CapeCodOnline.com – Sean Driscoll – Three Falmouth Police officers are no longer on the job after an internal investigation showed they were guilty of professional misconduct during an incident when confiscated fireworks were shot off behind a convenience store on Independence Day weekend.

Sgt. Scott Hartzler and patrolmen Kurt Baumann and Eric Kraus all left the department in October, said Police Chief Edward Dunne. A fourth officer who was part of the same internal probe, patrolman Joshua Oliver, is still employed by the department.

Dunne would not say if Hartzler, Baumann and Kraus resigned or were terminated as a result of the internal affairs investigation, the results of which were released to the Times on Wednesday following an open records request. The four had been on paid leave since July.

According to the report, the four officers were on duty July 6 for the town’s Fourth of July fireworks celebration in Falmouth Heights, which had been postponed for two days due to inclement weather. That evening, Officer Mark Mancini confiscated a silver box of fireworks. He took the box back to the Falmouth Police Department.

Instead of immediately placing it into evidence, Mancini left the box in the department’s garage at about 11 p.m. and went back on patrol with the intent of photographing and cataloguing the evidence later, the report states.

At around 1 a.m. July 7, Hartzler, Baumann, Kraus and Oliver, along with a civilian, ended up behind the 7-Eleven at 743 Main St., which is across the street from the Falmouth Police Department, the report states. Some of the men drank a few beers, and eventually Oliver lit the fuse on the firework box to shoot it off, the report states.

This is crap. We’ve got much bigger things to be worrying about than a few police officers setting off some fireworks. I’m not saying don’t discipline them, but firing them, or making them resign, or whatever happened here is bullshit. I guarantee that this exact thing has happened 8 million times in police departments all over the country with no repercussions.

Fireworks are one of those illegal, yet tolerated situations. Regular people don’t even get arrested for fireworks they just take them away, why should a few cops lose their jobs over them? It’s hard enough to find people who want to protect and serve these days. Suspend them for a while or something, but getting rid of them just hurts the entire community.

I don’t want to live in a world where a few off duty police officers can’t have a few beers and set off some fireworks without losing their jobs, I just don’t.

P.S. Then again, what do I know, I’m just one of those weirdos that doesn’t like level 3 sex offenders.

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CapeCod.com – A non-binding question concerning legalizing marijuana that was on ballots in town in the Lower and Outer Cape passed overwhelmingly.

The non-binding question to legalize marijuana appeared on ballots in Barnstable’s Fourth District, which is represented by State Representative Sarah Peake (D-Provincetown). Voters in the towns of Harwich, Chatham, Brewster, Orleans, Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro and Provincetown passed the measure by a vote of 14,052 in favor and 5,204 opposed.

I see you Cape Cod! You dirty hippie stoners! You’re high right now aren’t you?

Seriously though, these numbers are ridiculous. Nothing passes by that much of a majority. Ever.

This means it looks like full legalization will be on the ballot next time around. In 2016 you will be able to buy weed at stores just like alcohol. Crazy times.

Cue the music…

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Vineyard Gazette – Leonard Jason Jr. seems destined to serve on Island boards. This week, the longtime building inspector for both Edgartown and Chilmark was re-elected to another two-year term on the Dukes County Commission, despite his intention to step down after 20 years. It was the second county election in a row in which Mr. Jason was elected without running.

On election day Tuesday there were seven declared candidates for seven seats on the county commission, including three declared write-ins. Even though Mr. Jason had said he wasn’t running, he received 252 write-in votes (minus Oak Bluffs, where results were unavailable at press time). It was the second highest number among the write-ins.

In an interview with the Gazette this week, Mr. Jason said he would accept the will of the voters and serve.

Holy shit, this guy must feel like he’s the Vineyard’s version of Bill Murray in Groundhog day. Every single election day he takes a walk, catches some kid falling out of a tree, changes some old ladies flat tire, and then realizes he’s been elected to the Punxsutawney County Commission even though he wasn’t even running… AGAIN.

Seriously though Martha’s Vineyard, cut the guy some slack will ya? How would you feel if you tried to retire after a long career and everyone in town took turns showing up at your house and dragging you to work every morning like it never happened? The dude just wants to start wearing socks with sandals and eating dinner at 3 p.m. Is that really too much to ask?

Lenny Jason really does sound like he couldn’t be a nicer guy though. He said he would “accept the will of the voters and serve”? Shit, if that was me the only accepting or serving going on would be me accepting the drinks the bartender serves me with umbrellas in them at some tiki bar in the Bahamas. All the voters would be getting out of my ass is a postcard that says “Thanks for the votes everyone, but it seems as though you might not have received the memo… LEAVE ME ALONE, I’M F#%*ING RETIRED!”

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We posted earlier about a level 3 homeless sex offender that lives in the white bus that moves all around the Cape. We can’t get into details, but it has come to our attention that this guy has a very long, very violent record in New York in addition to his Massachusetts record.

UPDATE: He is on the South Shore

We are talking serious acts, some against children. This guy is no harmless flasher, he’s the real deal. Stay very far away from this dude, and whatever you do, don’t engage him in any way. Don’t think it would be funny to spray paint something on his bus, don’t think you should take it upon yourself to tell him to leave Cape Cod. Don’t be a hero. We aren’t serious on this website very often, but we don’t blow smoke either and we are dead serious about this.

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It’s true, tomorrow is The Real Cape’s first birthday. It’s been a crazy year and we figured why not look back on it once a week with a little throw back. Every Thursday we will post the most popular blog of the week from the year before.

