BAD COP? BLAME THE BOSS

Focus on the bad behavior of the street cop.

Then, focus on cop's background: Bad Cop!

Cop's fault, end of discussion.

Not!

Who the fuck hired, retained, and then assigned the killer cop to the kill zone?

Answer: Superior officers.

In a virtuous world, supervisors are responsible for the actions of their subordinates. That's why they get higher pay.

It's the supervisor's job to hire suitable officers, tell them what to do, praise good performers and discipline or remove bad performers.

Sometimes, rarely, bad performers are removed.

But, almost never is the supervisor disciplined, or even named, when a bad cop does bad things.

It's pretty much the same as molester-priests whose bishop's moved rather than sacked them.

It's hard to fire someone. Especially when it's not your money that's paying them.

If you don't have the courage to look a subordinate in the eye and tell them they're fired, you should not be a supervisor.

I hate to say it, but Vatican ass kicking makes Pope Francis look pretty.  He fired the head of the Swiss Guard!

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PUBLIC DEFENDERS

The absurdity of District Attorneys prosecuting police misconduct is finally dawning on some of media's less dumb pundits.

Possible solutions, except for Federal intervention escape these empty, but still talking, heads.

Here's an easy solution I haven't heard mentioned.

Add "public prosecutor" to the duties of Public Defenders.

Just as every jurisdiction has a District Attorney, every jurisdiction has a Public Defender.

The usual mission of the Public Defender is to represent indigent criminal defendants.

Many PD also advocate for fairness and against perceived unfairness in the criminal justice system.

As such, Public Defenders are the only unconflicted officials who oppose police and prosecutorial misconduct. In a way, that's already their job description.

The bureaucratic structure is already in place, we simply need to add a few more lawyers, "public prosecutors," to the Public Defenders' offices. The only targets of these public prosecutors would be public employees who commit crimes against members of the public, especially police officers.

Who knows the most about police misconduct? Who knows the most about prosecutorial misconduct? Public Defenders.

"Public Defenders" could be the answer to the age old question of who will police the police.

Since public defenders are elected by the same voters who elect district attorneys, there's no guarantee that police will be prosecuted. But at least it would provide a mechanism that would make such prosecutions possible.

Now we have none.

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JASON COLLINS

The way in which Jason Collins re-entered the NBA as its first openly gay player illustrates the importance of sexual orientation in team sports:

Zero.

It wasn't, "Let me play even though I'm gay."

It was, "I'm gay and I can play."

Nearing the end of his career, no NBA teams picked him up after his "I'm gay" announcement.

Then, mid-season the Brooklyn Nets had a vacancy in their roster.  They looked around, and found that the very best person in the world available to fill that vacancy was Jason Collins.

So they signed him.

Because they needed him.

By the way, there's still a glaring vacancy in pro sports: who will be the first white player to come out?

It's like, Do black folk have to do everything???

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"WORDTINGLE"

Recently responding to a despairing poet, I promulgated a new definition of poetry:

Poetry is wordtingle.

Here is my current view of poetics.

I think you are attached to the words/notions, "poem" and "poet."

I suggest you abandon those terms completely; they are limiting your perspective.

Substitute the term, "wordtingle." (Call me a German, I smash words together.)

Almost nobody who is not a participant in the poetry industry buys poems. (By participant I mean students, teachers, critics, publishers, and would-be poets themselves.)

There is a huge audience for wordtingle.

Let me suggest: "Word combinations so beautiful they make you tingle."

Rather than say, "I'd like to recite a poem I wrote recently," say, "Here are some words that (I hope) will make you tingle."

It's a high bar. It's a very high bar.

People hate "poetry" because most things that are called poems simply don't make them tingle.

(BTW: Viewing a great painting makes me tingle.)

Nobody seeks out haikus. But write a beautiful prose sentence with the haiku-number of syllables and people will like it. They might even repeat it. What is gained by breaking it into three lines except to deem the sentence "precious"?

A poem is an utterance repeated word-for-word for aesthetic purposes. A poem is like a toy--a toy gains life only when a child plays with it, a poem, only when it's repeated.

Abandon verse. Write only prose. Write only sentences that obey the rules of grammar and syntax. Read every sentence aloud many times. Modify each sentence until it sounds really good.

Continue this process until the utterance makes you tingle. If it doesn't make you tingle, why would you foist it on someone else as "poetry"?

Clarity of meaning allows us to relax and enjoy the sound.

Every sentence must make perfect sense, AND sound really good.

Summary: Forget "poetry." Write beautiful sentences instead. Apply/publish them in everyday discourse and media.

People praise beauty all the time.

Willie

BTW: This email is written in what I call "e-verse." People hate (and won't read through) paragraphs on computer screens that are any longer than those above.

(c) Copyright 2014 William Morrissey All Rights Reserved.

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DON'T BUY OBAMA'S BOOK

If Barack Obama has anything interesting to tell us about his administration he should tell us now, for no charge, as part of his duties as president.

I would bet it all the Barry is already negotiating a series of books, memoirs, about his presidency, and what he really thinks about things.

This is part of his post-presidency income plan.

Another thought.  Do you own, or do you know anyone else who owns a copy of Obama's previous two books?  I don't.

How many copies has Penny Pritzker bought?

You know Penny... she's US Secretary of Commerce.  In our blockaded congress Penny's nomination sailed through the Senate almost unopposed and almost unreported.

She's Barry's billionaire.  Every politician needs a billionaire. Plutocracy!

Has Penny been storing all those copies of her princess' books? Or has she already pulped them?

Note: Barry is as yet just a "Penny's Princess." Their deal is he becomes a Prince only when he cuts Social Security.

If nobody buys Obama's post-presidential books, maybe somebody will notice when Penny has to buy them all.

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