It could be because I’ve been watching a lot of MSNBC and I’m following Cop Block on Face Book, but it seems to me there are a lot more instances of police brutality than there were before. Some commentators are even calling it the “militarization” of America’s police. Why shouldn’t they call it that? Innocent people are being shot, choked, and beaten to death for minor reasons and the police officers who are committing these heinous crimes are getting paid vacations instead of jail time. The US Department of Justice is truly an oxymoron these days.
With the police getting more brutal these days, is it any surprise in 2002 System of a Down released a song called “Mr. Jack”? You know the one I’m talking about. “Put your hands up, get out of the car! Fuck you, pig!” That’s the one. You can always count on System of a Down to satisfy your musical needs whenever you’re pissed off at those in power. They may be on an indefinite hiatus as of 2005, but their legacies as hardcore liberals aren’t going anywhere.
It’s a good thing that I have “Mr. Jack” on my computer, because police corruption happens to be one of my berserk buttons. In other words, it makes my brain explode with raw anger. My distrust of corrupt cops came at an early stage in my life. Don’t worry, they didn’t beat me or jail me or anything like that. It was the little things that annoyed me the most.
In 2001, a cop called my house wanting to know my father’s phone number or at least some way to get a hold of him. My dad blew some steam off at one of my mom’s friends and was being investigated for it. Of course, I didn’t know my father’s number off the top of my head, so the cop at the other end said, “Not being very helpful, are you?” No, I wasn’t, because I refuse to testify against my own family.
In 2002 on two different occasions, I was walking the streets at night as a way to clear my head of all the drama of living with schizophrenia (though I didn’t know the diagnosis at the time). Both times I got stopped by the police despite never having committed a crime. Apparently, walking the streets at night made me look very suspicious. Oooo!! Street walking! The cops in both scenarios asked me a bunch of questions and patted me down for weapons or drugs, neither of which I had because I’m not a sociopath.
Yes, these are stupid things to be angry at. I’d even dare say they’re small potatoes. But I was a teenager, so blowing things out of proportion wasn’t anything new to me. This is Mr. Anti-Conformist here, I knew everything in those days. Maybe I wasn’t mad at the actions of the cops so much as I was mad at the fact they thought I was a criminal and didn’t trust me. That’s part of why I hate reading news stories about police brutality. It could have happened to me at any time, but it didn’t, and I’m grateful for that.
There are plenty of songs out there that give the middle finger to the police, isn’t that right, NWA? “Mr. Jack” is one that attacks corrupt police instead of the levelheaded ones. Bill Maher said it best: if we had no police, real life would be a lot like “The Purge”. So let’s keep the good ones around and throw the shitty ones in jail. If prisons are supposed to be for-profit these days, then let’s grant the drug users their freedom and replace them with the corrupt cops. Serj Tankian and Daron Malakian are onboard with this. Are you?
What does all of this “Mr. Jack” sentiment mean for my writing? It’s simple: if I want to indulge in a fantasy of getting revenge on the corrupt cops, I have to make it as realistic as possible without sounding psychotic. I’ve made psychotic remarks about the police before and basically made an ass out of myself. My Drama 101 teacher said it best: peaceful intervention is more effectively historically than violent intervention. Isn’t that right, Gandhi? Isn’t that right, Martin Luther King? How about you, John Lennon, do you agree? I definitely have plans to do a revenge against authority novel sometime in the future. In the meantime, I’ve got plenty of short stories in this genre to go in “American Darkness 2: Live In Fear”.
To close off this blog entry, when I say “Put your hands up, get out of the car!”, you say, “Fuck you, pig!”
Put your hands up, get out of the car!
Put your hands up, get out of the car!
Put your hands up, get out of the car!
Put your hands up, get out of the car!
Fuck you, pig!
Fuck you, pig!
Fuck you, pig!
Fuck you, pig!
Put your hands up, get out of the car!
***COMEDIC QUOTE OF THE DAY***
“Legally drunk. If it’s legal, what’s the fucking problem? Leave my friend alone, Officer, he’s legally drunk!”
-George Carlin-
As someone who spends his days waiting for rides to the grocery store and figures to come up on my Deviant Art, Good Reads, and Smash Words accounts, I can appreciate how crippling boredom is. “Lonely Day” by System of a Down happens to be about boredom. But to me, it holds a very special meaning. Back in 2006, I had a best friend on Deviant Art named Colleen. The two of us were working on a tandem novel together. I don’t share my workload with anybody, so that said a lot about how much I valued Colleen’s friendship. It was my turn to write a chapter and I chose to do a dream sequence where one of the main characters, Morgan Gat, was at a high school dance. Everybody was dancing in each other’s arms and in some cases making out…except for Morgan. Morgan got all dressed up in fancy clothes, bought a bouquet of flowers, and showered with Axe products. You know who he did this for? Anybody who would pay attention to him. When nobody wanted to dance with him, he got frustrated to the point of boiling hot blood and salty wet tears. He did something that no high schooler should have to do: he went outside and dropkicked the bouquet of flowers into the parking lot. After the flowers covered some distance, Morgan caught up with them again and began double-stomping them until they were ripped to shreds. Everybody stuck-up girl inside that gymnasium did the same thing that night, except with Morgan’s heart. And then there was Colleen’s character in the parking lot. For the life of me, I can’t remember the character’s name, but she did something that touched Morgan’s heart in a profound way. She slow-danced with him to “Lonely Day”. “Such a lonely day should be banned. It’s a day that I can’t stand.” It was the most magical moment that could ever exist between two people. Years later, though, the novel would be scrapped due to inactivity and even further into time, Colleen broke off her friendship with me when she got a new Deviant Art account and blocked mine. What motivated Colleen to hate me all of the sudden, I’ll never know. It must have had something to do with the fact that I would continually call her “Colleen-Pie”. But is that really a reason to break off a beautiful friendship with someone? Thanks to her, “Lonely Day” has a brand new meaning to me. In addition to the boredom I feel at home, I also feel betrayed by Colleen and rightfully so. Even so, I will not let a good storyline go to waste. In my short story queue for the WSS group on Good Reads, I still have the flower kicking gimmick and it’s still going to take place at a high school dance. But this time, we’re going to do it right. It’s going to be one of my masterpieces, with or without Colleen.
