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  • Why Hassaum McFarlan Matters (or what liberals don’t understand)

    Why Hassaum McFarlan Matters (or what liberals don’t understand)

    Imagine you’re a New York City Police Officer. You take pride in your job and serving the city. You work hard. You play by the rules. You also feel you don’t get enough respect for what you do. And that disrespect comes right from the top.

    De Blasio gets elected mayor. You believe, perhaps correctly, that the mayor neither understands nor appreciates what you do. Suddenly police bugaboo Al Sharpton becomes a trusted aide. Whatever you think of the reality of Sharpton, the symbolism of giving him a major say in police policy is painful to most police officers. The New York Timessays: “Mr. Sharpton… is now a highly influential figure at City Hall.”

    Anyway, you do like your job. You love the people you work with. But anti-police liberals — those who have no understanding of your job and seem to criticize everything you do or don’t do — piss you off.

    If you’re a cop, you’re not getting rich. You get by on $45,000 to $70,000 (perhaps $10,000 more with overtime). NYPD Captains (a rank above sergeant and lieutenant) make less than Noerdlinger. Captains can have hundreds of disgruntled officers and 100,000 concerned citizens to manage and keep satisfied. And these are people you can neither fire nor deport. On top of that, you’ve also got the top brass breathing down your neck, busting your chops at compstat. The chief of patrol makes about $200,000, I think (correct me if I’m wrong). For what it’s worth, my salary as an associate professor (10 years on the job) is about $85,000.

    And do keep in mind this is a city where apartments rent for $2,000 to $3,000 and the average (median) home sells for over $1,000,000. It’s not a cheap place to live. But this really isn’t mostly about money. It’s about job professionalism and integrity. It’s about messages from the top.

    The mayor hires Rachel Noerdlinger to serve as chief of staff to his wife, Chirlane McCray. You even noticed that one because Noerdlinger was formerly Sharpton’s spokesperson. But it became news recently when Noerdlinger became the story became of her boyfriend .

    Noerdlinger lives in Jersey (she got a waiver for that). Noerdlinger also gets paid $170,000. That would pay for two college professor, two police officers, or 1.5 sanitation workers (you can pick whichever you think is most needed).

    Here’s the first part of the problem. Noerdlinger’s live-in boyfriend, Hassaun McFarlan, was convicted of manslaughter as a teenager and does not like cops, to put it mildly. He also doesn’t seem to speak well of women, either. From the Times: “The mayor has defended Ms. Noerdlinger, saying she should not be judged by the behavior of a companion.” OK. Fair enough. Maybe we shouldn’t judge. But sometimes you need to: “two of McFarlan’s five arrests on charges ranging from driving on a suspended license to drug trafficking took place while he was dating Rachel Noerdlinger.”

    Let’s get real. This isn’t a civil service or union job. This isn’t a question of free speech. This is a question of bad judgement by a woman in a powerful discretionary patronage job. Standards should be higher, not lower. Messages from the top do matter. What if McFarlan wrote about Jews like he wrote about cops? What if McFarlan stereotyped women like he actually did stereotype, er, women? (Actually, that he’s getting a pass on that is kind of surprising). If it were almost anybody but cops complaining, Noerdlinger would be out. There were be platitudes about the tapestry of New York City. You’d hear about there being no place for hate in this beautiful diverse city. Now you may have no problem with all this being considered no big deal by the administration, but please understand why cops do.

    I would argue that a trusted aide should be trusted to have, if nothing else, good judgement, it’s not just a question of what her boyfriend said or said. It’s also that Noerdlinger herself didn’t mention her living arrangement, as required in the hiring process:

    She had failed to disclose on a background questionnaire that she lived with a boyfriend, Hassaun McFarlan, who had an extensive criminal record. False or misleading statements on such a form can result in termination or prosecution.

