Early in the morning of Aug. 5, the Fall River Police Department cleared a section of the Quequechan River Rail Trail of what they term “a colony of criminals” between Rodman Street and Brayton Avenue. 

Operation Clear Path is FRPD's “coordinated enforcement effort” in response to more than 800 emergency 911 calls coming in over the past three years, reporting sexual assaults, overdoses, robberies, fires, assaults with weapons, and the ongoing presence of biohazardous waste along the trail.

In an Aug. 5 Facebook post, the police department described the scale and strategy of the campaign to “reclaim” the public space intended for families from “trespassers,” the overwhelming majority of which “have significant criminal histories" that include “substantial” violent offenses.

Read more at heraldnews.com.