My Challenge To Occupy Wall Street

Hey I get it. Occupy Wall Street I heard your message loud and clear.  In fact I am still hearing it everyday what, its been about two long months now.  In many ways I support your efforts and I praise your vision for the future.  However the sad reality is that I live and work in New York City and outside of news programs using you to build their ratings, I am not actually feeling your impact locally where it counts.

So my question is at the end of the day how effective are you being really?  What are you actually accomplishing to bring about true change in the global economic market?  Are you really making an impact where it counts?  Are you as a group nationwide and globally actually causing change in current economic policies within both  financial organizations and government? Or are you nothing more than disorganized social misfits whose only purpose is to occupy jail cells, burn up public resources and fill court dockets.

What is the grand plan here?  How will you enact actually change? What is your time line? And what are the immediate steps that can be taken to change the lack of effectiveness that has been showcased over the pass couple of months.  Sure you manage to piss off a few bankers, get your faces and often ridiculous agendas splashed on tv and thus far have gotten your heads bashed and teeth kicked in by cops who seem more than happy to do so. 

Now don’t get pissed just yet, I promise it gets better so gather your tissues and read on because the truth can be painful. However once you face reality and accept your short comings then regroup and come up with an effective plan, the tears do go away.

So here we go maybe some suggestions!  Get rid of the slackers who really don’t give a damn about any actual cause until you can properly educate them, all they do is make the cops happy and provided them with a fun way to work off the donuts.  It is time to face it you are making some cop really happy because instead of having to chase down some drug dealing punk who just might kick their asses or worse, they get to dress up in sexy helmets and legally stick a night stick up someone’s ass. Plus come on you actually helping the criminal element within the community who never worked or care to work in the first place.  See here’s a little secret you might not know, Police departments have been stretched to the limit in recent years because of ridiculous cutbacks and budgets short falls.  What  that means is that some neighborhoods that were short on cops to begin with have even less in the pass couple months patrol and protect innocent citizens.  

I had the opportunity to visit a police precinct in Brooklyn, NY on Thursday night this pass week, and guess what?  People were actually being told that they were no cops available to assist them at the moment, no one to call, short of major emergencies.  One gentleman went to a friend’s apartment and saw blood on the door, he called 911 but cops didn’t show up, so he took it upon himself to walk to the precinct to express concern for his friend’s well being.  The officer at the desk told him they was no one available to call, his best bet would be to go back to the block wait until he sees passing cops to stop and  ask them to accompany him to check on his friend.  Can you believe that crap?

If I got this correct, my understanding is that you wanted to bring about positive change.  To  ensure that there is financial stability now and in the future.  In essence Occupy Wall Street want  jobs now and in the future.  Great that is absolutely wonderful.  However let us face a bit of reality here, the job market as we knew it is for ever changed.  With the advancement of technology alone thousands of jobs have been eliminate and those jobs just not coming back.  After all why pay individual thousands upon thousands of dollars a year to do something a machine can do at a fraction of the cost.  In the book The Four Day Work Week by Tim Ferris he there is something that said “the factory of the future will have two employees a man and a dog.  The man will be there to make sure the machines are doing what they are suppose to do and the dog will be there to make sure the man is doing what he is suppose to be doing.”

Hate to actually say it but I wonder how much the dog is being paid and is he getting direct deposit? Sorry couldn’t help myself there.  Yes I know there is nothing funny about the number of people who are out of work and will continue to loose their jobs.  My intent was never to make lite of that situation.  However I wanted to piss some readers off hoping that by God it would wake them up to the pointlessness of Occupy Wall Street’s current plan of action. 

Here is what  I see when I look at you Occupy.  And mind you I am  an individual who actually agree with the intended end goal.  However the methods and plans being used to accomplish said goal will never freaking work.  Open up your eyes and face some stone cold freaking reality.  The rich and powerful, the individuals who actually have their hands on the pulse of our global economic markets don’t give a damn about jobs being lost.  The only thing they care about when it is all said and done is the bottom line, people.  How can they produce the most profits with the least amount of expenses, and when it is all done and said the most costly resource companies have is human.  And if two or four jobs can be folded under one job description and it doesn’t effects the companies ability to generate profits then so be it. Stone Cold Reality. It Ain’t Changing? Unless!

Now with that said can any effort organized as Occupy Wall Street currently is, enact any kind of change?  Hell no.  Now for all of you out of control, just holding on to sanity, chomping at the bits to do something dumb, violence is never a step forward and it never will be.  The fact remain that they have bigger guns and more resources than you can ever hope to combat and if you go and piss the wrong people off, I hope you have a better plan that Saddam and Osama  because you are going to get your asses handed to you in a hand basket like it was thanksgiving.  So get any stupid ass ideas out of your head and use the brain God gave you, after all the most powerful weapon is uniting powerful ideas and finding the right individuals to successfully execute them.  

Occupy Wall Street your presence isn’t felt in my community, not in my local churches, not in my local community organizations, not on my block nor in my local shops or restaurants.  I don’t see you at local political events having your presence felt allowing voters to clearly understand your united agenda.  I don’t see you outside of schools talking to and educating young people and their parents about how these issues will directly effect them in years to come.  I don’t see you  with a plan on how to incorporate these young people into your message and putting them in the forefront.  

I do not see you organizing into effective groups locally to first build up firm well trained groups. Groups trained to cause peaceful but effective well  targeted  disruptions.  How do you get the attention of the wealthy?  You stop spending money at they places of business and  support local mom and pap stores.   Just a few ideas I found somewhere or the other on the internet so please don’t give me the credit.  Seriously, we are Americans when did we get away from the spirit of combining our efforts and doing for ourselves.  We see the signs, we see where things are going yet still you get together to talk about the problem which is fine or to get into shouting matches with people who are actually doing  something.  There are literally thousands of you out there, if you can organized this half ass effort that in all fairness has gotten you more than enough attention globally, then why can’t you get it together, create and build.  Build and compete against these greedy bastards who would have you believe that the way things are going will be somehow better for the economy in the long run. These greedy bastard who have the nerve to spend million on leisure while their employees live pay check to pay check and stress about whether or not they will have jobs in six months.

Occupy Wall Street stop listening to these news organization who would have you believe that you are actually accomplishing more than mayhem. Sure they will put your pretty messy faces on tv doing dumb stuff like running face first into  police boots,  just to see if your face can somehow make a dent.  Keep believing the hype and all I can do is affectionately refer to you as my crushed face dumb asses. My goodness if you are going to be on TV the least you can do is run in boot to boot, It’s becoming ridiculous now, I can just imagine some fat guy on the sixtieth floor sitting in his high back leather chair having one hell of a chuckle at your expense, with his friends in the corporate offices of these very same news organizations.  Did you somehow forget that the very same news organization spreading the wonderful news of your successes just happens to be owed by some of the same individual you are fighting against.  No not the fat cops that were standing on your faces on last night’s ABC Nightly News but the guys who actually owes ABC. Suspicious now ain’t it?

Can You Expect To Have A Happy Marriage When You Prostitute Yourself For Worthless Gain

People are amazing at playing the victim you ever realize this.   It always amaze me how someone can run around blaming the whole world for their problems but never stop to consider, hey you know what my actions may be contributing to my problems.

There is a very bad track record in this world for sometime now.   It seems talent replaces personal responsibility.  She can sing well so her activities outside singing doesn’t count.  Our he is a great actor so the problem must be with his spouse.  Didn’t the Chris Brown incident teach us anything?

Here is a situation I’ll like you input on it.  A somewhat talented singer who marries a regular guy because she became pregnant.  They go on to have other children because neither one of them want to be out there having kids from different people.   Now some three months after their first born is delivered he discovered a message of her giving up herself to a married man for a piece of musical equipment that she and her husband could both afford.  Now her husband confronts her and she refuses to return the microphone.

Now this woman probably has more money in the bank that the married man does, however she is prostituting herself.  Now her husband like an idiot decides that for the child’s sake and because of religious believes he doesn’t want more than one baby momma.

Kim Kardashian Two Surgeries Away From Looking Like Lil Kim Crossed With Snooki

It’s so sad to see someone with an addiction not be able to recognized that they have a problem. What make Kim’s Kardashian’s situation even worse is the fact that she actually believe she is improving her looks.  Unfortunately Kim, it’s too late even if you do come to the point of realizing and accepting that you have an addiction, the damage is already done.  You my dear are a couple surgeries away from looking like a cross between Lil Kim and Snooki from the Jersey Shore.

