Det. Ellis Carver: What he means to say is that we are effective deterrent in the war on drugs when we are on the street.
Det. Thomas Hauk: Fucking motherfuckers up.
Det. Ellis Carver: Indeed.
Det. Thomas Hauk: Fuck the paperwork. Collect bodies, split heads.
Det. Ellis Carver: Split ‘em wide.
Det. Thomas Hauk: The Western District way.
Det. Ellis Carver: A’ight.

Some of you have probably come across the story of Jordan Miles, a teenage honor student and violist (as in one who plays the viola not the violin) of Pittsburghs Creative and Performing Arts High School being beaten by police. If not here’s the skinny:

“As Miles walked up the block, he noticed three men sitting in a white car, “but I thought nothing of it,” he said. The criminal complaint says Miles was standing against a building “as if he was trying to avoid being seen.” But he says he was walking when the men jumped out of the car. “Where’s the money?” one shouted, according to Miles. “Where’s the gun? Where’s the drugs?” the other two said. “It was intimidating; I thought I was going to be robbed,” Miles said. That’s when he says he took off back to his mother’s house but slipped on the icy sidewalk. Before he could pull himself up, Miles said, the men were at his back. “That’s when they started beating me, punching, kicking me, choking me,” he said. Not until 15 minutes later, when uniformed officers drove up in a van and Miles overheard their conversation, did he realize he had been arrested, he said. Initially, when the handcuffs were clamped around his wrists, he thought he was being abducted, he said. The police believed Miles, who appeared to have something heavy in his pocket, was carrying a gun, according to the affidavit. The police say they used a stun gun on the teenager. According to the affidavit, the object in Miles’ pocket turned out to be a bottle of Mountain Dew. But Miles says he didn’t have anything in his pocket and rarely drinks Mountain Dew.”

There is a lot of talk about racial profiling in this situation…perhaps it’s a factor, but I’ve chosen to see it as an even bigger issue. - I’ll even ignore the degree of force used. In the movie “The Siege” there is a scene where Bruce Willis (as a General) says: “The Army is a broad sword, not a scalpel. Trust me, senator - you do not want the Army in an American city.” His point was that using the army to fight terrorism on American soil would be deterimental to the American way of life. The scene struck me because we already live during the “war on crime and drugs”. So what happens when you tell the police they are in a war? We’re familiar with the “To Protect and Serve” motto…but consider some of the mottos of divisions in the military:
“First in, Last Out”
“Don’t Run You’ll Just Die Tired”
“Death From Above”
The thing is those are great mottos and mindstates for people you are going to send into war. They wouldn’t work for those who patrol your neighborhood. Some people have questioned just the set up of the cops in this situation. If you grew up in an area of a city with crime you know it. The Knockers…they come into the area in plainclothes and cars and jump out on folks in attempts to catch them with drugs or guns. If you know like I know these are also the guys that catch you with a bag of weed and tell you that you can walk if tell them who has a gun. If you really know like I know they don’t fool people either, you can normally tell what they are by the car and the overall look of the people in it. It’s like operating a normal police investigation where instead of working from a known criminal through stealth and then gathering information, you try to find someone who looks suspicious and hope they can payoff via an arrest or info that will lead to one. Basically it’s a way to try and build quick statistics. It’s not really police work. It actually mirrors a stick up boy…”Rip and Run”. Worse, it fosters an attitude that’s worse than racial profiling. Face it, John Gotti didn’t go to jail because he was observed “looking suspicious”. He went to jail because of evidence gathered against him - some coming as a result of evidence built against others. The “rip and run” mentality is why so many easily replaceable criminals are caught and why those who actually have power remain at large. A person facing 5 years (who would only do 3) isn’t likely to turn on those who can take care of him, one way or the other. In an environment where people can accept going to jail as real possibility serving that type of time would only help build his reputation. Testifying against someone else would only put his life in danger. What’s more important than how effective these tactics may or may not be is the attitudes it helps to bring about. If you hunt for a wild lion in a zoo, how many tame ones do you go through until you get the one you want? In military parlance Jordan Miles is Collateral Damage. In court you’re innocent until proven guilty, on a battle field you’re a threat until you aren’t. Some of questioned why Miles would run, as someone who grew up in an area patrolled by Knockers, when they jump out fight or flight comes into play. I’m not oblivious to their presence, but the first time they jumped out on me I thought I was being robbed until I noticed one was a woman and then they identified themselves. I can easily understand a Viola playing honor student having the instinct to run. Three people jumping out of a car at night has never been a positive sign in my world…especially for the innocent. The FOP Vice President said, “Their actions were correct and law abiding by everything they have received in their training”. Seems like they were poorly trained. If you give me and two other people guns, tasers and the backing of a department we can do the same thing. We would probably get lucky sometimes, but we could easily end up being just as wrong.

