Crime in suburbia

From The Landmark (subscription required):

[Editor's note: There were 5 suspicious items this week. There were 7 lockouts from homes or cars.]

Holden
Monday, February 7
1:06 a.m. Police check on male attempting to drive to hospital, Jackson St.
7:34 a.m. Police assist with traffic at intersection where all lights are red, Main/Salisbury Sts.
8:34 a.m. Small child missing, Montana Dr.
9:49 a.m. Officer out with Environmental Police, Manning St.
2:48 p.m. Group removed from business plaza, Main St.
11:13 p.m. Welfare check regarding missing person, Main St. Unable to find individual. Hubbardston PD advised
Tuesday, February 8
4:04 p.m. Caller discovered footprints around her house, Colorado Cir. Found to be extermination company checking home
6:00 p.m. Caller’s dog struck and killed, then driver took off, Fairhill Rd.
Wednesday, February 9
12:05 p.m. Male at station with two German shepherd puppies that were wandering around Quinapoxet St.
3:42 p.m. Caller found decapitated bird in his yard, believes it might be crime scene, Salisbury St.
11:33 p.m. Person calling for information on individual allegedly arrested in Central Mass.
Thursday, February 10
5:56 a.m. Trucks dumping snow at Jefferson Mill, Main St.
10:33 a.m. Caller reports teens soliciting door-to-door for snow removal from roofs, Twinbrooke Dr.
11:57 a.m. Caller complaining about trash barrels blocking view when pulling into road, Shrewsbury St.
1:04 p.m. Report of loud music/argument, Princeton St.
2:24 p.m. Police retrieve loose dog, Shrewsbury St.
3:12 p.m. Dog found (terrier) at home, Raymond St.
4:55 p.m. Police transport person to station for gas, Main St./Crestview Dr.
6:06 p.m. Train stuck on tracks, blocking Quinapoxet St.
Friday, February 11
9:31 a.m. Caller wants police to confiscate paraphernalia used for smoking marijuana, Quinapoxet St.
9:50 a.m. Caller says female attempted to shoplift items through self-checkout, Reservoir St.
11:46 a.m. Large yellow Lab running up and down Newell Rd.
Saturday, February 12
8:04 a.m. Caller reports suspicious incident possibly related to employee, Main St.
10:08 a.m. Girlfriend/boyfriend disturbance about truck, Bullard St.
12:28 p.m. Deer beside road appears to have been struck, Wachusett St. Later seen walking into woods
5:51 p.m. Muskrat in garage, Timber Ln. Advised to leave door open
7:44 p.m. Report that person left station without paying for gas, Main St.
Sunday, February 13
5:37 a.m. Police off with disabled vehicle, transporting person to Rutland to pick up fuel
12:21 p.m. Deer possibly stuck in snow, Bullard St. Found walking around
12:30 p.m. Person at station to drop off pellet gun he found, Main St.
2:19 p.m. Caller concerned with safety of youth sticking his head out car window, Reservoir St.

