Derek

@somervillennial

🌷🦋 spring hill, somerville, ma 🌇🌆 municipal/state civics (he/him) 🐦📂 twitter archive:

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Derek@somervillennial· 18h

I think SENATOR IN GENERAL COURT would benefit from ranked choice or approval voting. I think I would be *content* with any candidate (given the rest of my ballot options), but I still have preferences. 15/x

SENATOR IN GENERAL COURT

Burhan Azeem
Christine Barber
Thomas Hopcroft (no longer running)
Matthew McLaughlin
Erika UyterHoeven

Derek@somervillennial· 18h

The DISTRICT ATTORNEY race does not leave me particularly excited. 12/x

DISTRICT ATTORNEY

Marian Ryan
David Solet

Derek@somervillennial· 18h

COUNCILOR (of the Governor's type) -- I've been represented by Kennedy for (???) years, and I still don't know anything concrete about him. 10/x

COUNCILOR

Terrence Kennedy
Diann Baylis

Derek@somervillennial· 18h

We deserve leaders who won't equivocate on serious matters. www.boston.com/news/politic... 7/x

When contacted, the congresswoman said she does not believe Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza. Clark visited Israel in 2015 and is endorsed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC.

“Last week, while attending an event in my district, I repeated the word ‘genocide’ in response to a question. I want to be clear that I am not accusing Israel of genocide,” Clark said in a statement. “We all need to work with urgency to bring the remaining hostages home, surge aid to Palestinians and oppose their involuntary relocation, remove Hamas from power, and end the war.”

During the 2024 election cycle, AIPAC contributed around $400,000 to Clark’s campaign, according to federal campaign data.

Derek@somervillennial· 18h

I was spoiled by having Ayanna Pressley as my previous REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS. My feelings toward Katherine Clark are more complicated. 6/x

REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS

Katherine Clark
Jonathan Paz
Tarik Samman

Derek@somervillennial· 18h

SENATOR IN CONGRESS is the easy one. 4/x

SENATOR IN CONGRESS

Edward J Markey
Seth Moulton

Derek@somervillennial· 6d

👀

“In some ways this is inevitable,” Azeem told Cambridge Day. “It just reaffirms what we already know, (Barber) is the statehouse candidate. Which isn’t necessarily a negative … I think it’s just unfortunate that you get rewarded for not questioning the system.”

Derek@somervillennial· 6d

I don't know, maybe the police union endorsements should be seen as a red flag? csindie.com/david-solet-...

“Dave is not the kind of person who will sit back and say ‘my hands are tied’ when approaching the issues facing our officers and citizens. He will not be afraid to speak out for what is right,” said Matthew Khoury, president of the Somerville Police Employees Association, in a July 1 statement endorsing Solet.

Solet, 49, a former cold case prosecutor who worked under 13-year incumbent Marian Ryan, has earned the support of police unions across eight Middlesex towns and cities, including Cambridge and Somerville. The 2025 Middlesex County Prosecutor of the Year has accused his former boss of letting politics influence her decisions, and framed himself as an apolitical alternative who will make decisions based solely on the law. The police think a change is needed, and that Solet can be that change when voters go to the polls Sept. 1.

A spokesperson for Ryan’s campaign team said that she joined other incumbent attorney generals in refusing to accept endorsements from police unions.

Our decision

This was not an easy endorsement. Marian Ryan has devoted decades to prosecution and public service, and the District Attorney manages an extraordinarily broad range of cases. Our evaluation is intentionally narrow. We focused on roadway violence, dangerous driving, cases involving people walking and biking, and the treatment of the people and families affected by them.

Based on the candidates’ records and responses, Cambridge Bicycle Safety is proud to endorse David Solet for Middlesex District Attorney.

We believe the office would benefit from new leadership focused on timely and rigorous investigations, earlier intervention in repeat dangerous driving, clearer public accountability, and more consistent communication with victims and families.

We thank both candidates for engaging seriously with these important public safety issues.