So I recently got a call from my mother to speak about my grandmother. It seems she may have dementia or alzhiemers. We came together with a few family members and came up with a course of action to follow. I didn’ so much think of what would happen going forward, but more of what as been. My grandmother is the Matriarch of our family. I still get my packages mailed there because she’s there to receive them and will call and notify me about arrivals. If you wanted to know what was happening with someone in my family she’s the one to ask. Even with limited mobility she has been on top of what’s going on in her family for a long time. I call her the Hub. Starting in the morning she gets on the phone and makes the rounds to uncles, aunts and cousins. Checking up, making sure the people who need to get up (and are most likely to sleep late) do get up. My grandmother gets the information. In a funny way she’s the reason I don’t offer alot of information to people today. She always wanted the who, what, when, where, why and how of a situation. It wasn’t like her to not get involved. She worked for most of her life and when she retired she still had to find something to do. She also made the hottest dishwater known to man. It kind of makes my sad, but I understand that time moves on and nothing is forever. It is hard to not think of the little things. Her birthday is two days before mine and normally one or two days after Thanksgiving. I long suffered being lost in the shadows of those two dates, but she never forgot me. I’d like to keep her around as she was. Since that can’t be…she’ll be a memory that remains has hard as a gem.

So it’s a new year. Give me a sec while I run down a list.

1) The first day of 2010 was my last day of work. Luckily I’m not broke and I can file for unemployment. It’s kinda funny, I’m not so much upset that I’m out of work, I’m bothered because I’ve worked the entire decade. It doesn’t feel right to be at home.

2) I have made not one single resolution. I want to just generally rip new years resolutions, but I won’t. It always seemed funny to make resolutions for a new year. It’s kind of easy. The biggest changes in my life were never motivated by a calendar, but by circumstance and lessons I’ve learned. I prefer to keep it that way.

3) I bought a leather bound journal. I’ve talked about writing down my life for a long time. I want to have something in my words to pass on to my children. It’s one thing to talk to your kids, but I think it’s something else to let them see you from another perspective. I’d like to think it could become something that becomes apart of a family. Somewhere down the line years from now someone will have this book sitting on a shelf and will say that was written by their ancestor….who was pretty frickin cool.

Since I do need to kill time I’ll start acting like I do have this blog…and actually post somethings to it.

“Autumn caught em, see all them leaves must fall down, growing old
Fat titties turn to teardrops as fat ass turns to flab
Sores that was open wounds eventually turn to scab
Trees bright and green turn yellow brown”

-Andre

So here we are with another impending holiday. A holiday I have mixed feelings about because while I love the food I hate how it overshadows my birthday. So I’ll give thanks and eat and give a shout out to dead Natives, but really I’ll be thinking about my personal anniversary. Thirty One. I’m getting up there. In 9 years I’ll be forty. I’m debating on how many shots of scotch I’d like to have on this occaision. I do this thing every year. I spend a couple a hours drunk (not pissy) but just well sauced on the hooch du jour and get depressed…on purpose. I designate that as my time to bitch and gripe about getting older, what I’ve missed, what I haven’t done. Once that buzz is gone I get over it and go live again. Despite my inability to stop the hands of time my boyish charm remains a buffer. I’ve never been one of those, “Don’t worry be happy types”. I feel like there is room for every emotion, there’s just no room to get all wrapped up in them until you can’t move or get past it. So I’m going to have my little “moment” then I’ll get back to living. You folks enjoy your holiday.

Since it’s the anniversary here’s the real deal for rememberance.

“I wouldn’t go there if I knew how.”
Dave Chapelle

Some of you may have seen the Dave Chapelle stand up where he broke down some of the Sesame St. cast and other famous cartoon characters. I think that this requires more examination so today I bring you Pre-School Undercover: The Air Ain’t So Sweet on The Street.

