JARRED RACOON, PINE: A patrolling officer witnessed a raccoon with a jar stuck on its head run across the road near the 500 block of Pine Street around 9:23 p.m., Nov 5. The raccoon quickly wandered away, and the officer moved on
FRAUD, LOCHSPUR LANE: A family reported Oct. 26 that they had just received a “scam phone call” involving someone from Texas requesting that they wire money to get someone out of jail. After an officer called the family and spoke with them, it was determined that it was not a scam after all.
CRIMINAL DAMAGING, EAST WASHINGTON STREET: A woman reported arriving home about 1:40 a.m. Saturday and finding one of her front windows broken, with a stone porch decoration — depicting a dove and the word ”Peace” — thrown through it and found on the interior floor.
Friday, November 12, 2010
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
power, corruption, and lies
I went back for my last hearing in front of the judge this morning and after waiting half an hour, she finally showed up in a better mood than last time. Every case where the cop didn't show up, she let them off, which she didn't let happen to me a few months ago even though it was the same situation and my partner in crime got his charges dropped for lack of witnesses when he went in front of another judge.
It kills me that people who have this kind of power abuse it when they wake up on the wrong side of the bed in the morning or have their own axe to grind. Evidently the guy texting while driving gets off because she's in a good mood and the girl taking photos in an abandoned building gets probation and a $200 fine because she hadn't had her morning coffee yet.
I wanted to say something so badly but knew that'd get me in more trouble.
Meanwhile, Mr. Comic Sans who think he owns the soul of Cleveland because he owns their basketball team and a good chunk of their subprime mortgages is trying to mess with our river. Thanks a lot. I still wish Lebron had taken you with him. I hope you pull an Art Modell. The amount of hubris here is so stunning it's disgusting.
That, and the ubermensch, we're above the law attitude I see out of these business owners and national leaders just makes me want to hurl. The constant need to defend the indefensible, the constant trampling over others in pursuit of the almighty dollar, the constant devaluation of others who don't count because they have no money or don't look like you or don't provide you with connections.
Dammit.
It kills me that people who have this kind of power abuse it when they wake up on the wrong side of the bed in the morning or have their own axe to grind. Evidently the guy texting while driving gets off because she's in a good mood and the girl taking photos in an abandoned building gets probation and a $200 fine because she hadn't had her morning coffee yet.
I wanted to say something so badly but knew that'd get me in more trouble.
Meanwhile, Mr. Comic Sans who think he owns the soul of Cleveland because he owns their basketball team and a good chunk of their subprime mortgages is trying to mess with our river. Thanks a lot. I still wish Lebron had taken you with him. I hope you pull an Art Modell. The amount of hubris here is so stunning it's disgusting.
That, and the ubermensch, we're above the law attitude I see out of these business owners and national leaders just makes me want to hurl. The constant need to defend the indefensible, the constant trampling over others in pursuit of the almighty dollar, the constant devaluation of others who don't count because they have no money or don't look like you or don't provide you with connections.
Dammit.
Friday, November 5, 2010
i can't stand it, i know you planned it...
One of our regulars at my place of employment has some paranoid tendencies, and is constantly trying to uncover proof of conspiracies and such everywhere even though it's obvious to anyone that rich, mostly white, people run the world. It's not that much of a secret. And of course, these people have one agenda or another and the means by which to propagate it, whether it's Koch or Soros or Bin Laden or whoever.
Some unclaimed printouts that we found when we came in a few weeks ago had a list of a whole lot of militias in the United States, articles about the Hutaree, and a place that sold HGH and other steroids online but suggested that you should "Buy Now!" because they might get banned soon and supplies won't last.
Some of the names of these groups who love freedom, the American Way, and guns, were pretty much to be expected, though others sounded like the products of some 10-year-olds playing with GI Joes and Playmobils(Fort Eagle) or someone who's watched way too much old TV (Roger's Rangers, which is actually named after a group of colonial fighters who fought with the British, so I don't even get where the patriotism thing comes in here). Another group described themselves as "All the Innocent Americans the Government Hasn't Thrown in Prison," which would presumably be a lot of people.
Another website told its adherents not to boycott their French's mustard along with the freedom fries, because it wasn't actually made in France. For the record, most of these people still had Geocities and Angelfire pages, which made me think of being in high school and those annoying banner ads that seemed to be EVERYWHERE.
