The traffic ticket racket

As I am sitting in a fast food restaurant watching a Kent police officer in one of those unmarked cars pull over a motorist into the parking lot, I tell myself that I am “fortunate” not to have owned an automobile since 2003. I know exactly how that driver who is shaking her head in disbelief is feeling. Of course, you have to alter your time schedule when you don’t have a personal “ride,” and it can be particularly debilitating when you have to be somewhere at a certain time, and you have to depend on a unsympathetic bus schedule to get you there.

I admit I’ve received traffic tickets in the past, but only one for speeding—and that one I convinced a traffic judge to considerably reduce after I pointed out that the 1978 Chevette I was driving at the time shook so bad once I hit 55 mph it left parts on the highway, and that this highway patrol officer—who had specifically targeted me after a prior encounter—was “clocking” his own catch-up speed. Every other time, it was for things like not activating a turn signal “’fast enough,” crossing a “fog line” driving off an exit, or a license plate lamp out. But I knew what these pullovers were really about: The cops saw an “ethnic” person who “likely” had a warrant or was on a terrorist watch list—or did so as an” intimidation” measure, like in ”don’t come back.”

Kent police seem to be very active in their pursuit of allegedly wayward motorists, although from what I can tell, it is for the most part entirely arbitrary. I was walking up James Street when I observed a Kent motorcycle cop sitting in a driveway;  several cars passed by in no obviously unusual manner, but the cop drove up behind one of them “randomly” and pulled the motorist over. I’m thinking “What kind of bullshit is this?” No doubt the driver was thinking the same thing. There is, of course, a “method” to this madness; Kent is a Republican town, and the local gentry don’t like the idea of taxes. So instead of increasing municipal revenues from that method, it applies a “hidden” tax called traffic fines—and obviously not all of it goes into the cops’ donut fund.

Many communities around the country have turned to this “hidden” tax to increase revenues in times of “need.” Earlier this month a judge ordered Elmwood Place, a community outside of Cincinnati, to refund $1.8 million in traffic fines. These fines were the result of strategically-placed cameras that the judge called a “scam” that violated the Ohio state constitution. It was also charged that the number of these “surprises” in the mail were inflated because the community had to make-up the difference for having to pay the company that installed the cameras 40 percent of the revenue generated.

In California, the state passed “fixed” fines for different types of traffic violations, no if, ands or buts about it. Vehicle infractions that might have merely warranted a “warning” now requires the payment of a “fix-it” fine, and on your standard everyday ticket a “surcharge” of $35 is applied. If they require you to go to court or attend a “traffic school,” you have to pay a fine for that too.

In large communities and small, filling government coffers is the name of the game. Some small communities in Missouri made ¾ of their revenue from traffic fines—only discovered when the state forced communities to open their “books” when it was decided to actually enforce the 35 percent cap on revenue from traffic citations. In the state of Michigan, the Republican-controlled state house cut revenue sharing funds, leaving many small communities scrambling. In the town of Utica with a population of less than 5,000 the police chief said "When I first started in this job 30 years ago, police work was never about revenue enhancement. But if you're a chief now, you have to look at whether your department produces revenues. That's just the reality nowadays."

 According to a story in the Boston Herald, in some local suburbs of Boston every police officer is “urged” to write at least one traffic ticket a day in order to “help” cash-strapped local governments—which, of course, also means their own salaries. In San Diego, shaking down poor “Mexicans” hasn’t been as profitable as expected, so police stated targeting the wealthier residents of La Jolla; $400 fines for “accelerating” up inclines is a favorite money-making scheme.

The Tampa Bay Times published a table showing that purported to demonstrate that the number of traffic tickets and current economic conditions were closely tied. But this was not apparent in all cases. In St. Petersburg, the number of traffic citations continued to increase after the 2008 recession was supposedly over; tickets actually rose by almost 15 percent from 2009 to 2011. However, it also noted a rise in the number of recalcitrant offenders who refused to pay their tickets—thus an actual decrease in revenues from this source.

Naturally, there are other “hidden” costs to traffic fines—increases in insurance costs for drivers, which makes me even more glad that I don’t have to worry about all the other costs associated with owning a vehicle. No better reason to support mass transit, which locally seems to be in trouble financially, again.