Elmo: The newest and most popular edition to the neighborhood is actually a sad story. Elmo has been in the system since birth. Moving from group home to group home until he found him self on “The Street”. Elmo has been diagnosed with ADHD, Restless Leg Syndrome and Lead Poisoning. He tends to sell his Ritalin to Snuffy so he can buy speed from the Cookie Monster. He was brought in so the Street could get some benefits from social services. He also sits on packs since he’s a minor and can’t get a real charge.

The Count: You know his deal. He runs the “entertainment” for “The Street” crew. The Count is an illegal immigrant from one of the Slavic countries. Rumored to have been the Kaiser Soze of his home country. He now focuses on more leisurely pursuits. His monocle comes from a drunken incident with Ms. Piggy. He tried to recruit the wrong broad. While he likes to have fun…he keeps his mind on the money.

Snuffleupagus: A sad tale. Snuffy was just a fun loving guy who came to “The Street” cause he heard it was the place to become somebody. Rumor is he was climbing up the ladder and about to challenge “The Bird” for power. Like so many others he became addicted to heroin and started a slide that has yet to stop. They keep him around as a cautionary tale.

Grover: This is the Meyer Lansky of the crew. He stays on top of operations and if he sees a problem he lets the right people know. He’s bigger behind the scenes, but he plays a part on front street cause “The Bird” wants everyone to know that Grovers eyes are his eyes

Oscar: He was the man back in the day. It was the emergence of “The Bird” that brought about his downfall. He stays on “The Street” for two reasons. First to keep his eyes out for a chance to rise again and second “The Bird” likes to keep his enemies close. He’s an example of what “Bird” can do.

Bert and Ernie: Don’t get suckered in by the straight man and sidekick routine. I also would recommend that you don’t make any cracks about alternative lifestyles. There are a lot of eccentric assassins and these two are no different. Their whole M.O. is to lull you into a sense of strength and then they strike. Just so you know Ernie is the top and the most dangerous. Somebody hurt Bert once and Ernie ripped them limb from limb.

Cookie Monster: Speed Freak and Adrenaline Junkie he is an enforcer for “The Bird”. When a message needs to be sent they send in the monster. He doesn’t deal in death. He’s the one that maims and cripples. The Monster has destroyed more property in his time than Hurricanes have destroyed trailers. If you pay protection money to the street you’re paying to keep him away.

Big Bird: The top of the list, or is it? This is the one that runs the show on “The Street”. He gets a piece of everything. You can get down or lay down. His physical stature is nothing compared to the power he has. He has a name, but it’s tied up in a case. Besides “The Bird” could be anyone…that’s what he tells the cops anyway. There is one person, however, that even the bird doesn’t want to mess with.
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Kremit The Frog : This is the Don. You thought he was just coming through to help kids learn? Get real. The Bird runs “The Street”, but Kermit runs it all. Sometimes he has to come down and remind the bird not to get too fluffed up. He can teach anyone all about “saying goodbye”…hell he already took Manhattan. It was steppin to his woman that got the count hurt. He set up Elmo with “The Street” to groom him to take over. “The Bird” brought in the Monster, but “The Frog” set him up with Bert and Ernie. Some people wonder why “The Frog” isn’t worried about the monster…he’s got “The Animal”

I know most people have been working under the assumption that Lauryn Hill was driven crazy by Rohan Marley. I submit that he was probably the end of the process. So I recently borrowed “The Score” to add to my iTunes/iPod etc. I used to own it…but despite losing it, the version I bought was a cassette and I’m not built for that transfer. So anyway I load it up and I’m rocking it all this morning and something hit me. I recall thinking about it the first year I had the album, but now looking back it just has more meaning to me. My friends…The Fugees had hate in their heart. Now I know you’re wondering why I’ve come to that conclusion, you’re probably suspecting me of some shenanigans. When you listen to the album for yourself you’ll see what I’m saying. Everyone who is a fan, emcee, producer or has any history with Hip-Hop knows this simple truth: The best verse goes last. This is the point within a group where you find out who knows how to be honest and humble. When you write a verse you’re trying to produce the best you can. When it’s time to put the song together, you have to do what’s right for the song. So if the verse that you knew was the best one in the universe isn’t quite as good as the one your partner wrote…they need to go last. It’s different if there are two people, because you need a strong opening as well. So switching back and forth between first and last is easy. When there are three or more people then you start to find out what the deal is. A weak verse can be hidden between two stronger ones, a strong verse can clean up behind two weaker ones. Three weak verses means go get job applications. The hardest and at the same time easiest scenario is several strong verses. It’s not so much a matter of which is better, but which is appropriate for each slot. This is when humility and honesty really comes into play. When your verse is great and ends up in the middle you can feel a certain way when you don’t accept that the others were built more to open and close the song. This is leads me to the insanity that is “The Score” as good of an album as it is, NO ONE come close to touching any of Lauryns verses. The problem is that she is either first or in the middle of just about every song on the album! I’ll present the best example/worst offender of the whole bunch….Manifest.