Paxton
Wednesday, February 9
1:03 p.m. Caller requests officer, says she’s being questioned by Homeland Security, Holbrook Ln.
1:37 p.m. Caller reports her house was written on with chalk, Streeter Rd.
3:53 p.m. Vehicle lockout, Whitney Dr.
8:38 p.m. Someone is breaking into caller’s home, possibly her husband, Grove St.
10:17 p.m. Caller says someone is in her attic, Grove St.
10:21 p.m. Oakham PD reports erratic driver involved in accident with moose left the scene, Pleasant St.
Thursday, February 10
12:09 a.m. Female reports someone got into her house via doggy door and is turning up her heat, Grove St.
9:17 a.m. Large bag of trash on Rte. 122N forcing cars into opposite lane
2:09 p.m. Caller found bunny at end of driveway covered with sand and salt, Marshall St.
6:19 p.m. Caller reports someone is trying to break into her house through the back door, Holden Rd.
Friday, February 11
9:13 a.m. Company working in roadway without detail officer, job shut down, Pleasant St.
3:35 p.m. Person wants to speak with officer about snow put on his property, Pleasant St.
Saturday, February 12
12:42 p.m. Police confirm 911 hang-up was child using phone, Red Oak St.
Sunday, February 13
2:15 a.m. Caller says someone may be in her garage making noises, Holden Rd.
Princeton
Tuesday, February 8
9:42 a.m. Welfare check on person unable to reach resident. Police find phone line down due to ice and snow, Mountain Rd.
1:54 p.m. Person filing complaint about neighbor’s dog, Calamint Hill Rd. N
Wednesday, February 9
9:08 a.m. Stray dog wandering around front of school, Sterling Rd.
Thursday, February 10
1:23 a.m. Motor vehicle violation, expired registration, vehicle towed, Rte. 140 N
1:51 a.m. Police transport operator of vehicle from previous call to Marriott to wait for ride, Rte. 140 N
Sunday, February 13
5:43 a.m. Suspicious vehicle, Gleason Rd. It is paper carrier
11:19 a.m. Vehicle lockout, Esty Rd.
Rutland
Monday, February 7
11:20 a.m. Person wants to speak with officer about electrician entering her storage area, Main St.
11:31 a.m. Several speed limit signs missing on Rtes. 122 and 122A. Dept. of Transportation advised
3:50 p.m. Very thin black Lab near Rail Trail, Glenwood Rd.
5:22 p.m. Person wants to speak with officer about damage done to her lawn and rose bushes by plow, Charnock Hill Rd.
11:53 p.m. ER nurse requesting message be delivered to person in ER earlier; x-rays show he should return to hospital, Dakota Trl.
Tuesday, February 8
8:31 a.m. Motor vehicle accident, Barre Paxton Rd. Report of irate person on scene
10:28 a.m. Person locked out of vehicle, Barre Paxton Rd.
1:28 p.m. Person locked out of house, Central Tree Rd.
4:04 p.m. Person wants information on vehicle towed last November, Maple Ave.
4:18 p.m. Vehicle lockout, Campbell St.
7:12 p.m. Caller’s son has gone off the road, possibly in Holden
Thursday, February 10
1:22 a.m. Yellow Lab running loose, Wildbrook Dr.
Friday, February 11
7:18 a.m. Caller requesting officer for vehicle lockout, vehicle running, Crestview Dr.
8:37 a.m. Vehicle out of gas in middle of Charnock Hill Rd.
Main St.
3:02 p.m. 911 hang-up, child playing with phone, Pommogussett Rd.
3:31 p.m. Caller followed and almost run off
road by erratic driver, Main St.
3:47 p.m. Caller requesting officer for property dispute, Oakridge Dr.
Saturday, February 12
2:35 p.m. Male entering tent on vacant lot, Prescott St.
3:30 p.m. Stray small brown dog in driveway, E. County Rd.
7:31 p.m. Holden PD requests Rutland officer respond to home of driver who didn’t pay for gas, John Robert Dr.

Sterling
Monday, February 7
2:43 p.m. DPW requests officer for person that plowed snow into middle of Kilburn Rd.
Tuesday, February 8
9:35 a.m. Escort services, Worcester Rd.
6:21 p.m. West Boylston PD reports dead deer in middle of Metropolitan Rd.
8:18 p.m. West Boylston PD reports suspicious male walking down Rte. 12 with light on his head/hat and carrying flashlight, Worcester Rd.
Wednesday, February 9
11:29 a.m. Dog released from quarantine, Swett Hill Rd.
10:15 p.m. Lost beagle, Leominster Rd.
Thursday, February 10
2:30 p.m. Person wants to speak with animal control officer about possum in yard during day, Oakwood Dr.
7:16 p.m. Person locked out of home, Westland Park Rd.
Friday, February 11
1:07 p.m. Caller reports neighbor’s cats are getting in neighbor’s house, N. Cove Rd.
5:28 p.m. Caller saw youth jump out of car and drop bag of alcohol, Chamberlain Rd./Maple St.
6:00 p.m. Caller’s dog attacked by another dog, Gates Rd.
Saturday, February 12
5:52 p.m. Suspicious vehicle with three occupants parked outside bakery, Leominster Rd.
6:14 p.m. Caller struck cat in area of Exit 5 on I –190. Took animal home, tiger-type cat appears OK.
Sunday, February 13
1:49 a.m. Suspicious vehicle pulled into driveway and turned off headlights, Justice Hill Rd.
9:52 a.m. Caller wants to speak with animal control officer about cat, Legate Hill Rd.
4:48 p.m. Officer wanted for youth acting up School St.

