Entries Tagged 'Assorted' ↓

I almost broke my face from smiling so hard:

JBelle to her father:

“I want Clinton to win…wait, no I want Obama to win!”

“Why’s that?” he asks.

“Because I want to be the first girl president!”

Let’s talk about those two servers who were shot at, one grazed by a bullet to the head, after chasing restaurant patrons who skated on their Joe’s Crab Shack bill in Fisherman’s Wharf. The report from CBS 5 states:

[A] group of four people were eating at Joe’s Crab Shack at 245 Jefferson Street around 10 p.m. on Sunday. Two women in the group got up and left, followed shortly by the man and a 17-year old male. All left without paying.

The SFPD said two female servers followed the two males for several blocks before confronting them in the 600 block of Bay Street. That is when police said 36-year-old Marcel Waldron allegedly turned around, brandished a gun, and shot at the workers.

Two female servers pursued to male customers for several blocks? Then confronted them? Does this seem unequivocally dangerous to anyone?

Please note that these servers worked for a chain restaurant, Joe’s Crab Shack. I point this out because I spent many years working for chain restaurants as I put myself through college. It was a soul-sucking experience in many regards. I felt my spirit crushed when I was working those jobs because, despite being paid $2.13 an hour by the company, servers were expected to do things like clean off the clock on their day off or work for ten hours without a break. I was also told, by more than one chain eatery, that if anyone “dined and dashed” on their tab that I was responsible for the bill.

Restaurants say this for a reason. It would be very easy for any server anywhere to pocket the cash left by a table of four then claim that the diners skated on the tab. The managers informed us that those diners were our resposibility, and that if they managed to take off without paying then we were not in control of our sections and did not deserve to work on the floor. And people did skate. It didn’t happen very often, but sometimes. It was mostly kids. Or the occasional con artist. But every time I saw it happen the server from that table would bolt out the door looking for the cheapskate. Rarely did they catch up to them, but sometimes they did. Personally, I confronted a man who skated on his tab and he acted as though it totally slipped his mind, then he paid up. But he could have reacted any number of ways, which is made obvious by this account.

So, I have to wonder if the managers at Joe’s Crab Shack encouraged those servers to confront the diners who dashed. It was pretty much a mandate at the places I worked. And I can’t help but think that asking servers to take on those people–off the premises–is dangerous. (There was always debate amongst the server staff as to whether making servers pay for meals that went unpaid was even legal.) I thought of calling the restaurant to ask if they ordered those servers to confront the guy who shot at them, but I doubt I would make much headway.

Any of you ever work in restaurants that encouraged this behavior? It’s not something the public at large would know about, but ex-servers are plentiful. Speak up in the comments and let me know your experience with this, if any.

[cross posted at Eye on Blogs]

• Headline of the day: Oakland trade school teaches how to grow pot (Slideshow!)
• This is what I want for dinner.
• Tennessee Helpless Against New Basement Tornadoes:
  

  “All we can say for certain is that unfinished basements are twice as likely to develop tornadoes,” said Allan Boyer, a controlled meteorogist at the National Storm Prediction Center in Norman, OK. “Also, when residents leave their washing machines and dryers running it creates the ideal environment for tornadoes, because of the extra spinningness it causes in the air.”

• Yes, sir. I mean you.
• My friend is a badass copywriter for woot.com. Glad to see him get the recognition he deserves. His work is consistently brilliant.
• Plants that Twitter when they need to be watered [via molly, who needs a blog. nahtzee.com is available.]
• Narcissism of small differences:
  

  The term describes the manner in which our negative feelings are sometimes directed at people who resemble us, while we take pride from the “small differences” that distinguish us from them.

• Not what it seems cam
• Star Wars according to a 3-year-old:
• Been raped? They take cash or credit.
• “In other words, Eastern Market is kind of a magical place.”
• Heh:

There is only one semicolon in the entire piece, and it is not in the sentence about which this article was written. Delightful.

Thanks to Laura Creekmore for the link.

Time-lapsed video of a foggy, then sunny, then foggy again day, in Berkeley, California:

A Day in Berkeley, CA from brittney gilbert on Vimeo.

I cannot stop laughing at this website Stuff White People Like. I think it’s because I am white.

“If there has to be a bloodbath, then let’s get it over with.” -President Ronald Reagan

I had some inkling of an idea about the story behind The People’s Park, but I had no idea the extent of that scary situation in 1969 just a few miles from where I sit right now:

During its first three weeks, People’s Park was enjoyed and appreciated by University students and local residents alike. Telegraph Ave. merchants were particularly appreciative of the community’s efforts to improve the neighborhood.^[9][10] Objections to the expropriation of University property tended to be mild, even among school administrators.

