It just keep getting more insane

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/election/bloomberg-detail-offered-stay-guards-article-1.1509834

http://nypost.com/2013/11/07/bloomberg-giving-nypd-bodyguards-jobs-to-keep-their-mouths-shut/

Yesterday we heard (as if we didn’t already expect it ) that OUR police commissioner would soon be working for one of the biggest corporations in the world. One that was directly responsible for the financial meltdown that 90 percent of the world is still trying (after 7 years) to get over.
Now we have more proof of the insidious nature of those who WE entrust and believe to be looking out for the best interests of ALL of us. OUR mayor (Emperor) is going to pay the police (police who have been paid in excess of 100,000 dollars a year for the past few years) six figure salaries (on top of there 6 figure pensions – which we will pay for the rest of there lives) to “Retire” from the NYPD and work (protect him and his secrets) for him.
Lets not forget that OUR police commissioner will also get a “security detail” ( more cops, paid by us. to chauffeur and baby sit) when he leaves his position as commissioner. This despite the fact that he will be going to “work” for one of the richest corporations in the world, as a “security expert”. Why does he need US to pay many hundreds of thousands a year (for more years than anyone has an idea), if he’s such and expert (working for such a wealthy corporation)??

What will it take to wake everyone up?

Who’s Crazy???

Law enforcement officer’s can get away with cold blooded murder

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/nypd-custody-fatal-shooting-subway-station-29548411

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/retired-jailer-blasted-subway-harasser-released-cops-article-1.2145831

We have a real problem in this City/State/Country and gun control is a part of it.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m all for gun control, or any law that is for the good of all, but any law that is written for the sole purpose of denying rights to just some people (while allowing others to do as they please) is a joke. Take your pick – Gun control, Taxes, Medical insurance, etc.. etc.. etc.
This country is, very quickly, becoming fascist. A place where laws are written for the sake of creating revenues for the rich and for oppressing the poor and working class. And the worst part is that we are allowing those in control to divide us along racial lines. The real problem is that we have class war fare. The rich and those who are privileged to work for and protect them against everyone else (mostly minorities – but not exclusively)

I’m sorry to say – The racial antagonists are just another puppet in this game. This incident os a perfect example.
Simple facts : A very large man gets into a scuffle on the train with 2 smaller (drunk) men). They exit and he follows them. Pulling out a gun and loading a clip into it as he follows them. He corners one of the men at the exit and shoves him. The smaller man pushes back and that’s when the bigger man shoots him (fatally).

Under normal circumstances and in a civil world the shooter would be in jail facing murder charges.
But not in this instance. Not In a state that has the toughest gun control laws in the world – Except if your rich or in law enforcement (?) or even retired “law enforcement” (?)
Not in a City that is turned upside down when/if a black man is shot by a white man.

Now some details:
The shooter is a retired Corrections officer.
He is Black and the victims are white.

The second detail is trivial (in the big picture) except that it explains why there is no outrage.
The first detail is the more telling, and disturbing.
The shooter has not been charged and was allowed to go home. Meanwhile the friend of the victim has been charged with assault and menacing.
WTF???

Read more: http://scallywagandvagabond.com/2015/03/vigilante-justice-retired-corrections-officer-fatally-shoots-subway-rider-after-altercation/#ixzz3U8EaPvH1

Read more: http://scallywagandvagabond.com/2015/03/vigilante-justice-retired-corrections-officer-fatally-shoots-subway-rider-after-altercation/#ixzz3U8EGwbEd

Other passengers ran off the train as the scuffle spilled onto the platform, and the correction officer put a clip in the gun.

That old man wasn’t having it. He loaded the clip all calm and collected and went right for those boys. He was done. Pure chaos.’

Cops wanna make felons out of all working class slobs

With little to no notice or regard for us – Our City and State legislators are in discussions to try to make it a Felony to “resist arrest”.