***TELEVISION QUOTE OF THE DAY***
“This week on Cheaters, John discovers that his barista girlfriend is putting the cream topping on another man’s coffee.”
-Bob Magruder narrating “Cheaters”-
I’m not going to lie. “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky was such a beautiful story that it hurt me. The journey that Charlie went through and the love and friendship he found through all the hardships hit me like a Mike Tyson punch to the heart. It hit me so hard that I needed comfort music afterwards. But where in my music collection would I find it? Would it be “Remember Everything” by Five Finger Death Punch? How about “Because of You” by Kelly Clarkson? Or maybe I’m looking for “Kiss” by Korn. None of those would do because they’re too angsty. I didn’t feel angst after reading Stephen Chbosky’s masterpiece. I needed something that was both beautiful and emotional, just like the book. Come on down, Serj Tankian, and bring a copy of “Deafening Silence” with you. Why this song in particular? I’ll explain. I’m sure that after the events of “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”, Charlie will go on to do great things and he’ll rekindle his love with Sam. In stark contrast, after my own journey through high school and college, all that was left for me was something that Serj Tankian and his wife sang about for the album Harakiri: “Deafening Silence”. Silence from my old friends, silence from my family, silence from complete strangers, and silence from anybody looking for faithful and hardworking employees. But of course, I can’t do what Serj said and “paint you with my tears”, because I haven’t cried since 2007. I’ve been sad lots of times since then, but I’ve never had the urge to just let the tear ducts flow like a monsoon. Charlie, on the other hand, cried many times over the course of Stephen Chbosky’s story. He cried when he was happy, he cried when he was sad, and sometimes he just cried because he was so emotional all the time. To say that I envy Charlie wouldn’t be quite accurate. It’s a little petty to be jealous of a fictional character. Nobody watches The Expendables and becomes jealous of Sylvester Stallone. Those that do end up going to Iraq or Afghanistan to get their heads blown off. While I may have no jealousy toward Charlie or his friends, it doesn’t change the fact that the silence still exists and that it still affects me deeply every day of my life. To commemorate this lack of noise, I’ve got a copy of “Deafening Silence” by Serj Tankian handy on my MP3, on my computer, and on the original CD. If you haven’t heard the song yet, go to You Tube and find it. It’s absolutely gorgeous. In fact, if “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” had been set in the early 2010’s instead of the early 1990’s, I’m sure Serj Tankian’s masterpiece would have been included in the soundtrack.
***FACE BOOK POST OF THE DAY***
“You know your life is boring when you have something to do tomorrow and you set your alarm for eleven in the morning.”
-Me-
If the thought of cute, cuddly, fuzzy animal babies being brutalized disgusts you, then “Superman For the Animals” will either be one of two things for you. It will either be a call to arms against animal cruelty or a series of brutal images to shy away from and save for another reader. Either way, this comic book will disturb you. You probably don’t even have to be an animal person to be disturbed by the disgusting shit that happens to these defenseless critters. The main character, a shy teenager, hangs out with a bunch of kids led by a sociopath who tortures animals just for fun. This leader of the pack shoots a dog in the leg, kicks pigeons out of the way, suffocates a goldfish, and would have dumped a cat off of a highway bridge if it hadn’t been for Superman’s intervention. Despite being the title character in this story, Superman is not the main hero as one would expect him to be. It’s the shy kid who joins the group that ends up being the most productive hero. He eventually has to learn to stand up for these animals and not rely on superheroes to do it for him. Standing up to your enemies is hard enough. Standing up to people you consider your friends is even worse. If it can be done, though, the person will be stronger for it. One way or another, the animal torturing teenager needs to be stopped. Surely, you would like to see some justice done toward this sociopathic kid, right? Don’t get your hopes up to high. The worst that happens to him is that he’s forced to see a therapist to sort out his fucked up mind. As an animal lover, I believe this is not enough. That kid needs to be locked up in prison for the rest of his fucking life. If he’s willing to do this to cute, cuddly critters, imagine what he’ll do to humans if given the opportunity. That’s normally the first step for serial killers: they start off with animals and slowly progress to killing humans. If you’re not going to read this comic for the harsh justice that needs to be served, you can at least read it to see the main character grow into a respectable human being. In order to redeem himself for hanging out with an animal torturer for this long, he goes to a pet shelter and volunteers his time there. Superman wasn’t going to make this choice for him, but he did steer him in the right direction. Sometimes all we need is a little push.
***LYRICS OF THE DAY***
“I loved you in the sunshine. You chase the moon with a spear. Tardy afternoons in utopia. Kiss an ugly turtle and make it cry. Sever the head of cornucopia. We rape the earth and don’t know why it strikes. Do you believe in stormy weather? Hurricanes play musical chairs with homes and chattels. The whirling dervish tornados reek all disaster. See-saw tsunamis, give and take, what’s the matter?”
-Serj Tankian singing “Cornucopia”-