    …Still, it remained unclear why Ms. Noerdlinger had chosen to inform the mayor’s aides of her living arrangement, but not officials at the city’s Department of Investigation, which conducts formal reviews of high-ranking City Hall appointees.

    But apparently the administration sees no problem here Nordlinger didn’t “intend to deceive” the mayor about her domestic status. Or do honesty and ethical inquiries not apply at the top (is that a silly question to even ask)? You can be damned sure a cop in controversy would be thrown under a bus for such a violation. And perhaps rightfully so.

    Patrick Lynch, PBA president, quite rightly said:

    The standards that apply to hiring police officers should apply equally to hiring high ranking, influential staff members. If it is found that she committed a lie of omission during the investigation, then she should be fired.

    If you want to read more, you could read this and this.

  • CRIME (not) SKYROCKETING

    The real headline of course, the one you don’t see very often, is that crime is down.

    So says the BJS. Though I’m skeptical of the NCVS, since it reported a 40 percent increase in the previous two years, which, quite frankly, as I wrote, I do not believe. (The UCR showed an every-so-slight drop during the same time). So this “drop” in crime may be a bit of a statistical correction.

    Still, “crime isn’t up” is always nice news, since people always assume the world is always going to hell in a handcart (which seems like an awfully slow and old-fashioned way to get somewhere, these days).

    Meanwhile, in New York City, despite the claims, or should I say desire, nay, let’s go all out and say despite the knowledge, dreams, and aspirations of police unions and many police officers, crime in New York is basically steady.

    Yes, shootings are up 6 to 7 percent. Homicides are down. Other crimes are basically steady. (Now PBA and SBA, please stop, as you’ve so often done in the past, trying to harm the city that most of you don’t live in).

    Oh, how it must pain conservative ideologues to see that even without strong conservative leadership, crime isn’t going through the roof. Now let’s not forget that in the 1990s liberals knew that crime couldn’t go down. It did. Now conservatives have been certain for about two years now that crime would go up. But it hasn’t. At least not dramatically and definitively. (And we’re now through the second summer after the demise of stop and frisk, which was what I was waiting for.)

    Imagine this: the city is still safe even with a commie mayor, Al Sharpton as police adviser, extra and probably unneeded police oversight, unfair accusations of murder when criminals die resisting arrest, and unnecessary stop and frisks all-but stopped.

    See it’s not about ideology. It’s about hard work. It’s about an intelligent police department and intelligent police officers using discretion and doing their job. I know haters (on both sides) are gonna hate, but instead of seeing impending doom, why not take credit for a job well done?

  • Reporter fired for politically incorrect editorializing

    With regards to the killing of Jersey City Police Officer Melvin Santiago, Fox News TV reporter Sean Bergin no longer has a job after editorializing on-air:

    It’s important to shine a light on this racist mentality that has so contaminated policing and America’s inner-cities. … The underlying cause for all of this, of course, is America’s racist criminal justice system that makes it impossible for young black men to succeed. It’s nearly impossible to cover the issue in-depth and accurately when surrounded by stark raving conservatives who masquerade as journalists.

    Just kidding.

    Bergin didn’t say that. And he didn’t work for Fox. The truth is, if he had said that, it’s very unlikely he would have been fired. He was fired for editorializing in a conservative manner, based on his what he’s seen as a reporter.

    What Bergin actually said on-air was:

    We were besieged, flooded with calls from police officers furious that we would give media coverage to the life of a cop killer. It’s understandable. We decided to air it because it’s important to shine a light on the anti-cop mentality that has so contaminated America’s inner cities. This same, sick, perverse line of thinking is evident from Jersey City, to Newark and Patterson to Trenton.

    It has made the police officer’s job impossible, and it has got to stop. The underlying cause for all of this, of course: young black men growing up without fathers. Unfortunately, no one in the news media has the courage to touch that subject.