As just one example – See:
Please don’t take this lightly. Consider the realities of this. The facts:
1 – Many “minor” violations result in an “additional” charge of “resisting arrest”.
Usually (and this has been proven – time and again) to “cover up” for the over zealous (and many times – illegal) acts of the arresting officer’s
2 – The simple act of ASKING “Why am I being arrested?” can and is often used as reason for a charge of “Resiting arrest”.
3 – A felony conviction has been proven to destroy many peoples lives.
You are not allowed to vote, get certain licenses or do many things that most “normal” people do.
Your credit, work and housing prospects are all damaged or totally destroyed.
4 – Every where you go and everything you do is put under a suspicious and biased microscope.
5 – Basically – You are “branded”, for life and have little (to no) chance of living a normal life.
All of this for simply doing what is at the very core of what this country was built on.
Questioning Authority!
How would you feel if your mother, brother, sister, father, son or daughter’r life was totally destroyed because he/she did something as simple as walk on the wrong side of the street.
Destroyed, not by a freak accident but by those who we pay to protect and look out for us.
Don’t laugh – It could/will happen, if we (all of us) don’t do something.
Something to turn the tide, To stop us all from being “sheep led to slaughter”.
We are heading down a very scary and slippery slope.
One that I never thought I’d see in this City/State/Country.
Please think about this:
We have allowed the powers that be (our elected and those who we pay to “properly and fairly” enforce the laws of this land) to criminalize every small and inconsequential thing that is done by some of most harmless, weak and (dare I say) innocent, people in our society. This while we are told that they (the powers that be) are helpless to do ANYTHING to bring justice to the people responsible for the biggest (and most damaging) crimes in the last century (The, outright, theft of 40 percent of the worlds wealth).
This (the act of criminalizing simple violations by “common” folk while doing nothing to large scale and insidious crimes) is nothing more than the selective criminalization (and segregation) of our society.

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150208/19042629954/more-power-bad-cops-nypd-head-supports-raising-resisting-arrest-to-felony.shtml

http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/paramilitary-force-alert-nypd-commissioner-bratton-supports-making-resisting-arrest-a-felony/19144-paramilitary-force-alert-nypd-commissioner-bratton-supports-making-resisting-arrest-a-felony#14237956450161&action=collapse_widget&id=3967805

 

Useless Legislation

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/nypd-commissioner-bratton-tells-city-council-back-article-1.2010616

I’d like to thank our legislators for wasting their time and our money to write legislation that does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

Please bare with me as I start with a short (but true) story. You may thank me – In the end!

A few years ago, my daughter came home from middle school and told me that she had to leave any items of value at home the next day. I asked why and she said that “The principle said the Police were going to search us all before we go into school tomorrow”.
I said “WHAT!!!!…. Did anyone send home any information or request for this illegal search?”
The next day I walked to school with my daughter – To find out about this “search”.
The Principle was standing outside. I went directly to him and asked what was going on.
He said “Nothing… The police said they were going to be here, to search everyone, today but they aren’t…They may decide to come on another day.”
I asked him if he had asked for or gotten permission, from anyone, to allow the police to search minors.
He said (very seriously) “What for… We just do what they tell us…”
I went ballistic. I asked him if he knew anything about Our Constitution. He assured me that he did.
I said “Then you should know that it’s against the law to search someone without a warrant or GOOD cause..”
He looked me straight in the eye and said: “You don’t know what you’re talking about.. The police know, better than you and me, what the laws are… We are obligated to do what they tell us!”

This was not the first time that I’ve heard such ignorance from a person who (one would expect) should know better. In fact I’ve been told (Hundreds of time) by various people (claiming to be in “authority” or “well educated”) that “It’s against the law to NOT carry identification with you at all time…” and “When you are stopped by a cop – You have to give him ID or do whatever he asks or you’ll be arrested”
These are ALL against the law (OUR Constitution) – Yet they are all being taught (in various ways) to everyone in this City and Country.

Today (and yesterday) I read various articles about how our Legislators in the City Council have crafted bills and are proposing legislation that would:
a – Make choke holds illegal
b – Make it illegal for a cop to search someone without first getting a warrant or permission.

and 

c – make it illegal to talk on your cell phone while riding a bike. (I’ve lost count  of how many times I’ve seen cops speed through red lights – with no sirens or flashing lights – while talking on their cell phones)

All of this, so-called, legislation shows how useless most legislation (and legislators) is/are.

To be clear – I’m all for having everyone know their rights. But why do we have to pass more legislation that basically tells the Police (the people who are supposed to be looking out for OUR rights) that they can’t break the law while claiming to “enforce” it.

