FLASH! To All Readers, Read To's, Redman Chewers, and Red Pop Guzzlers!
Mike Houlihan makes a surprise hop at Borders in Beverly tonight on the Houlihan Highway!
Get thee there!
Houlihan -6PM-9PM at:
Borders - Chicago - Beverly
2210 West 95th Street
Chicago, IL 60643
United States
773-445-5471
Web site: http://www.borders.com/online/store/StoreDetailView_284
Events URL: http://www.borders.com/online/st…
Chicago is a Gentleman's Quarterly (GQ) City and Chicago's Media is abuzz and a tingle with raffishly preening pride!
Craven sophisticates like Billy Dec, the late Studs Terkel, former Aldermen Burt Natarus, Arenda Troutman, rocker and Uncle Fester look-alike Billy Corgan have helped make this City. Sing with me now, that great Folk Ballad by fellow Cosmopolitans Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill & Frank Beard! That Chicago GQ Anthem that always brought a smile to Studs Terkel when he trod the terra! Come on Chicago! Forget the Thugs on your back-porch! Sing Out!
Clean shirt, new shoes
And I dont know where I am goin to.
Silk suit, black tie,
I dont need a reason why.
They come runnin just as fast as they can
Coz every girl crazy bout a sharp dressed man.
Gold watch, diamond ring,
I aint missin a single thing.
And cufflinks, stick pin,
When I step out Im gonna do you in.
They come runnin just as fast as they can
Coz every girl crazy bout a sharp dressed man.
Top coat, top hat,
I dont worry coz my wallets fat.
Black shades, white gloves,
Lookin sharp and lookin for love.
They come runnin just as fast as they can
Coz every girl grazy bout a sharp dressed man.
Chicago Beat Cop -Ubi Sunt?
There is a great deal of crime - black on white crime taking place in my neighborhood.
There is no City of Chicago out cry.
There is and there will be no Media Outcry other than 'well what can people expect given the economic realities of the day and systemic racism foisted upon persons of color by these white-flight residents of Beverly/Morgan Park?'
Here's the breakdown of the 97 pages of crime reported for Beat 2212 in Chicago Police District #22 ( Morgan Park)over the last few months.
Residents are concerned that lack of police beat cars and the vast geographic area covered by this beat created a Thug Comfort Zone - Thugs from outside of the neighborhood have the confidence to rob, assault, burglarize and violate the residents of this neighborhood.
91 crimes of Armed Robbery
131 crimes of Narcotics
158 crimes of Assault*
214 crimes of Burglary
388 crimes of Criminal Damage
438 crimes of Battery*
630 crimes of Theft
Members of the Chicago News Media play at journalism while exercising their rights of Free Speech as 'social engineers' and dime store prophets.
Editorial Boards agree to ignore or sneer at the residents of my neighborhood. Beat 2211 covers an area that embraces Mount Greenwood much farther to west where even more black on white crime is taking place.Read the comments by residents in Southwest Observer:
I am in need of some clarification as far as the Police district is concerned. Is Beverly and Mt. Greenwood covered by the 2 beat cars?? Or is it just our neighborhood? How come the police are there to take two teenage girls home to their parents who were minding their own business sitting on a bench at Mt. Greenwood park? And no one responds to the 911 call for "mob action" between 2 groups of kids beating the s#$% out of each other?
Personally when I am home during the day, I keep both my doors locked. I also have a security system and a big dog who answers the door before I do.
It bothers me to read about all of the violence and crimes so close to our homes. My son and his friends often visit the Burger King on Kedzie, and now that is a place where suspects were caught.
Is it true that the CAPS meetings are being phased out?
I signed up for the email updates from the 22nd district, and it;s funny that I haven't received ONE.
Do I feel safe? no. . .I don't. . .
2211 and another recently added car covers Mt Greenwood. These are generally one manned cars that cover a very large area. These cars, from the intelligence I am getting, have been on the east end of the 22nd district answering calls instead of patroling our area. There is a CPD Parks car that covers the districts parks. If you look at the 22nd district, you will see the many parks vs one car.Somebody had to call about the kids on the bench. With the vandalism that occurred at the playground, neighbors of the park are more vigilant. There may have been more to the story as well. CAPS will take your information but when it gets back to the district and headquarters.......they don't have the manpower. CAPS is just the middleman. My kids go to BK as well and I am very nervous. The bus stop on 111th and Kedzie needs to go. Another friend of mine on the 108th block of Troy had a woman approach her on her porch and asked to use her bathroom. My friend refused and told her her dog would attack her. When the woman walked away, a white van pulled up and yelled "Let's go. Someone called the police." She got in a they drove off. We are no longer safe.
the overt behavior of an assault might be A advancing upon B by chasing after him and swinging a fist at his head, while
that of an act of battery might be A actually striking B.
Battery requires (1) a volitional act (2) that results in a harmful or offensive contact with another person (3) committed with the intent to cause a harmful or offensive contact or with a reckless disregard as to whether such contact will result. Assault is an attempted battery or the act of intentionally placing a person in apprehension of a harmful or offensive contact with their person.
The Great Mount Greenwood Southwest Observer a wonderful neighborhood website offers a recent poll of Local Pubs and Watering Holes.
County Armagh's and Now Chicago's Own Bernard Callahan's Keegan's Pub is ranked at the top of some very fine Saloons here in the 19th Ward.
Keegan's Pub
10618 S Western
Chicago
773-233-6829
Keegan's Pub is headquarters to a group of wits, workers and wunderkinds that could body slam any Mensa Chapter west of Alexandria, Egypt in its best day and serves the most laboriously crafted 'pint of plain' - Guinness this side of foamy brine.
Get thee to Keegan's soak up some laughs, nuanced analysis of the day's events and the creamy goodness of that Old Black Magic brewed at St. James's Gate Dublin.
Click my post title for one of the best neighborhood websites extant - Mount Greenwood Southwest Observer!
Here's the Poll Results*:
Green Mill? Never heard of it.
Castos - 0%
Cork and Kerry - 17%
Corrigans - 0%
Gilhooleys - 0%
Hinky Dinks - 17%
Keegans - 33%
Lanigans - 17%
The Mystic - 17%
Seans Rhino Bar - 0%
TRs Pub - 0%
Other (be nice to us)
Older polls
Make your vote count! Become a registered user of SouthwestObserver.com. Be sure to log in prior to answering each poll.
* I suspect Polling Error - MSNBC might have had some dubious hand in this! Where is MacKell's in this data??????
Black on White crime happens all the time. The official excuse for it by City Officials and Chicago Media is 'Crime of opportunity' never a race crime, or Roger Baldwin forbid, a Hate Crime.
