– Quincy News from Quincy Quarry News with commentary added.

A Quincy Quarry News exclusive image

Is Quincy Mayor Thomas P. Koch afraid of chalk talk?

In a move that mirrors his diminutive physical stature vertically, Quincy Mayor Thomas P. Koch appears to have put property ahead of people who wanted to peacefully pose legitimate grievances of economic governmental, and social discriminatory practices. 

In response to essentially the same group of people who have successfully facilitated not just one but two peaceful local Black Lives Matter vigils, access was closed off to Mayor Koch’s beloved but over the top $30 million spent to date and yet still unfinished Kim Jung Koch Plaza to deny the group’s use of the plaza for Quincy Chalks 4 Justice, their family-focused Black Lives Matters teachable moment event Friday evening.

Not only was the plaza walled off, “about 50”  Quincy police officers were assigned to protect the plaza from being chalked, a number greater than the staffing level of officers needed for a regular eight hour shift, to protect Kim Jong Koch Plaza from Black Lives Matters message chalkers who probably never totaled more than one hundred at any given moment.

So what, apparently, for the fact that this massive allocation of police resources took away from assigning officers to address the law-breaking by local illegal fireworks using pyromaniacs who have long both disturbed the peace as well as pose potentially dangerous fire risks.

Burn rate
A cheatsheet.com image

Quincy Quarry estimates that the cost to assign this many officers to protect Kim Jung Koch Plaza from but chalk at at least $10,000. 

That and a likely couple thousand more to set up and then takeaway the steel fencing around Kim Jung Koch Plaza.

In turn, at least twelve thousand dollars was so burned to wall off the plaza so as to hold off maybe a hundred or so people peacefully drawing  chalk messages on sidewalks at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic is wreaking havoc upon government spending as well as decimating tax revenue takes.

“The Beav”
A City of Quincy headshot

Of further note, among the Quincy Police officers on the scene was Quincy Police Chief and mayoral brother-in-law Paul “The Beav” Keenan. 

Quincy Quarry News personnel on the scene almost digitally documented that the Chief was not wearing a public health prophylactic face mask, however, the Beav spotted that he had been spotted and then ducked behind someone until he could pull up his mask.

On the other hand, considering that he has a face for radio, wearing a mask probably would have made for a better photo, if not also ironically fitting.

Walling off chalk
A Quincy Quarry News exclusive photo

In any event, Quincy Quarry was advised by a Quincy police officer that the cordoning off of the plaza from access by a peaceful and diverse group of perhaps a hundred people consisting of various ages – including a number of families who brought their children along for a teachable moment given that there are all but no summer school or other summer youth programs available given the Coronavirus pandemic – bearing chalk was rationalized as done in an (exponentially excessive, ed.) abundance of caution that someone might bring along an ink marker or some other sort of permanent graffito making item.

Decorating the sidewalk with important messages
A Quincy Quarry News exclusive image

Conversely, Quincy Quarry was advised by event organizers that it purposefully scheduled the event on the eve of Independence Day for fitting reasons obvious and which clearly appear to have hit home as intended.

In any event, Quincy Chalk 4 Justice participants quickly filled up most of the little remaining available sidewalk to chalk their messages.

In fact, the limited sidewalk available was all but thoroughly chalked before the official 6 PM start time for the event. 

Putting their lives on the line
A Quincy Quarry News image

So much so that a number of participants were forced to put their lives at risk to chalk their messages on the ever-increasingly mean and dangerous streets of Quincy.

In fairness, Quincy Quarry must note that police officers undertook steps to provide some buffer space for those chalking messages on the street even if what was done was not up to the level of providing something comparable to the steel barrier that was walling them off from Kim Jung Koch Plaza.

That and when Quincy Quarry personnel returned to the site of this peaceful protest shortly after 7 AM the morning after the event, the temporary fencing was already gone.

Not gone, however, were the chalked messages.

The fence is gone but not the oh so offensive chalk
A Quincy Quarry News exclusive image

In fact, the chalk messages were still in place when Quarry personnel returned for a follow up quick look a couple of hours later.

Needless to say, there will likely be hell to pay by the city plaza maintenance personnel who slept in on the national holiday that is the Fourth of July.

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