Our first TBT is the post that started it all. This is the very first Real Cape article that went viral and as they say… the rest is history.

Full Story Here – TRURO – Not surprisingly, homecoming is a big deal at Nauset Regional High School.

The annual dance that caps the week of festivities is typically one of the biggest events of the school year. But not this year.

While the school hosted its traditional formal on Saturday, most of the senior class turned out for a different, unsanctioned dance down the road.

You could call it something of a protest dance, but to Nauset senior Chris Wingard, who organized the event, it was a way to reclaim a rite of passage that had been chipped away at by school authorities.

“It all started last year when most of the students left after an hour and a half because it was really a pretty miserable time for them,” said Wingard, who is Nauset’s senior class vice president and a member of the student council.

The fun was diminished by lights turned on high and chaperones constantly pulling apart couples dancing closely or “grinding” on the dance floor, he said.

The suddenly heightened restrictions led to a general malaise about the event, he said.

“No one was really excited about going this year,” said Wingard. “They didn’t want to go back.”

So instead, Wingard decided to put together an alternative dance for his classmates. He secured the ballroom at the Four Points Sheraton in Eastham, booked a DJ, and got nine adults and an off-duty police officer to chaperone the event.

He called it The Miles Tibbetts Memorial Dance in honor of a Nauset student and friend who was struck and killed by a car on Aug. 17 while crossing Route 6 in Wellfleet.

Wingard sold more than 200 tickets at $15 dollars each, enough to cover the costs of the event and establish a $1,000 scholarship fund in Tibbett’s name.

He estimated that more than 150 of Nauset’s 250 seniors purchased tickets to the dance.

But the event wasn’t without a toll of controversy.

“There’s been a pretty strong backlash against it. It’s been extremely difficult for me honestly,” Wingard said.

Wingard faced pressures from school officials to cancel the event and brushback from teachers who disagreed with the intention of the dance.

“They made it out to be some some drug-fueled orgy, which is pretty far from the case,” Wingard said.

Some advisors wanted Wingard removed from his post as senior class vice president and to be taken off the student council, he said.

Oh what’s that Nauset High? You don’t want to let the kids bump and grind at the Homecoming dance? That’s cool, Chris Wingard will just host a private twerkfest right in your face on the same night. You have to respect this move by Chris, not many kids have the cojoñes to take on their school and he just went balls deep in the entire Nauset High faculty.

How can any educator with half a brain be mad at this kid? He saw a situation where the majority did not like what was happening and he changed it to fit the will of the people. It doesn’t get any more America than that folks. If we had more adults like him maybe we’d all be able to enjoy a drug fueled orgy every once in a while.

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Yarmouth Police: LEVEL 3 SEX OFFENDER JOHN J. STANGL VEHICLE IDENTIFIED
Level 3 Sex Offender John J. Stangl is a convicted felon and is legally registered as homeless in Hyannis. 
This is the vehicle that he uses and lives in and sometimes travels all over Cape Cod in. It was observed by the Yarmouth Police PAC UNIT this morning at Chase Garden Park on Route 28 in West Yarmouth near Standish Way.
Please be vigilant…

Level 3 Sex Offender Community Notification 
Pursuant to M.G.L. c. 6, §§ 178C-178Q, the individual who appears on this notification has been designated as a Level 3 Sex Offender by the Sex Offender Registry Board. The Board has determined that this individual is at a high risk to reoffend and that the degree of dangerousness posed to the public is such that a substantial public safety interest is served by active community notification.

I don’t mean to be harping on criminals here today, but you may want to be aware of this alert from the Yarmouth Police. I don’t want to state the obvious here, but you just can’t get any more rapey than that bus. That thing should be confiscated immediately under some kind of “anti diddling factory” zoning bylaw violation or something.

So yeah, like the YPD says “please be vigilant” which directly translated into Rapish means, “Stay the fuck away from this guy”…

UPDATE: He is on the South Shore

P.S. Seriously, can we figure out a reason to take the rape bus away from the level 3 dude that’s “at a high risk to reoffend”? UPDATE: More info HERE

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BPD Press Release: B&E Suspect Arrested While Drinking Stolen Wine Coolers

On Sunday November 2, 2014 at 8:45 p.m. Barnstable Police Officer Troy Perry was dispatched to My Salon & Spa, 58A Corporation Rd. in Hyannis. The business owner discovered that the business had just been broken into during the last hour

A new surveillance system had just been installed and it yielded priceless photos and video of the suspect throughout the course of the entire break-in. The suspect spent nearly 15 minutes in the Salon looking for money but left only with some wine coolers that he located in the back room.

Officer Keith Sexton of the midnight shift viewed the photos during a roll call briefing on the case and was able to positively identify the suspect as Michael Nickerson of Hyannis. Officers Perry and Sexton interviewed Nickerson at a home on Hiramar Rd. Nickerson was found to have the same distinctive clothing and sneakers and was also in possession of the wine coolers that were stolen.

Nickerson is considered to be a suspect in several other commercial break-ins in the area including the previous one at the My Salon & Spa. 

Ahhhh… winter time on Cape Cod. Is there anything quite like it? The salon you broke into doesn’t have any cash laying around because they wised up since the last time you broke in? All is not lost, just grab the Bartles and Jaymes that the stylists were saving for a bachelorette party in the morning and get yourself a nice buzz, go out on the town, maybe even stab someone in the neck with a screwdriver if you have time.

P.S. Buckle up folks, it’s still only November.

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