Afflict The Comfortable

Amherst College:  Named after the town, not the General

At least they didn't vandalize the sign

The irony is probably lost on Amherst Uprising -- a cadre of students of color suddenly energized about how evil their expensive college of choice is -- but one of the prime jobs of journalism is to "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable."

Combine that with my favorite saying, "If a tree falls in the forest and a digital journo is not there to cover it, it does not make a sound," and you will understand why I shake my head over the First Amendment issues that seem lost on student protestors.

 Blood was spilled on the streets of Chicago

When Chicago police were beating the daylights out of Hippie/Yippie protestors at the Democratic Nation Convention in 1968 the bloodied youth started chanting, "The whole world is watching, the whole world is watching."  And indeed it was.

Just as they were in the early 1960s when the Freedom Riders were being persecuted by southern mobs as good old boy police stood by and did nothing.  But the images beamed back to middle class America awakened the silent majority thus giving "voice to the voiceless."

Indeed "The pen is mightier than the sword" -- especially now in the digital age -- but your ideas still need to hold up in the open marketplace provided by the mainstream media where they receive wider vetting.

 Click to enlarge/read

 More than a majority of AC students are non white

Preaching to your already converted followers on Twitter or Facebook and holding closed-to-the-media events defeats the purpose of an "uprising."

Besides, if can't deal with criticism or the challenge of a debate then maybe your cause is not all that sustainable.

And here's the other "intentional parody" account, that has since been terminated:

I'm still trying to figure out of this is a parody Twitter account

The good news is the Lord Jeffs beat arch rival Williams and went undefeated for the season

Remembering The Revolution

Angela Davis, March 30, UMass Fine Arts Center

As both the town's token conservative and proud UMass/Amherst graduate I'm comfortable saying I support my alma mater bringing in Angela Davis as a speaker to finish off Black History Month with a bang (although a month late).

Even as a fiscal conservative, I do not have a problem with her $16,000 appearance fee.  After all Angela Davis is a historically significant figure, albeit a niche time period:  The counter culture, anti-war, when-hippies-were-in-full-bloom chapter in American history.

The best advice for aspiring writers is to "write what you know," so what better way to learn about that interesting time period than to hear it first hand from a noted participant? 

I suppose if she had been convicted for the murder of four individuals I might think differently.   Although, our justice system is built on the premise that if you do your time -- aka "pay your debt to society" -- then you have earned a fresh start.

Even if you did make the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" list.

A University is supposed to be an open market for the free exchange of ideas -- even those we find repugnant.  Popular speech doesn't need protection.

It's the voices from the margin that require the First Amendment to prevent their soap box from being pulled out from under them.   

Although at UMass, it seems the more conservative speakers are the ones who get bullied and shouted down. 

To Serve & Protect

APD Captain Chris Pronovost (left) Chief Scott Livingstone (right) 

 
Amherst Police Chief Scott Livingston and Captain Chris Pronovost appeared before the Joint Capital Planning Committee this morning to present their FY16 equipment needs, which were pretty modest considering their $4.5 million operational budget.

Joint Capital Planning Committee preparing to discuss PD equipment this morning

The usual replacement of three front line patrol vehicles, with an excess of 100,000 miles usage, takes up the bulk of the total request at $105,000.  Next year it will be a tad more expensive as the request will be for one additional vehicle.  The department orders four vehicles on a rotating basis every 4th year.

Front line cruisers are used 24/7, 365 days a year

One of the things you don't want to have happen when you call 911 for a life or death emergency is to have help delayed because of a vehicle breakdown.

 Click to enlarge/read.  FY16 starts July 1st

Amherst police department was one of the first public safety agencies in the state to adopt  "in car video systems" aka dash cams.  Such a system protects both the officer making an arrest or just interacting with citizens and the person being arrested or just interacting with the officer. 

$12,000 will purchase two complete systems, to replace older systems in two cruisers.

Naturally as the Chief was leaving the meeting I asked him about body cams.  He responded that within two years it will probably be standard equipment for his department.

The current crop of cameras somewhat rushed to market are still a tad expensive (decent reliable units around $1,000 each) and like any new technology the cameras will get better and cheaper just within the next two years.