Dan Akroyd's turn as Mississippi lawman no cause for "alarm" in state where little has changed below the surface

It seems that former Saturday Night Live alum Dan Akroyd has decided to “expand” his horizons, joining celebrities like Steven Segal, Chuck Norris, Lou Ferrigno and Shaquille O’Neal who have decided that law enforcement is their true calling, at least on a part time basis. Akroyd was sworn in as a deputy in the Hinds County Sheriff’s Department; he studied criminal justice in college, and this was deemed sufficient qualification for the duties of “organizing programs and fundraisers.” 

Of course, one would be naturally suspicious, given that Akroyd decided on a post in Mississippi where nothing seems to have really charged since the state became notorious for the murders of civil rights activists in the 1960s. In 2011, a group of white Mississippi teens from mostly white Rankin County decided one night that they should “fuck with some niggers” and drove 16 miles to a predominantly black section of Jackson. The first black individual they encountered was an auto worker named James Craig Anderson, who they spotted in a motel parking lot. 

The teens took turns beating Anderson, shouting “white power.” After most of the group left in an SUV, another stayed behind with two female friends, who apparently didn’t have any issue with what happened next: Blonde, blue-eyed Deryl Dedmon  proceeded to run over a staggering Anderson at high speed with his pick-up truck. Anderson died of his injuries later that night. Dedmon later boasted to friends how he “ran over a nigger.” Unfortunately for Dedmon and his friends, the whole incident was caught on the motel’s surveillance cameras. I watched this video, and it is stomach-turning. Dedmon later pleaded guilty to murder to avoid the death penalty, and is serving consecutive life terms. Interestingly, this case didn’t excite a fraction of the interest the Zimmerman case did. 

But things have changed, really, say the state’s apologists. They will tell you that there are more blacks in public office in the state per capita than any other. That is true, and should be since the state has the highest percentage of blacks in the country; unfortunately that doesn’t translate into office-holding on the statewide or federal level. In fact, no other state in the Union has a greater correlation between race and political ideology. A Gallup poll earlier this month revealed that Mississippi has the highest percentage of self-identified conservatives, 50.5 percent; 58 percent of the population is white. 

The few white Mississippians who run for office as Democrats seem to be quite conscious of racial politics in the state. In fact, they think nothing of stabbing in the back the black constituencies who voted for them.  In 2012, seven newly-elected white Mississippi officeholders who ran as Democrats switched parties within six months. State Democratic leader Rickey Cole said that "While we strongly believe that any person should join and support the political party that best represents their interests, we find it troubling that less than six months into a new four-year term, officials who posed as Democrats last November have now decided to become Republicans, but intend to remain in the office to which they were elected as Democrats."

In fact, since Barack Obama was first elected president, at least 50 elected white Democrats in Mississippi have switched parties. One should never underestimate the role race plays in Mississippi politics. In 1948, a shocking 87 percent of the state’s presidential vote went to Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond, who ran strictly on his opposition to Harry Truman’s anti-discrimination policies (nearly 99 percent of Thurmond’s votes came from former Confederate states, winning five for 39 electoral votes despite having only 2.4 percent of the national vote). The state has also not elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since 1982. Statewide, five of the last six governor’s races were won by the Republican candidate; the current governor, Phil Bryant, is so reactionary (particularly in his support of voter suppression measures) that he makes George Wallace seem like a raving liberal.

The state's anti-government attitude--at least among whites--is somewhat flawed in its conception, considering the fact that it is more dependent that most in federal assistance; 44 percent of its black population and 16 percent of its white population live below the poverty line, according to a Kaiser Foundation report last October. No less disturbing is the fact that according to the 2010 census, the median and per capita income of blacks is barely half that of whites in the state, with Latinos doing barely better.  

I’ll cut Akroyd some slack, however. He is not a hypocrite like Greta Van Susteren, who also made news when she “exploded” at a Fox News colleague for calling Texas Democratic governor wannabe Wendy Davis “Abortion Barbie.” Van Susteren has also scolded us that her version of racism isn’t “real” racism, but she isn’t fooling anyone except other racists and feminists. Hinds County happens to have a population that is 69 percent black, and obviously Akroyd isn’t there to start a race war. Reportedly he is in the county filming a biopic of R&B legend James Brown, and for some reason decided he wants to help improve relations between law enforcement and the community. It is just too bad that his motivations won’t rub-off on those who need it the most.

