Detroit woman forced to live with house squatter

Believe it or not I really don't like writing negative blog posts about my home town. So this will be the last one for a while. There's good people in Detroit. You should know that. But there are also some dirty no good bottom feeder parasites. Every time I think I am finished writing about foolishness, lo and behold here comes another story. This story touched a nerve because I think it provides a perfect example of what plagues Detroit. This situation has a legal twist. Hopefully The Janitor or Old Guru can explain it because I am simply not understanding what is going on here.

Imagine that you left town for an extended period of time to work, have a baby, take an overseas vacation, visit a terminally ill relative, settle an estate, wait for repairs to be made on your home, wander the earth or whatever. Let's say that upon your return, you discovered that someone (a previous tenant? mentally challenged write-in presidential candidate?) had moved into your home, changed the locks, altered the wiring and plumbing, taken out liens, thrown out or sold your belongings, and otherwise taken possession of the home that you bought and paid for. Now I think that even the most peaceful person on the planet might get a little upset. And let's say that when you called the police, fully expecting that that they would remove this insolent interloper and drag them away to a richly deserved jail cell, the police said "Hey this is a civil dispute. We're not qualified to make decisions about who owns what. Tell it to the judge. Don't do anything rash. Stop bothering us. Don't call us again!"

If this happened to me I think that someone (not me) would have a rather serious problem. I don't want to think about what other people I know who are not as levelheaded, peaceful and calm as I am would do in that situation. This hard to believe event allegedly occurred in an area I know very well. Watch the video.


To be blunt, this is why many people have fled Detroit. In Detroit, there is a serious chronic problem with lack of respect for law and for other people's property. I have occasionally considered investing in Detroit property or in certain Detroit business opportunities. However I would have to spend an inordinate amount of money on lawyers, insurance and security. All else equal, who would do that if they could invest in another city where there's some basic understanding of the difference between yours and mine?

So when a burglar enters your home, don't call the police. Call a lawyer to start a case to prove you actually own the home??? Does that make any sort of sense? There may be excellent reasons for society not to allow violence to be automatically used in so-called civil disputes. I am sure our legal experts can think of many. But squatters don't squat in places where they will be immediately ejected and subjected to pain for even trying. Say what you like about the Koch Brothers or any other millionaire or billionaire but I bet that they don't have to worry about this problem because anyone trying it would get removed and/or hurt just as soon as they did. If you attempted this in a rich area security would immediately toss you out and maybe throw you a beating before the cops arrived to take you away.

Must we all hire private security to watch our homes and cars 24-7? Squatting lends credence to the idea that law is whatever the strong say it is. Therefore, increasingly people will just ignore the law. If you don't then you're just a sucker looking to get taken. Whichever woman is lying here, she's a predator. She's sought out a weak herd member and is trying to bring them down. You simply can not have a functioning market place without the ability to make and keep contracts and own property. You can't. Economic activity will move to places where people don't think that they somehow deserve to just take your property. I don't mean to sound like a crazed Ayn Rand disciple but even a broken clock is right twice a day. It's almost enough to make you vote for Mitt Romney.* If this attitude spreads, and it has, Detroit will remain largely bereft of good businesses, good schools, and young families. Property tax revenue will continue to dwindle and Detroiters will wonder why their city continues its long decline. About a decade ago area home prices were close to eight to ten times the price quoted in the story. I wonder if increased crime, poor city services and squatters had anything to do with that price fall? Nah. Couldn't be. Could it?

Questions

What's your take? Can you believe this? Can this story be real?

What's the difference between a home invasion and a squatter?

Should the proper owner take the law into her own hands?

*Grand Central that's a joke....

Movie Reviews-Taken 2, King of New York

Taken 2
directed by Olivier Megaton

People should know not to mess with Liam Neeson, his friends or his family. He gets upset and kills people. The first Taken initially hid Liam Neeson's awesomeness. The villains were surprised. If you've ever seen Rob Roy, Gangs of New York, Next of Kin, Michael Collins or Darkman this was no surprise but apparently the mental midgets in Taken didn't see those movies. Taken depicted Bryan Mills' (Neeson) frantic search for his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) before she's sold into Third World sex-slavery to some depraved Middle Easterner. Both Taken and Taken 2  play up the sexual threat of the "dark" man to the "light" woman.
In Taken Mills eliminated roughly half of the Albanian male population, who evidently had nothing better to do than rape and pimp out American girls. Taken was convincing because the Albanian sex traffickers didn't know who they were messing with while Mills' daughter and ex-wife had no clue that the man they thought of as a loser or amiably clueless was actually a lethally protective and scarily intelligent guardian. Mills had to do a lot of sharp detective work before locating Kim's assailants and starting his Roaring Rampage of Revenge. The film was surprisingly (that word again) entertaining.

But in Taken 2, presumably everyone, including Mills' daughter, ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) and the half of the Albanian male population that Mills DIDN'T kill now knows that Mills is not a man to be f***** with.  Do so and you die. And if Mills has the time you might die painfully. So there is no surprise about who's the Big Dog.
The Albanian junior varsity bad guy team is upset that Mills wasted their relatives. Led by their bearded patriarch Murad (Rade Serbedzija), they want revenge. And Mills is going to unwittingly make it easy for them by inviting his ex-wife and daughter to join him in Istanbul, once he completes some security work. But didn't the bad guys see what happened to the first team? So there's really no reason for them to try again. I guess like Wesley Snipes said, some people really are always trying to ice skate uphill.