He did point out that officers are in favor of wearing the cameras, so it's not a labor union issue  holding things up.  Obviously body cameras would have come in handy last year at the Blarney Blowout.

Also coming in handy when things reach riotous proportions are "Crowd management tools, Protective Gear" aka riot gear.

The Chief told the JCPC that he was dropping the $9,500 request -- not because they are unneeded -- but because he found leftover money in another account to fund them.

The current generation of riot gear (both bulky and hot in the summer) was purchased back in the mid-1980s before anybody ever heard of Blarney Blowout and the excuse to day-drink and get riotous was called "Hobart Hoedown".

Officers only recently were fitted for the equipment so it will not be available this coming March 7.

Do I think they will need riot gear that day?  Well the weather is forecast to be sunny/clear but COLD so that's a BIG help.

Free Mullins Center Concert March 7 to keep students on campus

Plus the quad area of Townhouse Apartments -- ground zero for the gestation of riotous behavior -- is currently buried in snow, so that's a BIG help.

And even the recent regrettable publicity about an alleged "First Amendment" violation last year resulting in a federal lawsuit against APD will at least serve to remind everyone of what a lousy day Blarney was ... for EVERYBODY.

Although I do find it fascinating that Cowardly Anon Nitwits post drivel on the mobile app FADE publicly threatening my First Amendment rights:

At least I'm filed under "hot"

Photo is from an "event" I covered at Townhouse back on September 20

First Amendment Warrior

Calvin Terrell, Social Justice Warrior

Yes I did feel a bit like the school kid squealing to a higher authority about an altercation on the schoolyard that left you fuming, even a couple days later.

The Chair of the Regional School Committee, Trevor Baptiste, did not seem to initially understand my complaint with School Superintendent Maria Geryk.



Obviously she did not pay the woman to snatch my iPhone (last words, "no videotaping" is Maria Geryk) but she did give verbal commands -- before and after the incident -- declaring a ban on videotaping.

And the Superintendent did not seem overly concerned about the physical nature of the altercation brought on by her edict. 

To ban journalists from recording an event should always make you wonder:  what is it they don't want you to know?

Masslive reports (as usual Comments are the best) 

Flashback

That's What I'm Talking About!

Today's issue of Charlie Hebdo:  "All is forgiven"

Popular American wall poster 1970s

Cowards die 1,000 deaths, Heroes But 1

Stephane Charbonnier:
"I'd rather die standing up than live on my knees."

Honeypotted For A Good Cause

North Korea looms in the distance

Watching "The Interview" as a means of supporting the First Amendment is a lot easier than attending a counter rally to, say, the whacked out Westboro Baptist Church, or defending the free speech rights of a convicted felon to speak about his expensive sedition trial.

But still, not exactly Academy Award material.  

Of course the delicious karma of using the Internet as a main means of distributing the comedy only ads to the payback.

After all, the first shots fired in this free speech battle occurred in cyberspace with the anonymous hacking of Sony International Entertainment which provided material to bully and threaten them over releasing the movie.

And by extension threatening the rights of all Americans to choose what to see and when to see it.

If this entire back story saga were to someday become a Hollywood movie the target work being threatened would probably not be a comedy, and would no doubt take on a high brow issue like racism, sexism or some other noble cause.

The ending of the movie tries to have it both ways.  The fluffy entertainment "journalist" exposes Kim Jong-un as a tyrant with daddy issues who can't feed his people, and then lies about it via propaganda.

Rather than letting this "truth to power" live exposé bring him down, they still feel the need to take him out via a tank round.  Killing the revered leader of a sovereign nation -- even if the reverence is built on deception and fear -- is not overly funny material. 

Neither will be their response.

Touring the DMZ

Fanning The Flames

Opening Christmas Day.  What could go wrong?

"But you always risk offending people when you open people's eyes to the way the world is. Sometimes the truth is a bit unpalatable."  So said Peter Dale, the head of an entertainment company defending the release of a controversial film depicting the assassination of a sitting world leader.

No, he's not talking about the current controversial comedy depicting the North Korea leader Kim Jong Un's head exploding from a tank round.  Back in 2006 a British documentary style TV film, "Death of a President" showed a realistic assassination of our sitting President, George W. Bush.

