Arkansas Blog

You mention 7 people (nudist, nudist complainer, judge, deputy, trooper, shooting victim, Latino woman) in this blog entry but the race of only 1. Why is that?

ARK. BLOG: Easy. Race was a factor in only one story of the three. Thanks for asking.

Just judging from the Morning News story Vern got railroaded. Too much evidence to the contrary. I'm amazed Judge Story did this.

"A Prairie Grove woman was most upset and took issue with the defense's argument -- through deputy sheriff testimony -- that it was difficult to see Holland on his porch without trying real hard."

Not when she climbed up on that ladder and looked through her binoculars, I'll bet.

I imagine she didn't have to try real hard at all, then.

ARK. BLOG: Easy. Race was a factor in only one story of the three. Thanks for asking.

It sounds like your liberal guilt has made race a factor. The woman was targeted because she may have been part of a large scale DVD and CD bootlegging operation. She was forgotten in a cell due to glaring procedural deficiencies. You're going to have to produce evidence that only a minority would be forgotten for 4 days. Since nothing like this has happened before or since, that's going to be a problem. You're also going to have to find instances in NWA of counterfeit media being produced and the related prosecution. Good luck with that as well.

ARK. BLOG: That's your opinion. I have mine. It's not my liberal guilt that for years made NWA sundown land for black people and has produced instances too numerous to count of unequal zeal toward prosecution of people of color and Hispanic surnames. Consent decrees on police policy don't result from liberal guilt.

When a bunch of flea market peddlers -- none felons -- get singled out for rousting and when one of those damn near dies as a result of mishandling, it is reasonable to surmise that race (specifically, a brutal insensitivity to same if not outright brutality) was a factor in the targeting and handling of the case. Prove me wrong.

Max,
In general i disagree with everything you say, and think you have your head somewhere dark and smelly.
BUT! I agree with you, sending a 69yo man to jail for 6 months for pissing off of his back porch is complete and utter bullshit!

Dammit, Muddling, you took my line.
Although I can remember walking up on my neighbor as he raced, sans clothes, from his back door to an outbuilding where his washer was located one afternoon. I wanted to ask him if he had only one change of clothes, but I figured he might tell me it wasn't any of my business. I turned around and went home. Guess I shoulda called the cops, huh?
Oh, and let this be a lesson to those gentlemen who are a bit too lazy to go to the nearest service station. We know what you're doing on the other side of that car -- probably splattering the door in the process. Just because the dog does it on the wheel . . . Don't teach that move to your sons and grandsons.

Doigotta, I have to admit I'm recycling an old joke. It's about an elderly lady who called the police to report her neighbor across the alley was shaving in the nude in his bathroom.

When they came and looked out her window, all they could see was the head of a man shaving. They said to her, "What do you mean, he's nude and you can see him?"

Her reply: "Climb up on that toilet and grab those binoculars and you'll see what I mean."

Stiff sentence? I hope I have a stiff anything when I'm 69! No wait.....this poor guy got the shaft for sure. Though my late father apparently had no interest in wearing lady's clothing, he was a big pisser off the porch type. When I was a kid, I didn't understand it. I've so far lived just two years shy of what he managed, and at no time have I had an interest in pissing off my porch.

However....there are so many more worse things going on in the world, in America, in Arkansas, in Benton County, in Rogers....urine flowing in the open breeze is not on my list of things to worry about. As I got older I decided dad pissing off the porch was some kind of left over cave man thing. Like my male dog pissing on his dinner plate after I give him some especially great table scraps. Took me years to figure out he was paying me his highest compliments.

Where does it say in the Bible or the Constitution that a person cannot piss on their property? Whose to say the earth wasn't created just so we can piss on it? Narrow minds have us squeezed into such a tiny box, it's so hard to breath! I don't like to see people pee, but watching some people eat has to be twice as gross. Watching Mark W. Pryor tongue-kiss Cheney-Bush is 4 times as gross as urination. Not to mention Cheney-Bush pissing all over the Constitution and our future.

This old man should be let out of jail and given a nice fruit basket as a lovely parting gift. We've got all our priorities mixed up. How much time did Scooter spend in jail....anyone remember?

My opinion is that we would be better served by the media documenting actual abuse of government power (particularly in instances where ethnicity, income and education are factors) rather than the media injecting bias every time a victim isn't white. I also think we are going to have to let some of these wounds heal on their own rather than bringing up sundown towns or the ADG's coverage every time they don't portray Faubus or Central High in a way you approve of. Perhaps we should just combine all these racial injustices. If you can get 40 acres, I'll donate a mule and we'll see if the Latino woman will accept that. That should be enough of a mea culpa for both of us.