I will have to watch the first movie again but I don't seem to remember Maggie Grace either being that curvy or showing that much flesh. Not that I'm complaining,(snicker) but it insults belief rather than suspends it to pretend that  this is a 16 year old(?) teen girl who doesn't even have her driver's license yet.

Mills' ex-wife and daughter had no clue that their worlds might intersect with rapists, killers, pimps and child molesters. But they do now. So why throughout the entire film when their ex-husband/father tells them to do something NOW, are they instead babbling that they don't understand, can't do it, screaming hysterically, breaking down crying, insisting on detailed explanations while people are SHOOTING at them and so on? It's just annoying. No, honeybunch I can't explain everything right this second because PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO KILL US!! No of course I am sorry for yelling at you. The women aren't the only people who act like their brain cells underwent apoptosis. Again, the Albanians KNOW that Mills is a bad muyerfuyer. They've buried friends and relatives who didn't know. So why would they make incredibly stupid decisions like not killing Mills immediately once they have kidnapped him and Lenore. In their place, at the very least since you know that Mills is very resourceful, incredibly dangerous, and has a downright mean streak, wouldn't you search him thoroughly, keep him under 24 hr armed guard, bind him with iron and steel instead of plastic or rope and just to be on the safe side, cripple him to forestall any escape attempts? I mean just what are they teaching in Evil Overlord Boot Camp these days? 

Through bad guy incompetence and quick thinking by Mills, Kim avoids getting kidnapped. So now, using some very special skills, Kim must help free Papa Wolf so he can wreak havoc on those airheaded Albanians and their thickheaded Turkish allies who thought it would be a good idea to step in the ring with the heavyweight champ. And Mills doesn't believe in letting people tap out. If you're in for a penny, you're in for a pound as far as Mills is concerned. You bought the ticket so you're going on the ride. If you don't like it well that's just tough! Mills doesn't stop.

Serbedzija, who has a striking resemblance to the Most Interesting Man in the World, (I kept expecting him to say "I don't always kidnap Americans, but when I do I prefer blondes. Stay thirsty my friends") does what he can with his role but it's cartoonish. It's also limited after his revenge speech at the film's opening funeral. His remaining work is primarily reacting to goons telling him that his plans aren't working. If I were him after the second or third time this happened I would have just called it a day and gone home or started shooting incompetents myself and saved Neeson the time. Neeson's gravitas is wasted here. He looks tired. The fight scenes? Ehh. The fights are disjointed and with one exception near the end don't flow well. Lastly what does a movie have to do to get an R rating? Nudity? There's none here though Grace shows some skin. Violence? This movie has tons of violence. I guess unless you show brains or guts in exquisite detail you don't get an R. Taken 2 is halfway mediocre if you didn't see the first film but a serious disappointment if you did. Lots of stupid people get shot in the head. The end.
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King of New York
directed by Abel Ferrara

I love this violent 1990 cult film. It's aged well. It's among the best modern (last 25 years) crime movies. I also like this film because it is filled with people who later become stars or "I know that guy from somewhere" familiar character actors. Here they were young and hungry. They had more hair and weighed less. There was some very good acting, especially by Laurence Fishburne. I think Denzel might have watched Fishburne's work here for his own turn as leather clad bada$$ in Training Day. Such actors as Laurence Fishburne, Wesley Snipes, David Caruso, Victor Argo, Paul Calderon, Janet Julian, Steve Buscemi, Roger Guenever Smith, Giancarlo Esposito, Frank Adonis, and Theresa Randle all had roles. Christopher Walken brings his trademark deadpan tics, cold stare, jazz inspired verbal rhythms, and graceful physicality to the title role.

King of New York (KoNY) is a modern film but also nods (accidentally?) to the older Warners Bro. movies which usually had an anti-crime message. Like older films though, any anti-crime message is lost in KoNY's nonstop actions, smooth style and cool rhythms. KoNY seductively depicts NYC night life and the city's warring tribes of cops and criminals. The film's soundtrack makes effective, if now somewhat cliched, use of rap and classical music as counterpoint to delineate the different worlds that crime boss and drug dealer Frank White (Walken) inhabits. That music contrast is old hat today but in 1990 it was still a relatively fresh idea. White is equally comfortable discussing artwork and architecture at wine and cheese charity fundraisers or calmly explaining to recalcitrant rivals that if a nickel bag of heroin gets sold in the park he wants in. KoNY's color schemes are intoxicating. Often filmmakers don't get the right lighting for black actors. This can result in black actors either looking much darker or lighter than they actually are. Ferrara didn't have that problem. The cinematography is very warm and lush. You see all the wonderful varied tones and textures of human skin, especially the female kind. 

KoNY's most unusual aspect is its opposing teams. Apparently, race is unimportant to Frank White or his would be police captain nemesis, Roy Bishop (Argo). Both men lead cohesive multi-racial groups. The film itself references this almost mockingly by bringing attention to Tommy Flanagan (Wesley Snipes), the Black cop with the Irish name who is married to a presumably Irish-American woman and is enjoying himself at his buddy's Irish wedding. The other bad guys, the Colombian, Italian, and Chinese gang leaders, all head mono-ethnic organizations and strongly prefer to keep it that way. Mafia Boss Arty Clay (Frank Gio) makes this point in a suitably profane manner.

