A Rhode Island city councilman who also serves as chairman of his county’s Republican Party found himself in an awkward position this week when cops pulled up to his parked vehicle, where they found him passed out and in possession of a crack pipe.
The man, Matthew Reilly, 41, was arrested on Monday by officers who were notified by a concerned citizen who saw Reilly ‘choking’ while either fast asleep or passed out inside his vehicle. As they went to check him out, they found the Cranston City councilman in a rather compromising position, waking him up so they could examine the vehicle and figure out what was going on.
In the video below, you can see when the officer reviews Reilly’s identification, and the reaction he had when he realized who in fact he had found passed out with a crack pipe in the middle of the day.
Dude, Where’s My Crack Pipe?
“No way, dude, really?” the officer let out as he realized he was arresting a sitting city councilman. For crack.
Reilly from there attempted to convince the officer to let him go by pleading with him that he suffered from sleep apnea, which would explain the passerby describing what he saw as “choking.” But the officer realized what he was trying to do, warned Reilly that he was being filmed via body camera, and that the crack pipe in the video gave him probable cause to search the vehicle and Reilly’s persons.
From there, Reilly folded and admitted the truth – that he was relapsing and processing a recent divorce.
Investigators searched through his vehicle and found a substance that tested positive for crack cocaine. Reilly was arrested once the on-site test came back positive.
Reilly, as he was charged with possession of crack cocaine, could be heard in the video stating that once this news got out, it would become a media frenzy. Well, he’s right, which is why you shouldn’t do crack, especially if you’re an elected official, and even more so if you’re a Republican because only Democrats can get away with doing crack it seems.
#WATCH: ‘Crazy…’
Cranston City Councilman Matthew Reilly’s mother tight lipped about her son’s drug possession charge.
Reilly was found unconscious with a pipe, crack cocaine, and fentanyl in his car by police Monday. @ABC6 pic.twitter.com/eKXvLsXVjB
— Daniel Coates (@danielcoates_25) May 16, 2023
He’s a Crackhead, but he’s Our Crackhead
Doing crack is bad, OK? However, getting caught with crack once doesn’t have to mean that your life is over.
Since his arrest this week, Reilly has stepped down as the chairman of the Cranston Republican Party, and is now set to face a judge on June 15. Since he’s on camera admitting to it, he’s probably going to face some jail time for the possession of drugs.
Does this incident mark the end of his political career? Well, only if he stays a Republican. Democrats have a history of putting party loyalty beyond crack addiction, and this could be the opportunity of a lifetime if he plays his cards right, starting right now.
Former Tallahassee Mayor and 2018 Florida Democrat gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum was caught naked in 2020 with a male prostitute while he was high on meth and the prostitute was suffering from a drug induced heart attack. The media attempted to make it appear as if Democrats wanted to make this man their 2020 presidential nominee, saying he brought “Obama” levels of excitement. They might still try and do that one day if he isn’t in jail for the 17 felonies he’s been recently charged with.
Democrat political donor Ed Buck was everyone’s friend until 2021 when he was convicted of luring gay men back to his house, where he would then inject them with meth and have sex with them. Obviously a character flaw on Ed’s part, but Democrats will sure forgive and forget if he ever gets out the moment they need him to write a campaign check.
Lastly, if Reilly needs a Rocky Balboa-style comeback story, all he needs to do is remember former D.C. political giant Marion Barry, who while serving as Mayor of Washington D.C., was arrested by the FBI for buying crack cocaine, served a few years in jail, launched a comeback race to get onto the city council, and if that wasn’t enough, ran again for mayor and won with the slogan “He might not be perfect, but he’s perfect for D.C.”
Maybe if Reilly plays his cards right, he can rise up the Democrat’s ranks and go sit on the board of a Ukrainian oil company and party in China with Hunter Biden. Time will tell.
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