    Do I agree with this? Not one-hundred percent, but he certainly brings up a fair issue. Is what he said overly simplistic? Of course. But let’s not set the bar too high for local TV news. This sure beats another cute animal video. And don’t give me that “reporters shouldn’t have an opinion” bit. Or “there’s a time a place for everything.” This was a great time and place to express his opinion on a major problem.

    Bergin later told The Blaze(and then it was picked up by the AP and other news sites):

    I broke the rules, but I broke the rules because I was doing the right thing. You can’t fix a problem if you don’t talk about the problem. The truth is, 73 percent of African-American children grow up without fathers. It’s a topic that needs to be handled delicately — and really, this situation could have been used as a way to explore that.

    Now that 73 percent figure isn’t true and a reporter should know better than to throw around misleading statistics. (There’s a big difference between not having legally married parents living together at time of birth and “growing up without a father.” Regardless, the comparable figure for whites is 29 percent.) But still, Bergin’s greater point is valid: there’s a problem here; we need to talk about it and get to the bottom of it.

    Bergin went on:

    “I’m in these housing projects all the time, and it’s all for the same thing: black men slaughtering each other in the streets. Why is this happening?” he continued, adding that it’s nearly impossible to cover the issue in-depth and accurately when surrounded by “stark raving liberals who masquerade as journalists.”

    OK, strike two again Bergin for using the phrase “stark-raving liberal.” But I’ll give him credit for this: his opinions come from actually visiting the homes and neighborhoods where the violence happens. He sees bad things happening and actually cares. Before you criticize him, ask yourself if you care. Think about the last time you’ve done anything in a high-crime neighborhood other than lock your car doors.

    As I wrote in Cop in the Hood:

    If you really want to learn about the ghetto, go there. There’s probably one near you. Visit a church; walk down the street; buy something from the corner store; have a beer; eat. But most importantly, talk to people. That’s how you learn. When the subject turns to drugs and crime, you’ll hear a common refrain: “It just don’t make sense.”

    Bergin did all this. Reality, as cops well know, isn’t always politically correct. And you don’t have to like what what he says to defend his right to say it.

  • Republicans against bulletproof vests for cops

    The program to buy vests for cops started in 1999 under Clinton and the very pro-police vice president, Al Gore (not that most police officers every thanks either of them). But apparently, say Republicans, it’s against the constitution. From USA Today:

    Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., objected, blocking action on the program, as he did in 2012. Coburn said the Constitution gives the federal government no role in funding local police departments.

    …

    The bill’s supporters include the Fraternal Order of Police, International Association of Chiefs of Police, the National Sheriff’s Association and the National Association of Police Organizations.

    …

    The bill has 26 co-sponsors, but none are Republican.

    Just imagine, if you will, the right-wing / Fox News backlash if Obama came out against this. Though maybe Obama should come out against it, just so Republicans would support it…

    Why let saving the lives of police officers get in the way of your kookie right-wing ideology? For shame.

  • A story about Obamaphones

    Not they Obamaphones have anything to do with Obama. From the Times.

  • Are you with Phil Robertson? Or David Bahati?

    Are you with Phil Robertson? Or David Bahati?

    Phil Robertson is the suspended star of Duck Dynasty.

    David Bahati is the Ugandan parliament member sponsoring the Anti-Homosexuality Bill known as “Kill the Gays.”

    Guess who said what (answers below):

    1) “To me, this exposed the level of intolerance that is inconsistent with American values. But as you know it also strengthen my resolve to carry on a cause that I think is right and just. My resolve is still intact.”

    2) “My mission today is to go forth and tell people about why I follow Christ and also what the Bible teaches, and part of that teaching is that women and men are meant to be together.

    3) Homosexuality “is un-[American/African] because it is inconsistent with [our] values, of procreation and of the belief in the continuity of family.”

    4) “Don’t be deceived. Neither the adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, the swindlers—they won’t inherit the kingdom of God. Don’t deceive yourself. It’s not right.”

    5) “When an anal organ is used for things it’s not supposed to be used for, it’s hazardous. I don’t need to be taught anything beyond that.”