Legendary drug dealer, gang boss and charming dancer Frank White is released from prison. His friends, manic top enforcer Jimmy Jump (Laurence Fishburne), accountant and fixer Lance (Giancarlo Esposito), and chemist Test Tube (Steve Buscemi) herald their boss' return by eliminating rival Colombian drug dealers Emilio Zappa and King Tito. Fishburne chews the scenery throughout the film but in a very good way. 

Fishburne was originally supposed to play a different role but fortunately convinced Ferrara otherwise. Jimmy Jump is a terrifying but quite funny killer. Be glad if he's on your side. Be very worried if he's not. He has a soft spot for poor children but that's about  the only kindness that runs through his veins. Fishburne's swagger is off the charts. He's channeling James Cagney. All the ladies love Jimmy Jump. Jump is a dedicated practitioner of John Woo Guns Akimbo style. He always has at least two .45's which he never seems to need to reload. Fishburne keeps up with Walken and arguably steals the film. This is much different from his later roles as Furious Styles or Morpheus. His incongruously high pitched laugh, which is usually punctuated by a nasty baritone insult, is a quirk that makes for a memorably dangerous character.

The police, led by world weary veteran Bishop, keep an eye on Frank White. They would love to arrest him. Bishop also has to confront challenges from younger officers, particularly the hotheaded Gilley (David Caruso) and his best friend Flanagan, who suggest that extra legal methods are the only way to deal with White. Bishop doesn't mind occasionally stretching the law but he'll be damned before he lets anyone openly break it, especially other cops. Gilley's and Flanagan's resentments arise in part from financial jealousy. White has no qualms about his crimes. He's not going to stop killing or drug dealing. What he would like to do, besides having sex with his lawyer and favorite lover Jennifer (Janet Julian) is provide capital for a Harlem hospital that will be state of the art and provide much needed medical care for inner city men, women and especially children. Although White's wealthy, he needs help from other groups to do this. He patiently tries to explain this to rival mobsters.

The other drug dealers and gangsters in NYC have exactly zero interest in helping White achieve this goal. Their consensus is that White has lost his ever loving mind. They all dislike White's Rainbow Coalition of whites, blacks and hispanics. Undeterred, White starts a war to take over all drug dealing in NYC. Either you deal him in or you get a bullet in the head from Jimmy Jump and his crews, not that White himself is shy about pulling the trigger. Cop or not, you get in his way, you have problems.  White says he's not the problem, drugs are. Imprisoning or killing him won't slow drug sales. White claims to just give people what they want instead of exploiting them through extortion, child prostitution, illegal immigrant smuggling and slavery, or slumlord behavior like his rivals. But moral distinctions or pretensions aside, White is a killer. 

The movie lets you decide whether White's dangerously delusional or just a bad man trying to do one good thing. Walken infuses White with so much coolness and confidence balanced with coldness and flat evil dead eyes that it ought to be illegal. White is so cool that rather than get upset when interrupted mid-fondle with Jennifer by would be muggers, he just shows them his gun, throws them a fat wad of cash, and offers them a job. Confidence is his middle name. When White looks at people it's as if he's from a different moral universe and is trying to remember the words needed to communicate. The classic vampire movie Nosferatu is referenced here. Frank White could very easily BE a vampire. He's mostly seen at night, is rather pale and has numerous loyal minions. This is a violent verbally aggressive sexually audacious movie. It may be more style than substance but it entertains! Ferrara hit the ball out of the park. I loved it.
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Cleveland Bus Driver Uppercuts Girl

Last night many of us watched Vice-President Joe Biden and Congressman Paul Ryan launch verbal bombs at each other (and then heartily congratulate each other and their families after the debate). Nobody used profanity, nobody insulted anyone's mother, and nobody made bloody threats about what they were going to do to the other person.

However on the Cleveland bus system recently a different sort of debate took place, one that evidently started with profanity and threats and escalated to violence. I don't know what started this fracas as the video starts in the middle of an angry tirade from a teen girl young woman against the bus driver (a grown man). It is difficult to even make out much of what she's saying. But she clearly threatens the driver who responds that he will have his daughter or granddaughter handle her. Often times, especially in areas that are EXTREMELY touchy about personal honor and disrespect (any inner city) a mutual exchange of insults and threats would have been enough and both parties, honor having been upheld, could go about their business. I've seen that more times than I care to recall.  For whatever reason though this young lady decided to get physical with the man. And then... well just watch the video.


                    


Now I am not a person who automatically thinks that a man never has reason to hit a woman. There are violent, brutish women out there. Domestic abuse can be a two way street. Self-defense is a human right.

Would I have handled it this way? The fact that the man got up and walked towards the teen woman would seem to indicate that self-defense was not really the case. But on the other hand if you let someone hit you once, they'll hit you again. And if you start a fight, well you never know the capacity or the mindset of the other person. That girl woman is probably comparable to that bus driver in terms of size or strength as I am to Clay Matthews, Ray Lewis, Mike Tyson or Vitali Klitschko. And if I walked up to them talking stuff and then hit them and they retaliated I suspect that once it appeared on various tube sites that people would fall out laughing. I would NEVER hear the end of it from blog partners, other friends or ESPECIALLY relatives. That's why you would never see me do such a remarkably stupid thing. Don't let your mouth write a check your behind can't cash. It's too late for the teen's woman's friends to talk about "that's a female" after she stepped in the ring. People talk a lot about "equality". To steal a line from Inigo Montoya, "People keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means".

