With all the hoopla surrounding Tiger Woods and his car crash lately is quite a bit excessive. For those that are blessed enough to not be familiar with the story, it's pretty basic: Superstar golf player had a car accident.
That's it. That's all there is to the story. Yet the news media is spending 13 of their 24 hours in the day the past few days to talk about Tiger's accident as if there is something sinister going on. It's pretty much sickening.
Why should they spend so much time talking about a random car accident? They say because he's a billion dollar industry in and of himself and that makes it newsworthy. Ok, I'll give you that. That he had an accident is newsworthy. But why then have we spent the past 4 days listening to endless dissection of the wreck? Well, according to the media outlets, it's becasr Tiger refuses to talk about it and e so doing makes it seem like there's something terrible and demonic going on that he's hiding.
Maybe, just maybe, Tiger is embarrassed by his wreck. Maybe he's hurt and doesn't want to be seen in public while injured (which would hurt that precious industry the media is so obsessed with). Maybe he's just an individual that prefers to keep business and public image just that, while leaving private affairs to himself. None of that, however, is newsworthy in the least.
I could care less why the accident occured. Is it weird that he doesn't want to talk to police about it? I have no clue, to be honest and I don't care. He doesn't have to talk to police about it. By law he can say he doesn't want to, which is what he has done.
Is it such a slow news cycle that our news organizations need to spend hours upon hours analyzing the actions of a man that fall completely within the borders of legality? Or are they just so obsessed with this story because they think they've found something about this black man that can give them an excuse to crucify him? Maybe's South Park's "Mr. Jefferson" episode was more accurate than we want to believe.
Showing posts with label Police. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Police. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Atlanta Joins In Gay Bar Raiding Fun!
I know I said I'd stay away from political issues, but sometimes I just can't resist it, so here goes anyway:
In the wake of two raids in Texas gay bars, Atlanta's police force decided they should join in the fun as well. The recently raided the Atlanta Eagle, taking over 20 officers into the bar to manhandle the patrons. They force the bar goers on to the ground for TWO HOURS while they pretended to search for things, or pick on the homos on the ground, or watch "the game"… whatever they had to do to pass time during the two hours of their illegal raid on the bar.
Why did they raid said bar? Because they were told there might possibly be some sex going on in the bar somewhere. Did they find any sex going on in the bar? Nopers, but they stuck around for two hours just to make sure. Have the EVER raided a hetero strip club for all the sex that happens in those diseased cesspools? Nope, but that's just boys being boys, you know? Nothing wrong with that…
These raids Have. To. Stop. They are being perpetrated illegally and unethically by the powers that be because they feel like gay people are scum and should be erased from the world. And if they just rile them up enough, they'll go away! And why, pray tell, might these Southern US cultures have the notion that gays are evil, bad, and deserving of eradication? Because we have allowed Christian fundamentalists to take over the political atmosphere and frame gay people as the opposite of god.
I shouldn't be shocked really. This kind of raid was common in black bars and establishments 60 years ago, for many of the same reasons. The white folk in charge were afraid that the black community would organize, or even worse, establish roots in "their" community. Hell, raids on gay bars even happened in Northern states and cities perceived to be progressive. Stonewall, anyone?
I can only hope that justice is handed down against the Atlanta PD in this issue and fast. A strong message needs to be sent to these ass hats that they cannot continue to abuse their badges to further their bias. I also have to wonder about the moral compass of a police force that is able to muster 20 willing officers to administer such hate without any of them standing up or speaking out. Even now, none of the 20 officers offers remorse for their actions.
This is what out and out hate legislation leads to. When our politicians stand up in public and congratulate their constituents for passing laws that enshrine hatred into the system, or even speak out in support of those laws, the idea that it's ok to discriminate against gays is drilled into the masses collective mind. Saying that gays are second class citizens by denying them marriage rights and adoption rights gives people the mental OK to perpetuate physical and social discrimination against gay people. This is what those laws have accomplished, and I sincerely hope that the right wing is satisfied in understanding that every single bruise caused in these raids, every single human rights violation, is on their hands. This is their doing.
