The Next Big Trend in vaping is actually a very old idea: cigarettes that heat tobacco to produce an inhalable aerosol, but never reach the point of combustion, thus avoiding that sketchy part of smoking where you light something on fire and suck the smoke into your lungs.
Austrian filmmaker Andreas Sulzer claims to have found Hitler's 'largest secret weapons research facility' following information contained in US intelligence reports describing a massive underground tunnel system excavated in granite near the Mathausen-Gusen concentration camp.
NASA has had some truly bad luck lately, underscored by the cancellation of an ambitious balloon mission due to a leak last week. Even Opportunity, the decade-old Mars rover that has surprised everyone by exploring for more than a decade after its mission ended, is showing signs of slowing down. Now, NASA has a plan to hack it.
[body_image width='2000' height='1357' path='images/content-images/2015/01/02/' crop='images/content-images-crops/2015/01/02/' filename='the-nypd-is-finally-taking-a-break-102-body-image-1420221117.jpg' id='15279']
Photo via Flickr user Mark Wyman
December saw New York City on edge to an extent it probably hasn't been since 9/11. Ignited by the decision to not indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo in the chokehold death of Eric Garner, the city has been swallowed protest, counter-protest, death, and despair, culminating in what has become a political showdown between Mayor Bill de Blasio and the NYPD, with the rest of us in the middle unsure of what to do.
The murders of Detectives Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos in mid-December was when things really started to get weird, a validation of many of the sentiments I heard at the pro-cop rally the night before it happened: that de Blasio is a menace to the city's police force, that his "defense" of the protests has been dangerous, and of course that he should resign, effective immediately. Now that the two officers are dead, the mayor is to blame; he has "blood on [his] hands," as Patrick Lynch, the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association chief, said the night of Liu and Ramos's death, arguing the mayor stirred the pot of protest that eventually led to the deaths of the two officers by acknowledging he'd talked to his black son Dante about the cops.
If you've searched "de Blasio" on Twitter since then, you'll find that he was (and still is) being accused of everything from direct to indirect murder. The NYPD is reportedly looking into 63 threats made just this week against the mayor and the police. It's a grim scene, for sure. But more than anything else, this past week will go down as when the cops shifted from symbolic protest—turning their backs on the mayor—to actually packing it up and not doing their jobs.
A quick glance at the numbers tells the story. As Rocco Parascandola of the New York Daily Newsreports, citywide summons issued this past week numbered just 2,128, compared to 26,512 a week earlier. In that period, exactly one summons was issued in the 84th Precinct, where Liu and Ramos were stationed—just one.
The most logical culprit here would be Lynch, the police union provocateur who unsuccessfully talked with the mayor as recently as Tuesday. It was rumored that a memo was passed around NYPD precincts this week, advising rank-and-file officers to join in on the slowdown. However, the union has denied any involvement, and, from what I've heard, this may be more about fear than politics.
"[There's] just not motivation," one police officer told me. "I'm not writing people summonses if I have a chance of getting my head blown off." When asked if this was his own choice or a precinct-wide initiative, the officer added, "Seems like the entire department is on the same page."
(I've reached out repeatedly to the NYPD and the mayor's office, but they have not yet responded.)
Regardless, the NYPD is no longer arresting people at the rates we are used to, particularly when it comes to low-level infractions. So once we put the politics aside, what we're left with is a protest of the mayor who defended the Black Lives Matter demonstrations inadvertently meeting one of those very demonstrators' central demands: pausing " broken windows" policing and its emphasis on quality-of-life crimes like selling illegal cigarettes. In other words, this temporary cessation of force, whether it's political or not, provides us with a momentary glimpse into what New York City would look like with a modern approach to crime, one that reflects NYC's turnaround since the 1990s.
In Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn—the neighborhood where Detectives Liu and Ramos were gunned down—that difference has been felt in real-time. As Batya Ungar-Sargon reports in the Daily Beast, residents have noticed a far different NYPD, one that's less intrusive and more observational. "They just walk around, they ride in their patrol cars, and they just pass by," one resident told the reporter.
"The reported offenses they aren't enforcing as much are [mostly] not criminal offenses: parking violations, urination in public, public intoxication, as well as some marijuana possession. Do we really want over 4,000 people a week locked up for peeing behind a dumpster?" Marc Krupanski, a program officer at the Open Society Justice Initiative, asked me. "The police sources have stated police are not making 'unnecessary arrests.' This should be a good thing!"
Krupanski also argues that this is why he believes it is a union-backed effort; these arrests are key to NYPD Commissioner William Bratton's ideology, so why would he order them to stop? In a statement, Bob Gangi, the head of the Police Reform Organizing Project, made the case that some police officers actually enjoy the work stoppage because they no longer have to make arrests that disrupt communities. Which begs the question: Why are they making those arrests in the first place, especially if those same arrests can be reduced by 66 percent without—from what it seems in these early days—much in the way of Mad Max–style chaos?