I am a traditionalist in some aspects. Men-women relations is definitely one. Men should not hit women but neither should women hit men. Basically everyone should keep their hands to themselves. This is also why I am not a fan of public transit.  People just can't act right. No home training. =)

QUESTIONS

1) Was the bus driver justified? Should he be arrested? Fired?

2) Does the girl have a lawsuit against the City of Cleveland?

3) Should there be police or security guards on buses?

4) Why on earth would that teen hit a grown man?

5) Is this evidence of something wrong in gender relations or just something wrong with a teen girl?

NYPD officers abuse teen-caught on audio

It is often instructive to look back at the history of white supremacy in this country and see how non-whites had to deal with openly racist whites who had no problem being violent. When we look at the pictures or video of peaceful civil rights protesters having dogs set on them or being beaten with tire irons or having things thrown at them it is hard, in 2012 not to at least occasionally question how people could allow that to happen or why didn't more people stand up and fight back or so on. Those are painful questions to be sure. At any given point in time most people are just trying to survive. By definition, most people are not heroes. Cemeteries are full of would be heroes. People did what they had to do to survive. There is no shame in that.

But although those days are thankfully gone, there are unfortunately quite a number of people who would have fit right in working for Bull Connor or Ross Barnett. Evidently many of these people are NYPD police officers. We've written before on the stop-and-frisk program that Mayor Bloomberg and Commissioner Kelly have instituted that is primarily aimed at Black and Hispanic men, especially young men or boys. This program doesn't catch many people carrying either drugs or guns but it does put a lot of fear, anger and rage in many New York Black and Hispanic citizens. Unfortunately until very recently this has not received any attention in the mainstream press and what attention it has received has been cautiously positive or only mildly critical. Generally speaking the people that write or edit for the New York Times or the New Yorker or the Wall Street Journal or the American Enterprise Institute are not the people being stopped and frisked so they tend not to have the mad rush of killing rage I had when I saw the below video. This is a racial quota which doesn't seem to excite their delicate constitutional sensitivities.

One thing that it is really important to understand is that the stop-and-frisk program, which has been expanded to include public housing and some private rentals as well is NOT a program in which someone does something suspicious and only THEN receives police attention NOR it is a program in which Officer Friendly and Dudley DoRight stop you and politely ask you a few questions before apologizing and sending you on your way after some sports discussions.

No.

It is as the video shows, a program in which young men of color are criminalized just for existing. It is a program in which showing signs of manhood and citizenship like demanding to know why you were stopped, asking for badge numbers, looking in someone's eyes or refusing to answer questions causes insane and profane racist rage, insults to your family, threats of arrests or beating, and occasional actual beating. This is the kind of stuff that was supposed to have gone out of style in 1960s Mississippi but as we can see it is thriving in 2012 NYC, under a supposedly enlightened Mayor, a relatively liberal Governor and a President that claims to understand civil liberties.

This is why come what may, with no offence intended to anyone who is a police officer, or is related to or married to a police officer, I really really don't like cops. Period. Never have and never will. Fortunately I have never had an experience to the extent of the young man in the video but I've had a few run-ins in my time. This is also why I do not like NYC and have little desire to visit, though I have friends and family there. Imagine if Alvin was your son, brother, cousin or husband. What does that sort of physical and verbal abuse from so-called authority figures do to racial relations? This is why it is ridiculous to claim, as some do, that affirmative action is harming racial relations. No, the NYPD is harming racial relations!  

The NYPD has a serious problem and it needs to be fixed yesterday. I simply do not get why Black and Hispanic New Yorkers have not gone after Bloomberg the same way they went after Giuliani. Malcolm X once joked that anywhere south of Canada is Mississippi and this video shows the truth of that joke. Honestly if I were in that situation I would definitely be in fear of my life and have to act accordingly. I'd rather be judged by a jury than those two beasts. Listen to full audio of Alvin's stop here, courtesy of The Nation.

Questions

1) Ever been in a similar situation with police?

2) How can we fix the police department?

3) Is the teen a hero?

4) Should the police officers be fired?

5) Where are the Feds?

Detroit Police Sex Scandal: Ralph Godbee and Angelica Robinson

If it's Tuesday it must be time for another Detroit political sex scandal. Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick fired two police officers who, in a separate investigation, were close to discovering evidence of Kilpatrick's infidelity. In the resulting civil trial for damages, text messages confirming Kilpatrick's adulterous relationship with chief of staff Christine Beatty were revealed. Since that time and Kilpatrick's subsequent resignation I would have thought that people would have changed. If you absolutely and positively just HAD to cheat at work, I would have expected you would be prudent enough to avoid creating proof in the form of text or phone messages, emails, Facebook posts, tweets or other electronic droppings that made it clear that your mule was kicking in somebody else's stall. I mean that's in the player's handbook-bolded and marked in red just for any extra special stupid player out there.

