My Neighbor, Bernard Geotz

[j44ke]

Bernard Goetz evidently lives somewhere on my block here in NYC. I realize now after looking at his photos online that I see him pretty regularly. Not someone you would notice unless maybe he was on fire. But somehow he managed to get himself arrested for selling MJ to an undercover cop. It sounds like the amount was pretty small. But even though Bloomberg ordered NYPD to stop arresting people for simple possession (too expensive,) selling to an undercover cop probably screws that up for you a bit.

Meanwhile a few hours later over in Union Square (a block away,) some guy got beaten nearly to death (now evidently brain dead.)

[sbornia]

My brother used to rent an office on Union Square, and saw Bernie in the building regularly...with a pet squirrel on his shoulder.

[maunahaole]

That must be a comforting feeling.

[lukasz]

Get the feeling violent crime is being over-reported in the past few weeks in an attempt to smear de Blasio (which, of course, makes no sense if you think about it--but that's asking a lot of people)?

I also wouldn't be surprised to see some interesting police directives from 2013 coming out of NYPD archives in a few decades.

[Rosko]

There's a feature length documentary about squirrels called "200% Tireder" which features Bernie nursing a baby squirrel - around 1:01:28 ?

[bcm119]

you would think the NYPD would have better things to do than bust Bernie for selling a little weed, wouldn't you? I suppose that was your point, and if it was I completely agree.

[Mabouya]

Whatever you do, don't ask him for a cig and a few bucks.

[vertical_doug]

you would think the NYPD would have better things to do than bust Bernie for selling a little weed, wouldn't you? I suppose that was your point, and if it was I completely agree.

Except the drug comes from somewhere. It is a little weed for Goetz, but as a consumer, he helps drive the larger illegal drug trade.
You can't rationalize that small drug use isn't harmful. It may not harm the end-user(questionable with more potent varieties) but along the trade route, it is definitely harmful.

[al415]

The NYPD may well have a new directive to not arrest for simple possession (a disorderly persons offense) but "selling a little weed" is Distribution and thus an indictable (or Felony) charge.

[Saab2000]

Except the drug comes from somewhere. It is a little weed for Goetz, but as a consumer, he helps drive the larger illegal drug trade.
You can't rationalize that small drug use isn't harmful. It may not harm the end-user(questionable with more potent varieties) but along the trade route, it is definitely harmful.

This is why it needs to be legalized IMHO. I know that's a whole nuther ball of wax but I strongly believe that most illegal substances should be legalized. It would allow the production and distribution to be controlled. Consumption is going to happen whether it's legal or not.

I don't consume so I have no dog in the fight. No skin in the game. ;-)

Alcohol was illegal in the US once too. That didn't stop people from drinking.

[j44ke]

I agree - selling drugs is bad. The drug trade disproportionately infects the poor while supporting the recreational habits of the upper classes. And if you are dealing, then you should be busted. We've been trying to keep the small time dealers off our block with only occasional assistance from NYPD. So now they are helping and they've arrested a dealer. Okay, good. I am not trying to argue against interdiction.

But Goetz is a sad-sack leftover from the era Chief Kelly is warning everyone will return if he and his officers aren't allowed to stop every non-white man in the city and search him for guns. So this whole thing just feels like a set up. It is too perfect. Except that the city is slippery. They arrest Goetz and someone else gets their brain bashed out. That's the third fatality in Union Square this year, one of the more public of spaces in the city. Like Lukasz says, someone somewhere is trying to make a political point, but they are so focused on trying to make that point that other things are slipping in around the edges.

Today is marathon day. One of the best days in the whole year in NYC. If you've never been to NYC, try at least once to come for marathon week. Yes, it is crowded, but it is great. All these people from all over the world. As the theme for our attempt to get the Olympics here went, New York City is where everyone has home field advantage. Nice day to be in New York. Never a simple day - always complicated - but a nice day nonetheless.

[Bobonli]

Is it possible you're reading too much into this? Maybe he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and it is not some scheme to make the police look good.

Stop and frisk and profiling in general works, but people don't want to admit it because they are afraid of being branded a racist. Other countries that we would consider democratic profile, and they don't apologize for it. The TSA is doing it right now at LGA and JFK and every other airport, but somehow it's nasty when the NYPD does it?!? And I bet they are profiling and S&Fing people along the marathon route, too.

I agree that the city is all too often "all in" on one type of enforcement, while ignoring other shit happening in plain sight, like people running over pedestrians/cyclists while texting or attacking people in the parks. You're right: it's complicated.

[j44ke]

Is it possible you're reading too much into this? Maybe he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and it is not some scheme to make the police look good.

Stop and frisk and profiling in general works, but people don't want to admit it because they are afraid of being branded a racist. Other countries that we would consider democratic profile, and they don't apologize for it. The TSA is doing it right now at LGA and JFK and every other airport, but somehow it's nasty when the NYPD does it?!? And I bet they are profiling and S&Fing people along the marathon route, too.