So the concept of a fictional film showing a head of state suddenly sent into the afterlife in a rather gruesome manner, has been done before.  And the unprecedented horror of November 22, 1963 -- forever preserved in living color -- serve to remind us that truth is more powerful than fiction.

The attack on the First Amendment rights of Sony Entertainment to release movies as they see fit has taken an ominous turn with the cowardly terrorist threat to physically assault movie theaters showing the film.

Invoking 9/11 as a psychological weapon -- especially in broken English -- against the most sacred freedom we Americans enjoy, is doubly sacrilegious. 

I had not planned to see "The Interview" at the Hadley Cinemark, mainly because it's not the kind of movie I could attend with my kids.  Now, assuming they have the backbone to show it, I may see it twice. 

Sony cancels Christmas Day release

Privacy vs Free Speech

I always cringe when Massachusetts hastily passes a new law in reaction to a high profile event, such as the exceedingly good intentioned Domestic Abuse Law in response to Jared Remy murdering his girlfriend that now, unfortunately, forbids police was releasing names of perps arrested for domestic abuse.

Or the recent "upskirt" law criminalizing peeping toms who take surreptitious photos of women in public places.

According to the Governor's press release:  "The legislation makes the secret photographing, videotaping, or electronically surveiling of another person's sexual or other intimate parts, whether under or around a person's clothing or when a reasonable person would believe that the person's intimate parts would not be visible to the public, a crime."

Okay fair enough, no arguments there.

But I now wonder if that is the fledgling law UMass administrators are using to bully a freshman for tweeting a picture of a couple -- clearly anonymous, without "intimate parts" showing -- having sex in state subsidized housing on the campus of a state subsidized flagship of higher education?

Amherst College can do pretty much whatever they want in relation to the First Amendment because it doesn't apply to them, since they are not a "government" institution.  UMass/Amherst is, however, a state funded institution -- so the First Amendment clearly does apply.

Arguably our single most valuable freedom enjoyed as Americans.

If the young student who innocently tweeted that image-shattering photo (My God, 18 year old students actually have sex on a Thursday afternoon!) had instead published a photo of white Ferguson police officers combating black protesters, UMass Office of News & Media Relations would fall all over themselves championing her for standing up to authority.

Yes of course the First Amendment can indeed be, um, messy -- especially in this instantly publish Internet age.

Westboro Baptist Church @ UMass 4/16/14

I don't like the racist, homophobic signs carried by the attention seeking Westboro Baptist Church any more than you do.   But suppressing their rights today based on content, only means tomorrow it could be your message banned.

Fuck the censorship!

Too Many (Hair) Triggers?

 

"Sleepwalker," Wellesley College.  Photo courtesy theswellesleyreport.com

Last week during a Community Emergency Response Training class the instructor showed a five- minute dashcam video wherein a police officer perishes in the line of duty, right before your very eyes.

Before clicking play he informed us of the tragic outcome and asked if anyone wished to leave the room.  Nobody did.

I didn't think anything of it as the class was made up of 21 citizen volunteers from all walks of life including a few who are middle-school aged.  So his sincere offer to shield anyone who may be unduly traumatized by the clip struck me as common sense.

The video was indeed hard to watch, but drove home a vital safety lesson I don't think any of us will soon forget.

But I still wonder if rules and regulations need to be formerly enacted to ensure/mandate instructors -- especially college professors who are full-time professionals -- issue "trigger warnings" before making presentations. 

Academic freedom and the First Amendment aren't always pretty.  It's the price you pay for freedom, something we Americans take for granted.

Amherst, a "college town," already has enough problems with political correctness run amok.

Our High School was the only entity in history to cancel a performance of "West Side Story" due to alleged "racism."  And then, only five years later, became the only High School in the nation to allow minors to perform the decidedly R rated "Vagina Monologues," which uses the C-word as often as Valley Girls use the word "like."

Yet they now wonder why our high schools kids feel comfortable spouting the N-word.

Former Amherst Town Manager Larry Shaffer threatened to not issue a parade permit for the privately run July 4th Parade Committee because they would not allow anti-war protesters to march (or the Westboro Baptist Church had they applied).