That's not how we roll in Detroit. The disturbed woman depicted is Detroit Internal Affairs police officer Angelica Robinson, who is currently (probably not happily) married. Officer Robinson was having an affair with Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee. She posted the picture of herself with her city issued sidearm on her twitter account. She learned that Chief Godbee (who is married but proceeding to divorce) allegedly was also dipping his nightstick into another woman. I don't know if the other woman is also a Detroit Police Officer. I wouldn't be surprised. To paraphrase Moe Green from The Godfather, no wonder we can't get police response in Detroit. The chief was banging officers two at a time!

Godbee only became DPD Chief when the previous DPD Chief Warren Evans was forced out for having a relationship with yet another police officer, Monique Patterson. Evans and Patterson were single during their dalliance. Godbee, who is a minister, was also seeing Patterson. Godbee got the gold mine (promotion to Chief) while Evans got the shaft. So when news of Godbee's troubles first hit, Evans was obviously, shall we say, somewhat less than sympathetic.
Video below:

Detroit doesn't need more bad publicity. So Godbee is no longer DPD police chief. Whether it was a firing, tantamount to a firing (asking for a resignation), or an actual resignation is really something that is only of interest to Godbee and the Pension Board. Occasionally there are different consequences for pension and severance pay depending on how you leave. I couldn't care less. He's out (retired).

What I do care about is that at this time Officer Angelica Robinson has been cleared to return to duty and has been given her gun back. This seems wrong to me on at least two levels. Firstly, unless she is going to allege some sort of sexual harassment, extortion or rape, Robinson was a willing participant in whatever she and Godbee did together. If Godbee didn't scream, she didn't holler. Apparently there is no written policy in the DPD against supervisor/subordinate relationships. On a local radio show other officers questioned Robinson's assignment to Internal Affairs and hinted she was unqualified for the position.

She has no right to make snide comments or judge Godbee or really say anything about him. She was doing wrong herself. She calls him a "sex addict" but if so then evidently she was the dealer. Godbee lost his job for setting a poor leadership example. Robinson should lose hers as well. If you are a Detroit police officer who discovers corruption, shocking idea I know, are you going to take that information to Internal Affairs, knowing that Internal Affairs is LITERALLY in bed with upper management? Is Robinson the sort of sober and judicious person you want in Internal Affairs? She can't handle her own internal affairs. This delicate flower and paragon of purity is now supposedly planning on suing the City of Detroit. Again.

Secondly, what ever happened to the idea of everybody plays the fool? Maybe Robinson got played. Maybe. But she really played herself. She was checking out but someone else was checking in.  Robinson didn't mind cheating on her husband but lost it when she thought Godbee was cheating on her? Since when does that entitle you to angry self-righteousness? Since when does that mean you put a photo of yourself on social media sucking on the business end of a pistol? Should that really be the public perception of the Detroit Police Department? Not only are they telling people that the city is too dangerous to visit but they're threatening suicide? I really don't want suicidal people given weapons and the awesome authority of a police officer. Because when they decide that it's their time to go they might decide to take me with them. And it might not be my time to go.

Questions:

1) If you're cheating with someone, can you really get upset if they're cheating with someone else?
2) Does Officer Robinson (who has sued the city before over wanting (paid) light duty for pregnancy) have any legal case against the city?
3) Should Robinson be fired?
4) Is it ever okay for a workplace supervisor and subordinate to be intimate?

Book Reviews-Charisma, The Long Fall

Charisma
by Steve Barnes

Charisma is both a thriller (but NOT a horror novel) and a hidden essay on nurture vs. nature and success or failure. If you've read Barnes' blog or listened to his radio show this book will seem extremely familiar. Barnes has an intense interest in self-improvement, intelligence, and the process by which boys and girls become men and women with healthy self-images and strong vibrant bodies. Evil, for lack of a better word, is whatever seeks to retard, pervert or prevent that maturation. Evil creates adults who have warped internal messaging and faulty reality maps. There are also a few characters who seem to be fractured reflections of Barnes himself. Across the country a group of mostly minority children at, approaching or just past puberty are showing signs of advanced intelligence. This is not expressed solely in terms of book smarts, but in the ability to read people, to anticipate future events and to swiftly solve real life problems.

The kids also have unnatural reflexes and a certain physical grace normally only found among peak level professional athletes. Many were involved in a day care scandal years ago. They remember little and their parents don't seem to know what happened either. The children have similar nightmares. They are almost psychically in tune with one another, even when they've never met. Many are devotees of the legendary Japanese Samurai Musashi and try to apply his teachings to their everyday life. I hadn't heard of Musashi before I started reading Barnes some years back so it was interesting to see a novel posit a realistic method for how the knowledge contained in Musashi's The Book of Five Rings can apply to the lives of people today. For example:

Those who sincerely desire to learn my way of strategy will follow these rules for learning the art:

1. Do not harbor sinister designs. Think honestly and truthfully.
2. The Way is in training. One must continue to train.
3. Cultivate a wide range of interests in the ten skills and ten arts. 
4. Be knowledgeable in a variety of occupations, and learn the thinking of people who work in them.
5. Know the difference between loss and gain in worldly matters.
6. Nurture the ability to perceive the truth in all matters. It is important to build up an intuitive judgment and understand true values.
7. Be aware of those things which cannot be easily seen with the eye. Develop intuitive judgment and a mind that freely controls one's body.
8. Do not be negligent, but pay attention even to the smallest details. Keep them in mind all the time, so as to avoid unexpected failure.
9. Do not engage in useless activity. Do not argue about useless things. Concentrate on your duties.

