Friday, March 03, 2006
revised April 4th 2011
Mayor Bloomberg is an Asshole
So like I went out last night to see
Sophia Ramos and her band @ a
small pub in lower Manhattan and she ROCKED da house.... but that's not the
point of this post....
the guy at the door asked me for ID... now a mature gentleman of my age
shouldn't be asked for "proof" so, I just had to ask him wassup with the ID
checking? is this like a homeland security thing? and he says, no it's
Bloomberg... gotta check everybody... and we talked about this for a minute.
apparently the city is "cracking down" on all these little clubs, hitting them
with fines, citations and violations for the smallest ridiculous stupid shit
that they can find or make up an excuse for. Bloomberg is squeezing out all
these cool little clubs and pubs that makes New York a great place to hang out
and selling the space to his cronies so they can convert them into more of those
overpriced chic velvet-rope discos for Truly Fabulous Snobs & Queers.
one club he told me had to close down and another was just hit with $3000 in
fines. They got fined because some people were dancing! So I asked him, don't
you fight it? take it to court and plead not guilty - demand a trial! and he's
like no, we just pay.... I'm like... whaddya mean you just pay. this is a
shakedown! this is harassment! you have to harrass them back! fight it!
otherwise they're just gonna keep doin' it! I know my way around a courtroom. I
know the legal system is a game, the judges are all pimps, the lawyers are all
whores and the rest of us are johns. it's all a big shakedown to them. and if
you don't play the game they WILL fuck you.
at this point the fellow was NOT into continuing this conversation - which is
something I really don't get - this fellow would rather bend over and take it up
the ass then even talk about standing up and fighting. that is sad and pathetic.
and what's really sad is that most club owners just go along with it - they
don't want to be hassled.
And it's not just the clubs - NYC police are harassing everybody - slapping
people with fines for sitting on the stairs, putting a bag of groceries on the
seat in the subway... any excuse they can make up. The NYPD have become gov't
licensed bandits who prey on the innocent but are too lazy to go after bad guys
'cause that might entail hard work.
This is the same Mayor who hosted the RNC and had THOUSANDS of people arrested
for no reason at all, rounded up like sheep and corralled into a filthy bus
depot for days with no phone call, no access to lawyers, not even charged with a
crime.
and what do people do? they pay the fines..... WHAT THE FUCK PEOPLE! FIGHT
BACK!!!
is this not like the abused child who has been beaten or raped his or her whole
life? The abused child just bends over and takes another beating whereas a
"healthy" person would fight back.
IF YOU DON'T FIGHT BACK IT WILL JUST GET WORSE
(revisions start here)
OK you ask - how do you fight back? start with two simple words:
NOT GUILTY
You demand a trail - get a court date. Regardless of how serious (or not)
the charge(s) are, fight each one to win. Fighting the little tickets will
help you gain experience for more serious ones ( and there will be more). You
won't win every time, but you'll win some. Sometimes you can win on
technicalities. For example, you can win on "speedy trial" defense when the city
fails to give you a trail date within a certain time period.
(N.Y. C.P.L. §30.30 Speedy Trial; Time Limitations) Learn the city
codes and rules. Study case laws with previous similar cases. There are lots of things that lawyers get paid to do that
you can do yourself if you do the research. Go into that courtroom ready
to defend you case, not to beg. Don't worry about pissing off the judge. NYC
Judges are not going to be nice to you no matter how nice you are. Judges,
or administrative hearing officers, or judicial hearing officers, will try to
trick you. You have all sorts of rights that they hope you don't find out.
Even if you lose a case, you still win in the long run. you've tied up city time and resources. You've choked up the court calendar. You're not going to facilitate Mayor Bloomberg's bully squad of enforcers as they abuse the public for the purpose of revenue generation. You want to make it as difficult as possible for them to shake you down, to the point where it's no longer cost effective for them to pick on you.
Business owners! and every other New Yorker! Cast off this victim mentality and take up a spirit of fighting back! Show the mayor that will we will not idly stand by and allow you to steal from us unchallenged. Only then might there be a possibility that law and code enforcement officials might abandon the practice of legalized bullying and instead use their resources to actually fight crime. (what a concept!)