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Edward KocheEdward Koche
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Session:         Page of 617

correspondence, I want them to know that I do not think you should pick people up simply because they are dissheveled or you don't like their looks -- only if they commit a crime. I am sure that's what you mean, too.” And he writes back, “Oh, yes, that's definitely what I mean.” (laughs)

So the funny part (and then I have to wind this up because I have some people coming): Leo Colarco, who is a long-time Villager, maybe born there and had been a member of Carmine's club and who really dislikes me, then writes me a letter saying that he resents the fact that he, who is the head of the 6th Precinct Civic Association (whatever it's called), that I didn't write to him in that capacity but that he gets my mail as a member of the Planning Board and why should I be interested in these things at all? And I'm just using it for political purposes. It is true -- “I'm told,” says he, “that you campaign 365 days a year.” I mean it's a nutty kind of letter.

So I said: “Dear Leo, If being involved in civic matters 365 days a year is campaigning 365 days a year, I plead guilty. I am distressed that you're not supportive of my efforts to clean up the Village and to provide better police protection.”

So then I have two or three letters with him all in this vein, where then he writes back saying, “I don't see why simply because people are gambling...” I'm actually not even paraphrasing. I'm only just giving the flower of it. But the nature of his letter was: he doesn't understand why these situations, which I





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