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anti-press ezine 2001 06 16
ANTI-PRESS EZINE #25
"We're Positive About The Negative"
**SPECIAL E-DITION**
(C) Copyright 2001 Anti-Press All Rights Reserved
JUST SAY NO TO APATHY - Round 2
In the previous episode: email activist finds bowl to hash pipe in men's
room at public library; city cops do nothing, tell librarian to "throw
it out". And, a hate crime goes down; how will the P.D. respond?. (See
APE #24 for the senses-shattering, pulse-pounding details! See Stan Lee
for more alliterative hyperbole like the preceding sentence.)
* Uh-Oh. Another Virulent Email? *
Remember that email activist who forwarded to us his scathing essay on
the Pee-burgh P.D.? He smites again. We decided not to run his latest
email but to paraphrase key points. With all the material this guy
writes, if we kept printing his stuff, he would end up writing the
entire e-dition. Gotta maintain some editorial control, you know.
Apparently the activist was sitting downtown, enjoying a cup of joe,
when a scofflaw parked in a no-parking zone on main street, facing into
traffic, left tire against the curb. Two big no-no's. A city cop drove
by, and, strangely enough, didn't see anything out of place. In broad
daylight.
Continuing to press the attack in his second email, the activist said he
witnessed some time ago a "meter maid" incident: she vocally tore into a
disabled, elderly man for parking in the same spot, his HANDICAP tag in
the windshield easy to see. The man was parked in the right direction,
unlike the perfectly-healthy scofflaw mentioned above. This raised the
points of "selective enforcement", "extreme enforcement", and "extreme
lack of enforcement". The activist wondered if elderly disabled people
were being singled out for verbal abuse.
Ouch. Now that's a nasty comment. Almost as nasty as ripping a new one
in a senior citizen who can barely walk.
* Stuffing It *
But we have to credit the email activist for getting his word out: there
was an article in the (news)Paper about the lack of response by the city
cops to his "good citizenship", i.e. he reported the discovery of the
hash bowl in the men's toilet next to the children's room.
We compared the newspaper article with the activist's email. There's
discrepancies. The article refers to the found object as only being a
"pot pipe". Also, it states the "pot pipe" was found "stuffed in the
rails of the handicapped stall." Huh? The email stated that the hash
pipe bowl wasn't concealed; it was just sitting there, waiting for a
kiddie to pick it up.
Puzzled, we contacted the activist. He was upset, saying yes, those
details were incorrect. To quote: "That "stuffed in' bit isn't true.
It makes me sound like I was peering into every nook and cranny for
drugs or drug paraphernalia. I've got better things to do when taking a
shit."
We took a field trip and checked out the handicapped stall mentioned by
the activist. On each side there is a metal rail braced by a wooden
beam, a narrow ledge across the top of the beam. We couldn't see a
place to "stuff in" a toothpick. But we did note the place was clean
and the toilet paper was of good quality.
The activist says he isn't a "narc" and if that hash bowl was found in a
bar, he would've ignored it. He says he ignores lots of stuff. But he
drew the line at a public building in a facility used by kids. To quote
further from his latest email: "I asked the newspaper for a correction.
They declined, saying that such a correction would be 'rubbing the cop's
noses' in it, that the story was done, I had made my point."
Gee, while we're glad that the Paper covered the story, we're
disappointed it won't correct the errors. The three most important
words in journalism: accuracy, accuracy, accuracy. What's more
important -- the truth or the tender feelings of the police?
The email activist doesn't understand how the Paper construed his words
to mean that the alleged "pot pipe" was hidden. So, we wonder, who came
up with that "stuffed in" bull?
Before the article appeared, the activist received a phone call from the
P.D. and he spoke with an officer for over half-an-hour about his
concerns. During that conversation the activist explained he first felt
"concern" when he witnessed three months ago a car run a red light in
plain sight of a police vehicle. Besides the obvious danger to other
vehicles, the activist happened to be on the crosswalk with the WALK
sign on. If the stoplight-runner had made a right turn -- well, it
could've turned out that the email activist would be writing his email
today by blowing into a tube.
* The Hate Crime *
Meanwhile, the city P.D. says it's going to do a better job.
We'll see.
The trail to the hate crime is growing colder.
As mentioned in the last e-dition, a guy in his mid-twenties was walking
down the street when a pair of inbred mutates from out-of-town yelled at
him, calling him a "faggot". The guy took down the car's plate number
and ended up in a confrontation with one of the slope-headed morlocks
who coldcocked the alleged "faggot" in his mouth, splitting open his
lower lip.
