Salem Police Officer Tried To Make Lemonade From Lemons: Patch PM

SALEM, MA —It's Friday, June 26. Here's what Patch has been covering on the North Shore and across Massachusetts today.

Dana Mazola, the off-duty Salem police officer who died in a head-on crash Thursday night, was a decorated patrolman and a veteran of the department. But it may have been a call in 2005 that best illustrates what Chief Mary Butler meant when she said Mazola "had a heart as wide as the whole outdoors."

The offense Mazola was sent to look into that day? A sausage vendor called police on two boys who were running a lemonade stand on Salem Common.

Their crime? The nine-year-old and 11-year-old did not have a vendor's license.

According to an Aug. 2005 Boston Globe article, the sausage seller took a lot of heat around town and eventually regretted ever calling police. But at the time, he said the two boys were hurting his business with lemonade made from a packet that they were selling for 50 cents a cup and advertising as "the best in town."

When Mazola saw the alleged license scofflaws, he called his boss. "I called the sergeant down to the scene because I didn't feel like kicking these two kids out, and I asked him the situation, and he said they needed a vendor's license," he told the newspaper at the time.

The sergeant, regretfully, said rules were rules. Mazola asked if the boys could move their stand away from the sausage vendor. No license, no stand, he was told. Mazola had to send the boys packing, but he didn't have to pretend he was happy about it.

"It's two little kids selling lemonade," Mazola said. "If I get a call like that tomorrow, I'll let someone else take it."

Read more: 'An Unimaginable And Heartbreaking Loss' For Salem

Elsewhere on the North Shore

Forum Includes Allegations Of Racist Comments By More Swampscott Officials

No elected officials were called out by name, but the joint meeting of selectmen and the board of health included allegations that some Swampscott officials referred to the coronavirus as "poo-flu," "Kung Fu flu" and "Chinese coronavirus." The chair of the board of health said racism is a public health crisis in Swampscott.

Parole Board Questions Sincerity Of 'Mall Rapist'

It was the third time Phillip Pizzo has been before the board. Pizzo has served 35 years of 11 concurrent life sentences after admitting to kidnapping seven women from Massachusetts shopping malls in the early 1980s, including the Northshore Mall in Peabody, then raping and torturing them at his home.

Across Massachusetts

• Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren is one of four people Joe Biden is considering as his running mate. The other potential VP candidates are Sen. Kamala Harris of California, Rep. Val Demmings of Florida and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms.
• Some teachers and administrators are raising concerns about the return to school guidelines the state released this week. The social distancing requirements are "very difficult to do in any building, but certainly in a school like ours," Fitchburg High School principal Jeremy Roche said.

Dave Copeland writes for Patch and can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).