Good times.
But lest we think that the righties of the US of A are the only ones susceptible to this, these are just a few of the Greek anarchist groups that were active in the last year. Unlike the anarchists I knew when I was at Kent, who seemed to spend more time eating vegan food, stealing copies of "Fight Club" from Borders and pens from the Cashier's Office to "throw a wrench in the system," and not bathing because hygiene is "fascist," these people actually blow things up.
Summer Entropy Commandos
Summer Tranquility Disturbance
Non-Patriot Saboteurs - Cores for the Spreading Insecurity
Fire Shadows
Comandos Husscheyn Zhachyndhoul Jhachanghir / Revolutionary Intelligence Agency
Antisexist Group
Immediate Intervention Hood-wearers
Wild Wolves
Conspiracists for the realization of insecurity
Immoral City De-Structuralists
Revolutionary Cores Alliance - Speedy Arsonist Agency
Fire Cores Conspiracy / Nihilist Commandos
Destroyers of whatever is left of social peace
Consciousness Gangs
Happy Sleep's Apostates
Arsonists' Millennium Cooperation
Organizers of Night Entertainment
CHAOS: Chaotic Groups of Sabotage
Carnivalists in the tune
Nikola Tesla Commandos
Maybe some of these sound more awesome in Greek or whatever, but having been around people on both loony ends on the political spectrum, I find it interesting as anything to see how people define themselves and their enemies.
Some unclaimed printouts that we found when we came in a few weeks ago had a list of a whole lot of militias in the United States, articles about the Hutaree, and a place that sold HGH and other steroids online but suggested that you should "Buy Now!" because they might get banned soon and supplies won't last.
Some of the names of these groups who love freedom, the American Way, and guns, were pretty much to be expected, though others sounded like the products of some 10-year-olds playing with GI Joes and Playmobils(Fort Eagle) or someone who's watched way too much old TV (Roger's Rangers, which is actually named after a group of colonial fighters who fought with the British, so I don't even get where the patriotism thing comes in here). Another group described themselves as "All the Innocent Americans the Government Hasn't Thrown in Prison," which would presumably be a lot of people.
Another website told its adherents not to boycott their French's mustard along with the freedom fries, because it wasn't actually made in France. For the record, most of these people still had Geocities and Angelfire pages, which made me think of being in high school and those annoying banner ads that seemed to be EVERYWHERE.
Good times.
But lest we think that the righties of the US of A are the only ones susceptible to this, these are just a few of the Greek anarchist groups that were active in the last year. Unlike the anarchists I knew when I was at Kent, who seemed to spend more time eating vegan food, stealing copies of "Fight Club" from Borders and pens from the Cashier's Office to "throw a wrench in the system," and not bathing because hygiene is "fascist," these people actually blow things up.
Summer Entropy Commandos
Summer Tranquility Disturbance
Non-Patriot Saboteurs - Cores for the Spreading Insecurity
Fire Shadows
Comandos Husscheyn Zhachyndhoul Jhachanghir / Revolutionary Intelligence Agency
Antisexist Group
Immediate Intervention Hood-wearers
Wild Wolves
Conspiracists for the realization of insecurity
Immoral City De-Structuralists
Revolutionary Cores Alliance - Speedy Arsonist Agency
Fire Cores Conspiracy / Nihilist Commandos
Destroyers of whatever is left of social peace
Consciousness Gangs
Happy Sleep's Apostates
Arsonists' Millennium Cooperation
Organizers of Night Entertainment
CHAOS: Chaotic Groups of Sabotage
Carnivalists in the tune
Nikola Tesla Commandos
Maybe some of these sound more awesome in Greek or whatever, but having been around people on both loony ends on the political spectrum, I find it interesting as anything to see how people define themselves and their enemies.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
art and crime
There's an art show tonight at Loganberry Books where a real photographer is showing some of her work that's inspired by urban decay and graffiti. I look through these beautiful photos and realize that we've been to the same places, only she didn't get arrested.
I'm 5 days away from completely probation and realizing as I ride the Rapid that most of my photography involves some element of illegality as do those of most of my fellow artistically minded Clevelanders and other rust belt denizens. I'm fine with giving up the abandoned buildings.
Those places still fascinate me the way that ruins in the Old World would if I lived there, but I don't want to deal with the court system again, much less run across who knows who. Now that I know what the law is, I respect it, and in all honesty, those adventures were things I'll look back on a few years from now and go "Damn I was stupid back then."