Governor Ronald Reagan had been publicly critical of University administrators for tolerating student demonstrations at the Berkeley campus, and he had received enormous popular support for his 1966 gubernatorial campaign promise to crack down on what was perceived as the generally lax attitude at California’s public universities. Reagan called the Berkeley campus “a haven for communist sympathizers, protesters and sex deviants.”^[11]

Reagan considered the creation of the park a direct leftist challenge to the property rights of the University, and he found in it an opportunity to make good on his campaign promise. Reagan decided to put an end to People’s Park, and he proclaimed “If there has to be a bloodbath, then let’s get it over with.”^[12]

Governor Reagan overrode Chancellor Heyns’ May 6, 1969 promise that nothing would be done without warning, and on Thursday, May 15, 1969 at 4:45 a.m., he sent 250 California Highway Patrol and Berkeley police officers into People’s Park. The officers cleared an 8-block area around the park while a large section of what had been planted was destroyed and an 8-foot tall perimeter chain-link wire fence was installed to keep people out and to prevent the planting of more trees, grass, flowers and shrubs.

Beginning at noon, approximately 3,000 people jammed into nearby Sproul Plaza at U.C. Berkeley for a rally, the original purpose of which was to discuss the Arab-Israeli conflict. Several people spoke, then Michael Lerner ceded the Free Speech platform to ASUC Student Body President Dan Siegel because students were concerned about the fencing-off and destruction of the park. Siegel said later that he never intended to precipitate a riot; however when he shouted “Let’s take back the park!,” police turned off the sound system.^[13] This angered the crowd, and they responded spontaneously, moving down Telegraph Avenue toward People’s Park chanting “We want the park!”^[14]

Arriving in the early afternoon, protestors were met by the remaining 159 Berkeley and University police officers assigned to guard the fenced-off park site. Protestors opened a fire hydrant, the officers fired tear gas canisters, some protestors attempted to tear down the fence, and bottles and rocks were thrown. A major confrontation ensued between law enforcement and the unruly crowd. Initial attempts to disperse the protestors were not successful, so more officers were called in from surrounding cities.

Reagan’s Chief of Staff, Edwin Meese III, was a former district attorney from Alameda County, where he had established a reputation for firmness in dealing with those protesting the Vietnam War at the Oakland Induction Center and elsewhere. Meese was put in charge of governmental response to the People’s Park protest, and he called in the Alameda County Sheriff’s deputies, which brought the total police presence to 791 officers from various jurisdictions.^[11]

In keeping with Governor Reagan’s “bloodbath” statement, the police were given carte blanche to use whatever methods they chose against crowds that swelled to approximately 6,000 people. Officers in full riot gear (helmets, shields and gas masks) obscured their badges to avoid being identified and headed into the crowds with nightsticks swinging.

The most aggressive were the Alameda County Sheriff’s deputies—later dubbed “The Blue Meanies“—who resorted to using shotguns loaded with “00″ buckshot. “00″ buckshot consists of lead pellets that are much larger, and thus more lethal, than the birdshot that is occasionally used for crowd control. The Alameda County Sheriff’s deputies used shotguns to fire “00″ buckshot at people sitting on the roof at the Telegraph Repertory Cinema, fatally wounding student James Rector and permanently blinding carpenter Alan Blanchard. Neither man was a protestor.^[8]

As the protestors retreated, the Alameda County Sheriff’s deputies chased them several blocks down Telegraph Avenue as far as Willard Junior High School at Derby Street, firing tear gas cannisters and “00″ buckshot into their backs as they fled. At least one tear gas cannister landed on the school grounds^{[citation needed]}. Many people, including innocent bystanders, suffered permanent injuries, some with as many as a hundred lead pellet wounds in their scalps, necks, backs, buttocks and thighs. One man, John Willard, lived for years in intractable pain with lead pellets lodged near his spine.^{[citation needed]}

At least 128 Berkeley citizens were admitted to local hospitals for head trauma, shotgun wounds, and other serious injuries inflicted by law enforcement. The actual number of seriously wounded was likely much higher, because many of the injured did not seek treatment at local hospitals to avoid being arrested.^[15] Many more protestors and bystanders were treated for minor injuries. Local hospital logs show that 19 police officers or Alameda County Sheriff’s deputies were treated for minor injuries; none were hospitalized.^[16]