When one person's "sweets" is posion to others

When I first moved to Seattle I had only enough money to rent a low-income apartment. I didn’t have a job or the immediate prospect of having one, but I put on sport coat and the kid manager thought I was “safe” to rent to right then and there. Not liking the prospect of living on hot dogs and water for longer than a first paycheck, I looked at the classified ads, and the only prospect for immediate employment seemed to be the security business. All I had to do was walk in the office and I was hired; low-low pay tends to have that effect on retention. I preferred the jobs in empty buildings at night, but I was seldom that fortunate. 

Once I was sent to Green Lake Park, to “guard” some outdoor stereo equipment. There were no lights and no moon, and it was darker than dark among the trees. I asked the supervisor who dropped me off there if I could obtain a flashlight and a walkie-talkie; he said he’d come back “soon” with them. In the meantime, between dusk and dawn I thought I was an extra in a horror movie; bums and tramps seemed to come out of nowhere, walking in and out of sight like ghostly apparitions. Some wandered zombie-like around the site as if it was the “Night of the Living Dead.” Although none of these guys actually attacked or threatened me, I still spent most of the night in constant fear for my life. When the morning light came, so did the supervisor and the gear I had requested, but by then the “zombies” and ghouls had all decided to sleep off (or drink off) their nights’ exertions. 

Another park I was sent to was Camp Long in West Seattle. I was supposed to walk the perimeter at night, but just before I began there arrived a party of women who struck me as “eccentric” in their dress and manner. One of them approached me and informed me that it was the desire of her group that I stay as far as possible away from their little show. I saw them trudge off to far corner of the park, light a little bonfire (they apparently had permission to do this) and proceeded to gyrate around the fire, and intone some strange chant.

I’m no expert in these things, but I can distinguish between a typical night out with friends, and an attempt to escape from reality. These people were trying to create an alternate universe in which they had the “power” to become one with nature. I’m not talking Jeremiah Johnson here, nothing that complicated. I’m talking about some fantasy land of the mind in which they reign supreme, apart from “patriarchal” society. It really is just a political statement. After all, it is “Mother” Nature, although “Mother” isn’t often a very nice person—even to those who worship her like a pagan idol.              

                       

The world is littered with examples of such people who profess a “positive” world, yet upon closer inspection is more negative in aspect. The way some people interpret the teachings of the Koran is one example. Another is the insular nature of “sisterhood” as opposed to the universality of “brotherhood,” and often the occasion for what can be interpreted as inherently discriminatory. What in some demographics is considered “doing their job” police work is often considered unjustified harassment by another. What one group considers “safe” behavior can be considered an invitation to violence by another. What one demographic considers proper remedial action to right a perceived wrong, can be viewed as tyranny by another. 

It seems that some people are hopelessly mired in a world where morality and ethics are beyond rational definition. Take for instance Laine Lawless, a person I first encountered on the webpages of the Southern Poverty Law Center a few years ago. Lawless is a loud and proud lesbian and militant feminist, who once was the den mother of some lesbian group that worshipped Xena, who some may remember was a television character played by Lucy Lawless, who is no relation to the former. Xena didn’t have any apparent male love interests (Lucy altered that perception in the “Spartacus” series), and so it was “assumed” by those so wired that she was having a lesbian affair with her blonde sidekick. Naturally, Xena served as an “inspiration” for “strong” and “independent” women who had no use for men; on the other hand, her counterpart, Hercules (played by Kevin Sorbo), was never seen as anything but your typical Hollywood fantasy figure. 

All of that is curious but otherwise “harmless.” So is Lawless’ “advice” for gays and lesbians on her personal website:  “Let’s get real:  gay men are like satyrs gone wild when it comes to sex; the more the merrier.  Most gay male couples just learn to live with their loved one having multiple partners.  Men have no problem separating sex from love, so it’s no big deal.  Stop acting like some jilted straight chick, Jose!”

That’s pretty much where the “humor” ends, however. In the same breath Lawless announces “I’ve been attacked by the extreme left wing media repeatedly and called pejorative names like butch dyke, bull dyke, etc., even though they supposedly are gay-friendly.  I’ve reported their politically incorrect slander to GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation media monitoring organization.  While it’s not OK to make prejudicial remarks about Jews or negroes, it’s still OK to use unflattering slang words to refer to gays.”

