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Brockton-area lawmakers, law enforcement call for tougher sentences for anyone convicted of pointing a gun or shooting at a police officer

BROCKTON - The suspects accused of leading police on a 13-mile chase into Quincy and firing at the pursuing cruisers were sitting in the cell at police headquarters shortly after their arrest.

A few feet away, the officers could hear them chuckling.

“They were laughing about it in the jail cell,” Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz said.

The getaway driver and the gunman that night would later receive sentences of less than five years, time law enforcement officials say was a slap to the police officers who risked their lives catching the suspects.

If you're a Bay State taxpayer and you see someone sleeping on the job or a project you think is a total waste of money…you now have an outlet for your anger.

When Gov. Deval Patrick brings home billions in federal stimulus bacon, two Republican lawmakers will be counting on government-fatigued taxpayers to be “pork busters,” dropping dimes on napping hacks and boondoggles run amok.

“Let’s face it, people don’t like us (politicians), and we give them a lot of reasons to not like us. Let’s not use this as an excuse for an orgy of spending,” said Sen. Michael Knapik, 46, of Westfield.

Heaping $21.8 million of federal stimulus money into 6,000 solar-powered trash compactors isn’t passing the smell test for lawmakers already concerned about wasting the Bay State’s share of the bailout windfall.

The pricey garbage cans, which cost about $3,600 each, would be installed in all 250 state-owned parks if the funding is approved.

State lawmakers are lining up today to reject the 5.5 percent automatic pay raise that Governor Deval Patrick set in motion, saying that with local communities facing drastic budget cuts and families facing job losses, they could not pad their own pockets at taxpayer expense.

Representative Viriato deMacedo, the ranking Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, said he would donate the raise of $3,203 to a Plymouth food pantry, which lost $150,000 in funding in the last round of budget cuts.