I haven’t listened yet, but I assume it’s good. From NPR.
Category: Police
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Do liberals laugh?
Almost a decade ago a colleague told me “You’re the first liberal I’ve met with a sense of humor.” Granted he didn’t have too many liberal friends. But that’s not the point.
Liberals have a sense of humor. Most of the great comedians are liberals. Many if not most of the world’s great jokes have their origins in liberal Jewish New York. If you took away Jewish humor and African-American humor, there wouldn’t be much left. I mean hell, I can count the funny Greek comedians on one finger.
But no, my friend wasn’t talking about the history of humor. He was talking about our ability to laugh and not take offense. Have we really become so politically correct that we can no longer laugh? Apparently so, as the Erie police officer discovered (see post below).
As my father once said to a large sociology class at Northwestern University: “I’ve heard plenty of jokes that don’t make fun of a person’s race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, physical or mental impairments…. [pause] The trouble is they’re just not funny!”
Of course there is a line were racial becomes racist. There is an area where Jewish jokes become anti-semitic. There is a point where “gay” becomes homophobic. There is a place where “retard” is just plain mean. But that doesn’t mean we should keep our mouths shut, afraid to make people laugh.
And there’s a good rule of thumb to know when you’ve crossed a line: if you’re telling a joke about a person or group, you better be able to tell it tothat person or group. If they laugh, you’re in the clear. Insight based on stereotypes? Funny. Insults based on stereotypes? Not so funny. Picking on a specific person? Risky. And doing so based on false stereotypes? Now you’ve crossed a line.
I believe in free speech. I though I might not approve of it all, I’ll defend your right to say it.
Regardless, here’s to humor! The thought of a humorless world is terrifying indeed. If we can’t laugh, what can we do? I’d just as soon “take one to my head.”
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Police Officer Jokes About Murder Victim
That’s just about as exciting a headline as “dog bites man.”
I joked about murder victims. Of course you joke about murder victims. I mean, you do try and wait till you’re away from from the murder scene before joking about murder victims (though I didn’t even always pass that test).
So after work — after seeing another person take his last earthly breath, after looking at a dead criminal’s brain spatter all about, after seeing the bastard’s family break down over the death of their “baby,” after hearing witness after witness say they “didn’t see nothin’,” after sorting through the guy’s bloody and dirty clothes for evidence collection — after all that you go have a few beers with your buddies and you tell stories. You laugh. You try and make sense out of world that makes no sense.
This is what police do. Doctors and nurses and paramedics and firefighters do the same same thing. I bet undertakers have a wicked sense of humor, too. Why? Because they do it day after day. What are workers of death supposed to do? Cry every time they see a dead body? Workers who have to deal with trauma day in and day out need to be able to be a bit callous to trauma. It’s literally a job requirement. And humor and sharing are coping mechanisms.
We literally police to come across horrible scenes at random and also observe minute details. And sometime we require them to take pictures. And then you we expect them to… what exactly? Buy flowers and the first silk-screened t-shirt in memory of the dead guy?
It’s called gallows humor. And I support it. It’s cheaper than a shrink. Often times it is more effective, too. People who deal with murder victims need to be able to joke about murder victims. Otherwise they’d go crazy.
Now an Erie police officer, James Cousins II, is being suspended for doing just that.
Sure, this cop had a few too many. But we all have.
So what exactly is the crime? He was off duty. Is the crime to think such things? or to say such things? Or to be recorded and posted without your consent on youtube? We all gossip and think and say insensitive things in private and to our friends that are not appropriate for public broadcast.The appropriateness of speech changes according to time and place. If he gave this speech to a news camera for the evening news, then that would be inexcusable. Even in semi-public environments like bars we deserve some protection of privacy and free speech. This wasn’t a racist tirade. He didn’t use the N-word (neither of which would be appropriate in any context). He’s a drunk cop telling a war story.
And for the record, it is funny, even hilarious, to see a picture of a guy shot dead in the head right under a malt-liquor sign that says, “Take it to the head”! Swear to God. But yeah, you had to be there. Whether you wanted to be there or not.
And that’s the thing.
Next round is on me.
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At the ballpark…
I’m out traveling and speaking during my Spring Break. Right now I’m in Chicago, seeing as many Cubs games as I can.
(Greek) Easter Sunday, I will be a roasting a lamb with my cousins. Then back to NYC. Updates will be few and far between till then.