Two men face burglary charges after they allegedly broke into a retired police sergeant's home in Chicago's Mount Greenwood community. The former officer fired a gunshot at the men but no one was injured.
Kenneth Adams, 26, of Chicago, and Matthew Brown, 21, of Blue Island, were arrested a short time after the burglary Wednesday, police said.
Matthew Brown, of Blue Island, (left) and Kenneth Adams, of Chicago, are accused of breaking into a retired police sergeant's home in Chicago's Mount Greenwood community.
Adams was charged with one count of burglary and one count of aggravated assault. Brown was charged with one count of burglary, police News Affairs Officer Daniel O’Brien said.
They were arrested about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday near 111th Street and Kedzie Avenue, a few blocks from where the burglary happened, police said. ( Emphasis My Own)
After the two suspects got inside, the retired sergeant, in his 50s, fired a shot at them, but no one was injured.
According to news reports, Christian and Newsom had gone on a date at a local restaurant on Saturday, January 6, 2007, but did not return home. During their night out, the couple was "hijacked, bound and blindfolded and taken back to Lemaricus Devall 'Slim' Davidson's rented house on Chipman Street."[4]
Christian's parents found her abandoned Toyota 4-Runner two blocks away from the Chipman Street house the following Monday with the help of her mobile phone provider. An envelope recovered from the vehicle yielded fingerprint evidence that led police to Lemaricus Davidson and 2316 Chipman Street. When police went to the address on Tuesday, January 9, they found the home unoccupied and Christian's body in a trash can in the kitchen.
According to the testimony of the Knox County Acting Medical Examiner at the subsequent trial of Eric Boyd, Newsom was repeatedly raped and then blindfolded, gagged, arms and feet bound and his head covered. Barefoot, he was either led or dragged outside the house to a set of nearby railroad tracks, where a gun was placed to the back of his head and fired. He was shot twice more, once in the neck and once in the back. His body was then set afire. Christian's death would come only after hours of sexual torture, medical examiner Mileusnic-Polchan testified. Christian suffered horrific injuries to her vagina, anus and mouth. She was not only raped but savaged with "an object," the doctor testified. She was beaten in the head. Some type of chemical was poured down her throat, and her body, including her bleeding and battered genital area, likely scrubbed with the same solution - all while Christian was alive, the forensic expert said. She was then "hog-tied," with curtains and strips of bedding, her face covered tightly with a small trash bag and her body stashed inside five large trash bags before being placed inside a large trash can and covered with sheets. Christian died slowly, suffocating, the medical examiner said.[5]
Chicago Renaissance Man Mike Houlihan is all over the Town - bringing Joy to Child-like Male of Arrested Development and 16 Year Old Instincts like your Humbel Servant.
Get thee to Houli! Anon! With dispatch! All Due Haste! Immediately -if not sooner!
Get the Author's John Henry with a copy of Hooliganism:
Hooliganism
Book Summary
Buy the Book Now! HOOLIGANISM is an anthology of Mike Houlihan’s best columns from The Irish American News, with additional material from the Chicago Tribune Magazine, and Chicago Public Radio. This book captures the best stories from one of Irish America’s funniest raconteurs. Houlihan takes the reader on a picaresque journey as he recounts his travels in show biz as a Shakespearian clown; his days as proprietor of The Hooley-Dooley, an Irish gin mill in Rockaway Beach, NY; his adventures as a theatre and film producer chasing investors; memories of growing up Irish-Catholic on the south side of Chicago; and his day to day tightrope walk as an itinerant actor, father, and husband. Hooliganism also revisits and reinvents several Irish American urban myths and fables featuring a stock company of rogues, scoundrels, and boozers. Funny stuff in ten-minute installments.
Filled with Irish jokes, anecdotes, and preposterous tales, this book is like enjoying a pint of your favorite stout. If you read the whole thing in one sitting you’ll be drunk with laughter. Best to take it slow, one at a time and savor the enjoyment, chuckles, and eccentric wit of Mike Houlihan. The anthology covers the very best of Mike’s stories from 1993-2008, featuring the same friendly style that the Chicago Tribune called, “A natural storyteller’s flair.” The Wednesday Journal said, “Mike Houlihan has been telling stories for a long time…on Broadway, in feature films and on TV.” For six years Mike Houlihan sold out theatres with his one man comic memoir of growing up Irish, GOIN’ EAST ON ASHLAND. Now that same genie has been released from the bottle into this book.
Mike Houlihan is a former features columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times. He began writing the “Hooliganism” column in the Irish American News in 1996 and has since become the comic mainstay for the newspaper. Mike’s no holds barred take on life has entertained as well as outraged readers of the Irish newspaper. Mike began his career as an actor and then writer of plays and films. His memories of growing up as the seventh child in an Irish American Catholic family on the south side of Chicago and his wickedly wacky imagination create an alchemy of funny stories. The Sun-Times said, “Fasten your seatbelts… it’s terrific entertainment. The blarney-blessed author is Chicago’s largest and loudest leprechaun with a universal, nostalgic appeal. He grabs his audience ina warm bear hug and never let’s go.” The Daily Southtown agreed, “Houlilhan’s stories will keep many Irish eyes smiling!
More on 'Who's To Say?' The Catch-phrase of the smarmy and the self-absorbed. This question is posed largely by people who are passive aggressive smart-asses when confronted with the reality that their agenda stands in front of Universal Truths that are too tough to follow. That is why well-to-do educated women use abortion as cosmetic surgery. 'Think of the poor unwanted Child! Kill It! - out of Love!'
Situational Ethics appeared at the same time Planned Parenthood and other wonderful folks decided to unleash genocide on the unborn and make it as easy as stealing donuts! 'Who's to say a Woman's Body is Not Her Own?'
Donuts.
I stole items from Kean Gas Station this morning ( hypothetically speaking for any District 22 CPD officers on Blog Watch) - Six French Donuts ( the ones that look like Tractor Wheels), three Hava-Hanks ( sets of Two), and four Two Bit Bags of Ranch Dressing Doritos, while Dawna was busy with Jerry Schumacher's gas can re-fill.
I stole these items because I had no cash and I love my children - Clare is nuts for Doritos and French Donuts and hates when my snot-locker runs in the cold weather - who don't?
Who's to say that I am a thief? This is a hypothetical. Dawna could kick my ass on the best day that I ever lived and Jerry Schumacher was an All American at Michigan and a Tony Lawless Award winning football great at Mount Carmel possessing a rock-ribbed ethical world view that roundly frowns upon sneaks - active and passive.