Facebook and revolutions

"Facebook did not create these revolutions," said David Kirkpatrick, author of The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World. "What created the revolutions was that there were a large number of people who were willing to go to jail or die."
There's no question that a service with 600 million subscribers, half of whom check in daily, 200 million of whom check in using a mobile device, there's no question that such a service is a really big deal. How big is the problem. Clay Shirky noted that there is no metaphor for Facebook. Anything we do, then, to bring it a size that we can comprehend is bound to omit a lot of salient detail. Tracy Kidder's The Soul of A New Machine included a watershed observation. Computer systems in the late 1970s reached a point where no one engineer could understand how the whole thing worked. Thirty years of Moore's Law later,we're presented with something that isn't just about transistors, but about people and how they relate to and with computing and networks.
Most people, Kirkpatrick noted, signed up for Facebook so that they could meet friends at the mall, not to start revolutions. And what makes Facebook so revolutionary in its own right, he continued, is that Facebook is built on real identities and the relationships of real people. The complex software that uses your profile information and your interactions with your friends results in a place where people feel as though they belong.
It's more than a coincidence that social networks have become a major way that stay close to family and friends at the same time that, worldwide, a majority of people now live in urban areas. It's a lot easier to be anonymous in a city where few people know you and even fewer care. We claim that we want privacy, anonymity, and personal distance while we hurry to check what folks are saying to and about us online.
This transparency is at the core of the Facebook philosophy and its effect. If we are more transparent, the belief holds, we will ultimately be less judgmental and more effective in work and in friendship. These notions can be unsettling those of us over 30 (often doubly or more over 30) who have grown up with an attitude of opacity. Just as of a certain age often cannot imagine how we'd find comfort in a world of Facebook, increasing numbers of young people cannot imagine a world without it. 
Using real identities, of course, can be dangerous. "It takes a lot of bravery to be a Facebook activist," Kirkpatrick observed. The Egyptian police had and certainly still have a special detachment to investigate activities on Facebook and other social networking channels. China doesn't even bother with that; they just don't allow it.
The engineers at Facebook, led by Mark Zuckerberg ("the most confident person I've met in the world so far"), designed and built a system that scaled beyond their imaginations. Using open source software, because that's all they could afford, the engineers could easily internationalize Facebook, allowing users to translate components as needed. As a result, 90% of the people in the world can or could use Facebook in a language that they understand. 
This worldwide growth is often lost on Americans. The country with the second largest number of Facebook users is Indonesia. Even if we were fluent in Indonesian, our view of Facebook, however, is based on our interests, our friends, our community as we define it. Those who seek out the wider world can find it, but most of us don't.
In the 90s, the hot software products were groupware, exemplified by Lotus Notes. Workers could collaborate on projects as needed, share documents, data, and messages, and build ad hoc teams to solve difficult problems. Time and again, studies showed that groupware worked and yet it failed. Kirkpatrick, a writer at Fortune for 25 years, said that managers couldn't deal with the loss of control and so they failed to deploy the products on any consistent basis.
Facebook and its kin, LinkedIn, Twitter, blogs, and other channels, became the new groupware. People connected with friends, with businesses, and with ideas without necessarily involving the boss. The result is that the workplace has changed even as management tries to control it. (Many workplaces block access to Facebook, overlooking the fact that 1/3 of Facebook users access the site by mobile devices.)
Kirkpatrick was at Davos when the events in Egypt were reaching full boil. A board member of a very large I.T. company told how the CEO of said company was watching the news and listened to complaints of the protesters. The CEO, after a time of reflection, said, "I have to be a lot more transparent in my leadership."

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The presentation and discussion was sponsored by the Amherst alumni associations of Boston and Central Massachusetts and took place on February 17, 2011 at the Spellman Museum of Stamps and Postal History at Regis College.

More on New England Newspaper & Press Association

As noted earlier, the New England Newspaper & Press Association presented awards at its conference on Saturday evening. It's disappointing that the NENPA web site hasn't been updated with the award information. Their home page, at this writing, is still showing the pre-conference information.
I've not found a complete list of award winners elsewhere. The recipient papers are, not surprisingly, only reporting on their own awards.
Th NENPA Facebook page hasn't been updated since 2009.

Congrats to the Worcester Telegram and Gazette

Our local daily won 25 news and advertising awards from the New England Newspaper and Press Association on Saturday.
We are often sharp in our comments about the T-n-G, but always in the spirit of kinship. The paper is staffed by good people doing good work in hard times.
For details about the awards, see their story, Telegram & Gazette wins 25 NENPA awards. You can because the story isn't behind their paywall.

Happy 21st Birthday, Michael