The authorities initially claimed that only birdshot had been used as shotgun ammunition. When physicians provided “00″ pellets removed from the wounded as evidence that buckshot had been used,^[17] Sheriff Frank Madigan of Alameda County justified the use of shotguns loaded with lethal buckshot by stating “… the choice was essentially this: to use shotguns—because we didn’t have the available manpower—or retreat and abandon the City of Berkeley to the mob.”^{[citation needed]} Sheriff Madigan did admit, however, that some of his deputies (many of whom were Vietnam War veterans) had been overly aggressive in their pursuit of the protestors, “as though they were Viet Cong.”^[18][19]

Governor Reagan declared a state of emergency in Berkeley and sent in 2,700 National Guard troops—ironically some Guardsmen were student protestors called to active duty.^[11] The Berkeley City Council voted 8-1 against the decision to occupy their city,^[20][21] however this vote was ignored. For two weeks the streets of Berkeley were barricaded with rolls of barbed wire, and freedom of assembly was denied as National Guard helicopters sprayed tear gas on anyone who gathered in more than small groups.

On Wednesday, May 21, 1969, a midday memorial was held for student James Rector at Sproul Plaza on the University campus. Rector had suffered massive internal injuries from his shotgun wounds, finally dying at Herrick Hospital on May 19. In his honor, several thousand people peacefully assembled to listen to speakers remembering his life. Without warning, National Guard troops surrounded Sproul Plaza, donned their gas masks, and pointed their bayonets inward, while helicopters dropped CS gas directly on the trapped crowd. No escape was possible, and the gas caused acute respiratory distress, disorientation, temporary blindness and vomiting. Many people, including children and the elderly, were injured during the ensuing panic. The gas was so intense that breezes carried it into Cowell Memorial Hospital, endangering patients, interrupting operations and incapacitating nurses. Students at nearby Jefferson and Franklin elementary schools were also affected.^[8][22]

During the occupation, National Guard troops were stationed in front of Berkeley’s empty lots to prevent protestors from planting flowers, shrubs or trees. Young hippie women taunted and teased the troops, on one occasion handing out marijuana-laced brownies and lemonade spiked with LSD.^[8] A few stripped to the waist and danced for the young recruits, who tried to hide their smiles from superiors. Citizens who dared ask questions of National Guard commanders, or engage them in debate, were threatened with violence.

A curfew was established, and protestors jumped fences after dark to plant flowers in the guarded lots. Guardsmen destroyed the flowers each morning. Protestors, their faces hidden with scarves, goaded and harassed police and National Guard troops. Hundreds were arrested, and Berkeley citizens who found it necessary to venture out during curfew hours risked police harassment or beatings.

The battle lines were drawn, Flower Children versus The Establishment; the conflict mirrored widespread 1960s societal tensions that tended to flow along generational lines regarding the war in Vietnam, race relations, sexual mores, women’s rights, traditional modes of authority, experimentation with psychedelic drugs and opposing interpretations of The American Dream.^[23]

On May 30, 1969, 30,000 Berkeley citizens (out of a population of 100,000) secured a Berkeley city permit and marched without incident past barricaded People’s Park to protest Governor Reagan’s occupation of their city, the death of James Rector, the blinding of Alan Blanchard and the many injuries inflicted by law enforcement. Young girls slid flowers down the muzzles of bayonetted National Guard rifles,^[24] and a small airplane flew over the city trailing a banner that read, “Let A Thousand Parks Bloom.”^[25][26]

The events at Berkeley during May, 1969 foreshadowed an even more violent confrontation in Ohio less than a year later. On May 4, 1970, the same societal tensions that precipitated “Bloody Thursday” erupted once again at Kent State University in an incident that came to be known as the Kent State Shootings. There, National Guardsmen armed with high-powered rifles fired without warning into a crowd of students protesting the bombing of Cambodia, killing four students and seriously wounding nine.

No police officers, Alameda County Sheriff’s deputies or National Guardsmen were disciplined for their actions. The violence at Berkeley and Kent State did, however, cause America to reexamine its conscience with respect to its treatment of disaffected American youth. The next few years brought an end to the Vietnam War and the flowering of a broad array of societal changes: minority rights, women’s rights, citizen review boards for law enforcement, less lethal crowd control methods and an increased tolerance of public dissent and diversity in American life.

Courtesy of the TN GOP spokesman.