My favorite parts of the city are the dead zones along railroad tracks cutting through industrial wastelands, where everything is growing and a whole other world exists underneath bridges and in forgotten worlds, where flowers spring out of concrete and vines take over fences, the soil is red from the rust of former manufacturing and the bright aerosol colors are arcane hieroglyphics showing that others have gone before us in a city that's gray most of the year.
But these places are owned by someone. Someone who's hoping that a developer will come along someday and buy these swaths up for the revival that may never come, for an industry that can be elsewhere, or someone who might be dead and doesn't know, or some nameless corporation in another state, or languishing in brownfield purgatory.
I went to hear this photographer speak last week and she talked about her excursions into the architecture of this city and times she ran into trouble but was always very nice and gracious, asked permission, but she's an older lady so she has some modicum of respectability as opposed to me being young and in racially mixed company in a city where the culture of past generations is still segregated.
There's so much talk about the creative class and making this a haven for artists. Other cities are known for their bright murals and incredible graffiti, but here, if it's not safe and clean and able to be consumed or surrounded by trendy restaurants and beautiful people, it gets destroyed. I wish I could have experienced 'The Temple of Lost Love' back in the day before it was whitewashed by city workers and the Campbell administration. The aesthetic may not be appealing to all, but it resonates with a lot of us.
I felt a sense of loss when the RTA started buffing over a decade's worth of paint from the Red Line. Does that gray paint really look better? Does someone painting "Cleveland Rocks!" in rainbow letters of declaring their love of Led Zeppelin on a wall really hurt anyone?
So now I'm trying to figure out how to continue to pursue exploration and artistry in this city without getting in trouble again. I've done a good job of keeping it legal, and I intend to continue to do so to the best of my ability but I think now about how many things that are not moral wrongs that there's something on the books about. For all of us who've ever cut through someone's yard or picked up a piece of furniture off of someone's curb, or walked down some railroad tracks or opened someone else's mail by accident.
I'm sure it won't be as hard as it feels sometimes, but I'm honestly jealous of all these photographers who don't feel like they have to debate these questions.
I'm 5 days away from completely probation and realizing as I ride the Rapid that most of my photography involves some element of illegality as do those of most of my fellow artistically minded Clevelanders and other rust belt denizens. I'm fine with giving up the abandoned buildings.
Those places still fascinate me the way that ruins in the Old World would if I lived there, but I don't want to deal with the court system again, much less run across who knows who. Now that I know what the law is, I respect it, and in all honesty, those adventures were things I'll look back on a few years from now and go "Damn I was stupid back then."
My favorite parts of the city are the dead zones along railroad tracks cutting through industrial wastelands, where everything is growing and a whole other world exists underneath bridges and in forgotten worlds, where flowers spring out of concrete and vines take over fences, the soil is red from the rust of former manufacturing and the bright aerosol colors are arcane hieroglyphics showing that others have gone before us in a city that's gray most of the year.
But these places are owned by someone. Someone who's hoping that a developer will come along someday and buy these swaths up for the revival that may never come, for an industry that can be elsewhere, or someone who might be dead and doesn't know, or some nameless corporation in another state, or languishing in brownfield purgatory.
I went to hear this photographer speak last week and she talked about her excursions into the architecture of this city and times she ran into trouble but was always very nice and gracious, asked permission, but she's an older lady so she has some modicum of respectability as opposed to me being young and in racially mixed company in a city where the culture of past generations is still segregated.
There's so much talk about the creative class and making this a haven for artists. Other cities are known for their bright murals and incredible graffiti, but here, if it's not safe and clean and able to be consumed or surrounded by trendy restaurants and beautiful people, it gets destroyed. I wish I could have experienced 'The Temple of Lost Love' back in the day before it was whitewashed by city workers and the Campbell administration. The aesthetic may not be appealing to all, but it resonates with a lot of us.
I felt a sense of loss when the RTA started buffing over a decade's worth of paint from the Red Line. Does that gray paint really look better? Does someone painting "Cleveland Rocks!" in rainbow letters of declaring their love of Led Zeppelin on a wall really hurt anyone?