If I were to put someone in a chokehold. I’d be arrested and charged with assault. God forbid I put a cop in a chokehold – I’d never see the light of day.

So why do we have to make more (different) laws for when the police (and other, select, few) break the same laws that are already on the books?

That’s the real problem. We have 2 sets of laws. One for the common folk and one for the elite (That includes civil servants, elected and appointed and the wealthy and/or well connected).


It’s already against the law to assault or kill someone, to stop, search, ask for ID or frisk anyone in this country.
It’s all quite clearly written in OUR Constitution. 

In fact – We have already wasted too many millions of the tax payers dollars to have the courts tell us how unconstitutional these things (like stop and frisk, etc) are.


Instead of just enforcing (and teaching) the laws that are already on the books, we now pay legislators to pontificate and fabricate new legislation that will do NOTHING more than what the old laws were put in place to do. We have more laws in this country / City than anyone could imagine. Yet every time “something” happens, or someone wants to get more votes, or make believe they are doing something for those who pay their salaries (or – mostly – just to create more revenue), the answer is always to “pass a new law”.
Someone gets shot – More gun control laws. Even though it was already against the law.
A child is abused – More child abuse laws. Even though it was already against the law.
Some one crosses the street, against the light, and gets hit by a car – More laws and more tickets for everyone.
You name it – there is not a law (that was written with clear intent- in the first place) that has not been re-written (at further expense, to the tax payers) after the violation of that law was ALLOWED until it resulted in some outcry for “change”.

Lets be perfectly clear on one point. This, so-called, legislation does NOTHING to further protect us from unwarranted search’s. In fact – It still leave’s the police with the ultimate “discretion” to decide (dictate) the circumstance of any search. They still have the right to “claim” that they had “probable cause” (which we all know – has been lied about, in many instances). Just like when they shoot an innocent person and then “claim” that they “Thought he/she had a weapon”. There should be legislation banning these false claims (there is but it’s never enforced, cause some people are above “The Law”).

The bottom line here is this:
Until we, as a society, start to teach our children and everyone  (Most importantly OUR police) our laws (Including OUR Constitution) and the proper use of them, we are wasting precious time and money.

I wonder how many of our legislators (let alone our police) know, understand and live by the words of OUR Constitution?

The laws are already there, to protect us. It’s time that those who are supposed to know and enforce them (for OUR best interests) started understanding them and living by the same laws as the rest of us. It’s time that Everyone (including our elected and appointed and any other’s who have been living by different rules) is treated equally under the laws.

No one is above the law. 

Instead of passing legislation, that does nothing but waste our money and time – How about making sure that EVERYONE is better educated about the laws that we already have; and in things that really matter in this world and our Country/City?!?!

And that EVERYONE is treated equally by these same laws.

Eric Garner’s murder – It has to end!

http://gothamist.com/2014/07/22/chokehold_what_chokehold.php

The NYPD (and even the mayor) are already trying to cover up and justify this, blatant murder of a man “accused” of selling 50 cent cigarettes. Think about that for a minute!!! When was the last time you saw or heard of a cop using ANY kind of force to arrest someone like say Jamie Diamond or Lloyd Blankenfield? Who has done more to hurt more people in this world? Eric Garner or the likes of  Lloyd Blankenfield?? These people have been directly responsible for the abuse, suffering and even deaths of millions of people. Eric Garner was “accused” of selling cigarettes for 50 cents a piece.  Just like Occupy Wall Street, the police have shown us who it is that they “Serve and Protect”.