In the 1960's an Episcopal priest named Joseph Fletcher developed Situational Ethics that became a hot-button Get of Jail Free Card for people bothered by Universal Truths and the 10 Items Zapped into the Stone Tablets.
Fletcher developed an ethical dodge based upon Love! Agape - or universal brotherly Love as the end of all things. Smart guys call this a teleological ethic as opposed to a law based or outlaw ethic.
Thieves used to follow 'the outlaw' or antinomian ethic. Thieves steal.
Everyone else follows the Law.
Thus, if my sense of Brotherly Love makes me want to get to work as fast as I can, then it follows that I drive up on sidewalks to avoid traffic delays on Western Ave. or 87th Street with the pedal to the metal - 'Get the Hell out of MY WAY!!!!!!!! I am doing this out of Universal LOOOOOOOOOOVE!'
Here's Fletcher's Nut-shell:
There are four presuppositions that Fletcher makes before setting out the situational ethics theory:
Pragmatism - This is that the course of action must be practical and work
Relativism - All situations are always relative; situational ethicists try to avoid such words as 'never' and 'always'
Positivism - The whole of situational ethics relies upon the fact that the person freely chooses to believe in agape love as described by Christianity.
Personalism - Whereas the legalist thinks people should work to laws, the situational ethicist believes that laws are for the benefit of the people.
[edit] The six fundamental principles
First proposition
Only one thing is intrinsically good; namely love: nothing else at all. Fletcher (1963, pg56)
Second proposition
The ruling norm of Christian decision is love: nothing else. Fletcher (1963, pg69)
Third proposition
Love and Justice are the same, for justice is love distributed, nothing else. Fletcher (1963, pg87)
Justice is Christian love using its head, calculating its duties, obligations, opportunities, resources...Justice is love coping with situations where distribution is called for. Fletcher (1963, pg95)
Fourth proposition
Love wills the neighbour's good, whether we like him or not. Fletcher (1963, pg103)
Fifth proposition
Only the end justifies the means, nothing else. Fletcher (1963, pg120)
Sixth proposition
Love's decisions are made situationally, not prescriptively. Fletcher
The situation determines the course of the action! In China, toddlers squat to urinate and defecate where and when they are moved to do so! Love is the answer.
Forget the Sexist rules demanding that Women go to the Ladies Rooms and Lads to the Gents! Do as in China! Love is the end!
Who's to say?
BTW- I bought two donuts for Clare - standard glazed and a 16 oz. Cup of Dark Roast for $ 2.85. The Firemen had glomed all the French Donuts by 5:45 AM.
"nature itself is wistful and pathetic, turbulent and passionate" - John Dewey 1859-1952.
What in the hell does that mean? But then again that is the point. John Dewey is the father of American Public Education, the leading thinker of the American Progressive Movement, one of the leaders of American Psychology, founder of the University of Chicago Laboratory School and the one of the leaders in Nuance.
Dewey was a New Englander and a smart guy who studied the German thinker Hegel. Hegel developed modern thought based upon the notion that Germans were smarter than Italians, Spaniards, Frenchmen and Arabs. Hegel and his buddy Schopenauer developed Dialectical Materialism, which gave Karl Marx something to write about in the dusty stacks of the British Museum developed the notion of class warfare as the new parousia(παρουσία) , or Second Coming.
John Dewey took a job at Rockefeller's swell new school south of Canaryville's Stockyards - The University of Chicago - and established himself as the leader in the Pragmatist Movement begun by William James. Pragmatism is rooted in the empiricists of the 18th Century and candied up with the Romantics and the Dialectical Materialists of the 19th Century. Two Dollar words for 'if you can't really see it, give it a pass.'
This is a nice way of killing off any metaphysics - the stuff you can't see: Faith, Belief, Trust, Compassion, Piety, Fidelity all that nonsense. E.G. 'Were any of us, really, in the cell with John McCain? Can we be actually certain that he was, in fact, a prisoner? Honor?' or how about 'What is an Unrepentant Terrorist? Bill Ayers we all know IS a "Distinguished Professor of Education" so why is this an issue?'
John Dewey, who it seems, died a few months before I was born, it appears, influenced the use and application of 'Who's to say?'
'Who's to say?' is the means by which a shared belief can be kicked to death. It is also the advent message for all bad, worthless, tasteless, obscene, and dangerous idiots to have their time in the spotlight. How else might one explain the development of Reality TV and Bill Maher?
Aristotle influenced Christian ( Aquinas), Jewish (Maimonides), and Muslim ( Averroes/Avicenna)thinkers who have helped people make sense of our lives through an understanding of an Ordered and Unified Universe. Faith, Belief in Universal Truths and all that stuff that Dewey and the smart guys killed off - or tried to - is reflected in an Absolute ( God/Higher Power/Big Banger/Truth).
No less an Aristotelian than Chicago Tribune's John Kass gave us an exercise in a long over-due return to sense over Dewey with a brilliant essay called to my attention by Saloon Keeper/Coach/Jazz Historian and Snappy Dresser Nick Novich*.
'Kass wrote the most stirring caveat to Americans with his essay on capturing Wild Pigs. Read it, Hickey!' I had in fact missed that one. Here is Kass, discussing one of those metaphysical terms 'Liberty" - Kass as metaphysician answering the 'Who's to Say?-ers' and John Dewey-
Fear happens. The 9/11 terrorist attacks happened, and the federal government—always eager to extend its reach—built its massive security bureaucracy, down to those spy cameras installed on the streetlights of so many cities and towns, thrilling America's mayors and the police chiefs. We're told the cameras keep us safe. We've become used to the eyes.
And when the economic crisis happened—when the credit bubble burst and the excesses of Wall Street caught up with us, and so many people lost their jobs and their retirement savings got whacked, and they started losing their homes—naturally people became fearful.
When you're worried about your family, you're not interested in the history of blame. You're interested in keeping a roof over their heads. You're interested in solutions. The solution so many want these days is more government.
Some of that is a proper demand for reasonable regulations on the markets and on lending that were eased during the Clinton years and continued. But today's crisis has also led to the massive federal bailout of the financial industry, with Washington picking who wins and who loses. We're told that this arrangement is only temporary. But partnerships involving almost a trillion dollars that grant even greater leverage to Washington have a way of becoming quite terribly permanent.
So the leviathan grows, and the bureaucrats and the corporate types attached to this bailout deal see the world in strikingly similar terms. They share the same type of mind and they share the common purpose of maintaining the status quo. Why wouldn't they? They're on the inside.