The victim had to go to the ER to get some stitches. His lip is healing
but as for the inner scar...
[Note: This isn't a polemic against rural citizens. Most country folk
are good people. Like with any given population -- including the police
-- assholes are lurking. We grew up in a hamlet, not a big city. So
there's some "hick" in us, in case you're wondering.]
We here at APE have been working our sources, trying to gather
additional details about what happened and what the P.D. has done up to
this point. We strive for accuracy but what follows hasn't been
completely verified. Unlike a certain (news)Paper, we will run a
correction if any of the following proves to be nonfactual.
The victim is a pacifist who tries to avoid violence. He just followed
the car and took down its plate number in a notebook. That's when one
of the hate criminals ran up to him, calling him a "faggot" again,
trying to rip the notebook from his hands. The victim told the cornfed
cretin he wasn't going to fight him. At the same time the victim held
on to his notebook, refusing to surrender it. That's when he was
coldcocked and was forced to run for his life/limb.
The hate criminal has been traced to a village miles away from here that
we'll call Moo. [Names have been changed to protect the innocent, i.e.
the decent citizens of that village.] Even though the car has been
traced to a particular address, a city police officer apparently told
the victim the Pee-burgh P.D. is limited by jurisdiction.
Huh? We didn't know Moo was a nation unto itself. Does this matter
have to go through diplomatic channels, a municipal emissary has to
visit the Moo Embassy to voice his displeasure? Are relationships so
strained between the city and Moo that it has to open a dialogue by
sending its best ping-pong team there for a friendly match (a la Richard
Nixon and "Red" China)?
OK, the city P.D. is probably hamstrung by this "jurisdiction" crap. We
would think the city would work with the state police to follow up on
this incident. But we've heard that the particular officer who can cut
through this red-tape is on vacation. So who's in charge of his post
while he's away?
Anyway, the vacating officer must have returned because now the P.D.
says it will be pursuing the matter with the assistance of the state
police.
The hate crime went down on June 5th. At this moment as we write these
words, eleven days have passed since the incident was reported. (We
wonder what happens when the 911 dispatcher goes on vacation...)
Despite the time lapse, it is indicated that appropriate action is
forthcoming.
We'll see, won't we?
* Hate crime? What hate crime? *
Someone might challenge our use of the term "hate crime" -- especially
when the victim isn't gay. Thanks to www.findlaw.com we were able to
learn what constitutes a hate crime according to the New York State
Consolidated Laws (Penal).
According to TITLE Y, HATE CRIMES ACT OF 2000, ARTICLE 485, HATE CRIMES,
Section 485.05 (excerpted here for space):
"1. A person commits a hate crime when he or she commits a specified
offense and either:
(a) intentionally selects a person ... because of belief or perception
regarding the race, color ... or sexual orientation of a person,
regardless of whether the belief or perception is correct, or
(b) intentionally commits the act or acts ... because of a belief or
perception regarding the race, color ... or sexual orientation of a
person, regardless of whether the belief or perception is correct.
So remember that, fellow New York Stater, when someone is kicking your
spleen in and is calling you "fag", "queer", etc., even though you're
hetero.
* Meanwhile, On The Street Beat *
Last e-dition we mentioned that a reporter from the TeeVee Station was
considering whether or not to cover the alleged "pot pipe" incident.
We'll call the reporter Mr. Gleam since he has the right image for
TeeVee viewers.
The email activist was contacted via phone by Mr. Gleam and during the
conversation the activist had to explain why the incident was "news".
The activist gave his reasons but explained he didn't want to appear on
TeeVee, citing the hate crime; he didn't want some jerk recognize him on
the street, call him a "narc" and then work him over. (And since the
activist sorta "narced" on the police, well...)
Mr. Gleam really cooled on the story on that point, explaining how
TeeVee is so visual. He needed the activist on camera, making a
statement. Quotes displayed on the screen wouldn't work. We can
understand that problem because the average TeeVee viewer is an
illiterate Jabba-the-Hutt-type, ensconced on his couch, dusted by
repeated sprinklings of cheese-puff crumbs.
But don't despair. Mr. Gleam found a real newsworthy story. The other
day we spotted the TeeVee News van driving up and down main street, the
cameraman holding his videotape unit out the window, low to the ground,
aimed down at the pavement. Gotta get those exciting visuals, you know.
Some time later Mr. Gleam was standing in the middle of main street,
straddling the double-yellow line, traffic swerving around his
visually-perfect ass. Using his best TeeVee newscaster voice he spoke
into the camera about *potholes*. Now there's hard news, huh?
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