Hoodies Really ARE Menacing

Contrary to what you may think, no, this is not a rant about the recent Trevon Martin case.

I work at a small, family restaurant as my day-job. My job requirements REQUIRE me to periodically make food deliveries in all kinds of weather, sh*** & otherwise.

Recently between 940-945p, I had to make one such delivery. It was dark, it was miserably rainy, & of course it was hard to see the numbers on the actual houses. At one point, I saw someone on her porch smoking a cigarette in the general vicinity of my delivery. So I parked & go out & asked her if she knew where (my house number) was.

While I was talking to her, some guy in a car starts bitching at me about the rudeness of shining a flashlight in peoples face. I questioned why he thought that, there was only one person out before he spoke up (the cigarette lady), & informed him I was making a delivery & needed to find the house. He kept bitching at me so I simply choose to ignore him & continued talking w/ the lady on the porch.

Holy sh**! The guy freaked the eff out. He gets out of the car (much to the protestations of [presumably] his wife) demanding that I apologize, all the while getting in my face. I outright refused because I had NOTHING to apologize for. He then continues lecturing me about the virtues on not shining a flashlight in peoples faces, all the while pointing his finger against my chest (assault?).

At one point, he demands I get off his property & leave the area. I have no clue if I was but made sure I was standing on the sidewalk & pointed that fact out to him. He demands I leave the (bleepin') area & demands to know my name & where I worked. Like hell, I'm telling this pedestrian road-rager my name & place of employment. For all I know, he could fire-bomb my workplace in anger & then I'm out of a job. When I refused, he got mad & slapped my hand, sending my flashlight flying to the ground. By sheer instinct, I gave him a nice, hard shove.

As soon as I did that, I'm like "Oh, sh**! Just my luck, this guy will blow a gasket & I'll end up in the hospital." I ran to get my flashlight that's still on the ground, bolted back to the car, to get the food I'm supposed to deliver, the ticket that accompanies it, & jetted over to the opposite side of the street in a seemingly fruitless attempt to find my missing house.

The lady whom I'm supposed to deliver the food to, eventually flagged me down & we were kinda talking about it because they could hear most of the exchange w/ the guy from across the street. It was that loud.

Anyway, I tell my "war" story to the guys back at the restaurant. They got a big kick out of it because its just one of those absurd things.

If only it ended there...

When I get home, I come to find out that the household was visited by the cops. They were asking all sorts of questions, "Did I have any friends in (that) neighborhood?" "Does he drive a (insert the make & model of the car)?" "Do you know what he was doing over there?" This is all the while the family dog's barking up a storm.

At some point, the cops figured out I was over in that end of town because I was making a food delivery. (Well ya, that's what I told the pedestrian road-rager a couple different times!)

While I'm telling the cops my side of the story afterwards, they were like "Well, that's funny. He didn't tell us about (the finger-pointing & the hand slap)." In my head, I'm like "You think he'd admit that he assaulted a complete stranger?" The cop continues & tells me that the guy was concerned because there'd been a string of incidents in that neighborhood (he didn't elaborate) & he saw a guy in a hoodie, shining a flashlight (nevermind where the flashlight was actually shining), & he overreacted. Like that was a newsflash.

So there you have it, my own personal experience how simply wearing a hooded sweatshirt DOES INDEED cause a person to becomes 100x more menacing.

(rolls eyes)


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This is Kira.



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Tasers and Police Brutality

I live in a small community of 15,000 at most.

Seeing the questionable tactics used by law enforcement to disperse the Occupy Wall Street, one of the better examples is the Channel 4 news video of UC Davis' response to their Occupy protests as seen below:



 ...combined w/ a NYCLU report naming my own localities high use of tasers (aka "stun guns"), its made me question some things.

During the mid-late 90's while serving with the Marines, the use of "deadly force" was ingrained into each & everyone of us. It was seperated into two parts. Defining "deadly force" & explaining when it can be applied (while on post as a sentry). From my US Marine Guidebook (1999 edition)...

"Deadly force is defined as that force which a person uses with the purpose of causing-or which he knows or should reasonably know, would create substantial risk of causing-death or serious bodily harm. Deadly force is justified under conditions of extreme necessity and ONLY as a last resort when all lesser means have failed or cannot reasonably be employed." (emphasis mine)

Yes specific situations & environments will vary on the when, how, & why. But basically, one has to use all possible options BEFORE they pull that trigger.

So what explains the Glens Falls Police Department's high taser usage? Back in May 2010 why did they taser a guy who reportedly had no other weapon on him besides his fists? Could they not have TRIED calming him down before they shot him? If this is how they treat one of their "Brother Officers", I'd hate to see what they do their enemies (so to speak).

Why is it that reportedly 99 out of 150 tasering incidents involved people with no weapons on them?

Granted this incident happened with a sister police department, can they & in what manner do they justify using a taser on an animal?

I'm not remotely saying tasering people is always unjustified.

What I AM promoting is that the Glens Falls Police Department step forward & explain themselves to the public. Specifically their policies on A. when their officers can draw their weapon, B. when they can pull the trigger, C. why doing so is acceptable.

I WANT to sympathize with the tough jobs the Boys in Blue have (Lord knows there are A LOT of whackos) but without having any clue as to what they're thinking, it simply reads as the leadership is promoting a culture of trigger happy cops getting their jollies off on hurting people.

Edit: Another taser fatality this time by a NC Police Department under questionable circumstances.


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This is Vanessa. "She makes Zombie Killing Look Good!"

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Whackos, Nutjobs, and Racists

In 2000 Newsweek interview, the modern descendants of Franz Ferdinand (the Austrian arch-duke whose assassination) triggered the First World War remarked, "Our family had been involved in politics for over 500 years. Violence is simply a job hazard."

I'm obviously bringing this up in reference to the Tuscon, AZ shootings.

Did the rhetoric have something to do w/ it? Yes & no. Yes because its been proven that inflammatory rhetoric does have an influence on the listening/viewing audience. No because saying incendiary things alone is not enough in our justice system to attach ones guilt. Individuals are responsible for their own actions unless it can be proven that an outside party is making a documented conscience effort to effect behavior otherwise (think the Tobacco Industry).

Lord knows Manson tried blaming the Beatles for his killings. Mark David Chapman tried blaming "Catcher in the Rye" for killing Lennon. Hinkley was convinced killing Reagan would impress Jodi Foster, a person he'd never met before. Hell, Berkowitz took orders from his dog!

Yes, these shootings are tragic. Yes, they probably could've been preventable. But I don't see this as a grand conspiracy to shut certain people up. Its just one of those bizarre but meaningless acts of violence.

Will we learn anything from this? I haven't a clue.

W/ all the whackos, nutjobs, & racists out there, I'm a little surprised that violence like this isn't more prevalent...not that I'm advocating that.


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One of my lovable headcases Meagan persuaded to go back into the archives & take a fresh look at the material from our first shoot, shot during Aug 2005. It entailed promises of doing multiple "pretty pleases" & future promises of dirty things to come. Little does she know I would've settled for far less in the form of an Italian smack upside the head. =)

All kidding aside, that shoot felt like ages ago & at the same time just yesterday. Seeing these pictures again makes me wince in a way. Think of it like seeing at ones own baby pictures when you're an adult. You know that's you but at the same time its a completely different person.

Anyway, this is one of the shots that recaptured my attention.



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Enjoy.