Some will paint this a racial issue. I won’t go there. That’s what “the powers that be”, love. To divide and conquer. The reality is that its nothing more than class warfare. I have seen many Black Cops do the same to other black men. And even white cops to white men. The one common denominator is NOT Race. It’s the station on the totem pole that the “accused” “perp” finds him (or her) self in. They are always Middle to lower-income, working class, or poor people. Unfortunately many people who fall into those categories are black. BUT – Not all. Like I said – It’s not racial as much as a continued acceleration of the class warfare that has gripped this country for the past decade (or more). The police have become nothing more than the enforcers for a select few. Most of them (the police) don’t even realize it. They think they are doing their job. The problem is who is dictating to them what “their job” is.  We would like to think that we (the people) make those decisions. At one time it might have been. Not anymore. If we (the people – The real majority) were really dictating policy, their would be such incidents. Or, at least, not quite as many as we have seen in the past. Does anyone believe that the majority of the people in this city (or country ) want our police to be arresting people who sell cigarettes for 50 cents a piece? Don’t get me wrong – I’m sure we all want our police to enforce the laws. My neighbors and I have had many incidents what we have begged the police to “Just enforce the law”. Even for minor infraction that they witnessed because the same “perps” were committing more serious infractions, that weren’t being seen and addressed by OUR police. In the end it all comes down to who is doing the asking. If a politician member of the press or high society or anyone who is wealthy and/or well connected asks, they will get what they ask for. The rest of us just pay the price. How many millions of people lost there life savings and/or homes to bank fraud or insider trading, or any of the many scams used by multi-billion dollar corporations to steal from us?  If we (the majority) were dictating policy,  the police would be putting the people responsible for these abuses in chokeholds. Not people like Eric Garner.  There you have all the proof , that you could possibly need, of  who is dictating police policies.

It has to end.

If not – We are in all (even those who think it won’t affect them)  in deep trouble!

 

Security (?) at Brooklyn Bridge (and everywhere) is joke.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/american-flags-stolen-atop-brooklyn-bridge-cops-article-1.1875673

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/dna-flag-brooklyn-bridge-vandals-article-1.1879501

It seems that a bunch of kids swapped out the American flags for white flags on both of the towers of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Lets be honest! How many of you have gone across the Brooklyn Bridge  and seen the parked police car – that’s running with the AC (or heat) on at full blast – taking up a whole lane of traffic, with a cop sleeping in it?  Or on the phone or texting  ? How many of you have thought to yourself  – “What a fucking waste???”

This incident proves what so many people know (but won’t admit). The reality is that, just like most of what they try to sell us as “security measures” is nothing more than  A WASTE.

They spend billions on these security measures and then this. Now they will spend many millions more to “Investigate” and then “Increase security”.

Let’s talk about that “Investigation”. They will now (and are already doing so) spend huge amounts of money (OUR money) and man power to “Find those responsible”. The ones that are “responsible” and should be brought to justice are the ones who have taken OUR money and done nothing to properly protect us. Does anyone of us really care,  or want to see a bunch of kids get arrested and “Prosecuted to the max”  for doing what foolish kids do? For showing us what fools we are? Do WE (the ones paying for all of this) really want OUR police (“Those responsible”) to waste any more of  OUR money? To do nothing more than cover up for their own incompetence!!

 

Cops Break his ankle for shop lifting

http://nypost.com/2014/07/17/crook-wins-suit-against-nypd-for-broken-ankle-during-arrest/

As usual – The article makes it sound like this poor slob made out like a bandit, but the reality is he was totally justified to get the settlement. Don’t the cops (OUR police) have anything better to do?

I want to hear/read that cops broke the ankles of one of the many multi- billionaires that have destroyed the lives of many. Until that happens – All I can say is: “When will we wake up??”

Blaming mental Illness for the crimes of those in control.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/untreated-mental-illness-an-imminent-danger-2/

Take a look at the 12th minute of this episode. While I agree with much of what they are trying to say (about our lack of proper care for the mentally ill) it’s obvious (to me – at least) that they are missing the boat and trying to deflect from the real issues (as usual). They say that people are arrested  and jailed as many as 400 times for PETTY crimes. Petty theft, trespass etc .

Many people (as stated in the show) are getting arrested/jailed for trying to get food or shelter. Then they are being put in jail with other “Real” criminals or mentally ill people and then being “labeled” (in this show and elsewhere)  as “Mentally ill”.

I want to know (as should everyone else) – What is mentally ill (or a crime) with trying to get food and shelter??? Espcially when one considers the fact that web ave multi billionaires who, regularly, steal, and cause the deaths of many. Simply for the sake of their greed!! When will start to put them in jail and “label” them as criminals or “mentally ill”?  That is the question that the puppets in our press should be asking!

Who’s Crazy!

Here is a printed version – See the bold near the end :

The following script is from “Imminent Danger” which aired on Sept. 29, 2013, and was rebroadcast on June 8, 2014. The correspondent is Steve Kroft. Producers Graham Messick and Coleman Cowan.