The casualty will be the entrepreneurs, those on the outside, the ones who create the spark and offer up the products or the ideas that fire the economy. The entrepreneurial mind isn't willing to settle and wants to make more than $250,000 in salary or whatever the federal government deems proper. They don't want proper. What they want is to take risks and reach the American Dream.
Such men and women will be on the outside for decades now. When they get close to victory they'll get whacked with tax increases and the rug will be pulled out from under them. The rich will have their wealth. But new entrepreneurs will be hamstrung and without that creative spark, no government-administered economic system can survive. History has taught us this over and over again.
The bailout happened so quickly we haven't fully considered the effects. Will we recognize America 40 years from now? How long before we understand how fundamentally America has changed? What kind of generational conflicts will this new government market policy instigate? Will our children speak of liberty, as we once did before we forgot?
These days, liberty isn't in vogue. It's so, so olde. We forget to consider liberty as America's founders conceived it—as one of the rights given us by God. Liberty was something an entrepreneur could understand. But even before this economic crisis Americans were given a new word from the corporatist/bureaucrat dictionary: empowerment.
"Empowerment" kinda, sorta evokes liberty but not really, since "empowerment" is something a government confers upon its people (or its serfs) when government decides the serfs (people) are ready.
While writing this I received one of those chain e-mails, but this one wasn't about a politician or the widow of the Nigerian oil minister. It was about how to catch wild pigs. I don't know if you could actually catch wild pigs this way, but it really doesn't matter. In this method, you throw bucketfuls of corn on the forest floor. The pigs eat the corn. A month later you put up one side of a fence and more corn. Eventually, the pigs return, get used to the fence and keep eating. And another side of fence and more corn and so on, until you close the gate and you've caught the pigs. They've lost their freedom. They can't figure out what's happened.
We're not pigs, we're Americans, rightfully worried about the economic future. But the times are changing, and the Boomers should consider the costs and consequences of what they're being offered by our politicians before the last side of the fence goes up. ( emphasis my own)
jskass@tribune.com
"One does not leave a convivial party before closing time." Winston Churchill
I got an e-mail about a book by Paul Krassner, one of the many terminally unfunny Comedians who play at being Lenny Bruce, who was also largely unfunny. Who's to Say, Paul Krassner is not funny? Me.
Thus,
In any case, there's a certain meta-irony about the name Re-create 68. Not only did the crossed-out 68 on the hat of the cop on the T-shirt refer to Re-create 68, but also Re-create 68 itself was a reference to the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago where protesters were severely beaten by police.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-krassner/
Moreover, at the 1996 Democratic convention in Chicago, there were T-shirts with the logo of the Chicago Police Department and the legend, "Democratic National Convention Chicago--1996--We Kicked Your Father's Ass in 1968--Wait 'Til You See What We Do to You!"
That's the trouble with a police state. The cops think it's a good thing.
Reprinted from the Chicago Daily Observer.
Rose Keefe pours on the gas from the first sentence. ‘As Jacob Goldberg rounded the corner of Forty-ninth Street and Madison Avenue, the last person he expected to encounter on the bustling sidewalk was his old partner in crime, Harry Smith. Jacob considered himself to be a hard-working and law-abiding citizen these days, but his teenage years had included some wilder moments, and Harry had been an instigator of most of them. Seeing him now aroused portions of nostalgia and uneasiness.’
Rose Keefe writes vigorous prose when her razor-sharp mind cuts through layers of fat-headed assumptions. Everyone assumed that Dion ‘Dean’ O’Banion, the beer baron gunned down by Johnny Torrio’s thugs in a Chicago Flower shop was an off- the –boat Irish mobster; that George ‘Bugs’ Moran was an Irish American hitter whose north side mob challenged Al Capone and inspired ethnic flourishes to the panoramic painting of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Nonsense. Rose Keefe dug the scalpel into the lard and got to the heart of matter.
Dean O’Banion was a Maroa, Illinois mossback and only Irish on his mother’s side and George ‘Bugs’ Moran of French Canadian decent (George Clarence "Bugs" Moran was born Adelard Cunin on August 21, 1891 and died in Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary, February 25, 1957). Moreover, the celebrated Beers Wars of the Volstead Act Era, the great Progressive stain on America, had very little to do with ethnic hostilities than about the very American value of profit. Capone’s wife was Irish and Dean O’Banion’s and later Bugs Moran’s mobs celebrated diversity!
” Earl "Hymie" Weiss, Vincent "The Schemer" Drucci, and George "Bugs" Moran) joined the Market Street Gang, which specialized in theft and robbery for the black market. The boys later became "sluggers," thugs hired by a newspaper to beat newsstand owners who did not sell the paper. The Market Street Gang started out working for the Chicago Tribune. However, they later switched to the rival Chicago Examiner due to a more attractive offer from newspaper boss Moses Annenberg. Through Annenberg, the gang met safecracker Charles "The Ox" Reiser, who taught them his trade. In 1909, O'Banion was arrested first for safecracking and then for assault. These would be the only times O'Banion would ever spend in a correctional institution.’ 1.
Rose Keefe is a brilliant young Canadian writer with a witty and energetic prose style accompanying a restless capacity for inquiry. In her recently released Crime Biography of New York Jewish Gangster, Zelig Lefkowitz, alias Big Jack Zelig, The Starker ( Cumberland Press, 2008), Keefe examines the assumptions that Jack Zelig was hired by corrupt New York Police Captain Charles Becker to murder the gambler Herman Rosenthal, who threatened to expose Becker as a grafter. Zelig was murdered on a New York streetcar the day before he was to testify in murder trial against Becker. The assumptions resting on New York District Attorney Charles Seymour Whitman, a wildly ambitious patrician using the prosecutor’s office to amass bodies on which he might step his way to the White House, assisted in his efforts by the Police Commissioner Rhinelander Waldo.
Capt. Becker was a Cossack, Police muscle for Tammany Hall and an unabashedly corrupt cop, but Rose Keefe is not buying the assumptions that Becker murdered Rosenthal or subsequently Jack Zelig – and neither will the reader.
The reader meets the world of The Starker – the Tough Guy, The Golem, The Jewish Avenger- with same nostalgia and uneasiness as Jacob Goldman upon meeting boyhood partner in crime Harry Smith. American Jewish emigration was brought on in the late 19th Century by the Czarist Pogroms that slaughtered millions of Jews everywhere in the Russian Empire. Stuffed into the slums of New York City along with Irish and Italians escaping their own Holocausts, Jews competed for work and survival.
Some children of the Diaspora, like their Irish and Italian counterparts, took to the gang life. Jack Zelig was one such kid. Zelig Lefkowitz became a pickpocket in Monk Eastman’s Gang which competed with Italian mobster Paul Kelly. Keefe brings to life her remarkable research into the bloody capacities of gangsters – their skills, their ethics, and their powerful influence on polite society.
