Foofy Cafe

I live in the town of Bedford Massachussets, which is adjacent to the more famous towns of Lexington and Concord where the American Revolutionary War began.

The famous "Shot Heard 'Round the World" was fired on the Lexington Battle Green, which is just a ten-minute drive from my house.

When I go to Lexington for a meeting of ToastMasters or to tutor high school students at Cary Memorial Library, I drive down the convenient route to Lexington Battle Green, where I can park my car for two hours, then loop around the Green to return home to Bedford.

Last Thursday (August 18) I went to Lexington to attend the noon-time meeting of ToastMasters, in which I was slated to evaluate the talk of one of the speakers who told a story of an incongruous experience on her honeymoon.

I stuck around after the meeting to have lunch with another member, and then returned to my car to drive home.  As I looped around the triangularly shaped Battle Green, I came upon a barricade and some orange construction barrels on a short section of the pavement on Harrington Road. There was a sign on the barricade reading "Road Closed" as if there were some damage that was waiting to be repaired.  I scanned the road on the other side of the barricade, looking for some clue as to what the issue was. I saw no utility crew or flagman, just a few orange barrels.  Meantime a car came down the road from the opposite direction, indicating to me that at least his lane was open.  And about that time, another car came up behind me.  So there I was, boxed in with a barricade in front of me, and car behind me and no obvious alternative but to go around the barricade and barrels to continue my journey home.

I came to the stop sign at the end of Harrington Road, crossed over Bedford Street to head back up Hancock Road, stopping at the Lexington Minuteman Bike Trail to let a pedestrian cross.  Less than a mile later I saw flashing red lights behind me, so I pull to the side, stopped, and put on my flashers. An officer stopped behind me, got out of his SUV, radioed his position, and approached my car.  In the meantime, I had unbuckled my seatbelt to pull out my wallet and driver's license for him.

He reproached me for going around the barricade, telling me I had gone the wrong way on a one-way street.

"One way?" I asked.  Since when is that a one-way street?

The officer explained to me that the Unitarian Church had requested the town turn Harrington Road into a one-way street and to place the barricades there for the convenience of the parishioners. Then he excoriated me for disobeying the sign on the barricade that said, "Road Closed."

I told him that it was a confusing situation, there was no obvious reason for the barricade and nowhere else to go except around it.

He said I should have turned around and gone back the other way.

At this point I'm thinking that would have been imprudent, to try to turn around on a narrow street with a barricade on one side and another car behind me, and with oncoming traffic in the westbound lane of Harrington Road. And then I would be going the wrong direction on a street that I am unfamiliar with, which is an excellent way to get lost in the warren of roads in this part of the state.

He asked me for my vehicle registration, which took me a few minutes to pick out, since the state issues a new one every other year, and all the old ones were still in the glove box. But I found the current one and handed it to the officer.

After reading it, he said, "Mazda?!?" with an unmistakeable tone of skepticism."

"It's a Mazda 626," I said. "1996.  (Or is it '97?)"

He walked around the back of the vehicle to look at the insignia.

"What did you think it was?" I asked him.

"This looks like a Buick," he declared.

I didn't even know they still made Buicks, but yes, the '97 Mazda 626 Sedan does look a lot like a '97 Buick LeSabre.  Who knew?

What was interesting is that he didn't believe the words on the Registration, which didn't jibe with the evidence of his senses in regarding my car with his own two eyes.  

After I got home, I read the text of the Citation, "Violation of Posted Do Not Enter Signs."

Do Not Enter?!?  I didn't recall seeing any "Do Not Enter" signs.  Did I miss seeing it???  I recall there was an ordinary Stop Sign that I had no recollection of seeing there before.  I recall stopping and looking left to make sure there was no oncoming traffic before turning right onto Harrington Road. Where was this "Do Not Enter" sign that I didn't see?

I also called up the office of the Adminstrator of the Unitarian Church to find out more about this barricade and this story about Harrington Road becoming one-way at the request of the church.

I left a message and set aside the puzzle for the next day.

On Friday morning I drove back down to the Lexington Battle Green to figure out what the story was.

