4 December 2007
Another view of city employees arrested for drug dealing
From the Chronicle: “Water Department workers busted for dealing drugs out of city truck.”
Cambridge - Cambridge detectives arrested three on-the-clock city Water Department workers and an off-duty firefighter on drug charges Friday morning after an anonymous tipster called police.
Russell Feroleto, a water system maintenance craftsman who has worked for the city for about 15 years, allegedly delivered cocaine and Oxycontin from his orange Water Department truck while he was supposed to be working.
I’m not making any excuses for the three men arrested, and I certainly don’t condone the illicit sale of Oxycotin or the abuse of authority alleged later in the article (”…an anonymous tipster…left a message for police that Feroleto was being protected in his drug dealing operation by his supervisors, according to court records”), but perhaps this whole thing is symptomatic of a larger problem. That is, rank-and-file city employees, those that do the anonymous work keep our water running and parks maintained are poorly compensated. Sure they often benefit from union-backed wages, promotions and benefits, but still that is hardly enough to raise a family in Cambridge.
I once asked a Cambridge police officer — presumably better paid than a blue collar employee — if he lived in Cambridge. He just laughed and asked if I was kidding. Even with overtime, he said, he couldn’t afford a place large enough for his whole family.
Certainly drug dealing and abusing power is not a legitimate way to make ends meet. But just like the people who take Oxycotin out of a sense of uselessness or doom in their lives, perhaps those sell the drug do so out of a similar sense of desperation.
2 Comments currently posted.
tony tataglia says:
Cgirl says:
Hey Tony, if you don’t know all the facts you should keep your mouth shut, These guys are not junkies… They are all good guys… Don’t Judge if you do not know. Thanks..
are you shitting me these guys are junkies and they were given the keys to the city to deal it.lock em all up for as long as it takes and dont give me that poorly paid bullshit..it was cronyism thar got them all those no work jobs and kept them pushing the junk on my dime .
they were laughing at us fo years.now you got caught,do your time and see you when your an old man