Just for the record I’ll include the text version of her verse.

You see I loved hard once, but the love wasn’t returned
I found out the man I’d die for, he wasn’t even concerned
And time it turned,
He tried to burn me like a perm
Though my eyes saw the deception, My heart wouldn’t let me learn
From um, some, dumb woman, was I,
And everytime he’d lie, he would cry and inside I’d die.
My heart must have died a thousand deaths
Compared myself to Toni Braxton thought I’d never catch my breath
Nothing left, he stole the heart beating from my chest
I tried to call the cops, that type of thief you can’t arrest
Pain suppressed, will lead to cardiac arrest
Diamonds deserve diamonds, but he convinced me I was worth less
when my peoples would protest,
I told them mind their business, cause my s*** was complex
More than just the sex
I was blessed, but couldn’t feel it like when I was caressed
I’d spend nights clutching my breasts overwhelmed by God’s test
I was God’s best contemplating death with a Gillette
But no man is ever worth the paradise MANIFEST

Look…there are certainly some better verses out in the universe….but I’ll be damned if there are many. Something no one can deny is that this man:

(Picture added so you can boo him on sight)

This man, Pras, has NEVER put together a verse that could touch anything that Lauryn has ever done. That acoustic MTV album….still better then anything he ever did, has done or will ever do.

SO HOW IN THE HELL DOES HER VERSE GET PLACED BETWEEN WYCLEF AND ONE WRITTEN BY THIS INDIVIDUAL WHO CLAIMS TO BE ABLE TO RHYME!?!?!?!?!

What the hell type of shenanigans came about to make that happen? Not only that stellar verse on that one song…but through most of the album. I understand that a group may not want to keep the same order going….but frankly Pras should almost never be the last person to spit on a song. Maybe if you get various friends of famous emcees and give them a song…perhaps then. When you have Lauryn Hill….NO! I contend that whatever type of insanity had Lauryn Hill placed in stupid positions on songs was the beginning of her fall into insanity. I blame those two dudes for not cherishing a precious gem and talent in Ms. Hill and instead putting their ego ahead of all logic and common sense. Thanks guys…thanks a fricking lot.

Check out this link then come back to my rant.

The first time I saw this one thought came to mind. That selfish bitch! In these tough economic times she runs out and uses all the Chase Sapphire points to buy herself a dress. Meanwhile her husband is a team player. Thinking up vacations, romantic getaways and what not. Well guess what, now you got no points left and you sitting around with your husband in his “weekend shorts” . See. You could been boating and dancing under the stars, but no! You just had to run out and think about yourself. Check out the look on her face when he mentions those points. I hope you like modeling that dress in the living room cause it looks like you won’t be going anywhere now. If he had run out and used them points on a 50″ plasma you’d probably be pissed off wouldn’t you? WOULDN’T YOU? It’s cool for you to just run out and buy stuff though, huh? You make me sick.

Rant over.

So I’m not, what you would call, a Beyonce fan. I’m rather indifferent to most musical acts that are popular right now. I have in the past compared musical eras and groups. In a discussion about some of the female groups of the last few years I realized that some special ladies have been left off of the list and I’m her to remedy this. The Pointer Sisters. Yes that’s right. See one of the things about musical acts today is all the “help” they can get. Milli Vanilli probably made people recognize it and C&C Music Factory pushed it further. You could grab a big girl with a great voice while showing people a model chick. You’d have a hit until someone realized that the girl in the video wasn’t singing. From that to the era of auto-tune that lets Kanye sing as well as T-Pain and you start to wonder who can ACTUALLY sing. Well the pointer sisters were coming from a time where singers could sing. Plus in the 80’s people had weird styles so you could just make someone cool. You just threw stuff out there and hoped it stuck normally if you had a good sound it would work. Well the Pointer Sisters had a good sound. Enjoy:

Q: Bishop, you’re crazy!
Bishop: You know what? Last time you said that, I was kinda trippin’, right? But now, you’re right. I am crazy. And you know what else? I don’t give a fuck. I don’t give a fuck about you. I don’t give a fuck about Steel. I don’t give a *fuck* about Raheem, either. I don’t give a fuck about myself. Look, I ain’t shit. And you less of a man than me, so as soon as I figure you ain’t gon be shit, *pow*! So be it. You remember that, motherfucker. ‘Cause I’m the one you need to be looking out for… *partner*!