Remember what I said about ethics and morality for some people? Lawless was being attacked by the left alright, but in her skewed worldview she was apparently hearing things—or if she wasn’t, it was from her fellow right-wingers put-off by her uninhibited, embarrassing antics. Lawless chose to “interpret” what hate group watchers said about her racial believes as attacks on her sexual orientation, not on her virulent strain of racism. Somehow her refusal to reconcile her own sense of “victimhood” with her race hate only highlights the incongruity of her anti-immigrant, anti-black and anti-Jewish beliefs. 

Lawless was a leading member of the so-called Minuteman movement, basically armed thugs patrolling the southern border looking for some “action.” Apparently becoming bored by the lack of action, Lawless attempted to contract with the National Socialist Movement, regarded as the most violent strain of Neo-Nazism in the country, with immigrants the principle “enemy.” She provided them with ideas on how to deal with people presumed to be illegal immigrants: “Steal the money from any illegal walking into a bank or check cashing place” or “Make every illegal alien feel the heat of being a person without status. … I hear the rednecks in the South are beating up illegals as the textile mills have closed. Use your imagination.” 

Of course the problem is that it is actually kind of hard to tell the difference between someone who is legal and is illegal in the targeted group. There is an 80 percent chance that the person being beat-up is a U.S. citizen or a legal resident. But to white racists, it is a “distinction” without a “difference”; just ask Pat Buchanan—they all should be booted out of his “fair” country.

 It didn’t have much play in the local papers, but a few years ago Washington native and nativist Shawna Forde organized and led a racially-motivated home invasion in Arizona in which a Latino man and his nine-year-old daughter were murdered. Forde has since been convicted and currently sits on death row.  Lawless admitted that she met Forde the day after the killings. What they discussed has not been revealed, but Lawless claims that Forde is the victim of a “racist and sexist” conspiracy and is the victim of “racial profiling” because she is white.  “Shawna’s become the target of a socialist government’s clumsy attempts to marginalize and terrorize America’s patriots” and is the victim of “the unholy government/Marxist-media alliance.”

But if there is a certain “incongruity” of a militant lesbian promoting violent racism, then so would 9-year-old girls hitting the concert circuit singing songs promoting race hate and race war. This begins with their mother, April Gaede. Gaede believes that “White people are and have been overwhelmingly the victims of interracial violence for years, not the perpetrators — though the Jewish media tell us the opposite. We must reclaim the moral high ground that is rightfully ours, and use every opportunity to show the madness and injustice of White guilt, multiracialism, and universalist attempts to convert other races.” National crime statistics show that interracial violence is not the norm; homicide rates in particular show that in the vast majority of cases are inner-racial. Although whites have lower interracial homicide rates as perpetrators, one must remember that they also vastly outnumber blacks, thus rendering the rates meaningless in terms of raw numbers.

Gaede has been all over the place getting her “message” across. She told the BBC that “I find other races annoying. … I don’t like their chattering in other languages, I don’t like the way they look. I mean, 99% of them, they’re just not pretty. I don’t want to be around them. I don’t like the fact they seem to make everything just dirty and messy wherever they are. I don’t like to be around them. I want to be around all white people.” She probably speaks for more people than she knows, although from what I can tell at work, non-whites don’t have a lock on “messiness.” In 2006 she informed the men’s magazine GQ that “Did you know anti-Semitism is a disease? Yeah, you catch it from Jews.”

But Gaede wouldn’t have received such notoriety had it not been for the fact that she “managed” her twin daughters, Lynx and Lamb, as lead singers from the age of nine in a musical group called Prussian Blue—a reference to Zyklon B, used in mass gassings at Nazi extermination camps. The girls—both proud blonde and blue-eyed specimens, at least for their mother—sang racist songs, usually at concerts for the benefit white supremacist audiences. “What young, red-blooded American boy isn’t going to find two blonde twins, 16 years old, singing about white pride and pride in your race … very appealing?” Gaede salaciously proclaimed. The SPLCenter called them  the “new face of hate,” but the girls seem to have had a change of heart of late. This may be due to the fact that both suffer from serious congenital medical issues, although they may believe that the hand of God may also be involved.  