Kim Kardashian, part Lil Kim, part Snooki, Part Goat

And people wonder why Reggie Bush who by all accounts and appearances seem to be a normal individual, would dump her.  Anyone as self involved, shallow and vain as Kim Kardashian would never be a serious candidate for wife by anyone as grounded and normal as Reggie Bush.

It’s simple people the excitement wore off and the unavoidable reality of what and who Kim really is finally hit home and thank God Reggie did what any other smart man should do, ran for the hills and got away from the life of hell a marriage to Kim Kardashian would have been.

Kim Kardashian just look at her face in this shot

Cheers! Reggie, it’s nice to see that some young men still have their heads on.  You ducked a major bullet, there is no way a healthy, self assured individual would choose to continue to disfigure themselves in such a way.

T.O Bashing What The Media Will Do This Season

I am starting to wonder if the shift in the way sports reporting is done today is due to a conscious decision by ownership to switch to a more entertainment style of reporting.

Or if the shift was made because Americans have gone mad for the shallow and opinionated entertainment style of news instead of hard hitting factual news.

What ever the reason it is painful and upsetting to listen to or read sports news these days. The endless empty speculation about what players will do off the field this coming football season. The repeat efforts by seasoned sports reporters to paint a negative image on certain players. The continuous effort to turn mole hill incidents into mountains because it is more entertaining, leave me with a sense of desperation and sadness because the American public seem to have become content with this type of sports reporting.

Some Streets In New York City Just Became A Bit Safer For Criminals

Let’s give a round of applause to Mayor Mike Bloomberg and the NYPD for this one.   I am married to a now retired NYPD Officer and over the years have met and become quite close to a few black and Hispanic Police Officers.  Over the years I have personally witnessed some of them stopping crimes while off duty.  In one such case there was an incident on a NYC transit bus and as we were about to drive pass the bus we noticed the emergency sign to call 911.

The black off duty Police Officer I was riding with asked me to call 911 and tell them that a black off duty male officer was on the scene and to make sure to tell the operator to inform responding Officers that he was on the scene.   Another situation I witnessed was while my wife, a fellow officer, family, friends and I were heading to church one morning, two cars turned onto the block at a high rate of speed.  One pulled over after the other cut in front of it, the driver and passenger from the car that cut in front jumped out and started to approach the second car with tire iron and knife in hand.  My wife and the fellow off duty officer who happened to be carrying his off duty weapon responded and made the initial arrests.

Bloomberg to NYPD Nothing Has Changed, “Keep Shooting to Murder.”

Mayor Mike Bloomberg has shown his true colors, this weekend he got quite upset at Rep. Charlie Rangel who cracked a joke that “even Obama shouldn’t run through Harlem without making sure he is properly identified.”    Sad to say but so true.  In fact I would go one further and suggest President Obama never run through any of New York City’s street ever, whether he is properly identified or not because at the rate black men are gunned down in New York by white New York City Police Officers without penalty is astronomical indeed.  And it might just provide the perfect opportunity for Obama opponents to get rid of him without having to wait another eight years. I could just hear the explanations now.  He fit the description of a mugger we were looking for or we though the bulge in his pants was a swinging gun.

Come on the fact that Mayor Bloomberg would be so sensitive about such a joke speaks volumes of his own outlook on the crisis minority men, Police Officers included are facing on the streets of New York City.   If you are lost please allow me to spell it out for you, over the past 20 years countless unarmed minority civilian men and armed off duty minority Police Officers have been gunned down by white on duty Police Officers, resulting in none of the Police Officers being convicted for taking innocent lives.

Over the course of the last twenty years the black community keeps hearing about changes being made to New York City Police procedures and sensitivity training being provided to the entire Police Department; yet still nothing has changed.   And unfortunately these crimes will continue to happen because it has much less to do with the training being provided than it has to do with the culture and mentality that is fostered among white Police Offficers, and allowed to remain in existence by City Hall and Department leadership.   Until that culture and bias is weeded out then these murders will continue to happen.