[And if you’ve ever wondered why the Greeks often celebrate Easter later than others, it’s because the others have it wrong. Good Friday happened after the Last Supper. The Last Supper was a Passover Seder. So you can’t have Easter before Passover. You can’t be resurrected before you’re dead. I’m just saying…]
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Code 2 1/2
More lights and sirens in L.A. But in this case it’s a good thing. And former Chief Bernie Parks shows once again why the rank and file hate him.
The story by Joel Rubin in the L.A. Times.
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Man Robs Dunkin’ Donuts, Returns to Give Back Money
A man robs a Dunkin’ Donuts at (BB) gunpoint in Hinsdale, ILL.
About 24 hours later he returned, confessed, apologized and put the money on the counter, including loose change he’d gotten from the cash register, authorities said. When he realized the clerk did not speak English, he wrote a note that said he was sorry and shouldn’t have taken the money.
“He said he felt bad about it,” Leuver said.
Holmes tried to hug the clerk but she backed away, Leuver said.
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The change of heart, caught by a surveillance camera, didn’t prevent authorities from later arresting Alex Holmes, 17, of Hinsdale and charging him as an adult with aggravated robbery.The storyfrom the AP.
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Welcome to America
How can our immigration policy be so idiotic and restrictive? I’m not talking about open borders with the third world, but the smartand richpeople who innovate, start businesses, and are needed by our economy. Why do we keep them out? “’We are watching the decline and fall of the United States as an economic power — not hypothetically, but as we speak,’ said Craig R. Barrett, the chairman of Intel.” The storyin the New York Times.
“The next generation of Google engineers are being turned down,” says Pablo Chavez, Google’s senior policy counsel. “If a foreign-born engineer doesn’t come to Google, there is a very good chance that individual will return to India to compete against us.”At the rooftop pub [in Canada, which did welcome him and his wife], Mr. Mavinkurve and his wife both express some anger. He thinks America should embrace him, given his contributions and taxpaying potential. After Google went public, he paid more than $200,000 in federal taxes on his income from salary and, mostly, sales of his shares, just in one year.
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He says he feels, on one hand, great gratitude that America gave him extraordinary opportunity. But he says he fulfilled his side of the bargain by striving and succeeding. “Dude, I love this country,” he said.But he doesn’t feel loved back: “My devotion is unrequited.”
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Child killers. Child prisoners.
Jessie Rankins killed a five-year-old. Rankins was 10. The story by Gary Marx in the L.A. Times.
As he walked out of prison a free man last month, Jessie Rankins barely greeted his wife, exchanging only a few words without kissing or hugging her. It was their fourth wedding anniversary, and he hadn’t seen her in 2 1/2 years.
“I’ll feel better when I see my dog,” he said a short time later.
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In 1994, he and a friend abducted 5-year-old Eric Morse, dangled the screaming boy out a 14th-floor window at a public housing high-rise and dropped him to his death. Eric had refused to steal candy for them, prosecutors said.This story won’t have a happy ending.
(And how prisoners like this find girlfriends?)
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Police Officers Paul J. Sciullo II, Eric Kelly, and Stephen Mayhle
I just happen to be in Pittsburgh. And I just happened to bike by mile after mile of police cars from around the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the nation. I asked an officer where the service was and decided to pay my respects to officers Paul J. Sciullo II [pronounced Shullo], Eric Kelly, and Stephen Mayhle.
The service was in the U Pittsburgh basketball arena. It’s been seven years since I’ve been at a police funeral. I don’t miss them at all. I sat and stood with other police officers.
I felt I got there late, since I hadn’t really planned on being there at all. But it was still hours before everybody finished filing in. Everybody is standing. Last came the Pittsburgh police. And then came the fife and drum brigades.
I’ve been to a half dozen or so police funerals. When I walked into the arena I didn’t even know the officers’ names. This won’t be a big deal, I thought. But I’ll be damned if I can stay dry-eyed as bagpipes play and I salute the coffins as they pass below.
There were four different bagpipe troupes, one for each officer plus the NYPD (damn the NYPD has a lot of officers who can play the pipes). The first was Pittsburgh. The second was Cleveland. I missed where the third was from.
I left at around 3:15pm as the mayor was saying things that mayors do. I had paid my respects… and there was still time to see the Warhol Museum before it closed at 5pm.
I didn’t bring my camera on this trip. But I asked a stranger on the street to email me some pictures she was taking of police cars on Forbes Street. Hopefully she will.
Rest in Peace.Coverage in the Post-Gazette (photo above by Steve Mellon).
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has excellent photo coverage.
Or at least of the shotgun variety.