Derek@somervillennial· 18d

Councilor Flaherty, who previously warned of "relitigating a claim that’s received the final judgment on the merits", wants to relitigate the ShotSpotter decision that the City Council made two months ago. csindie.com/vote-on-keep...

Quote from CSIndie article "Vote on keeping Cambridge’s Garden Street one-way for cars hits a red light amid call of ‘bad public policy’":

That’s when Flaherty, an attorney, spoke, raising the legal principle of “res judicata.”

“That prevents parties from relitigating a claim that’s received the final judgment on the merits. The purpose of this principle is to prevent repetitive litigation. It’s to ensure finality and to conserve resources,” Flaherty said. “In my view, as an attorney who’s practiced for decades in this state, reopening this matter is bad public policy. It creates a precedent that encourages parties to continue to continue to press their claims, despite receiving an adverse judgment.”

Derek@somervillennial· 20d

🤔

Simpsons business card meme:

TOW ZONE NO STOPPING BIKE LANE

changed to

TOW ZONE? NO, STOPPING BIKE LANE!

Derek@somervillennial· Jul 7

binj.news/2026/07/02/o...

Select powerful voices aligned with surveillance were elevated as the “reasonable” or “authentic” representatives of Black concern—such as Councillor Simmons. Meanwhile, the people living under the daily weight of surveillance and organized abandonment, especially those who present a more nuanced argument against surveillance and for safety, are sidelined. Not all Black and brown voices are heard equally.

When city leaders say they want to hear from “impacted communities,” they want to hear from the Black resident who supports more policing because they fear neighborhood violence; that voice becomes highly elevated as proof that surveillance is desired by communities of color. Black and brown people who critique policing as structurally violent are dismissed as fringe, ideological, or manipulated by white liberals.

Derek@somervillennial· Jun 28

😎

Derek@somervillennial· Apr 30

It's so wrong to see Sayed Faisal's killing used to defend BWC. www.wgbh.org/news/local/2...

Fatema Ahmad, executive director at Muslim Justice League, said body camera footage can help shed light on fatal shootings after the fact, but more needs to be done to prevent these cases from happening in the first place.

“In this situation, after this young person was killed, maybe body camera footage could have been helpful,” she said. “But really what the family would have wanted is to not have people with guns show up and chase him.”

Derek@somervillennial· Apr 28

Somerville should reject body-warn camera funding. My email to city council 👇

Hello City Council,

Please reject the mayor's request to accept grant funding for the integration of body-worn cameras into the police force.

Two weeks ago, you listened to the city's finance director as he detailed why we face a $4.5m shortfall against a level services budget. As reported in the Cambridge Somerville Independent [1], body-worn cameras (BWC) will cost the city $450k annually. Even if we assume there are benefits to BWC, we would be committing to a substantial recurring cost, funded by cuts to other city services.

We can't assume benefits though, especially without any policies in place to ensure BWC are used to hold police accountable for their actions, rather than as a tool for surveillance. Most of you were city councilors in 2022 (as was our current mayor), when the last attempt to fund BWC was rejected explicitly because there were no usage policies and no public oversight of the police. Four years later (with millions spent funding a Racial and Social Justice department and multiple "Public Safety For All" task forces come and gone), there is little change.

A vote to accept BWC is a vote to fund the police at the expense of other city departments; a vote to accept BWC without clear usage policies contradicts the concerns you raised four years ago. If you are serious about BWC, you must first fund building systems of public accountability for the police.

Derek@somervillennial· Apr 17

🤔

The language for four amendments came from 24-year Somerville alderman Bill White, now a real estate professional and an attorney who is representing Denise Provost – also a former member of that board as well as a former state representative – and, for one amendment, by retiring state representative Pat Jehlen. All say they have backed the creation of more housing stock in Somerville for the sake of enhancing affordability, and all say that the current zoning goes against that principle.

Derek@somervillennial· Mar 12

who is asking for John "the war in Iran is totally justified" Bolton to be at the podcast festival

Overview
Where the speakers are always on.