The Better Angels of public life make great use of the violent and larcenous –then and now. Profit and Progress require the capacity to compromise and betray. No one betrays like a public official.
Rose Keefe parallels Zelig’s rise to prominence with the meteoric career of Police Bully Captain Charles Becker. Charley Becker was a German beer hall bouncer hired to ‘exercise’ the Law upon non-compliant ne’er-do-wells who failed to pay dues and respect to Tammany Hall. Becker was highly successful. A gambler by the name of Herman Rosenthal came afoul of his elected betters and Becker was unleashed.
Rosenthal decided to ‘take his case’ to the courts and expose graft and corruption. Exit Rosenthal.
The murderer of the gambler signaled an opportunity for a Progressive Reformer to make his bones and the murder jacket fit the broad shoulders of Charley Becker nicely. Jack Zelig, notorious tough guy was called in as well, as his associates participated in the murder of Rosenthal. Zelig was murdered by a small-time punk who conveniently used a Police Revolver. DA Whitman got two for one.
Rose Keefe interviewed relatives of the personalities involved, including an eye witness the streetcar murder of Jack Zelig, and tunneled through granite mountains of documents to bring to life the World of the Starker and the Cossack executed in the Pogrom of an ambitious louse –Charles Seymour Whitman.
The Starker by Rose Keefe is uneasy nostalgia. The Starker knocks down the assumptions we hold about events past and present.
Rose Keefe CV
Published Books:
Guns and Roses: The Untold Story of Dean O'Banion, Chicago's Big Shot Before Al Capone. Cumberland House Publishing (Nashville, TN) 2004
The Man Who Got Away: the Bugs Moran Story. Cumberland House Publishing (Nashville, TN) 2004
The Starker: Big Jack Zelig, the Becker-Rosenthal Case of 1912, and the Advent of the Jewish Gangster. Cumberland House Publishing (Nashville, TN) 2008
Professional Affiliations:
Member, the Writer's Union of Canada
Radio, Television, and Film Appearances:
"Talkline with Zev Brenner", WSNR 620 AM(NY) (November 2008)
"Dave Gordon Radio Show Show", ThatRadio.com (October 2008)
"Our Gotham",www.monk1903.com (June 2008)
"Bulldog and The Rude Awakening Show", WOCM-FM 98.1 (June 2008)
"Mobs In America", Abu Media Ireland (August 2007)
"Man, Moment, and Machine" History Channel televised special (November 2006)
"Young Indiana Jones" DVD Series- consulting expert (July 2006)
"Paddy Whacked": the Irish Mob History Channel televised special (March 2006)
Dave Strauss Radio Show, KTRS St. Louis (February 2006)
The Radio Detective, with Jerry Pearce (March 2004)
WBIG AM with William Kelly (March 2004)
Magazine Articles (author) :
"Mary Ward: The First Fatal Automobile Accident". History Magazine, Volume 8, Number 2, December / January 2007
"Labor Pain: Mossy Enright and Chicago's Labor Wars". On the Spot Journal, Volume 1, Issue 1, Fall 2006
"An Officer vs A Gentleman : The Saga of Chicago's Deadly Gentleman Brothers". On the Spot Journal, Volume 1, Issue 2, Winter 2006
"A Buck A Fist: Dopey Benny Fein and New York's Labor Wars". On the Spot Journal, Volume 1, Issue 3, Spring 2007
"The Fighting Parson: Remembering the Reverend Leslie Spracklin, Canada's Elliot Ness." On The Spot Journal, Volume 1, Issue 5, Winter 2007
"Rose Rossi- First Victim of the One-Way Ride?." On The Spot Journal, Fall 2008
Personal Appearances:
Golden Age of Gangsters Convention, Itasca, Illinois, September 2004
Contributing Author / Expert:
The Most Evil Mobsters in History, by Lauren Carter. Michael O'Mara Books Ltd, London, England, UK 2004
Public Enemies: America's Criminal Past 1919-1940, by Rick Mattix and William J. Helmer. Cumberland House Publishing, (Nashville, TN), 2007
Bad Seeds In The Big Apple, by Pat Downey. Cumberland House Publishing, (Nashville, TN) 2008
He who does not meditate acts as one who never looks into the mirror and so does not bother to put himself in order, since he can be dirty without knowing it. The person who meditates and turns his thoughts to God who is the mirror of the soul, seeks to know his defects and tries to correct them, moderates himself in his impulses and puts his conscience in order.
Mercifully, the group, armed with plastic explosives, underestimated the strength of the
105-year-old building’s solid foundations.
As it is, their deadly attacks have left close to 200 confirmed dead, with the toll expected to rise to nearly 300 once the hotel has been fully searched by security forces.
Yesterday, Kasab chillingly went through details of Wednesday night’s killing spree across the city, which ended when he was cornered by police.
He pretended to be dead, which probably saved his life. It was only when he was being transferred to hospital by ambulance that his accompanying officer noticed he was still breathing.
Mission - Transport Seven St. Cajetan's Girl Volleyball teammates from the Crestwood Kerasotes Multi-plex where each dropped a double saw-buck ( $20)and change
on a movie ( Transporter 3) that will go to disc and HBO Cables Pay on Demand before Christmas.
Vehicle - 2008 Chevy Malibu LS
My Rules
1."Never change the deal. . .Dial Never Change the Dial"
2."No names" -There's Seven of the little manatees
3."Never open the package" -It's probably over-coated Kerasotes Popcorn drenched in that 40 Weight oil shot out of those pumps that the Fat Kidd who breathes through his mouth never cleans.
4."Never make promises you can't keep".)
Pat Hickey: Fasten your seatbelts.
St. Cajetan's 8th Grade Volleyball: They are going to kill us.
Pat Hickey: You really should think more positive.
Pat Hickey:What's the first rule when entering a man's car?
St. Cajetan's V-Ball: [take their feet off the seat] Respect a man's car, a man respects you.
Pat Hickey: Rule number two?
St. Cajetan's V-Ball: Greet the man. Good evening, Transporter.
Pat Hickey: Good afternoon, Ladies.
St. Cajetan's V-Ball: Can we play the game now?
Pat Hickey: I would think your brain would be too tired after a whole day of school.
St. Cajetan's V-Ball: You're just afraid we're gonna win.
Pat Hickey: I'm afraid you're gonna be too worn out to do your homework.
St. Cajetan's V-Ball: It's Friday, We don't *have* any homework.
Pat Hickey: In that case: the game.