Scrambling to respond to the girls’ sudden conversion from promiscuous disseminators of hate through song to “not hating anyone” and wishing to live in a world of “love and light” while blaming their mother for indoctrinating them, Gaede claims that the girls have not actually given-up the fight. Rather, they are “scamming” the “Jewish media” the way she “taught” them. “The girls are using the Jews media to make bank as usual. If they had done anything else they would not have gotten any attention. For a money making scheme I guess I can’t blame them too much.” Given the “shock waves” the conversion sent into the white supremacist world, the “attention” certainly wasn’t designed to “make money,” since the girls don’t plan to sing their songs anymore.

If the cowardly Snowden is so certain of U.S. public support, he shouldn’t fear a jury of his peers

I’m sure you’ve encountered people who have done something that causes them to be isolated from their peers, and in search of sympathy or support seek it out from someone they might otherwise have never bothered to associate with before, perhaps didn’t even like. Perhaps it was someone who was also despised by the larger group. Thus being viewed as the enemy by former friends, they now seek “friends” among enemies—who naturally welcome a “traitor” in their midst who “confirms” their negative propaganda. 

And so we see Edward Snowden continuing to make many people in this country despise him the more, by creating paranoia in foreign countries against the United States. Still holed up in Russia, Snowden told German television that he believed that U.S. intelligence was “spying” on many German officials besides Prime Minister Angela Merkel—but not, admittedly, that he actually knows this. In fact, many of Snowden’s claims are based upon his “suspicions,” rather than actual knowledge. He knows of certain programs (he can read the reports he stole), but he doesn’t know the extent of the operations. But that hasn’t stopped him from sowing dissent in foreign capitals against the U.S. at every opportunity, calling himself a “patriot” in doing so.

Now, Germany is not technically an “enemy,” but Snowden’s claims have made many Germans believe that the U.S. is the “enemy.” Frankly, I would be surprised if the Germans were not engaged in their own cyber-spying, particular given the fact that terrorist cells—both domestic and foreign—have set up shop in the country; in fact the 9-11 terrorists initially began their preparations in Germany. Neo-Nazi groups—especially in the former East Germany—have found increasing support from the unemployed and anti-immigrant (particularly Turkish) racists. 

But the extent of the alleged cyber-spying is more a fantasy of those who think in the terms of worst case scenarios. There may be evidence that the NSA has the ability to do certain things, but the extent to which it has invaded the privacy of individuals is a matter of debate. We know that the U.S. hackers have moled into Chinese military and industrial computer systems; we also know that the Chinese are doing the same in our systems (I am frankly tired of this idea that the Chinese are our “friends” when they have done a great deal to undermine the U.S. economy and our now threatening our Pacific allies). But if anyone with access to what the Chinese are doing and exposes it to the world, he can expect if caught a quick trial and death sentence. The same in Russia; if such a person escaped the country, he could expect to be assassinated, perhaps by poisoning, as seems to be the preferred method by Russian intelligence.  

Snowden’s own paranoia knows no bounds; he seems to believe that the U.S. today operates on the same “principles” as dictatorial regimes like China and Russia. If he is so certain of his “innocence” and American public support—say a jury of his peers—why is he so afraid to come back? "These people, and they are government officials, have said they would love to put a bullet in my head or poison me when I come out of the supermarket and then watch me die in the shower” he told the German interviewer. 

Could there be any more evidence of the self-delusion of this guy? Even if he didn’t make this up, it isn’t anything more than stream-of-consciousness hyperbole and evidence of the extent of the feeling that his actions are treasonous and should be punished. Was Daniel Ellsberg targeted for assassination when he released the Pentagon Papers? Maybe the Nixon administration had his psychiatrist’s office ransacked looking for something to embarrass him with, but kill him over it? Snowden himself is just a little man who wants to big. But after all is said and done, despite his support in the media, for a majority of Americans he’s still just a little man living his own contemptible fantasy. It is easy to make bold accusations from the safety of foreign countries; it’s the coward’s way. But it’s time for Snowden to come home and find out how “big” people really think he is.