In the wake of two raids in Texas gay bars, Atlanta's police force decided they should join in the fun as well. The recently raided the Atlanta Eagle, taking over 20 officers into the bar to manhandle the patrons. They force the bar goers on to the ground for TWO HOURS while they pretended to search for things, or pick on the homos on the ground, or watch "the game"… whatever they had to do to pass time during the two hours of their illegal raid on the bar.
Why did they raid said bar? Because they were told there might possibly be some sex going on in the bar somewhere. Did they find any sex going on in the bar? Nopers, but they stuck around for two hours just to make sure. Have the EVER raided a hetero strip club for all the sex that happens in those diseased cesspools? Nope, but that's just boys being boys, you know? Nothing wrong with that…
These raids Have. To. Stop. They are being perpetrated illegally and unethically by the powers that be because they feel like gay people are scum and should be erased from the world. And if they just rile them up enough, they'll go away! And why, pray tell, might these Southern US cultures have the notion that gays are evil, bad, and deserving of eradication? Because we have allowed Christian fundamentalists to take over the political atmosphere and frame gay people as the opposite of god.
I shouldn't be shocked really. This kind of raid was common in black bars and establishments 60 years ago, for many of the same reasons. The white folk in charge were afraid that the black community would organize, or even worse, establish roots in "their" community. Hell, raids on gay bars even happened in Northern states and cities perceived to be progressive. Stonewall, anyone?
I can only hope that justice is handed down against the Atlanta PD in this issue and fast. A strong message needs to be sent to these ass hats that they cannot continue to abuse their badges to further their bias. I also have to wonder about the moral compass of a police force that is able to muster 20 willing officers to administer such hate without any of them standing up or speaking out. Even now, none of the 20 officers offers remorse for their actions.
This is what out and out hate legislation leads to. When our politicians stand up in public and congratulate their constituents for passing laws that enshrine hatred into the system, or even speak out in support of those laws, the idea that it's ok to discriminate against gays is drilled into the masses collective mind. Saying that gays are second class citizens by denying them marriage rights and adoption rights gives people the mental OK to perpetuate physical and social discrimination against gay people. This is what those laws have accomplished, and I sincerely hope that the right wing is satisfied in understanding that every single bruise caused in these raids, every single human rights violation, is on their hands. This is their doing.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
How Texas Is Trying To De-Gay: Hate And Discriminate
Oh, my dear Texas... the state where I have my first memories of living in America... What the fuck is wrong with you?! First, you give us G. W. Bush. Fuck you for that. Recently, you decided to raid a gay bar and beat the crap out of, and hospitalize, one of it's patrons. Why? Because they were drinking in public. At a bar… Fuck you for that. Oh, and now you want to kick out The Gays of your restaurants in El Paso because gay acts are supposedly illegal in your state? Well, fuck you VERY much.Mayhaps you forget that it was Texas that lost the seminal case Lawrence V Texas, and in doing so made it no longer legal to discriminate against the gays for their "acts." Maybe even you forget that in El Paso, as in many, many, many cities, it's illegal to discriminate against people for their sexual orientation in businesses open to the public. Maybe. Or maybe your officers are all just ignorant twits that need to go back to school for a bit of re-education.
"Hi, um, 2009? Yeah, listen… we need a favor. It seems that you, and your brothers before you, kind of forgot to stop by Texas. Yeah, I know it was just an oversight, but seriously dude. Get over there!"
This kind of shit just baffles my mind. How can this continue to happen? I really, honestly don't care one tiny bit about the fact that it happened in Texas. Even more honestly, I could care one iota less that straight people might possibly be feeling uncomfortable with the LGBT folk's progression toward civil justice. I suppose it confuses some of them, so they resort to just about the only thing straight men do well: violence.
So Texas, here's to you being a state full of ignorant dumb fucking breeders. To all the LGBT folk in that state, I'm sorry. I'm more than happy to show you the ropes here in Chicago though! I won't be coming to visit there any time soon though, that's for sure.
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