It’s back: The WBUR Festival will return in 2026! Join us for lively conversations, podcast tapings, musical performances and plenty of surprises. Once again, it’ll be serious stuff — and wicked fun, too.

Our guest list is heating up. Check out just a few of the big names who’ll take the mic on Friday, May 29 and Saturday, May 30:

José Andrés, renowned chef, author and founder of World Central Kitchen

John Bolton, former U.S. national security advisor and author of “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir.”

Samantha Power, journalist, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and former administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID.

Bryan Stevenson, public interest lawyer, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative and New York Times bestselling author of “Just Mercy.”

Public media friends including Jad Abumrad, musician, storyteller and founder of WNYC’s Radiolab; Allison Aubrey, NPR health and science correspondent and founding host of Life Kit; Mary Louise Kelly, co-host of NPR’s All Things Considered and host of the Sources & Methods podcast; and Katherine Maher, NPR president and chief executive officer.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-wbur-festival-tickets-1781855099569?aff=GENERAL&discount=MEMBER20&utm_id=185240&sfmc_id=16854187

John Bolton, Former U.S. National Security Adviser:

It's totally justified. Whether it's carried out in a successful way on many different aspects is open to question.

But, to me, the case to eliminate this, not only proliferation-minded barbaric regime, but to eliminate its international terrorist threat, is ample justification for doing what the president has announced. I don't think you need to make an argument that the threat is imminent. The threat is bad enough as it is.

Judgments of imminence can be wrong. I think we're perfectly entitled to do it. I think it is a war of choice, as most wars are. And I think it's something that, if it were explained to the American people, they would support. That hasn't happened yet, and that's one of the things that troubles me.

But the objective of overthrowing the regime is critical, because the regime has consistently shown it will not abandon its pursuit of nuclear weapons and it will not abandon its use of terrorism and its support of terrorist proxies.

If anybody wants peace and stability in the Middle East, this regime has to go.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/bolton-says-iran-war-justified-and-critical-for-peace-and-stability-in-middle-east

Derek@somervillennial· Mar 10

Looking forward to Councilor Strezo trotting out this line when she votes to accept funding for body-worn cameras as part of the city's "public safety for all" plan. somervillema.legistar.com/LegislationD...

Slide from "public safety for all" presentation describing a grant application for body-worn camera grants, where the next steps are a surveillance impact report and acceptance of grant funds by the city council.

Derek@somervillennial· Feb 16

alternatively, walk in the snow

Beacon St crosswalk in front of the hotel project, where one side of the sidewalk is covered in snow

Derek@somervillennial· Feb 13

our leaders should not *want* to be associated with this guy. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/02/12/b...

OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman appeared at the Whoop event remotely. Speaking with Healey, he offered several examples of how the AI assistant could be useful for government workers.

“It’ll be everything from small things, like dealing with communications with state residents, writing things, reviewing proposals to new things, where people will be using Codex and new versions of ChatGPT that can take actions to create entirely new workflows,” Altman said.

Derek@somervillennial· Feb 13

CPD /claims/ they'd do it. www.cambridgeday.com/2026/02/06/s...

In response to a question about whether local police could be authorized to arrest ICE agents, Cambridge spokesperson Jeremy Warnick told Cambridge Day, “If a federal agent were to commit a clear and observable violation of Massachusetts criminal law, and Cambridge Police officers have legal authority and jurisdiction, officers may respond as they would in any other criminal matter.”

Derek@somervillennial· Feb 13

begging Somerville city council to ask what the police department actually means when they are implementing "community policing"

Excerpt from Alec Karakatsanis's book "Copaganda":