So now I'm trying to figure out how to continue to pursue exploration and artistry in this city without getting in trouble again. I've done a good job of keeping it legal, and I intend to continue to do so to the best of my ability but I think now about how many things that are not moral wrongs that there's something on the books about. For all of us who've ever cut through someone's yard or picked up a piece of furniture off of someone's curb, or walked down some railroad tracks or opened someone else's mail by accident.
I'm sure it won't be as hard as it feels sometimes, but I'm honestly jealous of all these photographers who don't feel like they have to debate these questions.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
the morning after...
...is usually sunny it seems.
People are coming in saying that they lost their freedom, but I wonder where they've been the past 10 years or maybe even longer, with the Patriot Act and its continuations and escalations, justifying the unjustifiable under the pretense of "state secrets," not to mention the ways in which people who have the least amount of rights and protection in this country simply "disappear."
"Well at least a Democrat won in our county," as if they haven't been as utterly corrupt on a local level as the other party has been on a national one.
But I can't get emotional about politics anymore. It's so ugly and seems to get uglier every year. I listen to people talk and the ignorance is astounding and the smugness is overwhelming, and each side is acting like they're in middle school with "I'm smarter" or "I'm prettier" or "You suck" and there really isn't much of a difference when it comes down to it.
We're really an oligarchy, run by a select few with a lot of money and connections who either buy their way in or finance the way in for others. I'm convinced that if you start out with any integrity, you've lost most of it by the time you get that far.
It's easy to demand and expect things of others, and harder to take any responsibility to do.
People are coming in saying that they lost their freedom, but I wonder where they've been the past 10 years or maybe even longer, with the Patriot Act and its continuations and escalations, justifying the unjustifiable under the pretense of "state secrets," not to mention the ways in which people who have the least amount of rights and protection in this country simply "disappear."
"Well at least a Democrat won in our county," as if they haven't been as utterly corrupt on a local level as the other party has been on a national one.
But I can't get emotional about politics anymore. It's so ugly and seems to get uglier every year. I listen to people talk and the ignorance is astounding and the smugness is overwhelming, and each side is acting like they're in middle school with "I'm smarter" or "I'm prettier" or "You suck" and there really isn't much of a difference when it comes down to it.
We're really an oligarchy, run by a select few with a lot of money and connections who either buy their way in or finance the way in for others. I'm convinced that if you start out with any integrity, you've lost most of it by the time you get that far.
It's easy to demand and expect things of others, and harder to take any responsibility to do.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
it's that time of year again.
It's Election Day, and I get to pick the lesser of 6+ evils for the new position of County Executive, try to figure out which judges don't suck, and hope that my provisional ballot gets counted. Yay.
I do what I can to vote my conscience and stay informed and try not to get myself in trouble with everyone I know because I seem to disagree on everything considering that I don't feel represented by either of the major parties and their talking heads. My views on God and human nature occasionally catapult me into quasi-wingnut territory philosophically, yet I also don't believe that a government should legislate morality and I don't assume that most people share my views or expect others to fall in line behind me.
I don't want to get into arguments about a whole host of issues on this forum because I don't know how most of these things work out in practice, but I vote based on the belief that ALL life is sacred and created by God, whether it's the unborn, the elderly, the rich, the poor, people like me and different from me, people who live in other countries and practice lifestyles and religions different from my own.
I'm ashamed that as a country we're responsible for things like torture and death squads in other countries. I'm glad I voted third party and that I didn't have these high hopes of expecting things to change, because Gitmo and the School of the Americas are still open, we're financing corrupt governments that abuse the rights of their people. I can't stand the way that opposing groups talk about each other, the self-righteous echo chamber smugness of both sides, the ugliness and constant justifications of unjustifiable things.
I believe in treating others the way I'd want to be treated, and so I try to screw over as few people as humanly possible, attempt to vote for people that will hopefully not screw others over too much, and don't expect the government to fix everything. I think we project our hopes so often on people who can't deliver on them, and substitute that for doing anything to change the world around us ourselves.
I try to do my best to live out and love and do the right thing by pursuing peace in my own life because that's the only thing I can really answer for and live by this:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury,pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life...
I do what I can to vote my conscience and stay informed and try not to get myself in trouble with everyone I know because I seem to disagree on everything considering that I don't feel represented by either of the major parties and their talking heads. My views on God and human nature occasionally catapult me into quasi-wingnut territory philosophically, yet I also don't believe that a government should legislate morality and I don't assume that most people share my views or expect others to fall in line behind me.