Last week. to their credit, thousands of UMass students appeared at a rally to counter the Westboro Baptist Church picketing with their hateful signs.  But then a few hours later, some students shamefully heckled former Attorney General John Ashcroft trying to give a speech curtesy of the UMass Republican Club.

A few years ago five committee chairs sent a letter to the local District Attorney requesting an investigation of Amherst School Committee member Catherine Sanderson, concerned over the freewheeling discussion generated by her blog.

Last week on this blog, long time Amherst School Committee member Rick Hood (who formerly had his own blog) tried to stir up the trolls just so he could brand blogs as an electronic version of bathroom stall graffiti.

And we know in Amherst, town officials get overly excited about bathroom stall graffiti.

Interestingly Oberlin College, who seems to have started the hot potato rolling with a proposed passage in its Sexual Offense Resource Guide admits that, "anything can be a trigger."  Um, okay, then lets not discuss "anything."

Amherst Town Meeting starts tonight.  Perhaps before I give any of my usual, gasp, conservative minded (God, Mom, Apple Pie or the American Flag) speeches, I should issue a trigger warning.

Only in Amherst does common sense require such a preamble. 

Does God Hate "Fags"?

Westboro Trolls doing their thing

No, my Irish Catholic upbringing tells me God does not hate anyone -- even bigots looking for media attention.

By now you've probably heard the Westboro Baptist Church is coming to Amherst to hassle UMass basketball player Derrick Gordon, for his recent well received coming out.   Obviously they are simply looking for a reaction, which they will no doubt get.   

Of course the only way to deal with agitators looking for attention is to deny them what they want.  Easy for me to say.  

In fact I'm sure I will be accused of hypocrisy since I will be at the corner of Massachusetts and Commonwealth Ave on Wednesday afternoon camera in hand to cover the staged "event."  But I honestly hope nobody shows up from either side of the "controversy."

Recently a Cowardly Anon Nitwit left racist notes in bathrooms at Amherst Regional High School targeting a female teacher of color.  In left leaning Amherst, a guaranteed way to stir up controversy.  If you let it.

On a lesser scale the UMass Republicans are sponsoring John Ashcroft as a guest speaker Wednesday night.  And if that speech is disrupted like Karl Rove was last year, it will generate far more press than if the protesters stayed home and his speech droned on as scheduled.  And probably puts the audience to sleep.  

#UMassUnited plans to counter-protest the WBC with 2,200 folks having signed on as "going,"  out of 6,000 invited. Yikes!  The corner of Massachusetts and Commonwealth Ave are not designed for that large a standing crowd, so public safety becomes an issue. 

Maybe the Westboro Baptist Church will pray for the safety off all concerned.  Assuming they know how to pray.

Tu Parle Francais?

Well worn copies of Tintin at the Jones Library

So it turns out the only Jones Library copy of the most offensive entry in the "Tintin" series -- "Tintin In The Congo" -- is in french, so it is located in the foreign language section, and not with the other ones (pictured above) at the higher profile entryway to the Children's Room.

Of course when I asked to peruse "Tintin in the Congo, "  err, I mean "Tintin au Congo" it was, naturally, already taken out.  Not that I parle francais.

A really long-time Jones Library employee confirms the Tintin series has been available since she first arrived at the Jones back in 1972, and replacement copies have been ordered over the years (English versions of course) because they have worn out from avid readership.

Library Director Sharon Sharry also confirmed that the most recent written “request for reconsideration of library materials” filed by the concerned parents over Tintin was the first such formal request she has had in her 17-month tenure thus far at the Jones.

Back in 1996 a traveling photo exhibit "Love Makes A Family:  Living in Lesbian and Gay Families" sparked controversy in Amherst because some parents did not want their elementary school aged children exposed to it.

Although they were a tad vague as to what "it" was that children needed to be protected from.

The schools stood firm, the photo exhibit went on (probably to a much wider audience because of all the controversy) and our local civilization did not fall.  

Censorship is censorship. A doomsday device -- no matter which political persuasion employs it.

Freedom's Just Another Word

Washington Monument (still feeling the effects of an earthquake)

Screw the NSA!

Free Speech Is A 2 Way Street

I had never heard of -- let alone watched -- Duck Dynasty, until yesterday.  Now I've certainly heard of it.  But no, I'm not about to start watching.  Or start a subscription to GQ Magazine.