The Stop Sign (which was new) was where I had noticed it, but there was no sign saying One-Way ~ Do Not Enter.  Why would there be a normal right turn lane with just a standard Stop Sign, which means to give the right of way to oncoming traffic inbound to Lexington Center from Mass Ave? 

I walked across the street to the Unitarian Church, walking down the entrance drive on the left side of the building to the parking lot in back, where I found the entrance to the Administrative Office.  I went in and found Jane Foley, the Adminstrator, who had just made a note of my call on her answering machine of the previous afternoon.

I asked her if she could corroborate the story of the police officer that the church had requested the change in traffic pattern on Harrington Road.

She said the church had made no such request and that this was something the town had been planning on their own since last May.

I asked her if she knew the police were laying in wait on the exit driveway on the right side of the church, to nab anyone who went around the barricade.

She had no idea there was a police detail assigned to do that, and she said she would contact the Board to follow-up.

I chatted with her about the experience, explaining that I had received an infantilizing lecture from the police officer, and that I found it alienating and crazy-making. Why, if there is a new and confusing change, were they handing out $60 tickets instead of assisting visitors to make sense of an incongruous barricade in front of what looks like a road repair activity?

When I went back outside, I walked past the police cruiser laying in wait on the exit side of the church. This was a different officer from the day before, a female with black hair pulled stiffly back in a bun. I did not pause to talk to her, but I did observe her ticketing two more vehicles for the same infraction.  Clearly, this was a detail assignment from either the Captain or Lieutanant who was supervising this operation.

Looking down the road in the opposite direction, I saw one of those portable electric signs that would be visible to traffic coming into Lexington Center along Mass Avenue from Worthen Road.  It was situated on the island and flashed a message which was hard to read standing right in front of it, but I gather that was the one that directed traffic away from Harrington Road. That electric sign is not visible from the direction I came, looping around the Green to return to Bedford.

There was nothing in the current online edition of the Lexington Minuteman about Harrington Road, so I brought up the Lexington Town Web Site and found the plans from last May regarding some 3-month trials of new traffic patterns, including the one on Harrington Road.  According to the drawings by the engineers, there was supposed to be a sign on the barricade reading "One-Way, Do Not Enter." But for some reason, there was no such sign on the barricades, but rather a large electric sign visible only to traffic coming east on Mass Ave. For people like me, looping clockwise around the Green, there was no such sign at all.

Evidently the officers on detail had not bothered to appreciate that the signage on the site did not match the plans. Moreover, given the way they were parked alongside the exit drive of the church, they could not see the motorists until they were going around the barricades. It occurs to me that the officer who stopped me did not know which direction I had entered Harrington Street from, since he erroneously assumed I had gone past a sign reading "One-Way ~ Do Not Enter."  It's unclear to me how the officers were not aware that no such sign is visible anywhere along a circuit looping clockwise around Lexington Battle Green.

It will cost me $25 just to request a Court Appearance before the Judge Magistrate.

One of my neighbors is a former Lieutenant in the Public Safety Division of the Concord Police, and he says that most of the time these cases are dismissed. But either way, one is out $25 for an appearance or $60 to settle the books. If the citation is issued in error, there is no alternative. The Citations go into the computer, and mistakes cannot be corrected prior to filing for a court appearance.

If I were to appear before a Judge Magistrate to present a defense, I don't know if Sgt. Timothy J. Barry would be obliged to be present. But if he were there, and if the Judge Magistrate sided with me, would she grant me an opportunity to chide the officer who cited me?  

Dunno.  But here is what I would like to say to Sgt. Barry:

Vade Retro Satana

What you bring to me is evil.

Try drinking the poison yourself.

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Notes:

Primitive Logic leads to paradoxes and impasses. Higher order thinking is required to resolve dilemmas and conundrums where there is no obvious way out of the dead end.

Sgt. Barry said the Unitarian Church had requested that Harrington Road become one-way.

He excoriated me for not obeying the sign.

The way Sgt. Barry spoke to me was infantilizing and alienating, not to mention crazy-making.

If, when I was a child, my father had lectured me the way Sgt. Barry did, I never would have become a scientist. Fortunately, my father was also a scientist, which is why he would never have treated me in such an infantilizing manner.

