Recall 2019 – Fall River’s Uncivil Political War Gets Ugly

America’s Civil War almost destroyed the United States. The recall election set for March 12 can best be described as Fall River’s Uncivil War – bringing out the worst in people, pitting resident against resident.

To be civil means to be courteous and polite. Discourteous and impolite best describes the political atmosphere in Fall River at the moment. A recent post in the Fall River Political Talk group on Facebook provides the perfect example:

The post is gone and the Facebook user account is clearly fake, set up just before the post was made. A quick reverse image search shows “Katie’s” profile photo is all over the web.

Here are a few examples:

https://thechive.com/2015/10/12/french-canadian-girls-are-tres-mignon-really-cute-32-photos/

https://www.picswe.com/pics/canadian-girl-5b.html

Politics can be an ugly thing, but creating a fake profile of a woman to make sexual assault claims is as low as it gets. Hopefully, law enforcement tracks down the person that made the account and holds him or her accountable.

Jasiel Correia provides plenty of ammunition for those who support the recall – he has 13 federal indictments hanging over his head. I’ve covered elections in New Bedford and other cities, and this is the lowest I’ve seen so far. Unfortunately, I’m expecting it to get worse the closer we get to election day on March 12.

The Uncivil War bullets are flyig in all directions – Jasiel Correia did make a mockery website for The Herald News reporter Jo Goode that basically called her “Fake News.” People against Paul Coogan have claimed that he’ll bring back the purple bag “pay-as-you-throw” program, which he has publicly denied. Erica Scott-Pacheco just reported that two fake accounts are being used to represent her:

Many of the City Council meetings have been heated between City Council members and city leadership. Here’s a heated exchange between Council President Cliff Ponte and City Administrator Cathy Ann Viveiros:

Heated exchanges between politicians is expected and happens often in a healthy Democracy. Trying to destroy reputations and sway elections with fake sexual assault accusations or spreding lies about a candidate’s policies should not.

The recall election set for March 12th should be based on two things; if Jasiel Correia should be recalled from office for being under federal indictment (the reason the recall started) and if so, who should be mayor (oddly enough Jasiel could get recalled and win the election). People going to extreme measures should remember that this election doesn’t really have a major impact on your day-to-day life and Fall River will be doing this all over again 6 months later. There is no reason to end friendships, break up families or go to jail trying to smear a candidate. Let’s end the Uncivil War.