Wednesday, November 4, 2009

My letter to Chief Morgan


Chief Morgan,

For the past six years it has been my misfortune to live opposite the Providence Fire Department Engine Company #4 FireHouse located at 270 Rochambeau Ave. It's been painfully obvious from my first day Rochambeau Ave that this FireHouse is poorly managed and "out of control".

Several years ago I noticed that the grass around the Fire House had not been cut and allowed to go to seed. Word on the street was that the city would not provide the FireHouse with a working mower.

My father is a Veteran, having landed with the U.S. Army 116 on D-Day at Omaha Beach.


With that in mind I headed across the street with my own lawn mower with the idea of cleaning up the place for Memorial Day. I was immediately stopped by all 6 firemen. It turns out that these Firemen were deliberately trashing the FireHouse as some kind of absurd protest against the city of Providence and the new Mayor, The Honorable David Cicilline. While I never drew the connection between trashing the FireHouse and the Fire Department's stalled contract negotiations, I did however realize that this was a particularly "juvenile" response.

Soon after, the FireHouse set out an unlicensed, unregisterred  trailer with a huge sign complaining about their lack of a contract. That trailer sat outside illegally in a "No Parking Fire Lane" the entire Summer.When forced to move the trailer rthat sign ended up across the street on the corner of Rochambeau and Morris at 273 Rochambeau Ave for maybe an entire year. That was the first indication that there was a connection between the Firemen and the occupants of 273 Rochambeau Ave.

Now over the years I have had a front row view of the operation of this FireHouse. Every year I noticed the Firemen never, nevr, never cleared the sidewalks of ice and snow forcing every resident passing by out into the street.


I noticed that every weekend the Firemen would pull the Fire Engine out for servicing. Left idling, unattended for hours at a time, the Fire Truck is always blocking the sidewalk, again forcing residents out into the street


I was alarrmed at the frequency and the intensity of of the sirens and foghorns and the disruption that they caused. I wrote to and spoke with the Mayor about constantly and deliberately  being woken in the middle of every night. I leafletted the community to seek support in an attempt to "Silence The Sirens". I wrote to and spoke with Chief Farrell concerning the overuse of these" Sirens". I contacted Local Union 799 Paul Doherty to enquire what these disuptions were about.

I was dismayed to learn that the majority of these calls were for routine ambulatory care. I questioned the use of an entire FireHouse for this purpose.

I was horrified watching and listenning while the drivers at Engine Co#4 backed up after returning to the FireHouse using their foghorns, instead of getting out of the cab to direct traffic.

I noticed the strong relationship  between the FireHouse and several ambulance drivers and that they would stop by for a smoke several times a day.

I noticed the firemen were throwing the blue latex gloves they use to clean theirFireTruck, up and down Rochambeau Ave.

On January 2, 2007 I noticed hundreds of pieces of Styrafoam popcorn littering my property. The source of this garbage was from 273Rrochambeau Ave. I called the city to register a complaint. I also picked up the trash and redeposited it on the stoop at 273 Rochambeau Ave. I believe the firemen across the street witnessed my actions.



At the time a Katherine Meyer from Lansing Michigan, was occupying the apartment. I had observed for almost an entire year that she had been driving a black cr with an out of state plate. I informed her that unless she registerred her car i n the state I would report her to the DMV. Almost immediately after, a constant stream of trash, road-kill, glass, nails dogshit, cigaretts and and in particular the signature item  of the top plastic wrap from a package of cigarettes starting appearing in front of my home in the exact three locations on an almost daily basis. My neighbor now tells me that one of the firemen at Engine Co.#4 had been dating Katherine Meyer.

So here is your motive for this asinine prank, some kind of juvenile vigilante firmen retaliation and vendetta.

I contacted Local Union 799 to file a complaint. At the time I did n ot know who was harrassing me and I could not provide their names. I spoke with Paul from my security company Ocean State Alarm. I was told it would be difficult and expensive to document this type of harrassment, because it was happening at night , and the garbage was being thrown out of cars at 40/mph.