    6) “It seems like, to me, a vagina — as a man — would be more desirable than a man’s anus,”

    7) “We need to turn to God if we have sinned. That is the view of myself as a Christian. But that is not something that is agreed by others, but I hold that view that [homosexuality] is sin and written in the Bible. I cannot change the Bible. And I really want to encourage American Christians and God-fearing people to stand up for what they feel is right.”

    8 ) “Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there. Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men.”

    9) “I’m more convinced than I was so many years ago that this evil is real and needs to be fought. But we must say that we don’t hate them, we hate the sin in them.”

    10) “Everything is blurred on what’s right and what’s wrong. Sin becomes fine.”

    11) “I am a God fearing person…. We hope it is a learned behavior that can be unlearned.”

    12) “If you simply put your faith in Jesus … dying on the cross for the sins of the world, being buried, and being raised from the dead—yours and mine and everybody else’s problems will be solved. And the next time we see you, we will say: ‘You are now a brother. Our brother.’ So then we look at you totally different then.”

    13) “We are a God-fearing nation, we value life in a holistic way.”

    14) “I never, with my eyes, saw the mistreatment of any black person. … I never heard one of them, one black person, say, ‘I tell you what: These doggone white people’—not a word!… Pre-entitlement, pre-welfare, you say: Were they happy? They were godly; they were happy; no one was singing the blues.”

    15) “Don’t remind me that you took me as a slave. Don’t remind me that you took our resources to enrich your countries. Don’t tell me you’re more superior than I am. You have funded us for over 50 years – have you changed anything? These activists are agents of imperialism and we’re not going to take it easily. They are agents of colonialism. How can you continue to act like slave masters?

    16) “All you have to do is look at any society where there is no Jesus. I’ll give you four: Nazis, no Jesus. Look at their record. Uh, Shintos? They started this thing in Pearl Harbor. Any Jesus among them? None. Communists? None. Islamists? Zero. That’s eighty years of ideologies that have popped up where no Jesus was allowed among those four groups. Just look at the records as far as murder goes among those four groups.”

    17) “Americans believe in freedom, human rights, in the freedom of expression and also tolerance.”

    18) Our “family really believes strongly that if the human race loved each other and they loved God, we would just be better off. We ought to just be repentant, turn to God, and let’s get on with it, and everything will turn around.”

    19) “There has been a lot of spin, a lot of negative propaganda… It is important that we tolerate one another, listen to on another, understand the background of on another, and respect one another.”

    20) “I would never treat anyone with disrespect just because they are different from me. We are all created by the Almighty and like Him, I love all of humanity. We would all be better off if we loved God and loved each other.”

    21) “I do not hate gays. I love them.”

    22) “Why don’t we go back to the old days?”

    sources:

    http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/rachel-maddowdavid-bahati-full-interview

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKncOLyhA20

    http://www.vice.com/read/an-interview-with-the-author-of-ugandas-anti-homosexuality-bill

    http://www.gq.com/entertainment/television/201401/duck-dynasty-phil-robertson

    answers:

    odd numbers (1, 3, 5, – 21): Ugandan MP David Bahati

    even numbers (2, 4, 6, – 22): suspended Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson

  • Right Wing Lies (IX)

    Right Wing Lies (IX)

    Turns out Obama was a cross-dressing teenager who turned gay tricks for coke! This one must be true. Why? Because I read it on the interwebs!

    Man, I wasted far too much time today responding to comments from people who still comment about what a shame it is that the government provided “hundreds of thousands of dollars” to a murdered two-bit drug-dealing father-of-many married-to-none black man, Larmondo “Flair” Allen. This single post got 4,000 hits yesterday (and all from google searches, which is the tough way to find something. Usually massive spikes are due to some prominent site posting a link). That’s about 3,500 more than an average day.

