The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses…*
Well, me and the rest of the unwashed masses will be heading out to the polls in a few days to cast our votes on whether William Jefferson has a good explanation as to why he had $90,000 in marked bills from a bribery scheme in his freezer. Personally, I think the same majoritive band of idiots that re-elected our ineffectual mayor are going to re-elect Jefferson and there isn’t much I can do about it but feel depressed. It makes me wonder though, how much longer are people who don’t live here going to be able to vote in our elections? Just wondering.
Other random things on my mind for the last three weeks or so since I posted aren’t any more interesting so only make the jump if you really don’t have anything else to do.
I don’t like the whole “getting dark at noon” thing that seems to be going on. It’s dark when I get up, dark when I go to bed…It seems to make me tired and somewhat unmotivated. But at least it’s been cold. I have a heater in the room in the shanty I’m living in but it doesn’t burn clean and I think the fumes are getting to me. It only gets down in the 40’s in my living room at night now, so it’s worth it…lol, I’m exaggerating a little. It really sounds worse than it is. I look at it as camping. It’s kinda fun.
The Times-Picayune has become a consummate disappointment to me. It’s written at about a 4th grade reading level. If you read it online, there are more typo’s than one of my metroblog posts (which is really just sad). The stuff they choose to report about, I have no doubt, represents the city’s level of interest and attention span, but damn it people that isn’t good enough. There’s supposed to be an educational aspect to the newspaper - it isn’t People magazine! No wonder illiteracy is so high in this city: ignorance is being accommodated.
Why is it that every time someone is shot, it’s in the paper but, then there’s no follow-up so you can never find out what happened? Did they arrest someone? Have they gone to court? Was there a conviction? What was the sentence? The only exception to this seems to be if there’s another shooting and the police decide that the victim was their prime suspect in a previous shooting - what a crock of shit. I’d like to see a crime section with a calendar and a map for each crime that follows the whole thing through. That way you could get an idea of what’s going on with crime in different areas and the status of unresolved and resolved crimes - hell have a link to crime stoppers and call it a public service site. I may build one of these and start populating it for the first of the year, but I’m not sure I can even get that information to put it together - something tells me “They” might not want a site like that. I don’t like the idea that judges are elected (note the first paragraph and the band of idiots) but if that’s how it’s going to be then let’s see their stats - put out some judicial (baseball) cards or something so we can see what the outcome of their cases are and how many cases they take in a year. Do the same for police officers. Make it fun. All crime related information should be readily available in an organized way so people know what the hell is going on.
And though I’d like to crap on Blanco again, I have to cut her some slack this time - well, not a lot, but some. Seems she wants to have this whole special session thing to change the state constitution to raise some spending cap. Normally a change to a state constitution is a big deal and I’d be against it - but Louisiana changes their constitution on a whim to the point that it really doesn’t matter as a document. Also it looks like she’s basically trying to use this “surplus” money quickly so it doesn’t end up defused across 4 billion pet projects for every state representative. I like the idea of that in some respects but overall I think her starting off point was wrong. We shouldn’t be spending the money at all. We should squirrel it away so the next time we get our ass handed to us one way or another, maybe we can at least salvage a little pride. Or better yet, use it to pay back the feds what we owe them (or will once the bill comes in). I mean a state surplus in LA right now is just fucking laughable - there is no way the state has a surplus - end of fucking story. If it does, then why in the hell are we trying to get billions from the feds? What we have a surplus of is state assholes. Shortsighted fucktards.
Moving on….I like Harry Lee, and that isn’t an easy thing to do lately. He came out this morning and told everyone not to vote for Karen Carter because she hurt his damn feelings when she spoke out about Jefferson Parish authorities not allowing Orleans Parish peoples get out of Orleans and into Jefferson. And that’s all fine and all - a little childish for a fat man in his 60s - but alright. The problem comes in that he made it a point to say he doesn’t support Slick Willie Jefferson either. Well, brother, it’s a run-off election and there are only two candidates so there aren’t many options. Once he makes the statement not to vote for ‘A’ then its the same thing as saying vote for ‘b’ given only two options. So by making the two statements he did, he’s basically telling the people of the second congressional district not to vote because that is the only logical conclusion that can be derived from his statements. And it seems pretty irresponsible for the Sheriff of Jefferson Parish to tell people not to vote. Luckily, I remembered a few minutes ago that I couldn’t give less of a shit what Harry Lee thinks.
And that brings us full circle. Sweet. Welcome to another little glimpse of how my mind works. Neat hu.
*First few words of the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. constitution which has had me wondering….maybe more on that in another post….or maybe not.