The past several weeks have seen another deadly outbreak of mass shootings by lone gunmen in their 20’s on or near college campuses, part of an epidemic of senseless violence that’s now occurring on a regular basis.

It’s become harder and harder to ignore the fact that the majority of the people pulling the triggers have turned out to be severely mentally ill, not in control of their faculties, and not receiving treatment. In the words of one of the country’s top psychiatrists, these were preventable tragedies, symptoms of a failed mental health system that’s prohibited from intervening until a judge determines that someone presents an “imminent danger to themself or others.”

And as we first reported last fall, the consequence is a society that’s neglected millions of seriously ill people hidden in plain sight on the streets of our cities, or locked away in prisons or jails.

 

There is something eerily similar about the shooters, as if they were variations of the same person. All young males, often with the same glazed expression, loners who exhibited bizarre behavior, and withdrew into their own troubled world. They’re often portrayed as villains. But Dr. E. Fuller Torrey says their deeds have much more to do with sickness and health than good and evil.Dr. Torrey: Every person I’ve taken care of, and I’ve taken care of several hundred of these people, had a very good reason for doing what looked to be crazy behavior. But in their mind, it wasn’t crazy behavior. It was in response to something that was very logical, that their voices were telling them, or that their delusions were telling them.

Dr. Torrey is one of the most famous psychiatrists in the country, an expert on severe mental illness, and a staunch critic of the way the country deals with it.

Steve Kroft: How much of these terrible incidents that we’ve had, these mass shootings, is traceable to deficiencies in the mental health care system?

Dr. Torrey: Well, they’re directly related. About half of these mass killings are being done by people with severe mental illness, mostly schizophrenia. And if they were being treated, they would’ve been preventable.

For example, before killing 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard last September, the gunman, Aaron Alexis, told police that he was hearing voices and being bombarded by strangers with a microwave machine. If he had been transported to a psych ward, the shootings might never have happened.

“About half of these mass killings are being done by people with severe mental illness, mostly schizophrenia. And if they were being treated, they would’ve been preventable.”

In 2007, Virginia Tech student Seung-Hui Cho was behaving so irrationally that a court ordered him to seek mental health care. The order was never carried out. Cho killed himself and 32 others.

And before James Holmes dressed up as the Joker and shot 70 people in a movie theater, campus police at the University of Colorado had been warned that he was potentially violent. Holmes had been a brilliant graduate student there studying the inner workings of the brain, until something suddenly went wrong with his. Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman, who is president of the American Psychiatric Association, says it’s not that unusual.

Dr. Lieberman: You can be the most popular student, you can be the valedictorian of your class. And if you develop schizophrenia it will change the functioning of your brain and change the nature of your behavior.

Steve Kroft: You could be completely normal at age 20, perhaps a good student or a gifted student and a solid citizen, and at 21 or 22 be psychotic?

Dr. Lieberman: Absolutely.

Dr. Lieberman, who runs the psychiatry department at Columbia University’s medical school, says that schizophrenia has a genetic component and tends to run in families, affecting the way the circuits in the brain develop. You can see the structural abnormalities in a brain scan.

Dr. Lieberman: And you see people, a young adult, with a normal brain, same age with, who has schizophrenia, and you see that degenerative process has already begun.

Steve Kroft: This is really a disease of the brain. Not a disease of the mind?

Dr. Lieberman: Absolutely.

“You can be the most popular student, you can be the valedictorian of your class. And if you develop schizophrenia it will change the functioning of your brain and change the nature of your behavior.”

It lies dormant during childhood and usually emerges in late adolescence and early adulthood, affecting perception and judgment. People see things that aren’t there and hear voices that aren’t real.

Steve Kroft: What’s the nature of these voices and what do they say?

Dr. Lieberman: Usually it’s multiple voices, talking about them in the third person, as if they’re not there. They may be saying, “You’re a horrible person. Everybody hates you. The only way that you can justify yourself is to lash out at them.”

Steve Kroft: How strong are the voices?

Dr. Lieberman: When they’re at their worst the person can’t distinguish the voices from their illness and they think the voices are part of them, and if they tell them what to do, they’ll follow it.