    The problem, of course, is it’s not true. I mean the looser “Flair” existed, but he wasn’t living large sucking the government’s tit.

    Call me crazy, but if people believe an email that says some loser with nine kids gets $13,500 per month in free government cash (the real figure is closer to $550), how much of a lie does something have to be before idiots might reconsider something that goes against their world view?

    And how many people need to believe a lie before these people dictate social policy based on that lie?

    [For a more a real conception of who receives welfare, read this.]

    In many comments (and tens of thousands of page views) regarding “Flair,” not one person — not one — said, “Gosh, I guess since my facts were wrong, I’ve got to reconsider what I believe.” Not one. Turns out for some, the facts don’t matter. As a professor who enjoys a good political debate, I find that very frustrating.

    To hate something based on truth is one thing. But to hate based on lies? It’s the foundation of fascism.

  • Right-Wing Lies (VII) – Free Obama Phones for the Poor

    A while back I started hearing rumors about “Obama phones.” You know, Obama taking our hard-earned money to give free phones to undeserving poor people in the ghetto. Really? I keep hearing about this, so I thought there must be something to it. Take this facebook post from a Baltimore cop friend of mine:

    Beautiful day out and then I see the all to familiar free cell tent a block away from the methadone clinic. I am so happy I PAY my cell phone bill so the “disadvantaged” can get a free phone. WTF!! The best part is both clinic and tent had the same people in line!!

    Almost always (not in my friend’s case) these posts are racistly linkedto President “Hussein Obama”. OK. I know there are racists out there (not my friend, but it’s impossible to do online research into this matter without coming across a lot of them), but that’s not the point. What I want to know is, is this true?! Are there tents in poor neighborhoods giving away phones? If so, why? And is it an Obama plot?

    Let me put it in FAQ format:

    Q: Are they really giving out phones in the hood?

    A: Yes!

    Q: You mean they’re really giving out free phones? Like with minutes on them?

    A: Yes!

    Q: Is the government really taking our hard-earned money and giving poor people phone service?

    A: Well, Yes. More or less. Actually a charge on your phone bill rather than a straight-up tax. But whatever.

    Q: Why can’t I get one?

    A: You might be able to, if you’re poor enough to qualify for food stamps (gross annual income of less than $14,160).

    Q: What’s the cash value that these moochers get?

    A: About $10 a month.

    Q: Is this a secret Islamic Socialist Obama plot to take they money of hard-working white Americans and give it to poor ghetto drug addicts?

    A: No, you stupid schmuck!

    Q: But what about that video of the woman saying “Everybody got an Obama phone”?

    A: She’s an idiot. As is anybody who believes Obama gives out phones.

    Turns out this subsidized phone service for poor people (many of them rural whites) began under The Great American Socialist, Ronald Reagan.

    In 1996, when Clinton was president, people got the choice of using this subsidy for cell-phone service instead of land-line service. Fair enough.

    Then in 2005, the program was expanded during the liberal Bush administration.

    So go ahead and blame Obama. Why not? He is our president. Born in the Ol’ U.S. of A. He does happen to be African-American. So go ahead and blame Obama for whatever you want… but don’t blame him for phones subsidies for poor people! [You could, of course, blame him for saving the economy, killing Osama Bin Laden, getting out of Iraq, and keeping this country safe from a terrorist attack.]

    The actual cell-phone giveaways did start, by chance, in 2008, right before Obama was elected. Why then? Not because Sharia law was creeping over America, but because cell phone costs actually came down so much that right around then private companies could actually turn a profit by taking money from this program, even with the expense of giving away a phone.

    But you know what, maybe giving phone to poor people is actually a good use of government money. Crazy, I know. But think about it. Because you can’t get a job if you don’t have a phone! Certainly when I was a cop, most homes I went into did not have phone service. [Many didn’t have electricity, either. After a while I felt kind of silly asking for a phone number, much less a “work” phone number. Seriously, you don’t know what f*cked up poverty till you’re a cop in Baltimore’s Eastern District.] I seriously doubt people were poor because they don’t have a phone. But, should perchance you want one, it’s almost impossible to get a job if you don’t have a phone phone number to put on the job application so your future employer can call you!