Will Grammy Awards "celebration" of music's past cause a break in the current stranglehold of motonony? I'm not holding my breath

At the end of 1974 my parents, or rather my mother, decided we needed to prepare for the coming Apocalypse by moving out to the country to a very modest farm property. It was the middle of the school year, and for someone as introverted as I was, it was an unwelcome change from the supportive environment of a Catholic school where I interacted with the same two-dozen classmates for eight years, to a public school of one thousand students, none of whom I ever met before. Although my Catholic school years were ones of mixed memories, in leaving that environment I was also leaving behind all of the positive memories of my youth behind; they were all negative ones after that.

1974 also happened to be my favorite year for music; I doubt that there was a year more eclectic before or since. There were times when I could listen to the American Top 40 countdown and like every song I heard. Those were the days when a “rock” version of “The Lord’s Prayer” fit in right beside the funk of “Jungle Boogie,” the smooth sensuality of “Sexy Mama,” story songs like “Dark Lady,” instrumentals like “Love’s Theme,” the Spanish language “Eres Tu,” the slightly subversive “Smokin’ in the Boys Room,” Dickie Goodman’s goofy novelty “The Energy Crisis,” and the political editorial set to music, “Americans.” Of course, these days you can only hear music even mildly this varied on “oldies” and “classic rock” stations; contemporary music stations play the same mind-numbing sound over and over again. I’m sure the older formats would drive contemporary listeners as “crazy” as the new stuff drives me.

And so there was yesterday’s Grammy Awards ceremony, which just made me cringe. It was supposed to be part “celebration” of music of the past, with Paul McCartney on hand to mark the 50^th anniversary of the Beatles’ leading the British Invasion of America. Of course Madonna had to be there, in a Cowboy get-up speaking in her phony British accent. Talk about delusional; frankly, I don’t understand why the British press doesn’t crucify this fraud whose whole career is based on illusion. 

Another alleged “theme” of the ceremony was recognizing how music “changed” the world. Well, it did, long ago, for positive reasons, like social change, peace, love and even staging concerts to raise money for disasters here and abroad.  I ask myself” What do these new “artists” know about the past, let alone have a true appreciation of the “music” side of music? What kind of “change” does the current brand of “music” foster? All I can see (or hear) is narcissism and demands for “respect.” In the past, music wanted to stop wars, not start them. The “roll call” of murdered rappers—Wikipedia lists 27 and counting—testifies to the fact of how “gangsta” culture and attitudes have undermined the positive energy that music used to instill in the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies. And not just in rap or hip-hop, but other genres as well; every time I hear another self-weepy number by Adele, I try to escape as far away as possible. 

This year, Daft Punk won an award for something, wearing Star Wars storm trooper outfits, which I suppose is apt given the  racist “Mexican monkey” controversy that Grammy voters apparently didn’t take into consideration (even with Nile Rodgers’ participation). Macklemore and his producer Ryan Lewis also were big winners, taking four Grammy awards. I’ll give them “credit” for writing politically correct songs about being gay in this society and something about being so poor you have to shop at a thrift store. But there are no “positive” messages or energy here. Nothing like McFadden and Whitehead’s “Ain’t No Stopping Us Now” or William DeVaughan’s “Be Thankful For What You Got”—a prescient critique of the “gangsta” lifestyle 20 years before it went mainstream. The only “message” is a call for people to look at their lives as wretched and seek scapegoats, sometimes violently. 

I also give Lewis “credit” for employing musical instruments to the extent that you can actually perceive them. Synthesizers occasionally break the mind-numbing monotony typical of rap “songs” in “Thrift Store,” while a piano drifts in and out of “Same Love.” However, the latter’s aimless riff testifies to the fact of how the current variety of artist has either no sense of, or is incapable of, writing a melodic line or hook that makes a song “memorable.” Songs like last year’s Grammy winner “We Are Young” almost seems like the rare “hit” in an ocean of misses. Of course in the past a string section often masked a weak melody, but at least it maintained the link between the musical past and (then) present, between music’s classical heritage and the musical pretensions of later generations. In the 1980s, heavy use of synthesizers performed the same function. But today,  all you hear is spoken lines that seem like a record is on “repeat” after the first ten seconds, or “singing” that is purposely garish to make up for the lack of melody to propel one’s voice forward. 

I wonder if the American music scene will ever move beyond the “street” that has hijacked it, back to recognizing what music has been about since ancient times. Every time I turn on the radio, I tend to doubt it in my lifetime.