Free Republic

I grew out of it by my senior year . . .

I envy you. I was dorking around till I was 30.

Kind of silly. He survived the first four years, didn’t he? Hey, I was not happy when Obama was elected, and could hardly believe it when he was re-elected. But I didn’t melt down.

That evangelicals remark is the only one I’m worried about.

This is an older account that I rarely use, but I am still here.

Most universities are exactly like this. About 96% liberal seems to be the average.

How about uncovering this stunning revelation: many young black and Hispanic men don't get to school or to interviews or to jobs on time. Many do not know how to set a clock, whether it's a wind-up or an iPod. The concept of "time" is murky and inexact in their minds.

I came here to say this. In fact, I am almost afraid to, but here it is: I work in a place with 22 co-workers. We are a mixed bunch, 3 black, 9 white (2 of whom are Jewish), 1 Asian, 10 Hispanic. It's always the black and Hispanic ones who are late. Late for work, late for meetings, very nebulous lunch hours... more absentee-ism... I don't know what it is about us white people, but to us, "be there at 8am" means "be there at 7:45," and calling in sick is something we only do if there is blood, vomit, or a protruding bone concerned.

When we get sent off for training, the white ones are always there first. We're like compulsive. And I am literally nervous at admitting that I have noticed this. But I can't help noticing it! My black and Hispanic co-workers are warm, wonderful, friendly, nice people. But DAMNED if you can find them sometimes.

What she did was reprehensible but it makes me think whether she was truly committed to her act. Someone who panicks and detonates early might indicate desperation on the part of the Palestinians and their recruiting efforts. Perhaps they are running out of the maniacally-committed types who will do everything they can to take as many as they can with them.

Good point...

Within a decade, Jews will be majority-Republican.

Wish y'all'd hurry up.

The key is Marxism. Marxism has infiltrated the Black community to such an extent that it has become part of the African-American identity. But while you can (and must) be essentially Marxist to be African-American, it is something that Jews tend to leave Judaism in order to embrace. Perhaps because they embraced it first, when the emphasis was on scientific socialism which-- in science's battle against religion-- was adamantly atheist.

But in introducing it into Christian society, it was easier to graft it on rather than try and replace. Now, because of this, the enemy of Marxism is always that which stubbornly resists either replacement or grafting. That would be Zionist Judaism. Thus the Marxist Christians, being African-Americans and many Catholics, the JINO Marxists, and the Marxist Muslims (yes, I know in some places and times they've been deadly enemies. But they're bedfellows now, aren't they?) are pitted against that one stubborn group who will not succumb, backed by the stubborn WASPS who have crafted a new, uniquely American Christianity that revers individualism too much to fall into collectivism.

Fight, Israel. Fight.

I noticed that too, he claimed to have been questioned without his lawyer about terrorism... but it doesn't show up in his blow-by-blow account. We only see him talking to his THREE lawyers.

Hey, I just thoughta somthing! ANWAR BOSTIC (K) Good handle for a Bosanian al-qaida boy, ne c'est pas? Maybe the FBI oughta check out the poet-lawyer-actor's story. The terrs do need ID! (And our young friend some counseling)

Moreover, early in the story he claims to have been questioned about terrorist activities.... but never mentions it again in the blow-by-blow account.

So let's look at the whole thing without the melodramatic, unnecessary details:

Saturday night, November 23, 2002, I was pulled over on the Bruckner Expressway because of a broken taillight. The police officer who ran my license claimed I had multiple warrants out for my arrest. I was searched, then handcuffed.

We went to the 41st Precinct, where I was fingerprinted and had my mug shot taken. No one ever told me what charges were on the warrants that bore my name. I was not allowed to call a lawyer.

Note he doesn't say he wasn't allowed a phone call, but that he wasn't allowed to call a lawyer. Had he already used his phone call?

Day 2 Sunday, November 24 I was taken to an interrogation room. A court-appointed attorney walked in (an employee of the Bronx Legal Aid Society).

If he could afford a lawyer why does he have a court-appointed lawyer? Is he trying to say he wanted to call his own lawyer but they made him accept a court-appointed lawyer? If so, why isn't this described further?

Inside the courtroom, he explains again that he doesn't know about the 3 warrants. His lawyer requests new prints. She asks that he be taken back to his cell until he can be reprinted. (This seems a reasonable procedure.)

Twenty minutes later, I was once again in the interrogation room. This time, Alison Webster, a slender blonde attorney also employed by Bronx Legal Aid, came in and sat across from me. (she takes over the case.) Then she flipped through my file. "This doesn't add up," Webster said. (His interview answers don't jibe with the rap sheet so she thinks he's lying/nuts) I told her that if she checked my fingerprints, she would see my real background. ... Since I was interviewed on 60 Minutes in 2001 about the first incident, I have had more than a dozen cases of identity theft. Funds have been removed from my bank account; credit cards obtained with my Social Security number have been maxed out.