The other night Juice was on the telly and I stopped for a few because my lady had never seen it (I was shocked). Mind you, I’ve seen Juice plenty of times. It’s the movie that showed me you could really live it up when you cut school (note to self..make sure my kids never read that line). As with all things, seeing it at 30 I saw some things I hadn’t noticed before. One of them being that Tupac played one of the greatest roles in a film ever (yes, ever). Bishop was a perfect character…you see who he can be early on, you see him moving from fear into power into all out crazy. I was able to point out the exact moment after he killed Rahiem that he transitioned. Watching him at the house after the funeral is a chilling scene. Beyond the new revelations there are somethings I have always thought about when I watch Juice. You can tell alot by who people really look to in those movies. I identified with GQ…being caught up in a situation and looking for a way out. It always amazed how many people looked at Bishop like a he was the man (notice how popular Tupac got after that role?). As I came to realize, he was just one of many cautionary tales that people would instead use as a guide on how to live.

Here are my two picks for the most innappropriate “heroes” and their counterparts.

Bishop (Juice) -Crazy is the first term that comes to mind. A better description is the embodiment of “I Gave You Power” by Nas. He starts out as kind of scrappy dude with problems, but once he gets his hands on a gun he (self-admittedly) goes all the way crazy and just doesn’t care. He schemed, plotted and basically went on a spree of murders (accomplished and attempted). Any redeeming quality he had was gone within the first 15 minutes of the movie. To top it all off, without a gun he had to be saved from daily beatdowns by the person he ended up killing.

The Alternate:

GQ (Juice) – Dude really just wanted to kick it with his crew, his older woman and DJ. By going along with his friends in something he wanted no part of he basically ends up having his whole world fall apart around him. He wasn’t tough until he was put into a position to get tough or die.

Tony Montana (Scarface) - You had to see this coming right? So I understand the whole “worked his way up – hardbody – kingpin angle”, but look at what happened. Dude got a lousy woman, was a coked out psycho and eventually got killed. There really wasn’t a “hero” aspect to him. He wasn’t Robin Hood or anything. He sold drugs, took over operations and died with an M-16 as his only friend. Whisky Tango Foxtrot!?!?

The Alternate:

Carlito Brigante (Carlito’s Way) – While he started out in life as a criminal, the entire movie is about him trying to get away from that life. Unlike Scarface he reasons his way through just about everything. He’s telling you before hand what effect everyones action is going to have. Even when he makes a mistake he explains it and regrets it. More than anything this line always stood out to me: “If you can’t see the angles no more, you’re in trouble.” That’s rare in a movie to have the main dude admitting he’s losing his edge. Despite going out at the end, dude spends most of the movie getting laughed at for wanting to go join a car rental business.

I want to say people just cherry picked these movies. I mean how do you make a hero out of the person who goes down in flames? Carlito does get killed, but he also gives his girl the money to get away with their child. Q doesn’t want the rep he earns by the end of the movie. Nobody gives props to Q. More people will cite Scarface then Carltio’s Way. Yet, Bishop and Tony both really had no place to go but down. Bishop actually summed up the situation the best. He felt like he wasn’t anything and now he had the power to make anyone else into nothing. From one standpoint I understand people identifying with Bishop as he starts out, but it doesn’t make sense to walk the path he chose if you’ve seen his example. Yet, many people have and continue to do so. There was a study completed recently here in Baltimore. One of the main points they hit was that 99% of youth victims and perpetrators of violence had some kind of record that indicated they needed intervention before they were ever involved in violence. Not only are we faced with a bunch of Bishops who want to be Tony Montana…but we know who they are beforehand. Despite all those killed or incarcerated over drugs people will still see that as a way to come up in the world…even when all evidence points to the contrary. What makes it worse is that despite being emaulated, Bishop had no real moment of glory. He was still poor, still in the same hood and judging by what Sweets had in the fridge…he didn’t even have the best gun. I guess it’s like Kurosawa said, in a mad world only the mad are sane.

gives up on football for the rest of the week.