Since the punishment for voicing an opinion offensive to some is termination from a reality TV show that seems to have a h-u-g-e following, cries of censorship and infringement of the First Amendment are being bandied about.

Since the agency invoking the punishment (A&E Network) is not the government, the First Amendment simply does not apply.  But certainly free speech -- as in the freedom to speak your mind -- is being infringed upon, because Phil Robinson is being punished for exactly that: speaking his mind.

While I strongly disagree with his opinions about gays, I will defend to the death his right to be wrong.

Although I did agree with his follow up comment:  "However, I would never treat anyone with disrespect just because they are different from me.  We are all created by the Almighty and like Him I love all of humanity.  We would all be better off if we loved God and loved each other."

If a large number of people are offended by his "speech" and can no longer stand the sight of him, then ratings will crash like a duck shot out of the sky.  Then A & E can cancel the show for lousy ratings.

Five years ago a prominent member of the Amherst Select Board wanted to have me arrested for mentioning (with a photo no less) in my usual forthright manner her clear violation of the residency requirement for the highest elected position in town government.

Interestingly enough she was also the one who told then Town Manager Barry Del Castilho NOT to issue a parade permit for the July 4th Parade because the private parade committee had rules forbidding political statements of any kind.

Now that was a clear violation of the First Amendment, upheld by a 9-0 Supreme Court decision.

As my friends at the ACLU would say, the way to deal with bad speech is with more good speech, not censorship.

Twitter gets all fired up

"Many fans asked for my thoughts on the "Duck Dynasty" controversy. They pressed and pressed, but I refused to quack. But I can't duck this issue forever. I don't really care feather someone on a reality show said something about gays that didn't fit the bill. He's entitled to his opinion, even if it's for the birds. But the network also is worried about flocking with its base, so if it feels it should drake him over the coals for making his fowl comments, so be it. So that's migrate opinion."
--George Takei

A Casualty Of Confrontation

Stop The Retreat: A movement in the weeds

So for the Anons who questioned the combative headline in my first ever guest post (probably my last) in the war over "The Retreat" -- high end housing for college students, our #1 demographic -- I offer the following sad Facebook exchange:

Hey, if the national media can cite Facebook as attribution for an alleged 11-year-old's taunting of President Obama over the supposedly imminent attack on Syria, I don't feel bad using Facebook here. 

The Amherst Bulletin, obviously still clinging to its long retired role as supreme gatekeeper, allowed NIMBY opponent Jack Hirsch two columns attacking "The Retreat", the second one where he took on Mr. Grabbe by name.

When Mr. Grabbe asked editor Larry Parnass for the right to respond he was turned down because the editor-in-chief wanted to give Mr. Hirsch "the last word."

 

(outnumbered) Nick Grabbe invoking 1st Amendment rights at 7/29 Select Board meeting

Okay, fair enough (not really) I suppose -- except in this week's Bulletin they publish another attack on "The Retreat" and again Mr. Grabbe is mentioned by name, with an almost snarky like quality you expect to find on a blog rather than staid old fashioned print newspaper.

Yes as President Truman once observed the public arena can be an uncomfortably warm kitchen, but in Amherst it's more like one-room commercial pizza joint on a hot, humid late-August afternoon.

Amherst:  where even the h is silent.  And now you know why.

Bully For You!

Define "harassed"

So maybe school officials should go on a witch hunt to ferret out the other 20% who would not drop a dime on a harassment scenario and harass them into compliance. 

Do public officials really think these “social norms messages” suddenly turns outliers into conformists?  Or is it just something to do to make it appear they are doing something?

 And 28% of 27, 269 do not

Yes, I suppose they would argue it's not a sudden thing but a long term indoctrination starting as early in life as possible that makes the difference.

Kind of like the liberal mindset PC attitude that's so prevalent in the town of Amherst.

Government sponsored at every turn.

Occupy the Web!

First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Go Google! I was so startled by this, I forgot what I was going to search for.