Related posts:
There was a shooting near my house a month or so ago and there was nothing in the paper about it. Nor was it on any police websites or published in any other way, shape, or form. The same thing happened pre-K, only the shooting wasn’t in my neighborhood, but by your old place on Constance, Jack. Are they covering this shit up so it doesn’t end up in the crime statistics? Are they just dumping the bodies in the industrial canal? The NOPD is a bigger joke than the newspaper.
If Jefferson wins I am really going to start losing hope. I could almost understand Nagin winning, but if Jefferson wins I’m really going to start believing that everyone wants to keep living in this cycle of poverty, violence, and decay. Maybe they don’t, but that sure is the message they’re sending.
See, that’s my problem, though I didn’t have any personal experience for example I kept looking around for information on crime to see if it was out there somewhere that I could compile it. I’ve really been looking for a reason to write to the google api so I really am willing to make a site but I need to know I can get information with out having to sit around listening to a police scanner all day. What I need is a mole in the NOPD or at the courthouse - some secretary….a hot secretary….yeah, now we’re talkin’!!
Did you notice the front page today? A huge headline about the surplus in the Sate, then a giant photo of the Williams sisters reading to kids. If you look closely in the right bottom corner, there is an article about how the Democrats and Republicans are going to mind fuck us when it comes to the oil vote.
They want to wait until after they get back from vacation to vote on it. One group is no better than the other. They both suck. I hope their holidays are merry while we sit here like turkeys in a slaughter house waiting to see what THEY think is best for us po ass southern folk.
Oh, I forgot to say that I can remember before the storm the police had a computerized crime tracker for the whole city. I think Pennington brought it in. It was used to track crimes and map them all throughout the city but I don’t know if it still exists or was publicly posted.
I remember the mapping thing too. I think it might have been part of nola.com.. either way, gone now. NOPD has not posted any press releases on their own website in 2006. There are three posts in 2006 on nola.com’s NOPD police log: http://www.nola.com/newslogs/nopd/
Way to keep the public informed, fuckers.
Are you guys talking about these maps? http://secure.cityofno.com/portal.aspx?portal=50&tabid=76
They haven’t been updated in a while and to be honest, they don’t look very high-tech. I mean, I’m talking about a database driven, near real time system - I don’t know what the fuck those are supposed to be but there’s no other information linking to the maps so it really is just statistical and doesn’t allow you to follow any case - It wouldn’t surprise me if this is how the NOPD actually works and why they can’t solve any cases.
They’re all standing around a big ascii map of the city with boxes of different colored pins - stupid Mayberry shit. If they caught me in my back yard throwing a body onto a pile of bodies, assuming they’d arrest me at all, I’d be out of jail in an hour and filling out paper work to get my shovel back…Damn!
The deal I was talking about was a crime prevention system using computers and maps to “keep up’ with the crime situation. They payed some company in New York or something for software that was used by the NYPD. I hope those maps are not what they paid for.
Dammit, I spelled Paid wrong again.
I think this is what I was talking about:
http://www.ncjrs.gov/App/Publications/abstract.aspx?ID=188873
When you get to the site, click the PDF link and read the bottom of page 3 in the “Outcome” section. I don’t think anyone will be surprised.
One thing to know about some crime reporting is that there are FBI and swat teams out there, and cameras being installed about the city as well. I attend the NONPACC meetings for my district and the media is not allowed in the meetings because some information the police know they do not want public while they are still putting some preventative measures in place. They release monthly stats and maps at these meetings. So I for many of you that means you’d have to get off the bar stool and go to a fucking meeting. So you won’t ever know, you’ll just sit here at the computer and whine about it. As I tell the fat cats at City Hall, you can’t manage all of our city’s problems from a desk. Right now, recruitement is a big problem. I am thinking I might not want to be here for Mardi Gras. I will be surprised if we do not see a call to arms for help from state police from other states again. And the subsequent crying of people who think it ’sends the wrong message’ about our ability to take care of ourselves. Jeeeesh.
Laureen’s comment is funny because we’re all a bunch of drunks - except, of course for Laureen, who is either the voice of sobriety or the personification of Drunk Logic depending on whether its after 11am or not. Actually, I don’t think she’s ever had breakfast that wasn’t served “on the rocks”.
heh heh - now *that* is funny.
What can you do to help Karen Carter out? The corrupt racists are attacking her big time in order to keep cozy boy Bill Jefferson in power!
We need Democracy and we need people to be free to speak up against injustice if we are going to rebuild our communities!
Hey, Paul P and Jack Ware. I don’t know you all but I’ve been reading your posts. I work at NOLA.com and share your dream about the ultimate crime maps/google api/database/calendar/etc. You are right that getting the info is the hardest part. would like to talk about your ideas. Email me at sarah_thibodeaux@yahoo.com. There is some grant money out there if you want to build something. –Sarah