With a municipal election in Worcester this November, previously used, intentionally misleading talking points are reemerging across social media.
A social media account of Worcester Police Sergeant Anthony Petrone posted a long debunked claim of endorsing “defunding the police,” targeting Worcester School Committee At-Large member Sue Mailman on Monday.
For many years, Petrone served as vice president of the union that represents police officials in Worcester. He recently declined to run for re-election.
Here is the post:
The petition in question, signed by 751 Worcester residents and 536 others, mostly from surrounding towns, did not mention police funding. The only reference is the group that circulated the petition, a resident formed group called Defund WPD.
Here is the full content of that petition:
“September 25, 2020
To: City Manager Edward Augustus,
Worcester City Council,
Chief of Police Steven Sargent, and
Worcester Records Access Officer
Dear City Manager Augustus, Worcester City Councilors, Chief Sargent, and Mr. Vigneux,
Community complaints against police using excessive and deadly force against Black men, women, and youth are at the core of the nationwide movement to eliminate systemic racism in policing.
We believe Black and Brown lives are less safe in Worcester because our city continues to hide misconduct records and obstructs the release of files and histories of police wrongdoing to Worcester residents. I am adding my name to this request because I believe it is the only way any real changes can take place.
Because of the importance of community oversight moving forward, we also ask that a searchable copy of this database be made permanently available on the City’s website as is already done with other public databases.
In addition to requesting the immediate release and publishing of this database, we request the City Council ask City Manager Augustus to end the use of taxpayer money fighting the Worcester Telegram & Gazette’s public records requests in court for related citizen complaint histories, excessive force, and disciplinary records.
As Worcester leaders, you have pronounced a commitment to serving our whole community. Under the public eye, you have knelt with the community to publicly state that black lives matter and that we must dismantle systemic racism in policing. Public professions of solidarity such as taking a knee must be followed with public actions if they are to be believed. Now is the only time to take action. Proposals such as Mayor Petty’s call for a yearly review of police policies and renewed community calls to create a Citizen Review Commission will not be real if you as City Councilors, the City Manager, and Chief of Police do not immediately — and fully — disclose citizen complaint histories, excessive force, and police disciplinary records.
Thank you for your attention to this serious matter and we look forward to a more transparent future for Worcester’s public servants and residents.
Sincerely,
Defund WPD & the undersigned”
The civil case mentioned in the petition, which a judge decided for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, found that the city illegally withheld police misconduct investigation records in 2018, violating public records laws in Massachusetts. Worcester Superior Court Judge Janet Kenton-Walker wrote in her February 1, 2022 decision that the city acted in bad faith during the trial.
Kenton-Walker ordered the city to pay $5,000 in punitive damages, the first punitive damages ever assessed under the public records law, which became law on January 1, 2017.
Far more costly than the punitive damages, the city paid the Telegram & Gazette $180,000 for its attorney fees. The city retained outside counsel for the case, further increasing costs to the taxpayer to prohibit those same taxpayers from accessing public information.
In 2003, a very similar case brought by the Telegram against the city also went to trial. The court found the city refused to release public documents in that case.
What is Petrone really opposing here? If his opposition is to the content actually in the petition, it should be no wonder why the Worcester Police Department, one of 15,000 law enforcement agencies in the country, became one of less than 80 to be the subject of a pattern and practice DOJ investigation over nearly 30 years. Removing bad cops would be a better focus than keeping information from the public.
Petrone strongly supports city councilors who, as I recently wrote, will do nothing on police reform.
To believe Petrone’s claim, one has to believe that signing any petition makes you endorse everything everyone else that signed that same petition ever said. That is, of course, absurd.
Let’s hope that Petrone’s strained relationship with the truth hasn’t impacted his incident reports, as it has for others in the department.
History of Naming Names
Petrone has a history of posting names to social media. In August 2023, former District 5 City Councilor Wayne Griffin accused the campaign of District 5 City Councilor Etel Haxhiaj of accepting a campaign donation from a close relative of Jorge Zambrano. Zambrano shot and killed Auburn Police officer Ronald Tarentino Jr. in 2016. Zambrano later died after being shot by Massachusetts State Police.
Petrone added the address of the donor to the post with the allegation, which circulated on social media.
The donor had no relation to Zambrano and was 17-years-old at that time. Petrone later publicly apologized to the family.
Later in the same cycle, Petrone posted the name and address of an individual in a town surrounding Worcester, who contributed $5,000 to an Independent Expenditure Political Action Committee, Worcester Working Families, which supported candidates Petrone did not support. Worcester Working Families raised $16,883 and spent $13,078 in 2023. It raised 30 percent of its donations, $5,125, from residents outside Worcester, according to campaign finance reports required by the state.
Petrone warned his followers of influence on city elections from outside the city.
Petrone made no mention of the larger Independent Expenditure Political Action Committee, Progress Worcester, started by Greater Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce and former Lieutenant Governor Tim Murray. Progress Worcester, which first began accepting donations in July 2023 and supported candidates Petrone supports, raised $57,475 and spent $27,226. It raised 40.1 percent of its donations, $23,400, from residents outside Worcester, according to campaign finance reports required by the state.