I opted to install a cheap video camera in a birdhouse near my driveway. I made it obvious because I had really just hoped that this would just scare the perps away. However they called my bluff and doubled up on their efforts to trash my home, aggravate and annoy me. To this day they continue to throw every kind of trash, especially cigarette, candy wrappers, and of course their signature top plastic wrapper of a cigareette pack in front of my property.

I spoke to several attorneys that told me it would be best to get some kind of Video. I spoke with raphael Diaz from ADT. He also confirmed the difficulty  in capturing this type of activity on video. I finally spoke with B & H's security expert Ari Erenthal. He suggested a state of the art Mace VDR with a 1000GB drive capable of handling 4 high resolution cameras for 30 days at a time.

Now I have in fact recorded several instances of garbage being thrown from cars and ambulances, however I am not prepared to share this video with you quite yet. Anyway it isn't definitive and apparently several people are involved. I am prepared however to identify two of the firemen that have been harrassing me! Also I have actually witnessed  a passenger in a Universal Ambulance deliberately spike cigarettes in my driveway. It was still burning when i picked it up. It was a Parliament and I am preserving it as positive DNA evidence. Also the Providence Intensive Mobile Unit Ambulance have been spiking cigarettes in front of my property.

I now have noticed one particular Fireman walking across the street and spreading all kinds of garbage in front of my house, in this case oddly cut pieces of plastic, on at least six occasions. I have noticed this Fireman launch light plastics into the air which I am downwind from.

Now the FireHouse is putting their garbage cans out early on the weekends, depending on the wind,
overfilling them, propping open the cans and deliberately allowing the wind to blow their garbage up and down rochambeau Ave. Addiionally they kick over the recycling bins, this isn't done by scavengers, please note that the five cent deposit cans are stuill in the bin.


So when I called you last week Chief Morgan seeking to positively identify these Firemen I was suprised and concerned that you did not return my call.

My number one problem is 5'5" 150lb's, clean shaven, he appears to be the runt of the liter. He drives a phat harley, a phat Corvette, and I believe a small compact with license plate # R.I. SM45. Over the years he is repeatedly been eyeballing me and engaging me in stare downs.

The second firemen is about 6'2", clean shaven, short cropped gray/blonde hair. He has also
engaged me in repeated stare-downs and eyeballing. After one particular incident I noticed a red 6' 300 lb test Werner step laddar had been stolen from my backyard.

I filed a complaint about the stolen laddar with the Providence Police Department Officer Badge #364.
I asked him what I could do about the ritual trashing in front of my property. He suggested that at best this was a misdemeanor and would only result in a charge of Criminal Mischief.

This harrassment has been occuring for well over a year, I consider these actions much more severe and consider this a HATE CRIME!

I have long known this FireHouse to be an overly inbred racist fraternal Organization. Now I know it to be juvenile and I suspect anti-semetic as well.

CONCLUSIONS:

I take exception with a FireHouse that trashes it's own property as some kind of juvenile response to their lack of a contract.

I take exception with a Firehouse that allows it's Firemen to sport "Fire  Cicilline" bumper stickers on city property, as an act of civil disobedience.

I take exception with a FireHouse that puts an unlicensed unregisterred  trailer in a No Parking Fire Zone for month's on end.

I take exception with a FireHouse that whines about not having a contract  wghen they are lucky to even have jobs.

I take exception with a FireHouse that refuses to properly remove the snow and ice from their sidewalks forcing every local resident into the street.

I take exception with a FireHouse that leaves their FireTrucks idling unattended for hour's at a time,
blocking access to the sidewalk and again forcing residents into the street.

I take exception with a FireHouse that deliberately blasts their sirens and fog-horns for
"NO GOOD REASON" in the wee hours of the morning, showing it's utter contempt and disrespect for the local residents.