St. Cajetan's V-Ball: Yes!
Pat Hickey: But first, what's the third rule of the car?
[Seven Girls buckle four seatbelts]
Pat Hickey: Good.
St. Cajetan's V-Ball: But nice try, I'm impressed. Took more than a driver to figure this out.
Pat Hickey: I haven't figured it all out yet.
St. Cajetan's V-Ball: Can We PLEASE change the radio station?? Please
Pat Hickey: Perhaps I can help you! What part are you a little... how you say, "thick" on? ( Sub-title "thick" is Limey for Moron)
St. Cajetan's V-Ball: You. Why?
Pat Hickey:- Oh well, that's the easy part. It's a business deal, pure and simple. I'm for hire to he highest bidder. And in this case, the highest bidders were the Colombian cocaine cartels that wanted these pesky lawmen off their backs.
St. Cajetan's V-Ball: [about getting three into a seat belt] It hurts a lot.
Pat Hickey: Look at me. I promise I'll never let anyone hurt you a lot.
St. Cajetan's V-Ball: Promise?
Pat Hickey: You know my fourth rule? Never make a promise you can't keep.
St. Cajetan's V-Ball - Can we stop at Marco's Beef!!!! Please
Pat Hickey - What's Rule # 4?
St. Cajetan's V-Ball - NO Marcos, Transporter???(Seven Voices as One At the Tops of their strep-vulnerable Throats!!!!)
Coach said to fake right
And break left
Watch out for the pick
And keep an eye on defense
Gotta run the give and go
And take the ball to the hole
But don't be afraid
To shoot the outside "J"
Just keep ya head in the game
Just keep ya head in the game
And don't be afraid
To shoot the outside "J"
Just keep ya head in the game
U gotta
Get'cha get'cha head in the game
We gotta
Get our, get our, get our, get our head in the game
(repeat 3x)
Let's make sure
That we get the rebound
'Cause when we get it
Then the crowd will go wild
A second chance
Gotta grab it and go
Maybe this time
We'll hit the right notes
Wait a minute
It's not the time or place
Wait a minute
Get my head in the game
Wait a minute
Get my head in the game
Wait a minute
Wait a minute
I gotta
Get my, get my head in the game
You gotta
Get'cha, get'cha, get'cha, get'cha head in the game
(repeat 3x)
Why am I feeling so wrong
My head's in the game
But my heart's in the song
She makes this feel so right
(SPOKEN)
Should I go for it
Better shake this, yikes!
I gotta
Get my, get my head in the game
You gotta
Get'cha, get'cha, get'cha, get'cha head in the game
Pat Hickey- RULE # 5 - no more . . .
St. Cajetan V-Ball
Coach said to fake right
And break left
Watch out for the pick
And keep an eye on defense
Gotta run the give and go
And take the ball to the hole
But don't be afraid
To shoot the outside "J"
Just keep ya head in the game
Just keep ya head in the game
The Best In The Business Is Back In The Game. Coming Soon Transporter The High School Musical! Drive with two hands on both guns!
Click my post title for your Holiday Gift Giving!
This Revisionist History is brought to us by Morgan Park resident Jim Hike, Veteran/Patriot/Daily Communicant and Kean Gas Station Coffee aficionado.
In early autumn of 1621, the 53 surviving Pilgrims celebrated their successful harvest, as was the English custom. During this time, "many of the Indians coming... amongst the rest their great king Massasoit, with some ninety men."
I first met George Ryan, in 1975 when I was a baby teacher/coach at Bishop McNamara in Kankakee - a Chicago 18th Ward Democrat in Republican Land. In Fact Mimi Shapiro asked me to run for City Clerk as a Democrat - I figured what the hell -good way to learn the town. George’s brother Tom was the Mayor. The GOP slated Gene Glenzinski for City Clerk and the Dad of one my wrestlers and a better man never pulled on socks.
The Race was a blast and we had frequent ‘debates’ and run-ins with the Machine. George Ryan was a lovely guy. One day while walking to work, up Brookmont from my apartment in White City near Washington Park. I saw guys replacing Democratic signs that had been knocked down. I asked one of the guys ‘What gives?’ He said, ‘ George said to get them back up. You guys are gonna get waxed anyway.’ Laughed my butt off.
The Democratic slate was slaughtered, in fact I got the most votes -novelty votes for the kid, I imagine.
George Ryan was present wherever anyone from Kankakee, especially his political opponents, were in a jam or suffering. I saw George Ryan at St. Mary's Hospital visiting dying relatives of people who hated him politically. George Ryan had time for everyone. He was the reason why the Kankakee GOP was so successful and it was because he genuinely cared for people. The only person nicer than George Ryan is his bride Lura Lynn. That woman was everywhere!
I never once voted for George Ryan. Oh Hell, I'm a Party Democrat . . . I was anyway. I backed candidates who wouldn't give a penny to starving blind man . . .they would enact Programs for Hungry Blind and Indigent . . .once elected.
I have met George Ryan at many wakes and weddings, in Kankakee and Joliet. He is a very nice man. I’d buy the man a steak any day, at Ken’s in my neighborhood, or Krapil’s, or Franconello’s or some such homey place reminiscent of Kings Court and Town and Country in Kankakee, if he’d allow me. George Ryan did not seem to match Gibson’s or Tavern on Rush or the other news-ghoul & hustler eateries. These other fore mentioned places are where George Ryan’s people eat.
The type of people who go to Ken’s and other neighborhood dining spots are the people George Ryan connected to - not political allies, hangers-on or opportunists, but people like Ryan himself. I witnessed quite a few of George Ryan’s many acts of kindness to people who could never do any political boon for anyone - let alone George Ryan - too numerous to catalog. He treated Joe Blow from the docks at Tenney Sales on 5th Ave. in Kankakee like he was a Sam Zell with an ink wet contribution check.
Conversely, I have followed the words of many familiar voices in print that have universally called for a mighty punishment on George Ryan - most of the people writing those words seem like people that I can do without. John Kass and Tom Roeser are the only two valid voices of anti-Ryan sentiment in my opinion - there are others to be sure, mostly regular folks and I respect their feelings.
However, there are many more, mostly media creatures. who are stone hypocrites -DuPage GOP ‘almost weres and fatuous Polka Partners like Judy Topinka who could not get snug enough in George’s back pockets when he was flush with clout and now stomp on his crippled limbs.
It seemed to me that Ryan’s Judge and Federal Prosecutors were going to get George Ryan come Hell, Highwater, or the lady with the blindfold. and they did - the voices in print ( paper and electronic) - sock-puppets or anonymous back-shooters for the most part - howl in genuine agony that George Ryan has the same rights as other citizens. ‘The quicker he is in jail the happier I’ll be’ read one such post, or ‘Ryan can rot in Hell’. Must be a lovely people . . . to avoid.