This is not (just) a coming of age story. There are many different protagonists. Renny Sand is a print journalist and would be novelist. After his story about CIA involvement in inner city drug dealing fell apart in lies and bad sourcing, he was demoted to his newspaper's backwaters, one step above gossip columnist. Renny is frustrated and lonely. He thinks he's missed his chance to make his mark. He covered the day care scandal. He decides to do a follow up "where are they now" human interest story. His motives are not 100% professional. Renny is attracted to Vivian Emory, a beautiful Washington state costume store owner who is the mother of Patrick Emory, a perceptive boy who was involved in the scandal, and the soon to be ex-wife of Otis Emory. Otis is a huge dockworker who accepts that he's losing his wife but remains extremely protective of his son, Patrick. Otis has had a few run-ins at work with the even larger Cappy Swenson, a violent racist and criminal biker. Patrick is on Cappy's radar. This is not a good thing.

Renny learns that his newspaper's late owner, one Alexander Marcus, may have had some connection to the day care scandal. Alexander Marcus had almost superhuman accomplishments. He was a black business mogul, war veteran, civil rights financier and adviser, supreme athlete and warrior who was considering a Presidential run before his untimely death in a plane crash. His elderly mother and a few trusted associates keep his memory alive and run his various businesses and foundations.

In a small Arizona town a retired elderly Secret Service agent named Kelly Kerrigan, who was assigned to Marcus' security detail and knows a few things about him doesn't get along with Tristan D'Angelo, who is town Mayor and served in Vietnam with Marcus. D'Angelo is the type of person who looks at you in a certain way and makes your kidneys stop working. D'Angelo doesn't like Kelly and likes her husband even less.

Renny discovers some things about Marcus which he doesn't want to know. Guardians of Marcus' legacy will kill to keep these secrets. There are conspiracies within conspiracies here. There is nothing supernatural. Charisma examines some personal horrors, including but not limited to racism and child abuse. The book's biggest question is how do we improve human performance? Are some people just dumb by nature? Can environment and training make people grow and change? Whatever your thoughts may be I doubt that this book will change your mind. You may be more open to ideas though.

Charisma reminded me of some of Stephen King's or Dan Simmons's works because much of the story takes place from children's POV. If you are sensitive to depiction of endangered children be aware that that happens in this story. The book was ultimately worthwhile but was just a tad longer than I liked.

The Long Fall
by Walter Mosley

The Long Fall is a metaphor for the protagonist's life. The title immediately reminded me of Milton's Paradise Lost. What if the Devil wanted to repent? Could he?

Now Leonid Trotter McGill (L.T. to associates) isn't the Devil but he's still in a moral pit. He's an amateur boxer and NYC private investigator who has spent most of his professional life working the shady side of the street. He probably wouldn't have pulled the trigger on you himself but if a Mafia captain wanted you found, Leonid would find you. If an unscrupulous prosecutor (or defense attorney) wanted evidence planted or removed, Leonid would arrange it. If someone wanted their spouse compromised, Leonid would happily produce an apartment, seducer and camera. You want an anonymous quote placed in an investment journal or on a website in order to move the stock market? Talk to Leonid. Leonid knows all of the slimy fixers, attorneys, mob hitters, pimps, etc that exist in Gotham. Money is what interests Leonid. He's got a million aliases, thinks fast on his feet and packs a mean left hook.

But now he's trying to go straight. After a scheme victim killed herself, Leonid's long dormant conscience awakened. He's having bad dreams and ruefully remembering what his father, a Black Nationalist and Communist, tried to teach him about brotherhood and solidarity. Leonid resolves only to take straight investigation jobs-those that don't involve breaking the law (very much), harm innocent people or help kill anyone.

So when a new assignment ends in a murder, Leonid won't shrug and move on. He wants to find out who hired him and why. He calls in a few solids owed and pulls the strings of some important people. When someone tries to kill him in his own office it becomes very personal.

I like Mosley's style. In his books the hero often has a naturally violent and rather unstable partner he can call upon in his hour of greatest need (Mouse, Fearless Jones, etc.)
Here that partner is Hush. Hush is white and skinny where Leonid is black and stocky. But Hush also happens to be the most feared assassin on the East Coast, someone who makes other vicious killers mess their pants. If Hush wants you dead, you will be dead. You may go quick and easy or you may go slow and painfully but you will go. Hush never misses. Capriciously, Leonid once did Hush a tremendous favor. Hush has not forgotten. He is a man that Leonid can rely upon. All the same, Hush makes Leonid very nervous. Mosley writes "Sitting next to Hush was like sitting next to a King Cobra who had slithered up to the bar stool and declared that you were his friend. You might not like the company but you certainly weren't going to turn your back or make any sudden moves".

Leonid also struggles to do right in his personal life. From moral obligation he remains in an almost totally loveless marriage with his wife, Katrina, who is repeatedly described as blonde, Nordic, and beautiful (I imagined Heidi Klum or Christie Brinkley) and completely incapable of fidelity. Katrina has produced three children during the marriage but only one of them is Leonid's. Snicker. It's unclear as to which spouse started cheating first. Leonid still maintains a friendship and maybe more (?) with his own girl Friday. The only reason that Katrina still remains with Leonid is because her last sugar daddy fell on financial hard times. At Katrina's age, Leonid might be her best remaining option. Can you imagine a spouse or significant other looking at you and pretending sincerity while you see through them? To keep the peace you then pretend not to notice their falseness. That's Leonid's marriage.