The term "community policing" is etched into the marble facade at the International Institute for the Glorification of Copaganda for a reason: it is referenced in the news as something vaguely positive, but the news never tells people what it is. Very few laypeople know what "community policing" means, let alone its history. In short, it's a form of counterinsurgency derived from colonial military strategies used to "pacify" native populations, particularly in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Its goal is essentially to build allies among a targeted native population to make at least some repressed people trust and support the colonial oppressor so that the oppressor can continue its profitable policies while minimizing unrest by recruiting ambassadors within the repressed community. In 2021, for example, student opposition forced Harvard to cancel a course in which a professor proposed to get students to help him and local police study data on military counterinsurgency tactics they had implemented in Black communities in Massachusetts, in his words, based on strategies developed by "some army buddies of mine who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan." In Los Angeles, well before the Times published its articles on Valentina's killing, residents impacted by LAPD violence produced a comprehensive report on the history of "community policing" in Los Angeles. Their history of "community policing" counterinsurgency and its contemporary abuses contradicts the rosy picture gestured at by the Times. While their report, Automating Banishment, is one of the great community-based histories and analyses of police repression, it's the kind of perspective surgically excluded from the news.

Cover of Alec Karakatsanis's book "Copaganda"

Derek@somervillennial· Feb 6

that's a nice bike lane you got there. it would be a shame if it ended in an impassable snow mound.

Separated bike lane, cleared of snow, until it ends in a pile of snow.

Derek@somervillennial· Feb 6

Wasn't expecting a local shout-out on this week's @thisamericanlife.org, but I wish the circumstances were better. Worcester PD's cooperation with ICE is despicable. www.thisamericanlife.org/880/transcript

But one way that some local police do step in-- and step in all the time to help federal agents-- is to manage crowds and protesters who show up around their operations. And in cities where local police are not cooperating with ICE and Border Patrol, one way the federal agents can get them to show up is by calling 911. So, for example, in Worcester, Massachusetts, in May, ICE called repeatedly for police to come to Eureka Street to help them deal with a crowd when ICE arrested a woman as her teenage daughters watched.

Agent
I need you get there as fast as they can.

Dispatcher
What happened?

Agent
We have a crowd surrounding an officer, and he's requesting immediate assistance. Can you send units, please?

Dispatcher
Was there-- I'm going to send units.

Agent
Yes, beautiful.

Dispatcher
Any weapons that they can tell?

Agent
Other than the agents? No.

Dispatcher
About how many people is it?

Agent
About 25.

Dispatcher
25 people surrounding one officer?

Ira Glass
After that, the scene gets pretty unruly. People in the crowd demand to see a warrant for the arrest, though ICE does not need a warrant to arrest somebody. That's something lots of people don't know.

Derek@somervillennial· Feb 6

🫡

Me throwing away a weird sticker of Jake Wilson that says "HE SAYS NO TO THE TOWER, HE SAYS YES TO THE SQUARE" with "LIAR" placed over Wilson

Starship Troopers meme: "I'm doing my part!"

Derek@somervillennial· Feb 4

yeah, I wanted to know how Strezo's bike lane topic fared in the Public Health and Public Safety committee, only to find out they haven't scheduled a meeting yet this year bsky.app/profile/some...

Public Health and Public Safety Committee meeting schedule for 2026
(there are no meeting scheduled)

Derek@somervillennial· Feb 3

👀

Things started going downhill when ownership changed, and especially after the founding editor left. The board brought a lot of new voices into the room, and the loudest ones had no background in journalism and kept referring to the paper as a "startup." Imagine a donkey doing an impression of Jeff Bezos doing an impression of Bari Weiss -- that's the Cambridge Day board.

I suspect the termination has something to do with an incident late last year that involved the head of the board personally trying to screw me out of contractually owed payments for freelance work, panicking when I raised the prospect of taking the matter to small claims court so a neutral third party could weigh in, hastily attempting to bury the whole thing by pushing a NDA on me as a condition of payment, then finally making payment and skulking away into the shadows after I refused to sign the NDA, growing fearful of the Barbara Streisand Effect. The column wasn't terminated immediately, but I knew my days were numbered.

Derek@somervillennial· Jan 29

🤨

email where basically everything other than the greeting and signature is redacted

Derek@somervillennial· Jan 26

post-walk exhaustion

Derek@somervillennial· Jan 26

Mango did not enjoy the extra effort this walk required :(

Derek@somervillennial· Jan 23