It may be hard to hear and accept but that does not mean it isn’t real and justified.  The fact is that white Police Officers within the New York Police Department and especially within their Anti Crime units have a all encompassing attitude towards minority men period.  An attitude or belief  that creates an unwillingness to acknowledge that they are innocent, God fearing, hard working men within our communities.  Yes they are criminals within the community who are armed and willing to do harm to others, however the Police Department’s own statistics will show the number of armed minority men they encounter on a daily basis when one considers the amount of stop and frisk done by Police.

Furthermore when one considers the number of minority men killed who turned out to be unarmed,  or the number of armed minority men killed who turned out to Police Officers in the course of trying to apprehend criminals, compared to those who were justifiably shot; then the numbers will  tell the story clearer than I ever could.

Considering the number of shots fired at these individuals then one can reason that the Police Officers’ intent is not to wound and apprehend but to shot and kill; there is clearly a them or me attitude prevalent among white Police Officers when it come to their interactions with minority men.

Another Officer Gunned Down By One Of His Own

How many times must this be repeated, especially in New York City before something is done. When will minority Police Officers be safe from so called friendly fire.  A more important question to ask is why is this happening only to minority Police Officers?  Are minority Police Officers the only Officers responding to criminal activities while off duty?

Black NYPD Off Duty Police Office Shot Dead By White Police Officer

If not, then are minority off duty Police Officers the only officers encountering on duty Officers, in the process of trying to apprehend criminals?  If not, then are minority off duty Police Officers the only officers encountering on duty Officers of another race while in the process of trying to apprehend criminals?

CNN Got Punked

Just in case you have been in a cave or something, Ashton Kutcher has won the online popularity Contest between him and CNN News Network.

Ashton bravely posed a challenge to CNN Network to see who could get to 1 Million Twitter Follower the first. READ MORE

August Town A Lesson In Overcoming Odds

Here is a song that is truly wonderful. For me this sound reminds one that when things get tough there is always someplace to turn. So many of us find ourselves in tough situations and because of the pressure and feelings of despair, we often times give up all hope; and in doing so make a tough situation worse by making bad decisions. READ MORE

Just Like 9/11. Will We Ever Learn

I remember the days after the first attack on the World Trade Center when terrorist set off a bomb under one of the buildings which ultimately failed to bring the building down.  The days that followed the media was all over it, and that in it’s self was fine,  it was a great feeling knowing that those terrorists were unable to succeed at their evil plot and we had a right to rub it into there noses some.

However as always the media took things to a whole other level and went completely overboard, they became over zealous in their efforts.  Infact no, not over zealous their decided to disregard good judgment and common sense and instead decided to bleed this unfortunate situation for all it was worth in viewership, market share and advertising dollars.   Some brite executive producers at various networks decided to bring on experts to discuss why the terrorists were unable to bring the building down.  These experts went as far as to discuss specific things in the building’s structural design that prevented it from falling.  One idot even went as far as to tell the terrorists exactly what it would take to bring the buildings down.  Guess what was his suggestions?  Yup you got it he explained that it would take an attack from above or extreme heat to make the building’s structure vulnerable.

Now here we are more than a decade later and the media and so called experts still haven’t learned their lesson.  The rescue of captain Richard Phillips by U.S Navy Seals is a wonderful story for all Americans to be proud of.  It was a solid lesson to pirates and any organization that would consider attacking American interest, that we will fight back.  And I for one was happy to see the coverage on the News, at least initially; after a while I started to groan and shake my head.  When will the irresponsible idiots learn?

It is one thing to celebrate the rescue and to congratulate those who were responsible; however when the media start reporting as though the killing of those pirates somehow ended any possibility for future hijackings, or as though that one operation somehow put the fear of God into the pirates then that doesn’t help other ship crews out there on the waters.  In fact that kind of reporting only places those crews in more danger because now it becomes a thing of wounded pride for these pirates and gives them motivation to prove something.   Then the ultimate over kill was the exploration of the Navy Seal’s training which lead the the successful rescue, thank goodness that the Navy’s chain of command was smart enough to keep somethings close to the vest.  However the anonymous sources who have been leaking information to the media should be investigated, identities found and prosecuted to the extent on the law.