Pardon George Ryan.
The Sun Times offers a chronicle of the George Ryan Trial read the chronology. It was a clown opera.
One man and one man alone brought down George Ryan. Joe Powers a great attorney took the case of the Willis Family who lost their children in horrific accident - it was an accident. Joe Powers put his heart and soul into his advocacy of this suffering family. God Bless Joe Powers for his skill,courage and conviction.
George Ryan was convicted by Joe Powers long before Federal Prosecutor Fitzgerald or Judge Pallmeyer galumphed their way through the motions.
Here is what I wrote at the time of the conviction of George Ryan in Federal Court.
George Ryan was prosecuted and convicted in a Federal Case that seemed like a Show Trial, right out of Joe Stalin's playbook. I hope that Judge Michael Kanne's dissent leads to a more balanced hearing than the one Ryan received in 7th District Appeals Court.
I have met George Ryan at many wakes and weddings, in Kankakee and Joliet. He is a very nice man. I'd buy the man a steak any day, at Ken's, Krapil's, Franconello's or some such homey place reminiscent of Kings Court and Town and Country in Kankakee, if he'd allow me. George Ryan did not seem to match Gibson's or Tavern on Rush or the other news-ghoul & hustler eateries. These other fore mentioned places are where George Ryan's people eat.
The type of people who go to Ken's and other neighborhood dining spots are the people George Ryan connected to - not political allies, hangers-on or opportunists, but people like Ryan himself. I witnessed quite a few of George Ryan's many acts of kindness to people who could never do any political boon for anyone - let alone George Ryan - too numerous to catalog. He treated Joe Blow from the docks at Tenney Sales on 5th Ave. in Kankakee like he was a Sam Zell with an ink wet contribution check. Conversely, I have followed the words of many familiar voices in print that have universally called for a mighty punishment on George Ryan - most of the people writing those words seem like people that I can do without.
It seemed to me that Ryan's Judge and Federal Prosecutors were going to get George Ryan come Hell, Highwater, or the lady with the blindfold. and they did - the voices in print ( paper and electronic) - sock-puppets or anonymous back-shooters for the most part - howl in genuine agony that George Ryan has the same rights as other citizens. 'The quicker he is in jail the happier I'll be' read one such post. Must be a lovely person.
Progressives had a little thing they called reign of terror in post-Revolutionary France and Russia: kept folks scared and in 'Oh,I Agree' mode. Like-minded later-day Defarges and Berias still scream for blood and toss rose petals at the feet of their Jurists and Prosecutors with more tracks to their railroad than William S. Burroughs' inner forearm, legs and toes - but that's just me.
micturate - from the Latin: to urinate
The Law is Merciful and as blind as the Judge doling it out it seems. Here is a case for consumption . . .perhaps that was it's cause from the DUI Page of The Kerryman!
Drivers saved by the steam of their pee
By KEVIN HUGHES
Wednesday November 19 2008
TWO drink driving cases were thrown out of a Kerry court last week after the presiding judge ruled that the steam of the drivers' pee could have affected their alcohol readings.
Timothy O'Sullivan, of 12 An Turinn Linn, Milltown, and Patrick Keane, of Dromore, Farranfore, were last week before Killorglin District Court on separate charges of drink driving.
The law requires that a person suspected of drink driving must be observed by a garda for 20 minutes before being breath tested at a garda station. They must not take anything by mouth during this period.
Based on their legal requirement, Judge James O'Connor ruled that when each defendant went to the toilet at the garda station, they could have inhaled steam from their urine, making the observation period and the 'nil-by-mouth' rule null and void.
Solicitor Padraig O'Connell confined his defence to the observation period, arguing that both clients had used the toilet to urinate, thereby interrupting the 20minute period. It was suggested that a new 20minute observation period should have commenced upon their return from the toilet.
Sgt English told the they were using the urinal.
The court was told that Mr O'Sullivan, who returned a breath alcohol reading of 57mg on February 2, had used the urinal seven minutes into the observation period.
Mr Keane, who had requested the toilet after the first minute of the observation period, returned a reading of 37mgs when tested on May 5. The reading was just two milligrams over the legal alcohol limit.
The defence argued that observation at the urinal was of the defendants' backs, and that the garda could not see their mouths at the time.
Mr O'Connell also queried what the precedent was when a female was involved. Sgt English responded that the observation period would have to begin again and agreed that he would do this in future.
In giving his decision, Judge O'Connor stated that the purpose of the 20-minute period is to ensure nothing is taken by mouth that may affect the reading.
"Nil by mouth is the same as nil by nose," the judge stated. "When he is urinating he is inhaling vapourised alcohol and there's always steam off it."
Judge O'Connor then commented that the point comes up time and again. "If the State did its work we wouldn't have to do this each time," he added.
- KEVIN HUGHES
de fide et officio iudicis non recipitur quaestio
Cop pulls over a guy with a McCain/Palin bumper sticker on the Dan Ryan Expressway in Chicago. The Cop walks up to the McCainiac's window, 'Got any I.D.?'
The slack jawed patriot replies, ''Bou Wha'?'
Looky here, Rubes -A War Hero was beaten by a Community Activist - think about it. A man with a resume featuring decades of distinguished service to his country was beaten by a first-term, back bencher whose Illinois Senate record was distinguished by votes of 'Present' - think about it. A grassroots army of unemployed and unemployable voter registration clipboard artists, wiped out the broad GOP coalition of cultural conservatives - think about it.
The conservative movement so vital in the late 1980's quit thinking when Old Dutch took the oath of office. Democrats became Liberals and Republicans became real Americans.
The Democratic Party is thick with patriots and thinkers. The GOP is thick with Air-waves loudmouths and snotty snipers.
James Joyner is calling on conservatives -not GOP swan-singers, or Democrats to think.
Part of the reason I’m drawn to the center-left blogs, including those cited above, Kevin Drum, Steve Benen, and others despite disagreeing with them while finding it increasingly difficult to find center-right blogs worth my time is that the former are much more likely to get beyond the debates of the 1980 election. There’s almost no serious analysis of health care reform, urban planning, education, and many other issues that regularly crop up on the best lefty blogs on their conservative counterparts. If we read about those issues at all, they’re framed as if Ronald Reagan were still aspiring to high office: Say No to socialism! Abolish the Department of Education! Government IS the problem!
