The Cult of Jasiel Unveiled in Closed-Door Meeting [OPINION]
In a “Top Secret” meeting last week for Fall River Mayor Jasiel Correia, the embattled mayor unveiled his plan to win in November when he hopes to be re-elected to his position.
What I took away from the audiotaped speech he gave is that he is a manipulative sociopath.
He seems to have great ability to charm and win over some of the more easily swayed (a polite term for what I really mean, weak-minded) than I once previously believed. He told his audience that he was “releasing them” of any traditional campaign labors such as knocking on doors and holding signs at busy intersections and waving to passersby.
He told them of a big, serious plan he had to win the election but that he couldn’t get into the specifics that night.
In truth, he is making this up as he goes along, but what he is doing by forfeiting the precious and important chores mentioned above is sparing his supporters the grueling experience they would most certainly face, had they knocked on the doors of Fall River and 38 Cherry and Webb Lane in Westport or waved at vehicles and pedestrians at Plymouth and Bedford Streets.
Eight of 10 doors would be slammed in their faces with demands to get off the property, maybe even occasionally accompanied by a bucket of iced water. They now won’t be thrown thousands of middle fingers and exposed to “F-bombs” from car windows every three seconds for however long they might have been out on those corners.
Correia knows his base is drinking his Kool-Aid; enough of that kind of treatment by their neighbors and they might come out of their trances and defect.
He said the problem with Coogan is he “isn’t from Fall River and that’s the problem.”
The irony is that he said it while he was staring at a guy ominously hovering near the buffet table, Fall River’s newest resident, City Councilor Steven A. Camara, who had just entered the room to a standing ovation. Camara called Jasiel “the son I never had.”
This next one might be my favorite. Correia told the room that the best if not only path to victory lies in numerous write-in candidates surfacing and carrying out a “sticker campaign.” The best way to describe it is to just say that it's self-explaining.
The candidates give you a sticker of their name and on the ballot where there is an option for an unnamed candidate underneath Correia and Coogan’s names, you stick their name in the blank space provided or write it in if you aren't able to get a printed sticker. It's normally a predictable failure but, well, desperate times call for desperate measures.
Correia told his audience that “It wouldn't be fair to give the names of these candidates and deny them their own announcements to launch their campaigns. He said they approached him and asked if he’d mind if they do this. That's so ridiculous, it goes beyond an LOL or an LMFAO and requires a full-blown LSHMSFOAIDMT!
He didn’t name them because these “sticker candidates” don’t yet know that they are being sized up and suited for their political suicide vests and were likely in the very same room listening to the fictional people Correia just concocted, not realizing that they themselves will soon "decide" to run.
I mean come on, that is a big bucket of awesomeness right there. I’m starting to like this guy. He’s a funny guy!
The really brilliant part of all this is that the mayor is selling a “Deep Rivah" theory. The Karam/Fiola cabal has created the whole FBI 24 crimes set-up and his peeps are buying every word.
Don’t get me wrong, the list is longer than James Comey’s arm of people who tell me that they think Ken Fiola and the Karam brothers use their influence to get pole position on properties in unfair and shady ways, make or break all Rivah candidates and are Fall River’s faces to political bullying. It's part of most political conversations over there.
Far be it from me to defend these guys, but even I know they don’t have a mentionable fraction of the power to orchestrate a 24-count indictment by the federal government. They can make a call and have something looked at, but they can’t decide to have Mayor Correia arrested based on fluffy fantasy and no evidence.
Numerous times, Jasiel Correia said the elections were not about him because Fall River is bigger than him. Based on his actions over the last three years, there is no evidence that he actually believes a word of that – even though his followers believe every syllable.
Ken Pittman is the host of The Ken Pittman Show on 1420 WBSM New Bedford. He can be heard Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon. Contact him at ken.pittman@
More From WBSM-AM/AM 1420