Jacob Bowman: I hear a voice. It’s a man’s voice and it’s really, really deep. It’s a really deep and scary man’s voice…

Schizophrenia is more common than you might think. Several million Americans have it. 17-year-old Jacob Bowman has been struggling with it for a couple of years.

Jacob Bowman: This is basically me on a bad day, I guess. Because I can’t think straight. My thoughts are racing really, really fast.

He’s dropped out of high school, lives at home under the watchful eyes of his parents, and rarely goes out because he thinks people are trying to kill him. He spends much of his time on social media — we found him on YouTube — where he shares his world with other young people who have the same symptoms. He wants them to know that they’re not alone, and that the voices and hallucinations are not real.

Jacob Bowman: Basically all my voices I have are just thought– just voices telling me to harm myself or harm other people or kill people. And, that’s why I think I need to get on medication because I don’t want to hurt anyone. And because I know schizophrenics aren’t violent.

And he’s mostly right. The vast majority of people with schizophrenia never show any signs of violence. Mike Robertson was 19 years old and away at college when he was diagnosed three years ago.

Mike Robertson: I felt like there was people around me, like, bad people or nice people.

Steve Kroft: Even when there was nobody there.

Mike Robertson: Yeah. And that’s what really, that’s what really got to me.

Linda Doran: He told me over the phone, “I feel like I’m going insane. I swear there is a bug in my head and I just want to tear at my eyes and my skin and my scalp to get to it and get it out of there so I don’t have to hear it anymore.” Very scary.

Michael’s mother, Linda Doran, brought him back to California and got him into treatment, which consists of regular therapy sessions and daily doses of heavy duty anti-psychotic drugs that stabilize him and help control the symptoms.

Mike Robertson: Clozapine. It’s an anti-psychotic. Haloperidol. Cogentin or Benztropine. Fluvoxatine or Prozac, Lorazepam for anxiety.

They often leave him listless or groggy, which is one of the reasons people with severe mental illness often stop taking them.

Steve Kroft: A lot of people with your illness say the drugs make them feel worse. They just hate it.

Mike Robertson: Yeah. I can see that with the side effects. But it’s better than having schizophrenic symptoms.

Steve Kroft: What worries you the most?

Linda Doran: The future and the future without myself being here. Because I am Mike’s caregiver. I am his advocate. And so, if I am not here who will be?

It is a serious concern and a sobering thought, because it’s estimated that half the 7 million people in the country with schizophrenia and other forms of severe mental illness are not being treated at all.

Duanne Luckow: This is Day 10 now of my fast. So I’m feeling really, really good.

Duanne Luckow is one of them. He has spent the past three years on and off the street and in and out of jails and mental institutions, but he doesn’t acknowledge that there is anything wrong with him and has refused treatment. He’s been recording the events in his life to prove that he is sane and that the rest of the world is out to get him.

[Police Officer: Do you have a gun at home?

Duanne Luckow: Do I have a gun at my home? Yes, I have a gun at my home.

Police Officer: OK. So it’s a true statement.]

There’s a confrontation with police at his parents’ home and this full blown psychotic episode on the top of Multnomah Falls in Oregon in which he threatens to go over the side.

[Duanne Luckow: I come from the planet of Pluto! I’m here to protect this planet! I’m here to bring justice about! There is no justice. This planet is entirely corrupt! The FBI wanted to screw around with me! They didn’t want to give me my ATM cards!

Sandra Luckow: It really feels as though he’s on the edge. It’s pretty scary.

Duanne gave the footage to his sister, Sandra Luckow, a documentary filmmaker who teaches in New York.

[Duanne Luckow: May the truth be known!]

She spent years trying to help him.

Sandra Luckow: On a certain level, this would make him crazy to think that the very thing that he thinks is going to exonerate him shows how crazy he is.

Steve Kroft: Did you have trouble getting him treatment?

Sandra Luckow: Yes. Yes. A tremendous amount of trouble getting him treatment.

She is no longer sure her brother can be helped, and has kept her distance ever since he sent her a threatening email.

Sandra Luckow: He said that someone was going to come to my apartment with an AR-15 and hollow point bullets and spatter my brains all over my apartment.

Steve Kroft: Has he ever been violent?

Sandra Luckow: Not that I know.

Steve Kroft: But you think it’s possible?

