BY DANVALENTI

Pittsfield Mayor Peter Marchetti waged his “War against the underclass” residents of the distressed small city that he leads as a failed financial manager.

The Pittsfield Police Department is overloaded with the social problems of the underclass residents, while gun shootings and violent crimes have increased in mid-2026.

It is Santa Claus with a BIG beer belly on the North Pole. It is the blue-dressed Penguins on the South Pole. Somewhere well north of the middle of the two Poles is “the Pitts”.

Dan, when Commander X said that if we’re looking for corruption, we need to look across the street at City Hall, THAT was the line.
Because he’s right.
Pittsfield spends an awful lot of time looking at the Police Department as though that’s where the power in this city lives.
It doesn’t.
The power is across the street.
Watch what happens when there’s controversy involving PPD. Who does the talking? Who controls the narrative? Who gets out in front of the story? Who seems to be making the moves while everyone else falls neatly into formation?
City Hall.
I see it. I’ve watched it happen. More than once.
And that’s why this interview doesn’t surprise me nearly as much as it may surprise others.
The idea that City Hall is constantly covering for PPD has this relationship backwards. You don’t need to cover for leadership that isn’t going to challenge you.
Dawley wasn’t going to stand up to Marchetti. Marc isn’t going to stand up to Marchetti. They’re YES MEN. That’s precisely what makes them useful.
Marchetti pulls the strings.
And God help you if you refuse to dance.
I’ve watched what happens to people who challenge him, embarrass him, question him or simply refuse to fall in line. Things have a funny way of becoming very personal, very quickly. He can be viciously petty when crossed, and somehow the hammer always seems much easier to swing when he believes the person on the receiving end can’t swing it back.
And since we’re apparently saying the quiet parts out loud today, I’ll say this one too: I’ve watched a man desperate to establish himself as the alpha repeatedly choose women as the opponents upon whom he’d like to demonstrate that strength.
That’s not strength.
So when Commander X used the word “coward,” I didn’t gasp.
I nodded.
The most important thing Commander X did here wasn’t expose some shocking secret.
He confirmed what some of us have been watching happen right in front of us.
If you want to understand the dysfunction surrounding PPD, don’t just look inside the station.
Look across the street.

Mayor Lumpy and the Great Disappearance Scandal
Mayor Lumpy vanished suddenly — poof! — like a dumpling in the night,
Leaving Bitchfield’s trembling citizens without their blob of civic might.
One moment he was mumbling, “Crime? I don’t see crime,” beneath his desk,
The next he’d slipped away so fast it made the treasurer’s bowtie stretch.
Commander X stood baffled, clutching paperwork, sweat dripping down his brow:
“We’ve got murders, marginals, chaos — and he disappears now?”
He barked, “We need support, engagement, leadership — anything at all!”
But Lumpy ghosted the whole department like a teen avoiding a phone call.
Rumors spread through Bitchfield like mold on a week‑old pie:
Some said Lumpy fled to Florida, others claimed he simply forgot to try.
One witness swore he saw the mayor sprinting toward the woods,
Clutching a half‑eaten donut and a six pack of beer muttering, “Public safety? No good.”
Commander X ranted to reporters:
“He hid after the murder, he hid during the crisis, he hides when the wind blows wrong.
He’s a closet defund‑the‑police guy — but too cowardly to say it out loud.
Now he’s disappeared entirely, leaving us drowning in the fallout.”
The council searched for Lumpy everywhere — under desks, behind vending machines,
Inside the city fountain where he once bathed during budget cuts,
But all they found was his signature soggy necktie
Floating like a sad jellyfish in the municipal muck.
Meanwhile, Bitchfield spiraled:
Shootouts at dawn, marginals multiplying like caffeinated raccoons,
Officers juggling mental‑health crises with broken flashlights and borrowed boots,
While the mayor’s office sat empty — a ghost town inside a ghost town.
Finally, a note appeared on Lumpy’s chair, written in greasy crayon:
“I’m taking a break from leadership. It’s stressful. Don’t call me.”
Commander X held it up and sighed,
“This is the most leadership he’s shown all year.”
And so the scandal grew —
A mayor who vanished when the city needed him most,
A police force left to fend off chaos with duct tape and prayer,
And a town called Bitchfield, forever cursed
By the legend of Lumpy the Disappearing Coward.

Here I go again.

Just left the Y on Lumpy’s notorious North Street. One of the morning nice highlights is seeing all the little children who attend day care at the Y getting ready for their daily walk. Some children are in rolling cribs, some in little buggies with canopies, and some walking linked together by a rope with handles. All you can hear is little giggles until today their giggles gott drowned out by a “houseless, mentally ill man” screaming every fowl word in the book. He was kicking and screaming, running out into the street. Scared the heck out of us adults, never mind what it did to these little ones. No one should be subject to this daily. It’s not like it’s a rare occurance.

As though it couldn’t get any worse, it did! As a few of us decided to go for coffee at Dotties (found it closed for vacation). The houseless handicapped wheel chaired woman that has made a home on the sidewalk in front of the St. Joseph’s rectory. Well she was emptying her urine catheter and bowel coloscopy bags on to the side walk. I feel very sorry for her condition, but, this is not good, not healthy and very sad situation. Unfortunately I do not feel that it should be allowed. Is this fair to the businesses in the Dottie’s Block or the priest’s who make their home in the rectory? No it is not! Enough is enough!

I do ask when was the last time any elected official took a walk up and down North Street?
Is this how they want the City to be viewed by both residents and visitors? I ask Chief Maddelena, does he feel North Street is safe, even during morning hours? Where are all our social service agencies that our taxes pay? Come on elected officials, Pittsfield needs to be cleaned up.