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Easthampton nixes police officer in schools
Easthampton High School GAZETTE FILE PHOTO
Published: 6/9/2021 7:28:14 AM
EASTHAMPTON After years of contention, a police officer will no longer be present in the city’s public schools.
The city will redirect its school resource officer positions to focus on community-based policing, according to Easthampton Mayor Nicole LaChapelle. The officers will still work with juveniles, but will not be based in the district’s schools.
“The biggest thing I think people will notice is there’s not a police officer assigned within our schools who might be walking the halls or talking to students in the cafeteria or during recess,” LaChapelle said.
SJC upholds murder conviction of Ryan Welch in killing of Jessica Pripstein
Ryan D. Welch during his arraignment in 2012. GAZETTE FILE PHOTO
Published: 5/15/2021 9:13:59 AM
EASTHAMPTON The state’s highest court has ruled to uphold the first-degree murder conviction of an Easthampton man who killed his girlfriend in 2012.
The Supreme Judicial Court, or SJC, on Friday denied the request of Ryan Welch convicted in 2014 of the murder of Jessica Ann Pripstein in the couple’s Easthampton apartment for a new trial. The court upheld several rulings by Hampshire Superior Court judges C. Jeffrey Kinder and Daniel Ford. Welch had been sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Published: 4/21/2021 8:16:56 PM
NORTHAMPTON In the wake of George Floyd’s murder last May, Jasmine Sinclair organized a Black Trans Lives Matter protest against racism and police brutality that drew more than 4,000 people to downtown Northampton.
On Tuesday, she was sitting outside Big Y supermarket after grocery shopping when her aunt texted her the news: former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin had been found guilty on all three counts related to Floyd’s death.
“I’m surprised the prosecutors put away one of their own,” Sinclair said on Wednesday. “I’m not that impressed, but I’m glad. There needs to be more work done.”