Sandra Luckow: Sure.

Fifty years ago, someone like Duanne Luckow would have ended up in a place like this, involuntarily committed to one of the big state-run hospitals that were used to warehouse the seriously mentally ill.

Documentaries like Frederick Wiseman’s “Titicut Follies” helped expose the dehumanizing conditions and led to reforms. One by one, the big asylums were shut down, and over time, a half million inmates were released into communities to fend for themselves. They were supposed to be housed in residential treatment centers, medicated, and supervised by case workers at walk-in clinics. But the programs were never adequately funded.

Dr. Torrey: What we did is we emptied out the hospitals and, on any given day now in the United States, half of the people with schizophrenia and other severe mental illnesses are not being treated.

Steve Kroft: How difficult is it to get somebody admitted who does not want to be admitted?

Dr. Torrey: Almost impossible in most states. The laws will read, “You have to be a danger to yourself or others,” in some states, and judges may interpret this very, very strictly. You know, we kiddingly say, “You have to be either trying to kill your psychiatrist, or trying to kill yourself in front of your psychiatrist, to be able to get hospitalized.”Steve Kroft: If these people aren’t receiving medical attention, where are they ending up?

Dr. Torrey: Many of them end up homeless. Many of them end up in jails and prisons now. So this is a huge problem. Our jails and prisons are our main place now where you find mentally ill people.

In fact by some measures, the largest mental institution in the United States is the Cook County Jail in Chicago. It houses the largest number of mentally ill people in the country.

Tom Dart: This is a population that people don’t care about and so as a result of that there are not the resources out there to care for them.

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart is in charge of the jail and he is not very happy about the situation.

Tom Dart: I’ve got probably 2,500, 2,800 people with mental illness in my jail today. And you look at their backgrounds, they’ve been in here 50, 60, 100, we have some people who’ve been in here 400 times.

Steve Kroft: What kind of offenses?

Tom Dart: Oh my God, retail theft is a norm. And usually it’s ’cause they’re stealing something either to feed themselves or, frankly, they’re stealing something because they just wanted it that second. Loads of cases of criminal trespass to land. What’s that? They’re breaking in some place to sleep.

Steve Kroft: You’re saying the prisons and the jails are the new asylums?

Tom Dart: Absolutely. There is no person that could argue otherwise that the jails and prisons are the new insane asylums. That’s what we are.

[Inmate: What the? Wait! Don’t spray me!]

Sheriff Dart has told guards and employees to videotape incidents so that he can show people what actually goes on here.

Tom Dart: And the videos we’ve shown people are to show them what happens when we take people who are mentally ill and we cram them into the criminal justice system where they’re not supposed to be. And the irony’s so deep that you have a society that finds it wrong to have people warehoused in a state mental institution, but those very same people were OK if we warehouse ’em in a jail. It’s just– you’ve got to be kidding me.

[Elli Montgomery: Were you ever diagnosed with depression or bipolar disorder?

Inmate: Yeah, a long time ago.]

Every day Elli Montgomery, one of five social workers here, goes over the list of new inmates with mental illness.

Elli Montgomery: We have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7…15. With a severe mental illness.

Steve Kroft: Just this morning?

Elli Montgomery: Yeah, just this morning. Severely mentally ill. Not like a little bit of depression.

Most of them will be here for several days to several months, then released back on the street with a packet of pills and no plan. Sheriff Dart says it’s become a huge public safety issue.

Steve Kroft: There’s been an epidemic of mass shootings. A lot of them by people with serious mental health problems. Do you think there’s a connection?

Tom Dart: Yes, I do think there are connections here because people– some are getting treated. Other ones aren’t getting treated. People are falling through the cracks all the time. And so to think that that won’t then boil up at some point and end up in a tragedy, that’s just naive. That’s just naive.

Dr. Torrey: We have a grand experiment: what happens when you don’t treat people. But then you’re going to have to accept 10 percent of homicides being killed by untreated, mentally ill people. You’re going to have to accept Tucson and Aurora. You’re going to have to accept Cho at Virginia Tech. These are the consequences, when we allow people who need to be treated to go untreated. And, if you are willing to do that, then that’s fine. But I’m not willing to do that.

NYPD Cracks Down. On Who??

