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Bruce Wall: Not a shake down, but a shake up, but he can't continue with diversity group

Codman Square Update 04 09 14

Rev. Bruce Wall was on BNN's "Codman Square Update" yesterday and discussed the whole Keolis invoice thing, says a) his name was only on the invoice because he was head of a community group aimed at promoting diversity in commuter-rail hiring but that he had nothing to do with its creation or delivery - that's Eugene Rivers's doing - but that b)

Technically, what the organization really tried to shake up [Keolis] because we felt that [Keolis] was pulling away from their commitment to us to work with us, and so a recommendation was bring them an invoice for our fee for services, not expecting anything to come back financially, but that it would shake them up, that it was serious.

Still, he continued:

Now I'm in a position where I have to defend myself against the accusations that Bruce Wall, the "man of integrity," has tried to "shake down", not shake down but in essence shake up this commuter rail system.

Wall said he is resigning from the community group because he can't be a part of a group that would do something he would get blamed for that he had nothing to do with:

I cannot allow the group to make decisions that impact on my future work in this city.

Note: The discussion starts around 3:00.

H/t David Palomares for posting the video.

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Comments

no way in hell would he have returned the money. I have no reason to waste 25 min of my life listening to this guys BS. The first 1:30 seconds of this clown arguing about her opening statement was moronic.

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...the invoice was for $105K. Oh, pay it...wearing a wire.

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Are the minority areas of the city gerrymandered where there isn't sufficient political representation at the city and state level? If not, there is no reason for these non-elected people to try to extract money from a public contract.

Here are a few people chose by their constituents to represent their neighborhoods, I don't think any of them have billed Keolis for a nickel.

http://mablacklatinolegislativecaucus.com

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Are the minority areas of the city gerrymandered where there isn't sufficient political representation at the city and state level? If not, there is no reason for these non-elected people to try to extract money from a public contract.

There's no reason for them to extract money. Period. That's called extortion.

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Yes it is. Unfortunately, with the publicity, they won't get fooled into paying it to someone wired by the BFI.

That is, Browning Ferris Industries. Let me try that again...FBI.

Extortion, busted.

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Gerrymandering isn't the problem. It's that people vote for candidates which they know damn well are doing this sort of thing. Condoning corruption and not acknowledging that it is a major problem holding your neighborhood back is a big part of the problem,

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But Wall and Rivers are not elected officials

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!!!

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Time to log off!

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You nailed it perfectly. Some of the best politicians in MA represent the neighborhoods Wall claims need his help. Not to diss the good the 10 Point Coalition did twenty years ago, and though they have a place today, this is an insult to Linda Forry et al.

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There is a lot of back pedaling going on here. Let's hope Bruce does not loose his church.

I am going to love the calls next time Eugene Rivers comes into Jim and Margery and smacked around instead of worshiped like he usually does.

I love that Keolis went public with this. Good for them to call the bluff.

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I'm still pleasantly stunned that Keolis went public with this. Frankly, if the amount "billed' wasn't so outrageous, who knows if they would have just wrote a check to keep the peace.

My gut feeling is there are more than a few instances out there where businesses and other entities have done just that.

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Oh surely. That was my thought yesterday when I read the news. I'm sure Rivers has pulled something like this before. Either this time he asked for considerably more money, or he came on a bit too strongly with the threats.

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In any case, I was thinking the same thing and it gives me hope that Keolis is going to be a no-nonsense operator of the commuter rail system. Not much hope mind you (because there are so many elements affecting service that are going to be beyond its control), but at least a little.

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I think Rivers would have to actually kill someone for Eagan & Braude to end their hero worship of this clown. They're pathetic.

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"I cannot allow the group to make decisions that impact on my future work in this city."

Not, "I can no longer lead a group that insists on acting in ways that reflect poorly on the image of this community." Not, "I made a mistake in allowing this invoice to be issued, and I am stepping down so that my presence does not distract from the true mission of DRM." Nope.

He's only concerned about the affect this is going to have on him personally. It's all me, me, me, me. As the head, I'm sure Rev. Wall took credit for any achievement of the DRM, but in this instance he's refusing to take responsibility for a mistake.

In my experience, the "head" of such small advocacy organizations get final approval of any message that goes out, especially any message that contains the name of the organization's head. Wall's only issue is that he got called out on doing something slimy.

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Or the FBI?

Let's move now, folks.

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Seems like this would be Fed. territory, but that's just a guess based on previous public extortion charges.

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If it's involving trains, isn't it basically Federal jurisdiction?

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Wow lets all do the bounce and shake down and shake up! How many millions of dollars of grant monies have been granted to the preachers who do the bounce and shake down and shake up? The only difference between Boston and New Orleans is we have foliage.

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handing out an invoice for $xx,xxx to your intended target. This is a bunch of clowns, and I don't intend to give them any more of my brain power. I lose enough brain cells daily without having to look at this type of crap.

Now, back to smiling at the photo of the BMW with the firehose going through it!...

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Sorry, but I'm not buying whatever you are trying to sell me.

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You know what he's charging.

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This is a "dogwhistle" because there's implied criticism of black guys, right?

I get so confused.

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I should start sending random invoices to companies and see if anyone bites! What's the worst that could happen?

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... use of the mail in pursuit of this plan.

Just saying...

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Come on, who is dumb enough to do such a thing! Oh wait.....

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Part of me was hoping he'd double down and give BNN an invoice for $1 million for appearing on the show. "See? See? This is just how I roll!"

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Man, that was painful to watch - and humorous at the same time. I mean, this guy just keeps digging a deeper hole. As mentioned above, his opening statement was especially painful. Really?

Then, while he's talking, he never mentions specifics, like names or groups. In one sentence, he's talking about his organization and Keolis, but he refers to both of them as "the organization", so it's just tough to follow. He never mentions the name of his organization nor any other names. Why all the secrecy? Just for clarity's sake, mention the names. That alone makes him look bad.

But it is entertaining. You just can't make this stuff up.

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The Ministers group was firmly planted in the pocket of MBCR for the bid endorsement. They showed up at the T supporting Keolis, stabbing MBCR leadership right between the shoulder blades? Somewhere along the process Keolis got to them for the endorsement. The bill just came due

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Reminds me of medical bills I've received. You know the type where nobody tells you ahead of time how much something is going to cost, like pretty much all medical and dental bills. Is that extortion as well?

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On phone bills for services you never requested. No explanation or contract, just an invoice. It's "your job" to "cancel" and try to get the invoice resolved, even though you never signed up for the shit in the first place.

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"Not a ripoff but a rip ON the status quo!"

"We'll be working at the crack of dawn, not smoking crack at dawn!"

"We need to take people firing lead off the streets as well as getting lead out of paint!"

"A young man with a hoodie isn't threatening but people in the hood are threatened by The Man!"

Bruce obviously needs Al Sharpton for reinforcements as this is Bonfire of the Vanities 2.0

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Preach on!

We need 40 hour weeks, not 40 ounce dtinks.

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Nuclear watching this guy crawl out of the hole ! It's too bad, I remember seeing some of these "pastors" and "reverends" doing good work for their community.

Seems like more "churches" should lose there tax exempt status when they start going out of there churches reach on political issues.

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