To the editor,

State Representative and 2015 Chief Marshal Raymond E. Gallison heaped dishonor upon himself by his piratical misuse of his client’s property. Now, Gallison’s name is forever linked in the records of Bristol’s Hall of Shame with the likes of Captain Simeon Potter, pillager of the Caribbean; the 19th century slave-trading and privateering DeWolf family; and the late 1970s attorney Robert L. deCosta Bernard.

How discouraging is it that all the town’s fine citizens cheered the choice of State Rep. Gallison as Chief Marshal of the 2015 parade? In a may 11 article, Arlene Violet wrote that the Fourth of July Committee had known about Gallison’s misdeeds from 2000 onward and his two Ethics Committee penalties, yet he was chosen for the most celebrated honor Bristol can award.

The scandals, which led to Gallison’s fall from grace, were dictated by avarice, which in turn led to Gallison’s resignation from the Rhode Island General Assembly. Violet asked, “Is there something in the culture of Rhode Island that allows its people to overlook corruption? If the great people of Bristol on the parade committee can rationalize the choice of a known series ethics violator to lead the prestigious parade, is there any hope for the state?”

Richard Simpson

332 High St.