15221523Cop who wants me dead - 1524

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?id=9456236

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?id=9456236

http://www.myfoxny.com/story/24907035/nypd-cracks-down-on-double-parking

http://www.silive.com/opinion/editorials/index.ssf/2014/03/target_double-parking_north_sh.html

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nypd-officers-crack-traffic-violations-article-1.1551254

http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/37/11/all-double-parking-crackdown-2014-03-14-bk_37_11.html

The latest NYPD “Crackdown” (another word for extortion) is on double parked cars and cars blocking bicycle lanes.
How funny is that?
It’s a known fact that the worst violators of these infractions are the NYPD and other City vehicles. Fire Department, Sanitation, DOT, You name it. Bicycle lanes are nothing more than parking spots for those who WE pay to serve us.
I got this note (below) from someone who has seen and experienced (first hand)  the affects of this “Crackdown”. After you read this, and as you go about your life, I’m sure that you will all relate to what’s written. I’m also sure that you will see (as we all do) more situations like this. I invite you to take as many pictures and video’s. Send them to me and/or our elected so that we can keep a record and let them all know that they have to abide by the laws before they can honestly enforce them.

A few months ago I sent a long letter to one of our Council Members. In it I complained about just this fact. I included some pictures of OUR Civil Servants violating these laws, and asked to meet with him to discuss these and other violations against “the rest of us”.
I told him that I see these infractions on a daily basis. And not just once or twice a day, but many times every day and wondered why OUR Elected continue to turn a blind eye to this.
We all know the answer. They (Our elected) are no better than all the others who we pay to serve us. They are only in the business of serving themselves and those with lots of money and or power.
I told him I would keep taking pictures of these infractions.
He sent me a “stock” note that basically told me to go to hell.

Well –  Now the NYPD has used this latest “Crack down” to Crack down” on ME. And, I’d imagine, any one else who they might see taking pictures of them as they violate the very laws that they are cracking down on the rest of us for violating (?).

Last week I took the attached photo’s of an NYPD cruiser that was parked in the bicycle lane on 5th Ave and 14th street in Brooklyn.
Just as I went around the car (and almost got run over by a bus) the 2 cops came out of the Foot Locker Store . I’m sure there was no emergency at the time.
I took the last photo over my shoulder, as they were getting into the car.
The other day I was heading up 5th Ave. (again) when I saw a police car blocking the bike lane, just before 10th street. I was about to take out my phone to snap a picture when 2 cops came toward the car from the side walk.
It was the same driver (that’s in the photo). I had a bus barreling up my behind and didn’t have the time to get my camera out. That and the fact that the driver was standing in the street staring right at me, made it hard for me to do anything. I decided to “just move along”. Instead of going out into the street to risk getting run over – or (worse) having the cop that was staring me down tackle me, I straddled my bike and squeezed past the passenger side (just as the other cop had gotten into the car).
As I passed, I heard the driver yelling at his partner..”That’s the guy…Get him…He’s the guy who took our picture…Get him.” I looked back and saw, what looked like, a clown show. One cop getting out of the car while the other got in with one yelling instructions while the other scratched his head and did the opposite.
Needless to say – I hightailed to out of there. Thank God – They didn’t get me. I’m quite sure that if they did, I would have been beaten to within an inch of my life, before being arrested for an assortment or trumped up charges. I’m also quite sure that they (at least one of them) will be looking for me. If he/they get the chance, they will use it to make me “Pay”.  For what? For taking a picture of them breaking the very laws that we pay them to enforce.

It’s time for some real honesty and accounting from everyone that WE pay to serve us. We don’t need anymore laws or useless talk or “crackdowns” from the people who WE pay to serve us. We need them to start applying the laws, that we have on the books,  in the spirit that they were written. To stop abusive and dangerous acts – BY EVERYONE.  Most importantly from those who WE pay to serve us. After all – They should lead by example. Not by violating others for doing what THEY do.

Brown investigates students who shouted down NYPD

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/brown-investigates-students-shouted-nypd-commish-article-1.1508553

What happened to “Freedom of speech”?

Just like everything else done by the likes of Mr Kelly, the constitution means nothing except when it protects his (and others like him or those he protects – at our expense) rights!!

Very tragic, what is happening here!!