    Meanwhile, on April 15, I was with all those middle-class home-owning folk lining up at the Post Office to get my Obama money. You know, mortgage interest-tax deduction. Thank you, Mr. President. I spent mines on booze!

  • Ozzie and Me and Fidel Makes Three

    When the P.C. Police come knocking (and I’m not talking about “probable cause”), they usually come from the left. But not always. In Ozzie Guillen’s case, the Politically Correct Police are coming from the right. Such is life in Florida, particularly Cuban southern Florida.

    Baseball manager Guillen was quoted as saying (in Spanish, I believe):

    I love Fidel Castro… I respect Fidel Castro. You know why? A lot of people have wanted to kill Fidel Castro for the last 60 years, but that mother f*cker is still here.

    I respect Fidel for the same reason. That S.O.B. has outlasted tenU.S. presents. Obama is his eleventh. Say what you want, Fidel has cojones. (And you think we’d be smart enough to figure out by now that perhaps if we really wanted to get rid of Fidel, perhaps sanctions are not the most effective way. Craaaazy thought, I know. Why would we ever admit we do anything wrong after just decades of failure? And US sanctions do hurt innocent Cubans.)

    Fidel is the underdog, and it’s hard not to root for the underdog. I root for the Cubs, about which Guillen once said, “Our [White Sox] Fans are not stupid like the Cub fans.” But I got over it.

    I didn’t think it was a crime to love Fidel Castro. If so, a lot of liberals and academics would be in prison. (Not me, mind you. I had too many relatives suffer under communist Albania to fall for that crap.)

    I’ve actually been to Cuba (December 1996, I think), and well, it was what it was. Cuba certainly could be a lot better, but it’s not like it’s all bad. Objectively, it was probably the worst “vacation” I’ve ever been on: it was surprisingly expensive (three types of currency were in use); off the main tourist path, food wasn’t the easiest to come by; the scale and constant presence of prostitution was annoying and depressing. But it wasn’t all bad. People were dancing in the streets. We met a nice Rasta on the way to Santiago de Cuba who took us under his wing (thus keeping all the other touts away). And the Cubans do appreciate a good game of chess. In fact, in public, playing chess the one surefire way to keep the whores and hustlers at bay.

    Besides, it’s not like ourdictators have done so much better. And to compare Castro to Hitler (as some who are attacking Guillen are doing) is absurd. Mostly, Cuba was just a bit anti-climactic. It wasn’t like going to Albania or even East Germany. Once you’re there, you realize it’s only the US that makes it such a big deal. Everybody else is free to visit.

    I suspect that Guillen’s “love” of Fidel is lot less than what comes from most liberals and academics in the US and around the world. But I don’t even think Guillen even loves Fidel. It’s not like he wants to make out with him. Reminds me of Sarah Silverman, who has a character, kind of like Guillen (described as a “harmless lump prone to adorably offending everyone around her”) who apologies for using the word “gay”: “I’m sorry, you guys, I don’t mean gay like homosexual. I mean gay like retarded.”

    Oh, what’s that knock on my door?

  • Six Things Rich People Need to Stop Saying

    #6. “Well, $500,000 a Year Might Sound Like a Lot, but I’m Hardly Rich.”

    #5. “Hey, I Worked Hard to Get What I Have!”

    #4. “If I Can Do It, So Can You!”

    #3. “You’re Just Jealous Because I Made It and You Didn’t!”

    #2. “You Shouldn’t Be Punishing the Very People Who Make This Country Work!”

    #1. “Stop Asking for Handouts! I Never Got Help from Anybody!”

    For the long and thoughtful explanations of each, go to cracked.com.

    [thanks to somebody for liking this on facebook]