Ironically the child with whom Leonid is closest, Twilliam (Twill), is not his own. The teen aged Twill is going down the same amoral path that Leonid travelled. Leonid works to keep an eye on Twill's schemes and keep him out of deeper trouble. Meanwhile, ignoring Leonid's desire to go straight and unconcerned with who tried to kill him, some organized crime "friends" want Leonid to do a favor for them, just like the old days. And these aren't the sort of people who like to repeat themselves.

This is a quiet descriptive book that is occasionally punctuated with bouts of conflict and violence. I liked it but could have used a bit more action. It's written in first person. Leonid constantly describes himself as somewhat short and a tad overweight (he's 5-8) but he never backs down from a fight. He grew up in an orphanage after his parents died and from his description anyone who tried to punk him or push him around ended up either missing a few teeth or worse. He works out daily and boxes weekly. There aren't really any classical heroes here. Leonid, despite his turn towards the light, remains a morally gray person, but then protagonists in these stories usually are. Good stuff.

Affirmative Action, Education, Stuyvesant High School

The Supreme Court will shortly start its new term. It is going to take up yet another affirmative action case. Hopefully The Janitor will have a post on this with his normal attention to historical and legal detail. I want to talk about educational affirmative action from a slightly different and rather painful aspect. First things first. I am a strong supporter of workplace affirmative action. I have seen too damn many people get hired, groomed, and promoted for reasons that have little to do with qualifications. I actually did pretty well on standardized tests and naively had a belief that advanced degrees and skill sets mattered. I was shocked to learn that other things matter much more. Does your boss like you? That is really the greatest single factor on whether or not you're going to succeed in your job, though perhaps not your career. I have performed superhuman feats for bosses who for whatever reason didn't like me and didn't find my diligence worthy of reward or even notice. Other times I have been less than heroic but still received strong support and encouragement from bosses that liked me. Go figure. Since blacks and whites generally live apart and inhabit separate social worlds is it really possible for whites to judge blacks fairly? Can I get a fair evaluation at work from someone who, outside of the work environment, does her best to avoid people who look like me?

My career has occasionally suffered because I'm not plugged into certain (white) social networks. You need to know which assignments to take or decline. You need strong allies not only among your peer group but also among higher level managers. Otherwise, you can spend years grinding away and then look up and wonder why people with similar or less education and experience have zoomed past you. I sometimes think it would be wise for workplace promotions, hiring and assignments to be based on standardized aptitude testing. Either you know the material or you don't. There would be no more worries about losing promotions to a peer whose husband is a business partner of a higher ranking boss or to another peer who plays golf with your direct boss. Yes both of these things happened to me. It seems I am still peeved. Snicker. Of course companies would HATE this idea because it would prevent managers and company officers from hiring and promoting as they see fit. Managers might correctly argue that a workplace test alone doesn't provide enough useful information about the person's professional competence. If the below people all pass the test, should they be promoted?

• Someone who ignores basic American hygiene standards and makes people scheme on how to avoid sitting next to him in meetings?  
• Someone who dresses like she's working a street corner and has her peers making weekly bets on how much leg or chest she will show?
• Someone who falls asleep in meetings or at their desk? 
• Someone who refuses to travel even though the promotion requires travel?
• Someone whose accent is so bad that few people can understand him and everyone makes fun of him behind his back?
• Someone who knows her theory but freezes in crisis or when reality and theory clash?
• Someone whose first response to any idea is always negative and who enjoys spreading bad news? 
• Someone who is expert in his field but is also a loud profane bully that delights in humiliating people who make mistakes and picking fights just for fun?
• Someone who gets in a squabble with a subordinate and then makes fun of that person in front of their children?

And yes these are all real life examples with which I am directly familiar. So in the workforce, where there are other considerations besides pure knowledge, a single test isn't the best way to determine aptitude. I might have to concede that.
But in an academic arena, shouldn't pure knowledge be the ONLY consideration? And if so, what is the best way to measure that knowledge? Or should there be other things besides knowledge taken into account to measure academic success?

NYC's Stuyvesant High School has been in the news recently for a couple of reasons, neither one much good. A number of kids were caught cheating. Stuyvesant is a hyper-competitive school in which only the best of the best are admitted. Admission is based solely on a standardized test which is used by the eight top schools in NYC. Stuyvesant has the highest cut off. Stuyvesant has a student body which is, shall we say, different from the usual demographics of NYC schools. The school is roughly about 72% Asian and 25% Caucasian. This has resulted in some people trying to tip toe around some unfortunate implications while others snicker and glory in same. Recently a group of apparently mostly Black and Hispanic civil rights and educational groups decided to file a complaint with the Department of Education. Their claim is that use of the test violates the 1964 Civil Rights Act because it causes racial disparity. I think their heart is in the right place but I'm not sure I can support their framework here. I remember occasionally having teachers in college or before who radiated contempt for black people. Few things were more pleasurable to me than to score among the highest in the class or correct them when they were wrong. There is something wonderful about objective knowledge. No matter how much someone might believe in black inferiority, they can't stop you from succeeding educationally. As I wrote above I wish I still had that clear approach in corporate life. I think it is approaching shamefulness to make a public argument that amounts to "this must be discrimination because I'm not good at it". Obviously the Caucasian and Asian parents don't wish to change the admissions criteria because their children are succeeding under the rules. Manjit Singh's statement is likely reflective of his parents' thoughts as well.