I take exception with a FireHouse that fails to regulate the intensity and frequency of Ambulatory Siens running up and down Rochambeau Ave. Such that every day is 9-11 on Rochambeau Ave.

I take exception with ambulance drivers smoking in Oxygen ladden vechicles.


I take exception and at the same time a perverse satisfaction, with a FireHouse whoose inevitable auditory and respiratory failure's will cost the City of Providence  millions of dollars in health care costs.

I take exception with out of state drivers who fail to register their vechicles according to law, after 30 days of livig in the state. Cheating both State and City out of badly needed revenue.

Mostly I take exception with  Firemen with their own personal agenda's and vendetta's hiding behind the blanket immunity of the Providence Fire Department.

Now I expect you to provide me with the names and ranks of these two Firemen. I want to know if they have criminal records and I need an assurance that they are mentally competent to continueas Providenc Firemen. I want the roster and the schedule of the Engine #4 Company FireHouse .

I want an assurance that this harrassment will immediately cease and desist!

Because of the deliberate annoyance, aggravation, and disruption thse firemen have caused me I asked that they be removed from Rochambeau Ave.

Lastly unless you act decisesively I am prepared to contact every resident on the East Side of Providence
and inform them about what a bunch of jerks, jackasses and juvenile delinquentys are running the
EngineCo. #4 FireHouse.

I will harass this FireHouse 24/7 not with garbage, roadkill, sirens or fog-horns, but with words...hundreds and hundreds of thousands of words.

I AM

Wayne Rosenberg
287 Rochambeau Ave.

5 comments:

  1. wow - what a letter. And I can attest to the fire truck blocking the sidewalk. I run on Rochambeau all the time and have been forced out into traffic by a firetruck blocking the sidewalk...

    ~Audrey

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  2. Wow is right. You've really stated your case here, and the threat of thousands upon thousands upon thousands of words is such a great one, since you're now an official "blogger" -- whatever that means, exactly, as it can mean so many things -- but it CERTAINLY means using virtually (virtually!) unlimited numbers of words to your advantage and/or amusement. In this case, I suspect you are doing both. Now the question becomes, "Who reads the letter?" Chief Morgan, of course ... but, beyond that, I assume you want lots of "followers" ... and, beyond that, you probably need to be really careful about having the facts straight and/or not saying too much aimed at identifiable people, because you don't want anyone to turn around and accuse YOU of a misdemeanor having to do with slander or some such thing. "Published" words are tricky in that way ... I don't know, but I'm guessing ... so, basically, I really applaud you for putting all this out there and for trying to get to the bottom of it and really understand the motivations involved. I do think you might want to be careful of making personal accusations like anti-semitism, however ... that may or may not be the root of the trouble ... and you might get fewer people on your side if you stray too far from the broader neighborhood issue of the sirens' tormenting ALL the citizens of Rochambeau Avenue. Okay, that's my rant ... B.

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  3. Wayne, Did you send the letter to Captain Morgan? Did you fax it as well as send it via post and email? I am assuming you haven't heard back or we would know. Hey, do you have any sort of Neighborhood Association? Well this qualifies as a fiasco and then some, I can't imagine the hell and it surely must be draining you, have you tried baking cookies? Kidding...but keep on writing though and have I hope there is some levity around it soon.

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  4. Was there any fallout from this? Did you post this anywhere besides your blog?

    I agree with Betty about the need to be careful not to alienate potential allies...but then again, perhaps you haven't quite decided the purpose of this blog--is it for action, or entertainment?

    ReplyDelete
  5. This type stuff happens all over the world in fire departments and all men units.
    Listen to This Anerican Life by Ira Glass' story about bullies and beasts on
    September 27, 2019
    Burn It Down
    Stories of people who decide the only way forward — for real change — is to burn everything to the ground. We go to Amsterdam where the boss of the city's fire department sets off a war with his own firefighters.
    https://www.thisamericanlife.org/684/burn-it-down

    ReplyDelete