There they go again

Town Meeting 5/16/11: Solar Farm wins resoundingly

This from the minutes of the June 6 Town Meeting Coordinating Committee meeting (which I missed, but had planned to go just for the photo op):

Photography at Town Meeting: Several non-TM people were conspicuously photographing during some sessions this year, including a Daily Hampshire Gazette photographer, a local blogger, and someone shooting in support of an academic paper. There was concern that these may have been distracting or intimidating to speakers. The committee discusses whether flash photography should be restricted, and whether photographers should be restricted to certain areas of the auditorium to prevent them from interfering with proceedings. The committee agrees to discuss this with the Moderator.

Of course you know who the "local blogger" was; and yes, I'm "non-TM" but did indeed toil almost twenty years in that aging institution. At one point, from my photographer perch, I almost had to revert back to my bar bouncer days to separate an obviously teed off Vince O'Connor from another member a few years older than Vince, who used a speech stopping 'Point of Order' to distract Mr. O'Connor (more so than my camera).

Vince O'Connor angry

But hey, at least I'm in good company with Carol Lollis otherwise known as "the Gazette photographer".

Now the Middle School Auditorium is, you know, rather l-a-r-g-e and town meeting members are many, and they do sprawl all over the place.

Can you imagine chaining a photographer to a single desk way off in a corner like they do the two reporters at a Select Board meeting? Obviously town meeting is a (occasionally major) public event and its members are, for that brief period, public officials.

Ironically Rockwell's revered illustration (especially by town meeting aficionados) for 'Freedom of Speech' used a local town meeting for inspiration as he captures a member speaking his mind in bucolic Arlington, Vermont during the war years.
But the First Amendment also holds equally sacred freedom of the press. Even more ironic that TMCC discusses these new restrictions on June 6th, a day many aging Americans pause to remember the ultimate sacrifice made by thousands of men who charged head long into harms way to defend these freedoms.

This photogenic dude spoke against the Solar Farm

Mary Streeter, TMCC member and owner of a town meeting listserve of 153 members--more than a quorum (a violation of Open Meeting Law if not for town meeting being exempt), uses an in-session photo on her website.

Free speech for all--even wackos

The Supreme Court, not surprisingly, ruled 8-1 in favor of the Westboro Baptist Church to spread vile, hateful, exceedingly painful messages by capitalizing on the tragic deaths of our military personnel, using solemn funerals to promote their obnoxious agenda in the same way perverts post disgusting graffiti on public bathroom stalls.

But the true measure of a great country is not by speech we cheerfully allow, it is by that infinitesimally tiny minority--where we need to hold our nose and then later take a shower for having heard or seen it.

The price we pay (cheaper than the alternative)

"...right of the people peaceably to assemble..."

Well we all know the Main Stream Media loves irony, and any hard news editor with ink still left in their veins probably lives by the journalistic credo "if it bleeds, it leads;" thus the horrific shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords by a deranged gunman on Saturday morning (she is shown here only a few days ago reading the First Amendment) is getting a lot of ink, or bandwidth as the case may be.

Unfortunately politicians and pundits like to use compelling stories ripped from the headlines to push their political agenda. So now we're hearing talk about toning down the political rhetoric (directed at those evil conservatives of course) that is poisoning the public debate.

Sounds to me like an assault on the First Amendment.

As the ACLU would say, "The best way to deal with bad speech is with more, good speech--not censorship!" The First Amendment can--like life in the real world--be a tad rough around the edges.

But I find the thought of more government infringement far more nightmarish, as I envision the government's muzzle dangling over me like the Sword of Damocles.

Or perhaps it's a hangman's noose.

Bernie Goldberg agrees
###########################################

They came first for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up.

And yes, it did not escape me or others in the MSM that one of the innocent victims--nine year old Christina Green (and my daughter Kira is nine)--was born on 9/11/01.

Let's hear it for USA Today, they know how to liveblog a press conference:

Update at 1:17 p.m. ET: "The ubiquitous nature of the Internet means ... hateful speech more readily available than 10-15 years ago. That absolutely represents a challenge to us," Mueller said. He said the FBI is still doing an analysis of computers seized in the search.

Too bad Mr Mueller did not do his job in the months leading up to 9/11...

(For those of you new to my blog--and Google Analytics tells me that 23% per day are--click the Tag Label below "First Amendment" for previous diatribes.)