The test-only rule has existed for decades, as have complaints about its effect on minority enrollment. In May 1971, after officials began thinking about adding other criteria for admission, protests from many parents, mostly white, persuaded the State Legislature to enshrine the rule in state law.  Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said at a news conference on Thursday that the schools were “designed for the best and the brightest” and that he saw no need to change the admissions policy or state law. “I think that Stuyvesant and these other schools are as fair as fair can be,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “There’s nothing subjective about this. You pass the test, you get the highest score, you get into the school — no matter what your ethnicity, no matter what your economic background is. That’s been the tradition in these schools since they were founded, and it’s going to continue to be.”

When asked the uncomfortable question of why the racial imbalance existed, some students mentioned the intensive tutoring services that are out of reach of poorer families. But others did not hesitate to say that they believed the family culture of Asian and white students put a higher value on educational achievement than others.

“African-American and Hispanic parents don’t always seek out extra help for their kids and their kids don’t score as high,” said Manjit Singh, a senior. “But it’s the same test for everyone, so how can it be discriminatory? If you can’t handle the test, you can’t handle the school, and you’re taking up someone else’s spot.”

Noah Morrison, a senior who is black, was not ready to change the policy, either, but he agreed that “there needs to be more racial diversity at this school.”
“There are no black people and it’s horrible,” he said. “The test is fine, but there need to be more opportunities for people to do well on it. There need to be more test-prep programs in underachieving middle schools with high black and Latino populations. It’s a socioeconomic problem.”

Ms. Miles, for her part, said the city needed do a better job disseminating information about the test and the free preparatory programs available. The city’s Education Department has been offering such a program, with weekend and summer coaching sessions to promising but disadvantaged sixth graders — and, this year only, seventh graders — for more than 20 years. Its original mission was to increase the number of blacks and Latinos, but after a legal challenge in 2007, income became its main eligibility criteria. Since then, however, the program has shrunk —2,800 students attended in 2008, down from 3,800 two years before — and even among those who participated, black and Latino students were far less likely to take the entrance exam than Asians and whites.

So it's rough. There is a question then about why Black and Hispanic students aren't doing as well on the test or even taking the test as often as Whites and Asians. I think there are a number of reasons for that which need greater discussion than we can do in just one post. Poverty, single parent homes, hunger, exposure to lead based paint, low birth weight and other factors all have impact on educational achievement. But the big factor here and one I have struggled with myself sometimes upon entering the cold cruel corporate world is living up (or down) to stereotypes. Henry Ford once said "Whether you think you can or you can't, you're right".  Dr. Claude Steele, Shelby Steele's twin brother, has done some research which confirms Ford's off the cuff observation. And not only are black people watching too much television but media often subtly or not so subtly tells black people that they aren't worth s***.

And if you don't think that the attempt to succeed will make any difference in your life because of false stereotypes and very real racism in the job market and the justice system, then you might want to protect your ego by not even trying. After all, being admitted to a competitive high school in NYC won't stop the NYPD from harassing and insulting you if you happen to be Black or Hispanic. Hearing "I don't care if you are an A+ student, put your black a$$ against the wall!!" would tend to mess with your equilibrium.

It also comes down to just doing the work. This isn't easy. But if you believe that people are basically the same, then you have to accept that work can get you where you want to go. We all have different gifts. There are few people who can play professional sports or have the patience for delicate lab work in physics or biology or can sit down and create new music or so on. But when you go to a concert and see someone play a guitar for three hours without a mistake or go to a basketball game and watch someone seemingly defy gravity it is worth remembering that you are watching the end result of years and years and years of hard work, competition, dedication, and insane drive. Academics aren't any different.

So my solution to the Stuyvesant issue is not to file a federal complaint of racial discrimination. I don't think that is warranted here. My solution is to change the culture, put down the video games, turn off the television and hit the books. And as I support affirmative action I think that there must be more public and private partnerships to identify and nurture talented Black and Hispanic children, convince them that they can succeed and give them all the training and then some that they need for the test. Success is their heritage not failure. If WEB DuBois could get a Ph.D. from Harvard in the 1890s, near the nadir of American racism, today we have no reason to let a little high school admissions test stop us. Because the Manjit Singhs of the world aren't going to have sympathy for you.
I usually do my grocery shopping in an area close to the U-M engineering and physics schools. The demographics have changed rather significantly since I went to U-M. There are a lot of East Asian nationals and Asian Americans who have settled nearby and work or attend school. They've evidently put in the work to get those jobs or attend the classes. So go and do likewise ladies and gents. Go and do likewise. Game on.



Questions:
Is there a valid Federal racial discrimination complaint here?
Why aren't there more Blacks and Hispanics attending the best schools?
Should disparate impact be removed as a possible racial discrimination cause?
What sort of school reforms do you want to see implemented?
Do you think intelligence is racially based?