The Return Of A Missing Child Mystery To My Neighborhood

Yesterday on my way home from the subway, I was surprised to see all these police cars and FBI vans parked on Prince Street with barricades blocking the road. Just a few blocks from my apartment, a missing child mystery more than 3 decades old was back in the news as the search was on for remains in a building that is now a fashionable Lucky jeans store.

The NY Times has an interesting article today which talks not so much about this missing case but the neighborhood itself and how it has been radically transformed in the 33 years since Etan Patz disappeared in his way to the bus. They describe how it was quiet area, filled with artists and machinists and not high end tourists. At night, it was apparently so empty that couples would have sex in darkened doorways. My favorite quote from an old timer in the hood: "It wasn't seedy. The docs were sleazy. [Soho] was gritty." Okay!

As investigators dig into the basement at 127B Prince, they are (as they article points out) digging into the neighborhood's quiet and almost small-town past.  In my play WTC VIEW, one character reminisces about playing football on Broadway in the '70s...a speech that was based on a recollection of someone who grew up here back when it was, well, a neighborhood.  Even when I got here, 20 some years ago, it had that feel, especially on my block which was filled with old Italians and Portuguese families.  Anyway, I find it interesting to see how much has changed and how the reopening of this tragic case is bringing all of that into relief.

50,000 New Yorkers Arrested in 2011 For Pot Possession

Yes, you have read that statistic correctly.  The actual number of arrests for possessing under 25 grams of marijuana is 50,684 and it is up from the previous year by .6 percent. In fact, that number is more than all the arrests for marijuana possession the city made in the years between 1978 and 1996....combined.

The TIMES metro section reports on this suprising statistic today, revealing that these misdemeanor arrests cost the city an estimated $75 million dollars. In these tight budgetary times, there are certainly many useful things this money could be spent on.  It's very similar to the time/money the city wasted on harassing the Occupy protestors last year.  What is more alarming about these arrests is that the majority of them, 87% in fact, are for black or hispanics while studies consistently show that marijuana use/possession is much higher with whites.

I am usually not one to get rabble-roused but this situation truly bothers me because it's about more than drugs, it's about basic American rights (against illegal searches, for equal justice) that are being violated in New York every day for the so-called greater good. I can only hope this becomes an issue in the upcoming mayoral campaign as it's a discussion about safety vs. sanity that is long overdue in this city.

Pressing The NYPD On Their Treatment Of Press

When the Occupy Wall Street-ers were evicted in the middle of the night from Zucotti Park last week, the most shocking thing to me about the operation was the fact that the police forbid the media from covering it.  They said that they did it out of concern for their safety but it doesn't take a genius to figure out the real reason was that the mayor did not want pictures of it all over the morning papers/TV/blogs.  And there weren't. There were only reports that the protestors had been evicted.

Well today, the press is fighting back against this egregious violation of the First Amendment. The TIMES media blog today reports that 13 news organizations along with 10 journalistic unions have filed complaints with the NYPD and have asked for a full investigation into the events of November 15th.  In addition to the enforced media blackout, there were also 10 journalists who were arrested that day and multiple reporters who were roughed up and impeded from covering a major news story.

This is beyond shocking in a democratic society.  The police and the mayor's tactics on that day are more reminiscent of what goes on in China than in the United States.  Let's hope a full investigation is launched into police misconduct and that the city takes responsibility for violating the rights of citizens that it is supposed to be upholding.

Police Tactics At UC-Davis Cause A Firestorm

Over the weekend, a firestorm erupted over a viral video of a UC-Davis campus policeman casually pepper-spraying non-violent student protesters sitting on a campus walkway.  It's one of the strangest and most shocking videos of police misconduct to come out of all the "Occupy" protests these fall and it is causing a massive reaction, with calls for the chancellor of the school to resign.  (This AM she said she will not leave her post.)

There is a very thoughtful article in this morning's Washington Post on the question of who police are protecting and how they are being viewed very differently these days by those they are supposed to protect.  Simply put, police used to be people you were told as a child to ask for help but now they are a force to be avoided at all costs.  I would have to agree with this assessment, especially here in NYC where the police have become a self-acknowledged para-military force, larger than the standing army of some countries in South America.  I find myself often crossing the street to avoid police officers, knowing that saying the wrong thing or often looking at them the wrong way can lead to trouble. 

This video popularity and the massive response to it seems to hit on an issue central to life in the post-9/11 era.  We have ceded so much power to police and other authorities to protect us from terrorism yet more and more it appears we have also handed over our basic human rights as well.  Maybe this and other videos circulating the web these days can serve as a turning point in returning the balance of power in this country to where it rightfully and constitutionally belongs; with the people.

Occupy Wall Street vs. The Empire

Yesterday, the Occupy Wall Street movement celebrated their 2-month anniversary with a massive action in lower Manhattan.  One unofficial estimate heard on a NYPD radio scanner put the crowd size near 30,000.  However, the day was not without incident.  More than 200 people were arrested as protestors, now without a home in Zuccotti Park after being evicted Tuesday night, took to Foley Park, the subways and the Brooklyn Bridge to educate the 99% about the financial inequities in the country today.

While there is nothing funny about the often extreme tactics of NYPD, someone has found a way to infuse a touch of humor into the situation.  There has been much comment about how police here and in other cities resemble storm troopers in the STAR WARS films. Well, now an internet genius has morphed the police batons into light sabres to make the point. Now we just need someone to Photoshop Bloomberg's face onto that of the Emperor...that would be awesome!

Do You Know What The Speed Limit Is In NYC?

That's okay...most people don't. I didn't know until yesterday that there was actually one speed limit for all of Manhattan and it's 30mph.  Of course, the majority of cars never get above 2mph, especially in midtown.  But after hours, I have been in cabs racing down deserted avenues at speeds closer to those found on I-95.

Last night, ABC-7 aired a story about a new police crackdown on speeding in the city.  Cops will be monitoring avenues throughout Manhattan with radar and slapping unsuspecting drivers with speeding tickets if they exceed the limit.

The impetus behind this is statistics that show a huge spike of pedestrian accidents in Manhattan as opposed to all the other boroughs.  But it seems to me like another semi-desperate way for the city government to raise money in tough economic times. I think there would be better ways to use the police than cracking down on late night cabbies. Besides, if they start obeying the speed limit, I might as well take the subway,which reaches a top speed of 65mph.