Mubarak is out! Here’s the happy scene on my local Arab drag: Steinway Street, in Astoria, Queens, New York.
Three of the five news vans:
A happy crowd (small, because I only got there at 4pm):
My friend, Ali El Sayed, making delicious food as always, equally happy:
(You can see the “1919 Trevor Ethnic map of New York City” I posted about earlier in the background.)
Dog-burning case will be tried again
Jurors deliberated for more than 20 hours over three days, but couldn’t agree on a verdict. One juror wasn’t convinced of the brothers’ guilt in the attack, leading to a mistrial.
It was the longest animal-cruelty trial ever held in the city.
You tried, you didn’t win. Guilty or not, it’s time to move on. Like I’ve said before: this is not a good use of scarce prosecutorial or judicial resources.
Your Attention Please: Marijuana has now been found in all five boroughs. Luckily, in response to this plague, the NYPD has cracked down and arrested more people than ever for the crime of possessing marijuana. In 2010, 50,383 were arrested (86 percent of these are black or Latino). Noble drug warriors estimate that a continued focus on locking up low-level drug users will eradicate the evil weed by 2014. Currently, thanks to massive police presence, a entire 6-block area in East New York has been declared “marijuana free.”
The number of marijuana arrests last year was greater than the number of marijuana arrests during entire 19-year period from 1978 to 1996.
Of course that makes sense, since marijuana didn’t hit The Bronx until 1995. And the first “bud” wasn’t confirmed on Staten Island until 2002.
But seriously, I know marijuana is illegal. And I know that some low-level drug offenders are more serious criminals. If you’re arresting some violent drug dealer and all you can get him on is smoking a joint, fine. But most of these arrests are for nothing more than small-scale marijuana possession, a non-arrestable offense in New York State! Not only are many of these arrests wrong, they’re expensive, counter-productive, and only happen because officers face crazy pressure to produce numbers for Compstat.
Meanwhile, back in NYPD recruiting, they’re scratching their heads trying to figure out why it’s so hard to find young New York-raised black and Latino men with a clean record. You reap what you sow.
Ahhh, I hear the immortal if overused words of Martin Niemöller… then they started drug testing at work. But I did not complain, because I was not a drug user. Actually, just for the record, I’ve complained every time I’ve taken (and passed) a drug test.
Well it seems that now there are more places that are drug-testing for cigarettes. That’s right. It’s not that you can’t smoke at work. It’s that you can’t work and be a smoker.
That ain’t right. My work and my home life (even when I work from home) are separate. I don’t want my boss telling me what I can and can’t do when I’m not getting paid.
More worrisome is the precedent. This is exactly what people warned about when drug tests were first allowed, thanks to Ronald Reagan’s getting tough on drugs. We’re the only country that tests people for what they do outside of workplace.
First they test for illegal drugs. Then they test for legal drugs. If we don’t draw the line, they’ll test for fatty foods, kinky sex, and political conformity. It’s not right.
People are up in arms with real and perceived government abuse of power. Where are the right-wing protesters when big corporations usurp the same power?
Even since I felt safer after seeing them on the ‘L’ growing up in Chicago, I’ve always been pro-Guardian Angels. But they’ve never so popular among police, or at least police unions, who don’t like to see other people keeping the city safe… and doing it for free. Their founder, Curtis Sliwa, certainly has some tales to tell, and sometimes those tales have been told a little tall. But interestingly, after all these years, I’ve never heard about a scandal among the rand-and-file Guardian Angels. That’s impressive discipline.
Here’s a story of Angels in action, from today’s Sun-Times.
Well, of course it’s from The Onion.
Since the late 1980s, giraffes have become a status symbol in many American cities, but increasingly, the grazing land mammals are dropped off at shelters when they become too difficult to care for, usually because their owners live in … homes without high vaulted ceilings.
…
“I always knew that Curtis had giraffes, because I’d see their heads popping up above the roof of his house,” neighbor Ryan Erck said. “But I never knew he was breeding fighter giraffes.”
I was at a good fish store on 9th Avenue in Manhattan yesterday and bought a pound of good fresh Maryland crab meat (non-lump, $16). So for breakfast today I made crab cakes. They were good. Delicious. Fried in butter. But still not even closeto as good as you can get at Faidley’s or almost any other place in Baltimore. What isthe secret?
I think it’s time soon to head south and get my fix.
From a larger series by Jen Carlson at the Gothamist.
Here’s how it looks today:
Though I’m not certain if The Two-Five is still at the same location. Anybody know if they’ve moved? It would be a shame if they tore down those two solid old buildings.
[thanks to Alan I.]
What first comes to mind?
This is worth 2 minutes of your life. Watch to the end; there are two punch lines.
(Thanks to Drug WarRant)
You know how “kids these days” think everything in the world is online and can be found with Google? Well, find this: John B. Trevor’s 1919 Ethnic Map of New York City.
I’ve wanted this map ever since I saw it.
Trevor, non-elected but politically powerful, was worried that immigrants (Jews in particular) were going to take over America. As a Nativist S.O.B., Trevor didn’t generally trust people who weren’t anglo-saxon, white, and Protestant.
Of course, to some extent, Trevor’s worst fears have come true: compared to 1919 America, immigrants havetaken over America (and, of course, vice versa)! Trevor was wrong because he thought such seditious people would surely take over through armed socialist revolution.
So ever the self-professed patriot, Trevor made a map of ethnic New York City, listing radical social clubs and liberal newspapers, to aid the police and national guard in the suppression of the revolt that never came.
Viva La Revolution!
Upper Manhattan / Harlem:
Lower Manhattan / Lower East Side:
Locations of “Radical Meetings” and “Liberal Newspapers”:
New here? Well, welcome! You’re probably interested in history and urban life. If so, you’ll love my book, Cop in the Hood (or maybe you just liked The Wire?).
Why not read the first chapter of Cop in the Hood. After that, you can shell out your hard-earned pennies — but only 1,241 of them — and buy it at Amazon.com. What a deal! Still need to be convinced? Read the reviews. Or just look at the rest of my blog. No shame in that. And it won’t cost you a cent.