Sgt. Barry disbelieved the information on my vehicle registration. He thought my car was a Buick and he had to go look at the logo on the back of the vehicle to convince himself it really was a Mazda and not a Buick, as he believed.

One of my neighbors, who attends the same church (Saint Michaels Catholic Church in Bedford) as Sgt. Timothy J. Barry, tells me that Sgt. Barry's 24-yr old son is a police officer in the Bedford Police, where I live. 

Believe it or not there are two people named Sgt. Barry on the Lexington Police Force.  One of them is married to a recently elected Town SelectWoman, Suzanne E. Barry, who is also the Chairman of the Board of Selectmen.  However I have learned that the husband of Suzanne E. Barry is the other Sgt. Barry, not the one who stopped me. 

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My father used to say, "Don't believe everything you read."

Today we tell our students, "Don't believe everything you think."

Your first duty as a scientist is to be skeptical of everything, including your own pet theories, so as to avoid falling into the trap of becoming self-deluded.

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I spoke to my neighbor, Roy Mulcahy, who has experience as a Public Safety Officer with the Concord Police.  He said these citations go into a computer and once they are in, the only way out is to either pay the $60 fine or pay $25 to request a Court Appearance before a Magistrate Judge who usually dismisses them. 

I said to Roy, "It sounds a bit like a racket."

"It is a racket," he said in a matter of fact tone of voice.

"Can I quote you on that?" I asked. 

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Sgt. Timothy J. Barry, Lexington MA Police

Timothy J. Barry Promoted to Sergeant | Lexington Minuteman | Sept 21, 2010

“Police work is in Sgt. Barry’s blood,” said Capt. Manny Ferro of the Lexington Police Department. 

“He comes from a long line of police officers. His father was a police officer. His uncle was a police officer. I’m sure his kids will be police officers,” Ferro said. “He’s very passionate about police service.”

Barry, who holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in criminal justice administration, started at the Lexington Police Department in 1981. With a background in firearms, Barry has served as a range instructor and field training officer. He has also served on the motorcycle unit.

“We recognize Tim’s ability to instruct effectively,” Ferro  aid. “Tim is a very loyal employee and a great addition for us.”

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Jane Foley First Parish Administrator, Unitarian Universalist Church

admin.fplex@verizon.net

Jane Foley is our Parish Administrator. She comes to First Parish with a varied background in administrative work, including as the administrative assistant of a state-run trust company for small Massachusetts businesses and as Membership Director at First Parish in Concord. Jane is a member of the UU church in Melrose, where she is currently co-chair of the Fellowship Committee. She has also served as Board President, Board Vice-President, and Coordinator of the Covenant Group program at the Melrose church.

Email Jane if you have questions about First Parish.

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My message to Sgt. Timothy J. Barry and his superiors at the Lexington Police:

Vade Retro Satana

What you bring to me is evil.

Try drinking the poison yourself.

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To: John Livsey, Lexington Town Engineer
From: Barry Kort
Subject: Please Review Quotes on Harrington Road Story

Hi John,

Thanks for taking the time to chat with me yesterday regarding the issues with the Harrington Road signage.

One thing I didn't mention is that my drive down to Lexington, via Grove Street and Hancock Road is efficient, with only two stop signs and very little traffic.  The return trip home also used to be the same, as I could loop around the Battle Green to gain access to Hancock Road for the return drive home: Two stop signs and almost no traffic on Hancock and Grove.

Now, with the detour, my trip home via Mass Ave to Worthen to Bedford Street and the Great Road is six traffic lights and two stop signs in stop-and-go traffic on major local thoroughfares.

Would it not have been better to put in a traffic light at the intersection of Harrington Road and Bedford Street, with something like a 2-minute red light and a 20-second green light for traffic on Harrington Road to cross Bedford Street?

Finally, I promised you a chance to review my quotes of you from our phone conversation of Friday morning. You will find them at the bottom of this story on one of my social networking web sites:

http://TinyURL.Com/Harrington-Road

Last updated 2775 days ago by Moulton