To the Editor,

I am in receipt of another campaign flyer from another challenger to a Cranston incumbent, this one from John Colasante running for Ward 2 City Council. I am sure Mr. Colasante is a fine person and upstanding citizen; I would have nothing against him personally. But again we are presented with a “platform” (“John’s Commitment”) that appeals to fear and makes false promises, rather than offering sound policy ideas.

The top two planks in his platform are “Ensure Safe Communities by Supporting Our Police,” and “Keep School Resources in Schools to Keep Our Children Safe.” We know these are not serious policy proposals, because they deny reality: “A review of spending on state and local police over the past 60 years, though, shows no correlation nationally between spending [on police] and crime rates,” (Washington Post, 6/7/20) “Some teachers and students, African-Americans in particular, say they consider officers on campus a danger, rather than a bulwark against everything from fights to drug use to mass shootings. There has been no shortage of episodes to back up their concerns” (New York Times, 6/12/20). These two calls to fear make his fourth plank, “Put Cranston Residents before Politics and Ideologies,” ring hollow -- they are exactly the national Republican ideology and politics.

I do support his third plank, “Restore and Modernize Budlong Pool” -- in theory, at least. If in fact this community resource can be salvaged, and designed by the community to be a resource going forward, I am all for it. But this is a false promise. Because his final plank, “Ensuring Low Taxes and a Balanced Budget,” ensures only that there will not be money to fund such a community effort. If you lower taxes and spend community money on police, guess which programs will be sacrificed to balance the budget? Welcome to a Cranston with more police, cops in the classroom, and no community swimming pool.

Mr. Colasante offers himself up as “the RIGHT Candidate for Cranston.” Okay, fine. But if the right wants to install their operatives, could they at least pretend to be in touch with reality -- especially the realities of Cranston?

David Baldwin

Cranston