I don't want to get into arguments about a whole host of issues on this forum because I don't know how most of these things work out in practice, but I vote based on the belief that ALL life is sacred and created by God, whether it's the unborn, the elderly, the rich, the poor, people like me and different from me, people who live in other countries and practice lifestyles and religions different from my own.
I'm ashamed that as a country we're responsible for things like torture and death squads in other countries. I'm glad I voted third party and that I didn't have these high hopes of expecting things to change, because Gitmo and the School of the Americas are still open, we're financing corrupt governments that abuse the rights of their people. I can't stand the way that opposing groups talk about each other, the self-righteous echo chamber smugness of both sides, the ugliness and constant justifications of unjustifiable things.
I believe in treating others the way I'd want to be treated, and so I try to screw over as few people as humanly possible, attempt to vote for people that will hopefully not screw others over too much, and don't expect the government to fix everything. I think we project our hopes so often on people who can't deliver on them, and substitute that for doing anything to change the world around us ourselves.
I try to do my best to live out and love and do the right thing by pursuing peace in my own life because that's the only thing I can really answer for and live by this:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury,pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life...
it's good to be here.
The leaves have come down, the cold is here to stay, and I love wearing thermals and hoodies again and resurrected the flannel shirt permanently borrowed from my dad.
I took a walk with my camera on Saturday through Little Italy up the Mayfield road hill. While I love hanging out with people, I love those moments of solitude too especially when it's by choice, when I can let the leaves crunch, explore a bit, wander in and out of art galleries, end up having conversations with random people having yard sales and trashpicking furniture off the front lawns of apartment buildings.
Carved pumpkins with my neighbors on Friday night, and we made salsa with the produce from her garden, and then Sunday was our annual church Halloween party for the neighborhood which makes me think of both really Pentecostal churches and that one skit where Eddie Izzard is talking about the Pope.
Over 600 kids and parents came in and I passed out candy and ran the soccer game with the help of the Ethiopian kids, and did end up dressing up this year in a kimono a friend gave me awhile back, watching the kids and parents come through with some truly awesome costumes.
I realized as I watched the constant flow of families and kids through the building that this is probably one of the only events in the neighborhood where the whole community shows up, where I'm hearing Spanish, Lingala, Amharic, and Kreyol, watching the children of the new urbanistas mingle with the kids who lives in the Section 8 apartments and the refugee kids who show up excited at this strange new holiday where you wear crazy clothes and everyone gives you candy.
Seeing families hanging out together, neighbors meeting up, and kids having fun in a safe place just made me happy. I don't find the holiday as magical as I did when I was younger, but to be able to make it fun for the next generation was a beautiful thing.
Is it weird that Halloween reminds me again why I stayed in this city and even with the lameness and frustration of Election Day, glad to live in this country?
I took a walk with my camera on Saturday through Little Italy up the Mayfield road hill. While I love hanging out with people, I love those moments of solitude too especially when it's by choice, when I can let the leaves crunch, explore a bit, wander in and out of art galleries, end up having conversations with random people having yard sales and trashpicking furniture off the front lawns of apartment buildings.
Carved pumpkins with my neighbors on Friday night, and we made salsa with the produce from her garden, and then Sunday was our annual church Halloween party for the neighborhood which makes me think of both really Pentecostal churches and that one skit where Eddie Izzard is talking about the Pope.
Over 600 kids and parents came in and I passed out candy and ran the soccer game with the help of the Ethiopian kids, and did end up dressing up this year in a kimono a friend gave me awhile back, watching the kids and parents come through with some truly awesome costumes.
I realized as I watched the constant flow of families and kids through the building that this is probably one of the only events in the neighborhood where the whole community shows up, where I'm hearing Spanish, Lingala, Amharic, and Kreyol, watching the children of the new urbanistas mingle with the kids who lives in the Section 8 apartments and the refugee kids who show up excited at this strange new holiday where you wear crazy clothes and everyone gives you candy.
Seeing families hanging out together, neighbors meeting up, and kids having fun in a safe place just made me happy. I don't find the holiday as magical as I did when I was younger, but to be able to make it fun for the next generation was a beautiful thing.
Is it weird that Halloween reminds me again why I stayed in this city and even with the lameness and frustration of Election Day, glad to live in this country?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
