged ability you have as president to do much more to inform the public regarding “ticket gate!” You actually have a responsibility to “open up” the wall of secrecy surrounding this whole fiasco! So many rules were broken that night and still to this day.

Your very first mistake was allowing this so-called investigation to go on for much longer than was reasonable – over four months!

Why didn’t you advertise and call a special meeting for the whole council, demanding that Captain Antonucci, the district supervisors and patrolpersons on duty that night in Wards 1, 3, 4 and 6 to join in the meeting to answer the questions that every citizen of Cranston who believes in law and order and fairness wants to know? And they still do!

We want to know who wrote what tickets and when, and if they were written according to procedure. Who ordered that wards 4 and 6 be left without coverage, so that these officers could participate in this fiasco? Are any lower ranking officers covered by law if they refuse to participate in what they know to be illegal (using their own cell phones)? And I’m sure you and your colleagues have even more questions.

Of course they would have come with their lawyers and no doubt refused to answer any questions, based on their Fifth Amendment rights or the police code for “self protection.” Or as you call it, the “witness protection program.”

However, by their individual answers, body language, eye contact, how firm they were in their positions, all would give you and your fellow council members, and the public, a real flavor for the whole issue!

Personally, I am perplexed by your unwillingness to not do what I feel is your constitutional and Bill of Rights responsibility. You also have your rights as president and you certainly have a very big moral obligation to determine just what went on and what the public should know!

To make sure a very loud message is sent to all involved that this type of outlaw activity is never to be attempted again!

Now, let us examine the issue of your legal exposure. To be sure, even though it seems that the first order of relief would be to petition the legislature, I believe that this would not go very far, since the police unions would advise their representatives to ignore our pleas. Going to the state courts would also seem fruitless, not even allowing for a hearing, but I don’t believe that the federal courts would agree, based on the 11th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which declares that any citizen may bring a suit against any state. So what would your legal exposure be if you took a real leadership position and took the attitude that one man can make a difference? And I am willing to take the “heat” for my actions! You would have the legal protection for your position as president of the council and I have no doubt that several of us citizens would come to your support, both verbally and financially.

Personally, I would enter your defense fund with several thousand dollars!

OK John, what is it going to be? Are you willing to have as your political epitaph, that you stood strong against some pretty high odds to make a real difference for honesty, leadership, righting a real wrong, that is being used to protect the “guilty?”

The citizens of Cranston are waiting!

Richard Tomlins

Cranston