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The Pittsfield Police & Advisory Review Board discusses the use of chokeholds.

Pittsfield Police Advisory Review Board to Discuss Eliminating Chokeholds

By Jack GuerinoiBerkshires Staff
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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Police Advisory Review Board will discuss possibly eliminating chokeholds at its next scheduled meeting.
 
The board agreed at its meeting Tuesday that before considering a resolution that it should ask the chief to draft a policy prohibiting holds designed to reduce blood or airflow before placing the item on the agenda for discussion.
 
"I don't want to put the cart before the horse and I think this should be on the agenda and something that we broadly discuss," Police Chief Michael Wynn said. "Before we put a resolution on the agenda, I think we need to get a consensus among the members."
 
Board member Drew Herzig brought forth the possible prohibition last month, noting that although chokeholds are not taught in Massachusetts they are not outlawed.
 
He suggested Tuesday that the board consider a resolution that would follow through and eliminate chokeholds locally.
 
Wynn said he was confident that this could be done at a local level but was not convinced it would really matter at a higher level.
 
"The short answer is yes, I think I can probably insert language into a policy that would outright prohibit it or greatly limit it and many departments have done it," Wynn said. "... But if an officer did it anyway, even if it was illegal and was terminated or disciplined or if we ended up in a civil rights suit for whatever reason, I am not sure if local prohibition would matter at all."
 
Wynn said the precedence has been set under the two current federal cases. In similar cases, they will look at "objectable reasonableness" and the "totality of circumstances."
 
"The judges will ask based on everything that was happening, did an officer under extreme duress believe they had no other option to protect themselves or someone else," Wynn said. "It is two separate systems and we are still trying to sort them out."
 
Board member Alfred Barbalunga added that he was hesitant to flat-out ban a maneuver when an officer may really need to restrain somebody and there are no other options. 
 
"I think what we saw in Minneapolis was so brutal and so horrible ... kind of all believe that kind of behavior has to be prohibited with severe consequences," he said of the killing of George Floyd by police in May by keeping a knee on his neck. "The problem is when you have an officer who is trying to restrain someone who is physically superior, angry, and resisting. The difference between a chokehold and a headlock, it's not that big of a difference. It is how it is applied."
 
He added that is is hard to define unless you see the "composite perception of what the officer actually did."
 
Wynn said there is no consensus nationally. Some departments have outright eliminated chokeholds while others have brought them back in, he said, in the case of some western departments.
 
"They say that ... they went through this in the '90s and they learned their lessons and ended up with a lot more impact strikes so put it back in,” Wynn said. "With the right amount of training, it is much safer than batons."
 
He said other departments are taking a middle of the road approach and have put the maneuver at a higher level of force for the "worst of the worst” scenarios. 
 
Wynn said he would help Herzig craft a resolution for discussion.
 
Before the discussion on chokeholds, the board talked more broadly about the department's "use of force" policy.
 
Wynn said he hopes to meet with member Sloan Letman in the near future to discuss different policies. 
 
"We started with the current policy that we reviewed last month and it is a fairly progressive policy," Wynn said. "My intention is to kind of start with those documents as a foundation and bring something to you based on that."
 
He said this will all be informed by police reform and he noted the department's policy vendor is also undergoing a national review.

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EPA Lays Out Draft Plan for PCB Remediation in Pittsfield

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

Ward 4 Councilor James Conant requested the meeting be held at Herberg Middle School as his ward will be most affected. 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — U.S. The Environmental Protection Agency and General Electric have a preliminary plan to remediate polychlorinated biphenyls from the city's Rest of River stretch by 2032.

"We're going to implement the remedy, move on, and in five years we can be done with the majority of the issues in Pittsfield," Project Manager Dean Tagliaferro said during a hearing on Wednesday.

"The goal is to restore the (Housatonic) river, make the river an asset. Right now, it's a liability."

The PCB-polluted "Rest of River" stretches nearly 125 miles from the confluence of the East and West Branches of the river in Pittsfield to the end of Reach 16 just before Long Island Sound in Connecticut.  The city's five-mile reach, 5A, goes from the confluence to the wastewater treatment plant and includes river channels, banks, backwaters, and 325 acres of floodplains.

The event was held at Herberg Middle School, as Ward 4 Councilor James Conant wanted to ensure that the residents who will be most affected by the cleanup didn't have to travel far.

Conant emphasized that "nothing is set in actual stone" and it will not be solidified for many months.

In February 2020, the Rest of River settlement agreement that outlines the continued cleanup was signed by the U.S. EPA, GE, the state, the city of Pittsfield, the towns of Lenox, Lee, Stockbridge, Great Barrington, and Sheffield, and other interested parties.

Remediation has been in progress since the 1970s, including 27 cleanups. The remedy settled in 2020 includes the removal of one million cubic yards of contaminated sediment and floodplain soils, an 89 percent reduction of downstream transport of PCBs, an upland disposal facility located near Woods Pond (which has been contested by Southern Berkshire residents) as well as offsite disposal, and the removal of two dams.

The estimated cost is about $576 million and will take about 13 years to complete once construction begins.

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