"We speculate, though we have no hard evidence, that some officers are pleased to engage in this ostensibly anti–de Blasio protest because they have never been comfortable with having to enforce 'broken windows' law enforcement," Gangi added. "It engenders anger and distrust in the community and puts their physical well-being at risk."
However, unlike Gangi, other reform groups were not as welcoming to the work stoppage. Joo-Hyun Kang, director of Communities United for Police Reform, one of the main organizing groups behind the recent protests, sees the move as an attack rather than an alternative universe for New York City. And the culprit? Lynch's police union.
"Unfortunately, police unions have a long history of personalizing attacks on mayors and blocking police reform that many New Yorkers support. This apparent work stoppage is part of a larger effort to obstruct and oppose much-needed change to the NYPD," Kang said in a statement. "By continuing to obstruct and oppose necessary changes at the NYPD, the police union leadership's divisive tactics are making it clear that they are not acting in the best interests of New Yorkers, including police officers. These tactics will backfire. In fact, they already have."
But this era of lesser law enforcement is almost certain to be short-lived; if coordinated, it's hard to imagine the work stoppage will last much longer into 2015. As the editorial board of the New York Times(and plenty of other prominent local voices) instructed, the cops will eventually go back to their jobs. Once they do, Gangi hopes change can come the good ol' fashioned way, rather than via hatred of the mayor.
"While we welcome the drop in petty arrests and summonses, we greatly prefer that it came as a result of lasting, meaningful, and systemic reforms put into place by Mayor de Blasio and Police Commissioner Bratton," he said. "Such a step would enhance safety and justice in our city and provide benefits to our police officers and all New Yorkers."
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i like how its englAND scotLAND ireLAND
wales
Every family has a Rebel
Can we also talk about the Welsh flag
Fuck you I have a dragon
"IT’S NOT A PHASE, ENGLAND! THIS IS WHO I REALLY AM!"
"I don’t even know a sport that has dolphins and giants in it"
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In the world of music biopics, pretty much every seminal artist from every genre has been covered at least once or twice…except in the world of hip hop. For whatever reason, the genre has not been paid much big screen attention, and that’s why one of 2015’s most anticipated films for music fans will be the N.W.A.-based “Straight Outta Compton.” As a project worked on by the surviving members, fans in Australia actually got a preview of the film during a live performance by Ice Cube, and the results were…interesting.
Directed by F. Gary Gray, it appears that Cube himself will be the films’ primary focus, and he will be played on screen by his son, O’Shea Jackson Jr. The other two roles we see a lot of in the preview are Jason Mitchell as Eazy-E and Marcus Callenderas as Dr. Dre, both of whom bear more than enough resemblance to be passable in the visual sense. The preview also shows Paul Giamatti looking different, and the brief dialog seems compelling enough.
Yet as is often the case, both MC Ren and DJ Yella are pretty much left out in the preview, which is rather odd as the former is responsible for the vast majority of amazing lyrical work on the films’ namesake, as well as a number of other iconic N.W.A. tracks. The reality is, while he may not be as well known a name in the mainstream, MC Ren remains one of the most highly respected emcees by other rappers, and hopefully he will play a fittingly strong role in the film.
Assuming “Straight Outta Compton” stays true to the actual story of the group, fan should expect to see their early days as Panic Zone (with member Arabian Prince), the worlds of controversy that surrounded them most of their career, as well as the massive in-fighting that occurred between members over the way finances were handled. There’s no doubt that the tragic passing of Eazy-E will also be covered to some extent, as N.W.A. had more than enough wild moments to fill a film.
Set to be released on August 14, 2015, one can only hope that the film does proper justice to one of the most important groups in the development of hip hop music, as there are few emcees, DJ’s or producers in the current scene that would be around had it not been for N.W.A’s pioneering work.
Watch the fan-shot preview below:
Joel Freimark hosts a daily music-related webseries HERE and you can follow his daily music musings and suggestions HERE as well.
BridgetThis is the weirdest poll
There are many awesome things about L.A., including our coast line, mountains and global food. Sometimes the people, though, especially transplants, don't make that list of local goodness.[ Read more ]
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There's going to be more art in more places in Los Angeles this coming year. The Broad Museum plans a fall opening on Bunker Hill.…
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In ten years, Thinkspace Gallery in Culver City has accumulated quite the family- over 100 artists strong. Commemorating their 10th anniversary, opening January 10th, their artists will come together for an unprecedented group show. Featured here are contributions by Troy Lovegates, So Youn Lee, Keita Morimoto, Scott Listfield, Mark Dean Veca (Vol. 23), Dalek aka James Marshall (Vol. 15), Brett Amory (Vol. 20), Ryan Hewett, Kwon Kyung-yup (Vol. 24), Henrik Aa. Uldalen (Vol. 24 cover artist) and Sarah Joncas.
LA Confidential, Zach McCaffree