Kind of late to tell us this. Also, wouldn't this have been one of the FIRST THINGS he'd have told the police and both lawyers? And where is his family by now? Why haven't they shown up?

Later that same day .... The judge gave me a $50 ticket for having a busted taillight. (Months later he learns that his license had been suspended and confiscated because the DMV had failed to process records proving insurance coverage for his truck.) But why doesn't the judge address the suspended license? If it's not cleared up till "months later" wouldn't he still be "driving on a suspended license?"

But there were still three warrants for my arrest, one of which included a felony charge of grand larceny. The judge said I would have to return to Manhattan Criminal Court for another hearing. He set bail for me. My family arrived that evening with the money. The clerk counted out $3,000, then apologized.

"I'm sorry," she said. "We don't have any more bail receipts. Mr. Bain will not be able to go home with you today." The prison was out of paper. So I spent another night in jail.

Well, that sucks, but it's just wild incompetence, not a plot.

Day 3 Monday, November 25 Before the sun came up, I was among a dozen or so inmates chained together to board a bus for Rikers Island. Just before we pulled off, I overheard a senior officer change our destination to ... "Vernon C. Bain Correctional Center." ... We were ordered to strip naked and prepare for cavity searches. (Bummer.) At dawn, I was taken with several inmates to the criminal courthouse in Manhattan. A well-dressed young attorney, Eric Williams, introduced himself to me.

Now he has a new, third attorney. Court-appointed? Not court-appointed? Does this mean he got his phone call?

Williams asked the court for my prints and photos, but his request was denied. He told Judge Robert M. Stolz that this was the seventh case of identity theft I had experienced since I was unjustly arrested two years prior....

Stolz ordered the delivery of the arrest photos and fingerprints just before the afternoon recess. He ordered me released on my own recognizance, but I was told to return after lunch. I was then taken back to my cell to sign release forms. Three documents were handed to me. One had my name printed on it, and the others had the name "Anwar Bostick" typed above my Social Security number. I refused to sign the release forms. "You'll sign them if you want to get out of here," a guard said. Another officer agreed. "Anwar Bostick is your alias," the second officer informed me while flipping through the forms. "Are you refusing to sign this? Because if you are, you'll just have to sit in jail and wait until whenever they get around to calling you back to court."

I refused to incriminate myself. They ignored the judge's ruling that I be released, and returned me to a basement holding cell.

The officers did the wrong thing and he did the right thing. As a result, he spent lunch hour in jail. That, too, is a bummer, but not unlike something that happened to me in the military once, and I'm white.

After lunch, a captain and lieutenant for the Department of Corrections showed up to settle the dispute. Following a lengthy debate, it was discovered that my signature was not even necessary.

Okay. So. Where's the rest of the story? Did he go back after lunch to clear up the 3 warrents? Did his prints and photos show he's the victim of identity theft and was he let go? Is this the end of the story?

Okay, here's another bit:

Williams asked the court for my prints and photos, but his request was denied. He told Judge Robert M. Stolz that this was the seventh case of identity theft I had experienced ... Stolz ordered the delivery of the arrest photos and fingerprints just before the afternoon recess.

So this is all in the same day. The attorney asks for prints and photo. The judge thinks it's just a stalling technique. The attorney explains he's been the victim of identity theft and the judge changes his mind, it looks like immediately (since these initial hearings are generally pretty prefunctory.) I don't see anything peculiar or ominous about this.

Most of what makes the story seem like such a Kafka-esque nightmare are his peculiar interjections of "such-and such has refused to comment" which function as dark hints of conspiracy, along with the weird details and little extras that may or may not be true, like the prisoner being beaten because he refuses to be strip-searched.

Okay, let's go through this a bit at a time:

It began with a familiar request: "License and registration, please." ....With the requested documents in hand, Officer Caraballo and his partner returned to their vehicle.... I was searched, then handcuffed. .. The partner removed the wallet from my pocket and rummaged through its contents. He confiscated my driver's license, ....

This makes it sound like the license was removed from the wallet, but the earlier paragraph states that he had already handed over the license. Now, maybe it's just bad writing, but...

Amiri Baraka, Move 9? You just showed you true colors Byronn

Mm hmm. I'm surprised the cops weren't all named Goldberg and Kowalski.

My hinky meter went off about 1/3 down the diatribe.

Mine too. There's something about how he goes from active to passive voice at key places that tells me some things are being left out. Scenes start and then are not finished. We come into conversations in the middle... very NYPD Blue.

I have to wonder how the Blame-Dubya-First crowd is explaining the bombing of the Belgium consulate in Morocco.

Yeah, it's probably a troll, but if not, yay, you know?

How do you ladies get all these photographs every day?

"Instead of fearing being labeled pedophiles, we must proudly proclaim that sex is good, including children's sexuality … we must do it for the children's sake."

stopped here... dizzy... nausea...