Special Board of Aldermen 09-16-2021 Page 18
Lastly, I’d like to address the issue of local control as much has been made about the current lack thereof.
| would like to remind the citizens of Nashua that we are really talking about is local political...
Alderman O’Brien
Thirty seconds.
Michael Carignan
...which is where the potential danger lies. We currently have local control. All three members of the
Commission are lifelong residents of Nashua or have lived here for over 35 years. They are participants in
the community be it through nonprofit or civic volunteerism. They’re all taxpayers and put their kids through
schools in Nashua, they attend events in Nashua, and patronize restaurants and shops. They understand
that they have no experience managing a Police Department. That is what they’ve elected me to do but we
work together to have the best Police Department in the State as well as...
Alderman O’Brien
Time.
Michael Carignan
Thank you.
President Wilshire
Patrick Parks. Are you on to speak in favor or in opposition?
Patrick Parks
Opposition.
President Wilshire
Okay, you’re up.
Patrick Parks
My name is Patrick Parks. | am resident 24 Bolic Street here in Nashua. For one I’d just like to say thanks
to the police and the Police Commission for everything that they do. I’m obviously not from here. I’ve lived
in places like DC, California, North Carolina, and I’m originally from Alabama. All | keep hearing is that
people were asking for oh we need change. My question is what somebody brought up earlier. What's
broken? One of the people that’s in favor that spoke earlier said oh it can’t be any worse than it is now.
Well | lived in Sacramento. Trust me, it can be a lot worse. This is a great place to live and our Police
Department does a fantastic job.
The other thing that keeps getting brought up is diversity but it’s almost just diversity for diversity sake. |
don’t really understand it and | don’t think that anyone here and especially myself is opposed to change. |
think the change is usually a positive thing. | think that diversity is a positive thing. We're asking for it just
for change and diversity sake. Something that’s not really broken and nobody can put something
substantial for having an objection thing identified that shows how anything is broken.
The last thing I’ll say, you know, the Mayor (inaudible) so I’m (inaudible) with every political has limited
political capital. Right? | don’t understand why he’s willing to expend political capital on something like this
when obviously the opposition tonight is so much stronger than it is to the people that support this. So |