ARK. BLOG: Innocent woman arrested and life threatened by abuse of government power. Race a factor (language barrier). The media "injected" none of this. Those are facts. Context: History of NWA as racial monoculture. You can't wish it away, much as you might like. Nor can you wish away misstatement of the historical record, as the D-G has done, for whatever reason the truth bothers you in that scenario. I owe the woman no mea culpa, except as part of a collective debt owed by society. Sounds like you might.

Hey look, I'm sorry that you're ashamed to be a privileged, white, southern male instead of a poor, Hispanic, immigrant female. Like I said, if you were to focus on actual instead of perceived racial abuse and not cry wolf every time something happens to someone that isn't white, we're all going to be a lot better off. Until that time, I look forward to more entries about how developers are going to ruin your neighborhood and thieves stealing the stereo from your Volvo.

It's amazing how actual abuse is redefined as perceived abuse, and then ignored on that basis.

Anyone who denies that NWA is biased against hispanics and blacks has never lived there. Either that, or they're part of the problem and won't admit it.

Show me the last time a middle-aged middle class white guy was locked up for 4 days without food and water.

{crickets}

ARK. BLOG: Thanks for pointing out the obvious while I was engaged in other stuff. Some don't seem to understand that this isn't the only thing I do. But Iron Fortified isn't one to be confused by facts or the record, as his latest indicates on several fronts. He's got me on the Volvo. Until its recent sale, I indeed owned a battered 1992 wagon with 115,000 miles or so and wrote, mostly in an amused way, about repeat radio thefts. But, he needs to read more closely in virtually every other instance. The neighborhood development to which I think he refers is the one that I described as the best I'd seen yet for the property in question.

No, I don't want to see 'most' of my neighbors naked and peeing; but my neighbors, throughout Arkansas, aren't the ones out of control. It's local governments that are running amuck. From dictating what trees can/can't be planted to acting like recycling Nazis (yes, I mean Nazis...Fayetteville), someone forgot to tell them that they are suppose to operate on behalf of the public that hired them and/or voted them into office. They are not there to act as conduits of tax money to any developer who wants to build anything or to create silly, petty laws that have nothing to do with the public's safety or the operation of government.

The woman had lived in America nearly 20 years. She clearly didn't fear for her safety in NWA because she's raising 3 kids here. The Hispanic population of Springdale is somewhere around 25%, does that still constitute a sundown town? But we aren't talking about regional bias here, we're talking about government abuse. But why stop there? Why didn't the woman's lawyer know where she was for 4 days? Why didn't the woman's family wonder where she was for 4 days? This case was so rare it made national news. I can't show you a white guy the same I can only show you 1 Latino woman. Why wasn't every other Latino that had court that day forgotten about?

This blog has twice jokingly mentioned the Benton County convict that has lost more than 100 pounds in jail, but why not the Hispanic convict that has lost a similar percentage of weight? Long term starvation would seem to be a better indicator of systematic abuse than forgetting about someone for 4 days.

The facts and the record are these: race will be used by both ends of the political spectrum for whatever the issue du jour is. Mayor Womack uses it to get votes. You use it to sell ad space. I can't help but think Womack's intentions are slightly higher minded.

ARK. BLOG: Wrong again, Iron Fortified. If you think our editorial viewpoint sells advertising you are more out of touch with the busines community than was already evident. Quite often, it's the contrary. We hold it because we believe it to be correct. Period.

From what I can tell, little your tabloid does sells advertising. What you refer to as "viewpoint" I'm going to call "bias". As much as I know you love to bash all things NWA, it doesn't win you this argument. Enjoy the holiday. Come Tuesday I expect a full roundup of racial injustices from all over our great state.

Click on my name for a photo of Max's (former) fancy Volvo. Elitist snob.

Good Lord a-mighty, who took down the sign that stated "Don't Feed The Trolls?"

What does owning a Volvo (elitist snob??)have to do with this subject?If you own a Subaru, does that mean you are a granola eating hippie? The issue I thought was about among other things the treatment of Hispanics in NWA .Do cars really define all of us? Not all autos come with psychoanalysis as standard equipment, maybe they should!

I doubt this will ever be read since it's down in the archives, but...tigerpaw, I was being sarcastic when I referred to Max as an elitist snob. Max has written about his former Volvo on this blog before and ironfortified chose to assume it was a fancy model (which it was 10 or 15 years ago), and use that "fact" against Max.