While traditionalist grand theory is still valuable and worth discussion, it doesn’t work as a blanket response to micro-level issues. And defining conservatism solely by “What would Reagan do?” is a political non-starter in a world that simply looks much different than in did twenty-eight years ago. It would be as if Reagan constantly droned on about the evils of Harry Truman. Time marches on. Debates must, too, in order to be interesting.
So, where are the right-of-center counterparts to Yglesias, Klein, and company? Perhaps the ever-moving James Poulus (now with a mixed bag of co-bloggers)? Pejman Yousefzadeh, perhaps, but his writings are not handily consolidated. All the others who come to mind are my age or older.
There are only two Truefitt & Hills in the world, and the original London establishment also lays claim as the world's oldest barbershop. Since its founding in 1805, the English Truefitt & Hill has counted every male British monarch from George III to Princes Philip and Charles, among its devoted clientele as well as Winston Churchill, Alfred Hitchcock, Frank Sinatra, Laurence Olivier, the Duke of Kent, Lord Sainsbury and various members of Parliament, both past and present. After passing through a 120-year-old mahogany apothecary entrance, the visitor to Truefitt & Hill's estimable Michigan Avenue environs reposes in the waiting area (armed with a cookie, a cup of coffee and a copy of Royalty magazine) under framed lithographs of the Great Halls of the country of Kent. One of his venerable peers sits under prints of race horses, smiling distractedly, his pre-manicured hand resting in a pewter finger bowl. Across the room, under a portrait of a whippet, another silver-haired gent peruses the pages of The Wall Street Journal as his shoes are shined.Ah, . . .the 19th Century . . .
Blessed Miguel Pro, a Mexican Jesuit who was executed by firing squad on 23 November 1927. He lived at a time of great persecution of the Church in Mexico; religious services were illegal but this didn’t prevent Fr Pro from secretly celebrating the sacraments and promoting the League for the Defence of Religious Freedom. He was arrested and falsely accused of conspiracy against the Government. As the young priest stood before the firing squad he raised his arms in the form of the cross and cried: Viva Cristo Rey! Long live Christ the King!
This is the Monday of the Inflated Self! Desiree Rogers who has cashed in on her 'networking' abilities as the ex-Mrs. John Rogers at Illinois Lottey, Peoples Gas ( where she managed to offend skilled professional tradesmen and weasel her way out of a jackpot with ICC), high -profile philanthropic boards where she does not need to write a check, and mnost recently at Allstate Insurance, is going to Washington D.C. where she will dazzle as Obama White House Social Secretary. Adios!
This will be a howl!!!! Tic-Toc, Desiree!
Most telling the Uriah Heep of Illinois politics - Mike Quigley is leaping over the County Board Presidency and going for Rahmm-alama Dang Dong's Congressional Seat!
If Quigley officially enters the race, he could become the anti-Daley administration candidate if Daley does weigh in formally or informally on behalf of a candidate such as O'Connor. In the past, Quigley has clashed with the mayor over issues such as tax-increment financing.
Fifteen or more aldermen, state legislators and other elected and unelected individuals, including hotelier J.B. Pritzker and attorney Matt Devine, have mentioned their names in various stages of considering a run for the seat.
There must be something to that idea of a parallel universe. Here in Chicago, citizens are treated to a daily litany of calumnies and charges against the very women and men who put their lives on the line to protect and serve.
The Chicago Sun Times ( and its satellite papers of STNG) and the Chicago Tribune shoo their reporters to The Center for Wrongful Convictions, the MacArthur Center for Justice and the Peoples Law Office for cookie -cutter feel good stories that uplift the hearts of people who live far,far from crime and those who commit the most heinous offenses.
The Path to the Pulitzer is assured by Trust Funded Think Tank Lawyers and 1960's Radicals with law licenses ( they actually did less harm to American society with bombs and bottles back in the day) committed to undermining any and all confidence in the Justice System.
However, in Philadelphia a lawyer and a journalist, Christine M. Flowers, has written many columns in defence of police officers and common sense. Today, Ms. Flowers offers a tribute to four police officers killed in the line of duty since May 2008 - this is Phildelphia's bloodiest year for Law Enforcement personnel since 1996.
In the City of Brotherly Love and where G. Flint Taylor screamed Free Mumia - a convicted cop killer and Boutique Bolshevik hero, Christine Flowers - did I mention that she was both a lawyer and journalist?- puts the human face on the victims of murder who happen to be Police Officers.
2008 has been the most dangerous year for Philadelphia officers since 1996, when four were killed. A prayer to Michael the Archangel, patron of police, that we don't break the record.Ms. Flowers writes for the Philadelphia Daily News.
And even though each death is different, some brutal assassinations, others reckless accidents, the effect is the same: overwhelming grief, followed by uncontained anger.
And it's a different sort of anger from when civilians die.
Yes, it's an ugly aspect of nature that innocent children should be caught in a drug cross-fire on their way to school.
It pierces the heart when elderly women are raped in their bedrooms by teen intruders, when retired army vets are bludgeoned to death in their living rooms, when young mothers are murdered by the fathers of their babies.
IT'S A MISERABLE world in which such things not only happen but become commonplace. And Philadelphia is a part of that world.
But there's something surpassingly sad when you see men and women grouped at the entrance of a hospital, tears in their eyes for a stricken comrade. The grief that accompanies the coffin of a fallen officer is unlike any other because the occupant of that coffin met death on our behalf.
And the symbolism of a rider-less horse following close behind reminds us that - for a moment at least - the city is defenseless.
Of course, that's only a brief illusion. For every officer who falls in the line of duty there are hundreds more ready to take his or her place in the thin blue line. While no one can replace the one who has been taken, the obligation is picked up by brothers and sisters, an unbroken continuum of faith and service.
We saw it with Timothy Simpson. Stephen Liczbinski's friend took the murdered officer's handcuffs and placed them on his accused assassin's wrist when he was apprehended back in May. Simpson honored that debt. Now, tragically, he and Liczbinski are together again.
Some people complain about the attention given when an officer is slain.
Some judges think we should not elevate their deaths above "the rest of us," those without the bulletproof vests and the shields. Some citizens think that color excuses criminality, or that poverty is an explanation for antisocial behavior, or that grief is misplaced for those who willingly enter a dangerous profession.
These sentiments are heard in the streets, seen in the courtrooms, read on the letters page.
But they are wrong. Decent people understand it. The rest are irrelevant.
Four officers won't see the New Year. Four men and women have made the ultimate sacrifice for a city and a system that often seems to care more about rehabilitating criminals than honoring heroes.
And still, they keep answering the call.
No greater love. *
Christine M. Flowers is a lawyer.
I am a
Canna
What Flower
Are You?
