Scali, 'Cops in Shops' Program Misguided

Congratulations goes to Richard V. Scali, Cambridge License Commission's Executive Officer, for his haughty and self-righteous "Cops Belong in Shops" letter to the editor (Jan. 9). In his insolent discourse, Scali takes issue with a December 9 Crimson editorial slamming the "Cops in Shops" program.

As the editorial points out, the major flaw in the Cops in Shops problem is its gross misallocation of police resources: "Cambridge is far from devoid of violent crime. Officers would better serve the community strolling ill-lit Linden Street late at night rather than playing clerk behind the cash-register at Christy's waiting for an 8-year-old to try to buy beer."

Ironically, on the very same day Scali's letter appeared, a Crimson headline read, "Assailants Rob Two Students At Knifepoint." On a street under Cambridge Police Department's jurisdiction, I might add.

Apart from his zealous call for enforcement, Scali indulges in an even more asinine assertion in the final paragraph of his manifesto. "Gen-Xers, born between 1961 and 1981," according to Scali, "are without such character and are the drunks and drug addicted students of today."

Coming from a man in the generation that left us with a staggering national debt and mass environmental degradation, I suggest Mr. Scali reevaluate his commitment to preaching from a pulpit built on the rape of our future. --Christopher M. Kirchhoff '01