I agree that the city is all too often "all in" on one type of enforcement, while ignoring other shit happening in plain sight, like people running over pedestrians/cyclists while texting or attacking people in the parks. You're right: it's complicated.

Of course. Happenstance and coincidence are multitudinous feature of a city of multitudes. Chaos has a pattern to it. And Goetz is an idiot. Ironically, given the level of safety in the city now and his history of danger aversion, he may have been lulled into a false sense of security and thought so little about the possible dangers of selling drugs to a stranger that he ended up getting busted by an undercover cop.

I am sure stop and frisk does work. In fact, I know it works. To take it to the extreme, if the police stopped everyone when they left their apartment each morning and checked them for weapons, there would be a reduction in weapons in the city. Or if the police knocked on everyone's front door and searched their apartments, they'd probably reduce the number of weapons in the city even further. But we've decided as a democracy there are lines drawn to ensure privacy and maintain individual freedoms. The way stop and frisk is implemented, and the training the officers who implement it receive, has everything to do with where we decide those lines should be drawn. There was a huge power grab after 9-11 by municipal police forces all over the US, and we are just starting to unpack what that power grab means. A lot of the things that police do now in the name of security make their jobs easier and perhaps more successful. Whether it makes the city a better place or a safer place for everyone who lives there is what is being debated now. And I think the goal is to become a better city, not merely a safer city.

I don't accept the black and white argument that we either have one thing or the other. New York tends to gravitate towards those binaries because the immense scale of the city almost demands that sort of blatant over-simplification for things to get done. The reality is that New York City is a tremendously nuanced, infinitely equilibrium-seeking environment. People in New York City don't move through the city - they negotiate their way through the city. And that is what I like more than any other thing about this city - this continuous, almost perpetual negotiation, in the city about what the city is going to be and how we are going to do things, where can we go, where are the limits, what is important, what is fair, what is responsible, what is reprehensible....

[chasea]

Krokodil tears?

[sonnybiker]

bernard geotz? never heard of him.

[bcm119]

Except the drug comes from somewhere. It is a little weed for Goetz, but as a consumer, he helps drive the larger illegal drug trade.
You can't rationalize that small drug use isn't harmful. It may not harm the end-user(questionable with more potent varieties) but along the trade route, it is definitely harmful.

As Saab said, it needs to be legalized at the federal level. Everything that is harmful surrounding the drug trade (at least mj) is due to it being illegal. The cartel growers out here are literally destroying the forests and streams on public and private lands, as well as endangering anyone who accidentally stumbles into their grow areas. It's really a mess and a bigger problem than most folks are aware of. The demand for weed will never go away; use of natural intoxicants are part of human nature and have been a part of almost every culture in history. The war on drugs was lost before it started, and the social costs of continuing to fight it far outweigh the social costs of legalizing. If it weren't for the stigma, this would be a "no-brainer".

[Frankwurst]

What Sabb and bcm said. They'll let people drink and weed's illegal? Never really understood that.

[zetroc]

As Saab said, it needs to be legalized at the federal level. Everything that is harmful surrounding the drug trade (at least mj) is due to it being illegal. The cartel growers out here are literally destroying the forests and streams on public and private lands, as well as endangering anyone who accidentally stumbles into their grow areas. It's really a mess and a bigger problem than most folks are aware of. The demand for weed will never go away; use of natural intoxicants are part of human nature and have been a part of almost every culture in history. The war on drugs was lost before it started, and the social costs of continuing to fight it far outweigh the social costs of legalizing. If it weren't for the stigma, this would be a "no-brainer".

I'm of the opinion that when history is considered, the origin of the stigma associated with drug and alcohol use will be found to correlate directly with the rise of organized religion. the fun that we have (from whatever activity we choose) is ultimately rooted in our brain chemistry, and when you can get your buzz on from dancing to live music, or doing coke, or smoking the reefer, or going to a bar, or having all the sex you want, or gambling, or riding your bike, you have less of an impetus to go to church and give the people there your hard-earned cabbage. so, wielding their nearly unlimited influence, the church banned things like these in an attempt to force people into their institution, and it mostly worked until the age of information. still does, to a limited degree, but things like the internet are allowing people to form their own opinions about drugs and alcohol and dancing and gambling and sex and personal responsibility, and i think the world is better for it.

I don't smoke anything but the very occasional cigar, and i do drink sometimes, and i don't understand the distinction that people draw between things like liquor and heroin. as reprehensible as companies like DuPont, P&G, RJR and Philip Morris can be, I'd rather they were in charge of marijuana/heroin/methamphetamine production than the cartels who grow in our national parks and the tweakers who dump toxic waste in our neighborhoods.

legalize and tax everything.

[lukasz]

Nah, drugs are banned because some people think they're bad. And hell, some drugs should be banned (they probably wouldn't be an issue if some of the less harmful ones were legal). Society has only really cared since the enlightenment. Don't be that guy. Don't be a libertarian ;)

Beer Street and Gin Lane - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Opium Wars - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia