particularly maintenance and service workers who are at the greatest risk.
Laura Kenny is a health and safety specialist with the Service Employees International Union.
She points out that many of the union's members spend their time in boiler rooms and under-ceiling panels,
where in-place asbestos is most often found.
Asbestos is the number one concern of building and maintenance workers.
Workers are already protected and given the right to know about chemicals.
Food products and cosmetics are labeled.
Asbestos is a health hazard not unlike these substances.
And it's particularly compelling and important when you know that asbestos
is probably responsible for more cases of occupational cancer than any known substance.
As the hearings continued throughout the day,
many expressed frustration that it has taken three years for the bills,
which will eventually be combined into one piece of legislation, to get this far.
A similar bill was killed in council committee last year.
Council member Enoch Williams, chair of the Committee on Environmental Protection,
has called for further hearings in September,
although he expressed his desire to have something passed by the end of this year.
For WBAI News, I'm Lauren Comato.
And that's some of the news for Thursday, July 12, 1990.
The news was engineered by Anthony Sloan.
It was produced with Jenny Bourne, Julie Cohen, Lauren Comato,
Antonia French, Alan Lipke, and Kurt Pollack.
I'm Amy Goodman in New York with Don Rush in Washington
for WBAI Listener Supported News.
Stay tuned for the fifth corner.
Reverend...
What is God?
Yeah, what is God?
All right, all right, I'm gonna tell ya.
Pass the plate.
God is our mighty fortress.
Our co-pilot.
Our guide, judge, father, and alibi.
Reverend!
God followed us to the Pacific,
to the Rhine, to the pole, to the moon, to the bathroom.
And wherever he sent us, wherever he followed us,
God was there waiting for us.
Amen!
God is a voice speaking to us in the night.
A convergence of events leading up to a sales opportunity.
An invisible means of support.
Amen!
He is the last word of dialogue
in a movie about an old man, a kid, and a dog.
Amen!
He is the author of the Gideon Bible.
He is the hope of the future
with the unknown up his sleeve.
He is yesterday's justification,
today's improved radial tyre,
and tomorrow's game show host when the fix is in.
He comes in all colours.
Black, brown, yellow, red,
and he's white all over.
Yeah!
He knows when you've been sleeping.
He knows when you're awake.
He knows when you've been bad or good.
So be good for goodness sake.
He lifted Willie Starger's home runs into the second tier.
And sometimes he lets Clint Eastwood miss.
Just to keep us on our toes.
Oh, God likes hamburgers,
weekends, good friends,
Michelob.
He likes Catholics, Protestants,
the occasional Jew.
He likes hard work.
He likes good neighbours.
And he likes spectacular beer in the fourth at Belmont.
He is omnipresent everywhere.
He is eternal all the time.
He is omniscient and he knows it.
And he is an honorary citizen of these United States,
whatever the country of his birth.
Amen, Lord.
But after you have succumbed to cancer,
or been crushed by a car,
or expired by sucking chest wounds,
or heart failure,
when you've killed yourself,
or when you've been killed,
or when you just plain died,
oh, he can make everything right
with those two little words.
Hello, sailor.
Hello, sailor.
Hello, sailor.
Hello, sailor.
Good music, brothers and sisters, can never die.
It just gets more intensified.
That's a man called Don Drummond,
man in the street from the year 1965,
calling all rude boys and girls.
At an invitation to call us here at WBAI,
279-3400, we'll be taking your phone calls
in just a little bit,
talking about various issues that happen to come up.
But first, what did we hear before that?
We heard from the National Lampoon.
And what is God?
A piece sure to offend many people
that, I don't know, I think deserve offending sometimes.
But, you know, there's all these dials and knobs
and buttons and plugs on your radio,
so if something upsets you, there's always an option.
And perhaps we should tell the FCC about that little option.
Maybe they don't know about it.
We'll get into that a little later.
We heard What Is God? featuring Roger Bumpass
from the National Lampoon's White Album.
And I've just rediscovered all my National Lampoon records.
I don't know if there's many people out there
that have a collection.
But, boy, there were some good things that came out,
mostly in the 1970s.
There was the Lemmings take off on Woodstock.
There was Goodbye Pop and That's Not Funny, That's Sick.
And it was both sick and funny.
That was the beautiful part of it.
Boy, you just don't see humor like that anymore, you know?
But enough funny stuff.
We don't want to get too much carried away with levity here.
It's a serious radio program.
Serious issues to discuss.
Very serious listeners are out there.
We know that.
And, boy, you ever have one of those days
one of those days where you just feel terrible?
You know, you feel like the slightest thing is going to set you off?
And you're totally out of it, you know?
You're totally not in step with the rest of the world.
And everybody sort of seems to be at odds with you
for one reason or another.
Even people you don't know.
Even people that you've never met.
Even people who aren't even alive anymore.
Everybody seems to be against you.
And the whole world is your enemy.
And there's absolutely nothing, nothing at all to look forward to.
And it's nighttime as well.
You ever have one of those days?
Well, if you've ever had one of those days, folks,
I've got something for you right now that is sure
100% guaranteed sure
to cheer you up.
And don't even bother thanking me
because that's what I'm here for, okay?
Yeah, things are going to get much better starting now.
You are a fluke
of the universe
You have the right to be
Deteriorata
Go placidly amid the noise and waste
and remember what comfort there may be
in owning a piece thereof.
Avoid quiet and passive persons
unless you are in need of sleep.
Rotate your tires.
Speak glowingly of those greater than yourself
and heed well their advice
even though they be turkeys.
Know what to kiss and when.
Consider that two wrongs never make a right
but that three do.
Wherever possible, put people on hold.
Be comforted that in the face of all aridity and disillusionment
and despite the changing fortunes of time
there is always a big future in computer maintenance.
You are a fluke
of the universe
You have the right to be here
where we can hear the night
The universe is leaping behind you there.
Remember the Pueblo.
Strive at all times to bend, fold, spindle and mutilate.
Know yourself.
If you need help, call the FBI.
Exercise caution in your daily affairs
especially with those persons closest to you.
That lemon on your left, for instance.
Be assured that a walk through the ocean of most souls
would scarcely get your feet wet.
Fall not in love, therefore.
It will stick to your face.
Gracefully surrender the things of youth
birds, clean air, tuna, Taiwan
and let not the sands of time get in your lunch.
Hire people with hooks.
For a good time, call 606-4311.
Ask for Ken.
Take heart amid the deepening gloom
that your dog is finally getting enough cheese
and reflect that whatever misfortune may be your lot
it could only be worse in Milwaukee.
You are a fluke of the universe.
You have no right to be here
and whether you can hear it or not
the universe is laughing behind your back.
Therefore, make peace with your God
whatever you conceive him to be
hairy thunderer or cosmic muffin.
With all its hopes, dreams, promises and urban renewal
the world continues to deteriorate.
You are a fluke of the universe.
You have no right to be here
and whether you can hear it or not
the universe is laughing behind your back.
You are a fluke of the universe.
You are a fluke of the universe.
Anyway, that was National Lampoon again
with one of their few serious pieces, Deteriorata.
And quite a piece that was, National Lampoon.
And I'm just going to go crazy with all these records I found by National Lampoon.
I haven't heard from them in such a long time.
I wonder if they're even still around.
Except for that magazine they put out, I haven't heard a thing from them.
But, in any event, the time is now 11.58.
The program is The Fifth Corner. I'm Emanuel Goldstein.
And we're here until 1 o'clock.
And usually we talk about technological things.
Things having to do with telephones, computers, hackers,
mischief makers, censorship, indecency, obscenity
and all kinds of other things as well.
And tonight is not going to be an exception, of course not.
But we're just going to have a little bit more in the way of musical bits.
Just because I'm in that kind of a mood, I guess.
I'm off to California on Saturday for the first time in my life.
So this is the last show I'm going to be doing for at least a month.
And it'll be nice to have fun on this last occasion.
In any event, speaking of technological, bureaucratic blunders
and mess-ups and the total helplessness that one individual person has in this society.
Well, I had just such an experience only a week or so ago
when I thought something nice and logical would actually happen
involving banks and credit agencies.
Well, you know it never works that way.
You know it never happens the way you expect it to happen.
Never.
I mean, not even once, as far as I can remember.
I thought it would be a great idea, you know.
Because I do a lot of check writing and I get lots of checks from people
because I live in one of these group houses and I'm the person that manages the rent.
So all these people give me their checks
and sometimes someone doesn't give me a check on time
and as a result my check bounces
Checks are bouncing all over the place like ping pong balls
and every time that happens the bank charges you.
So I thought to myself, well, wouldn't it be a great idea
if I had this neat thing called overdraft protection?
You know, it's this amazing thing, sort of like the mob.
They come in and they protect you and they make sure that if an accident is to occur
and one of your checks bounces, God forbid, they don't charge you.
They don't charge you for that.
It's called protection and as long as you keep a certain amount in another account,
everybody's happy.
I said, boy, you know, that's just the thing I need.
That's just what I want to have.
And so I called my bank on the phone bright and early one morning
and said, hi bank, how are you?
I want to get this overdraft protection.
And they said, why, certainly sir, we'll send you the forms for it.
And I always welcome forms in the mail and this was no exception.
A few weeks later the forms arrived and, you know,
they asked me these various personal questions,
some of which seemed a little too probing, but I didn't mind asking them,
answering them that is, and I did.
I answered all the questions truthfully, honestly,
filled out my name, everything, everything they wanted to know,
and sent it in to the bank.
And then a month later the bank sent me a letter saying that at this time
they could not approve my application for overdraft protection,
but they thanked me for applying.
And it was one of the biggest shocks of my life.
I mean, I don't know how you rank big shocks in your life,
but this was a big shock.
I just stood there by the mailbox, envelope on the ground,
and the letter unfolded, staring at it for what must have been a half hour or so.
And I finally came to my senses and realized the only thing to do would be to call them
and to try to tell them that they must have made a mistake.
I mean, here I am, a man with something like 15 credit cards,
one of the best credit ratings in the world, always paying my bills on time,
and more than enough to cover whatever it is that they would charge me
or whatever the checks would be.
You know, I was able to cover all that.
I had a savings account in the same bank,
and this had to be some ghastly mistake somewhere along the line.
And armed with the facts, I strode into my house and called them up on the phone
and was told to call a different number, called a different number,
told to call a third number.
And about after the sixth call, I finally found the person that had rejected me.
You know, it's something to find that person.
And I found her. Her name was Trudy.
Trudy. I'll never forget this.
And I talked to Trudy.
I talked to Trudy for a good 45 minutes on the telephone,
and she explained to me that,
yes, Mr. Goldstein, you have fantastic credit rating,
you have paid your bills on time,
and the Visa people love you, and American Express loves you,
and you have all these credit cards, and, you know,
you're a very, very, uh, I don't know what word she used,
but whatever it was, I was very good at it.
But the problem was that she added all of my credit cards together
and came up with this incredible figure, something like $25,000.
You know, these are credit cards that I've never even asked for.
You know, sometimes, you ever get those things in the mail
where they send you some kind of crazy bank in Delaware,
says, hey, we have a Visa card for you.
It's not going to cost you anything.
Just, you know, it'll be reserved in your name.
It's waiting here. Here's the card.
Come and use it whenever you want to.
Those things kind of pile up after a while,
and the ones that you do use, the legitimate Visa cards
and American Express cards, they keep increasing your credit
every three or four months, it seems.
My original credit line on Visa was something like $1,500,
and I found out to my shock that they've raised it over the years to $10,000.
Can you imagine that?
I can go out and charge something that costs $10,000.
I can buy a car on my Visa card.
It shocked me.
So, what she had done was she had added all of my credit,
all of my credit cards together,
and treated it as if I had actually borrowed that amount.
And I found out belatedly that that is how they do things.
They add it all up.
So, you can be out there with your Visa card,
and you're not using it at all,
but you have all this credit against you,
and it can actually hurt you.
It was shocking, shocking to realize that a good credit rating
can actually be disadvantageous.
And paying your bills on time and getting the lowest interest rate
doesn't mean anything.
So, folks, that's a warning.
A warning to not let that happen to you.
Be careful.
Be real careful out there,
because all these offers look real nice
until you realize how it can be used against you,
even if you're totally responsible.
And I've got...
She was listing cards I didn't even know I had.
I didn't know I had a Chase Manhattan MasterCard.
I never knew I had that.
But somehow I do.
Somehow I do.
You know, there are these very tricky methods that they use sometimes.
They send you a letter in the mail,
and if you check a box to get more information,
you get a Visa card or a MasterCard or an American Express card.
They just keep coming.
And if they don't charge you for them every year,
you forget you even have them.
And if you don't use them, of course, you forget you have them too.
But TRW never forgets.
Everybody out there has a TRW file.
And if there's any good to come out of this,
it's that I can get my TRW file now for free
and see just what they say about me.
Whenever you're rejected for any kind of credit, you have that right.
You can get your credit report for nothing.
Usually they charge you,
and I think that's one of the things that's terribly wrong with this world,
where you have to pay to find out information about yourself.
That's pretty scary, folks. Pretty scary.
So be careful.
Be real careful with who you give your name to,
who you give your address to,
and who you accept offers from.
And something a friend told me.
Whenever somebody calls you up on the phone and says,
they've got this great offer for you, you know,
this great money-saving offer, please listen now,
you say one simple thing.
You say, sir or ma'am,
I only respond to direct mail.
Just a minute!
Just a minute!
I can't hear a thing!
Quiet, please!
Is there any escape from noise?
Oh, there's so much noise!
I can't hear the music!
Is there any escape from noise?
What orchestra is this?
What orchestra is this?
Is there any escape?
Is there any escape from noise?
What are you going to do?
I'm going to record all the noise.
Oh, yeah?
Well, you know, actually, right here in this neighborhood,
we don't have a heck of a lot of noise.
We don't either.
Because, well, you know,
the big city isn't that big.
It's not that big.
It's not that big.
Well, you know, the big city isn't around here.
And once we do hear somebody shoot off
a couple of guns in the distance,
and somebody rattling some tin cans or something,
that's about all.
So it's very quiet here.
Woo-hoo! Look out! Here I come!
Michael Jackson!
Look what you've done!
Michael Jackson?
You've spattered mud all over my dress
with your old bicycle!
Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson?
Those mud sands will never wash out.
Bruce Springsteen.
Oh, gee, what am I going to do?
Van Halen.
Oh, I'm sorry, Carol. You were too close.
Tina Turner.
Lori! What good does that do?
David B.
You know you aren't supposed to be riding your bike
during lunch hour.
Chris, the Don,
Huey, the Noose, the Cars,
Cody, the Ant-Cot,
Williams, Tyler, ZZ Top,
Weird Al, the Ant-Hair,
Sidney Luper,
Pink Floyd, the Pretenders,
Billy Joel, Billy Idol,
Helen John,
Neil Young, Sheena Easton,
John Lennon,
The Allen Parsons Project,
Rick Springfield, the Rolling Stones,
Pat McIntyre,
Hall & Oates, the Abbeyhead,
Queen, Jack Kerouac,
Cleo Mack,
Duran Duran, Police,
Eurythmics,
George,
Kenny Rogers,
Stevie Wonder,
Jay and Asus,
Diana Ross,
Donna Summer,
Dean Martin,
Kiss,
and we especially call the judgment of this hour
and the destroying of the right to be specific
against children,
and we're urging specifically these individuals
for whom we call for the judgment of the sacred fire
in this hour before the throne of almighty God.
You've got a good beginning.
Witness and trial and error.
It just depends again
on breaking the records
over radio.
Rock music blares.
Door slam.
People yell.
You've got a good beginning.
Witness and trial and error.
It just depends again
on breaking the records
over radio.
Rock music blares.
People yell.
Children scream.
Sirens whine.
Trucks rumble and roar.
And rock music blares.
Blares, blares, blares.
Is there any escape
from noise?
Is there any escape
from noise?
Is there any escape
from noise?
Is there any escape
from noise?
Now you take all that noise
and let it bounce off of one building
to another building
and down to the basement
where you're walking.
And it's no wonder
you're exhausted
after a day of shopping.
No wonder you feel
as if you can't finish
the day on the job.
You're tired.
You're beaten down.
You're irritable.
Your mental and physical health
are suffering.
Is there any escape?
Is there any escape
from noise?
Is there any escape
from noise?
Is there any
Is there any
escape
from noise?
Is there any
escape
from noise?
Well,
I don't think there is. I don't think there's ever
any escape
from the noise that surrounds us.
And we must learn to adapt
because that's what makes us who we are.
Right. Okay.
Well, that's Negative Land.
We heard three things from them. Quiet Please,
Michael Jackson, and Escape From Noise,
which is the title track of
their album two albums
ago, Escape From Noise.
And
I guess that's what we all spend our life trying to do
is escape from all the noise, you know?
Escape from all the noise, the bureaucracy,
the stupidity,
the ways in which
the system
drive us crazy.
Speaking of the system,
you learn things. You learn little things
when you talk to people
in different
stages of life.
I had some friends visiting from Holland
over the last few weeks, and
they each told me that
something rather bizarre happened on the way
over. Well, bizarre
in our little circle. Something that we didn't
know happened. But
it seems that all foreigners,
when they are
told that they wish to come to the United States
for a visit or whatever, have to fill
out this little pink form.
And the little pink form says
name, address, all that kind of thing.
But at the same time,
it asks you a very
important question. It asks if you've ever
been a member
of a communist or
subversive organization.
A communist or
subversive organization.
A little pink form, and they have to fill it out.
And
I don't know what happens to people that
say yes, but the implication is certainly there
that if you are or ever
were a member of a communist
or subversive, and
it's kind of weird that they equate the two because
in quite a few countries, communism
is not very subversive at all.
But
the question is just so odd.
At least to me it seems odd.
This is 1990, and here we have this question
from the 1950s
that never seems to have left, or maybe it's just
come back. I don't know. If somebody knows more about this,
perhaps they could call up and fill us in.
But it's
an eye-opener.
It's a real revelation to find out that
yeah, they're giving out these forms,
and it's something that we would never know about because
you know, I'm an American
and when I go overseas and come back,
they don't ask me my political beliefs on the way
back in.
At least, they haven't yet, but
in the future, I suppose.
Amazing.
What could
a communist person or a subversive
person entering this country possibly
do? What could 10
or 100 or 1,000, you know?
You have 1,000 communists at the airport.
What can they do? Can they
single-handedly, by themselves, overthrow
the government or confuse
everybody? Or just get everybody
really cross and start a
riot somewhere?
And
are they going to expand this? Are they going to
ask you if you're Democrat or
Republican or if you support flag-burning?
If you're homosexual?
Well, I suppose they already have done that
because they've
certainly put restrictions on
anybody with AIDS
coming into the country, and that
is certainly discrimination of some sort.
So,
you've got to watch these things, folks.
You've got to keep your eyes open.
It's not the kind of thing you're going to read about in the
daily news.
But you'll find out about it by talking to people
and by sharing experiences.
Well, that's
one experience there.
Now, this is
fairly good news.
Fairly good news. I saw it in the paper
today.
Remember a few weeks ago we were talking
about
the phone company and how they
are going to raise rates, almost double
the rates, and do all kinds
of horrible things. Start charging
for directory assistance from
payphones. Start charging for
operators. If you dial O, you'll get
charged.
Raise the fees for all kinds of other services
and eliminate other services
altogether.
Well, finally, finally, finally,
finally, after all this time, New York State
Attorney General Robert Abrams
today formally
announced that he is opposing New York Telephone's
request for a $919 million
dollar rate hike
based in part on
allegations of overcharging and
other improprieties by the company's
purchasing division. And that's a whole
other kettle of
worms.
The allegations
were made during more than a month
of testimony involving documents that New York Telephone
refuses to make public.
At a news conference
today, I'm reading this from today's
paper so it hadn't actually happened when they
printed the paper, but
Abrams was expected to argue that the phone company's
rate increase is excessive and
unjustified.
And that its attempt to
conceal hundreds of pages of documents from public
view by stamping them trade secret
is unwarranted.
As part of his office's
investigation of whether a rate hike is
justified, the Attorney General
staff has been
questioning witnesses in the New York Telephone
office building in Lower Manhattan
since June 4th about the purchasing
division, which is known
as Material Enterprises Company.
And what they do is they
buy in bulk for the phone companies. And until
a few months ago,
Material Enterprises was a 9X Corporation
division that did not come under regulatory
review.
Now it's owned by the phone companies.
And of course,
9X is the parent of New York Telephone and
Telephone.
But Material Enterprises, what they
do is they buy about $2 billion
worth of products annually.
And that ranges from things like paper clips to
computerized telecommunications
systems,
pieces of paper,
all kinds of things.
And informed sources have been saying that
the
company, when they
bought supplies, favored company
affiliates and certain outside
vendors, even if they didn't provide the cheapest
prices.
And they allege the division also overcharged
New York Telephone by marking up the prices
of goods and services and that 9X
covered up certain improprieties
by company officials.
So in other words,
they would charge
$10 for a paper
clip or something like that.
New York Telephone would pay $10
for a paper clip.
And then, all of a sudden,
New York Telephone would start running out of
money. All this money had to be spent
on office supplies and things like that.
And meanwhile, Material
Enterprises, being
a division
of 9X,
simply had the money in another part of the
company. I mean, I'm sure
there's some kind of a word for
that. I mean,
overcharging is a word that comes to mind, but I'm sure
there's a technical term.
And that's what's going
on. Now, that's not the only reason,
of course, to be
upset by the
rate hikes. The rate hikes themselves
are outlandish, but when you
couple that with
these rather nefarious schemes
that they're up to,
you've got to really
take a good, hard look at these guys
and see just what they're up to.
So that's a bit
of good news that
the state plans to fight that.
And we'll be keeping you updated on this
program as to just
what happens, as far as that goes.
Now, there's another ongoing thing that we've also
been following, and in fact, if you listened to
Pacifica News earlier,
you probably heard
mention of it. It's something that's got us
very concerned here, and it should have
all the people listening concerned.
That's the FCC.
They're
now recommending a round-the-clock
ban on radio
and TV programming that's deemed
indecent. Now,
defining
the word indecent
is one of the hardest things
in the world.
Now,
the FCC
defines it as
material that is,
in terms, patently offensive
as measured by contemporary
community standards for the
broadcast medium,
or describing sexual
or excretory activities
or organs.
So I probably just did it right now by
even mentioning that.
That could be considered indecent. I don't know.
A lot of things that we do at WBAI can
get people upset,
but that's all a part of living.
A round-the-clock
ban, can you believe it? Up until now,
it was
during the daytime,
and at night you could be a little bit more
experimental. But now,
we've got to be clean-cut
24 hours a day.
The clincher,
the clincher is the fact that nobody really
knows what the definition is.
So, what's going to happen?
We're all going to go around self-censoring.
And that's
the best thing of all
in the eyes of a censor,
is somebody that
worries,
and because they worry,
they don't take the risk.
Even if it might have been perfectly
acceptable, they don't do it. They don't
do anything that could
possibly
be a violation.
Running scared.
Well,
according to the Associated
Press, critics complain
that the
indecency ban would violate the First Amendment.
An appeals
court is considering a law that would impose
such a ban,
and
we'll just have to see what happens.
But lately, folks, lately, the First
Amendment seems to be the biggest enemy
in this country. It's really
a pretty
surprising situation. And I guess that's
a good cue to start taking phone calls,
too, if you have any comments
on the FCC, New York Telephone,
anything else
that we've touched upon tonight.
The number is 212-279-3400,
and
I've got
the news here,
a tear sheet off the Associated
Press.
We don't usually
look at news that much here
on the radio,
off the Associated Press, but sometimes
it's interesting, and today it seems to be more interesting
than other days.
For instance, this item,
out of
Birmingham, Alabama. Where else?
No offense to all
the Alabama people listening, but
I don't know, I wonder about
what goes on down there sometimes.
A radio talk show host in Birmingham, Alabama
has been suspended indefinitely
for refusing to put calls
from black listeners on the air.
Not making this up.
Tim Lennox
says he decided not to take any
calls from blacks yesterday after
a co-worker's car was broken into,
allegedly by a black man.
What I'd like to know is, how did
he know who the black callers
were? Does he have caller ID
on the phone and he can tell what a black call
is and what a white call is?
I mean, I think it would have made more sense
if he had said, okay, a black man broke
into this guy's car, so I'm not going to take any calls
from men tonight.
You know, that's a lot easier, you can tell,
usually. Not all the time, but most of the time.
And this item, out of
North Fork, Idaho.
North Fork, Idaho.
Oh, yes.
They've pulled the plug on the nation's last known
hand-cranked telephone system.
The old-fashioned
party line in the North Fork, Idaho
area was replaced today by private-line
touch-tone service.
And folks don't seem to miss the old system.
Store owner Gary Pedro
says it's nice not to have to
shout into his phone anymore.
Apparently they don't use phones in New York City,
but we won't get into that.
It seems also that that story keeps coming up,
you know? Seems like every couple of years
they pulled the plug on the last
hand-cranked telephone system.
I thought they did this twice before, but they keep
finding them.
In any event, our number is 279-3400.
It's time for you to
feedback. Good morning.
Good morning. Wake up.
Is anyone there? Yeah, go ahead.
I'm sorry.
Did you fall asleep at the phone or something?
Go on. Give me a break. Okay, go ahead.
We were talking about security clearance
deals before, and I
had a pretty weird experience with one of those.
Actually, I didn't, but a woman
that I was...
She was a real computer whiz,
and so they
ran this computer check on her.
I'm sorry, not computer check,
but security clearance check on her.
Had to fill out these forms and stuff,
and of course she had to list
the fact that I was living in the same
apartment as she was.
So she comes back
a few days later. She comes home
from work, and she looks at me
with eyes wide full of awe, and she goes,
You were in the Yippies?
Oh my God. And it turned that up.
It had to be
15 years from the time that I
had filled out
a...
signed onto a mailing list for the Yippies
back in the early 70s
and the time that this happened
in the mid-80s.
I couldn't believe it. I was laughing.
She, of course, was not pleased at all
because
they took it very seriously.
But I thought it was hysterical,
the fact that something like that would turn up.
In their security clearance.
That just means that somewhere,
just like Arla Guthrie says,
somewhere enshrined in a folder.
Back in white is a copy of that
subscription blank to the Yipster Times
or whatever it was.
I passed by their office the other day.
Do they publish as overthrow now?
I have no idea. I haven't heard from them.
Well, if you walk downtown,
I don't know what street it was,
but we just came upon it, and
this old, battered sign said the Yipster Times.
It looked like there were still people
going in and out of the place,
but it was pretty decrepit.
They exist in some form,
but that's incredible.
You should do a Freedom of Information Act
and see just what they have on you
because you've got the right to
and you should be curious.
I figured that's just giving them more information
because then they'd have a current address
on me and all kinds of stuff like that.
So get a P.O. box.
Who says you have to use a current address?
There's no real security in a P.O. box.
Well, that's true.
So do your best to confuse them.
Use a different middle initial.
Give a friend's address
or an enemy's address.
Just try to find out what you can,
what they know about you
because I think if everybody did that,
maybe there'd be less files
because there'd be so many people
asking about files
that they'd have to hire people
to handle that part of it.
I don't know.
Why do you think they do this?
That's their thing.
There's, I don't know what,
millions of people
that are employed by the government
across the country.
That's all that they're paid to do.
It's our tax dollars at work, right?
It's so scary when you think of it
and we all have a file of some sort
whether it's a credit file
or some kind of a file with the FBI.
You'd be surprised who's in there.
I'm just glad that no one,
as far as I know anyway,
at least I've never done it voluntarily,
has given up my fingerprints anywhere.
Well, of course,
in the interest of security,
someday everybody's fingerprints
will be taken at birth.
That way if a child molester
ever kidnaps you,
they'll be able to find you right away
if they don't have a homing device
installed upon birth.
Yeah, that'll be the next big step.
I mean, you know,
there are people that think
this is a very good idea.
I could sort of share their enthusiasm
about developing new technology
and all that,
but I call our ideas a good example.
I think it's fun to play with,
but you can't ignore the invasions
of privacy that those things
are going to bring about.
What's going to happen
if suddenly nasty things
begin happening in the upper reaches
of a totalitarian regime?
That's total control.
Computers give you so much control over people.
Obviously, the other side of Caller ID
is, as you said with the Freedom of Information Act thing,
is that everybody should just get Caller ID.
You know who's calling you
at the same time that they know
who you are when you call them.
Right.
But I don't know.
You know, where is it going to end?
Well, the thing is,
everybody is advertising Caller ID
as an amazing feature
that's going to ward off obscene callers.
It's not.
I mean, obscene callers will simply find
a secure place to call from
or a way to route around the system.
You just call from a payphone.
I mean, what's the big deal about that?
You call from a payphone
or you route through a long-distance...
I'm not giving advice
on how to make obscene phone calls,
by the way,
but what I'm saying is
you call from a payphone
and you're trying desperately to get in touch with them
because their car broke down or something
and you don't think that way.
The latest thing
that I've been dealing with
is people have been
coming up with suggestions
about how to prank
people's electronic mail
on computer services
like MCI and stuff.
How to prank somebody's electronic mail
like using a file archiver
and zipping all these blank files together
and giving them all funny names
like sexy.picture
or something like that.
So they feel compelled to read the file.
Right.
So you'd send them all off to this jerk
and he's got to spend hours
and unarchive, unzip
or whatever it is
all these files and all they are
is just thousands of bytes
of blank spaces.
That's pretty sneaky there.
But
it hasn't happened to me yet.
Did you see there was a thing
it's pretty funny
I was watching TV the other night
and they did a story about
payphones in Manhattan
and I'm out here in Jersey
and I really don't use payphones too much myself
but they did a thing about how
on the one hand
here they show this guy
and there's like three payphones on this street corner
and he tries each of the three payphones
and none of the three of them work
and so then they go to the
they say well why is this
and then they go interview some guy
from AT&T or 9x
or whoever it is
these are real telephone companies
It would be New Jersey Bell for you.
Yeah, ok.
So they go to this guy and he says
well our payphones don't work because they're vandalized.
Of course none of the three payphones
that this poor guy tried to put his quarter into
were vandalized at all
which is a perfect working order to me
visually from the outside
but it's just internally they didn't work.
Right, well you don't vandalize something internally
if something is vandalized you usually know about it.
Yeah, right, but the funny part was
so he's saying
look at this
and he's got the remains of this payphone
it looked like somebody had taken a sledgehammer
to the thing
and it was so funny
and he's like well this is the reason why our payphones don't work.
They probably did that that morning
I mean usually when people vandalize payphones
they do it because they're so frustrated
having their quarters stolen by the thing.
Absolutely, but of course
that was no part of the report at all.
Have you seen in New York City
they're converting lots of payphones
now to credit only phones.
Yeah.
They're simply covering up the coin slots
and saying this does not take quarters
however the phone still thinks it's a payphone
it'll ask for money
and of course there's no place to put the money
What's that bit that people used to do
with the
audio taping
the sound of the coins dropping into the box
or something like that?
Well what you're referring to are red box tones
which are the tones that quarters and nickels and dimes make
as they're put into the slot.
Does that still work?
Well it's possible, I've heard instances where people are doing that
and of course I can't condone that either
but anything is possible in this day and age.
Really?
That's really what I have to say about that.
Anyway, we're going to go on to some more calls.
Hey, play some more of that
if you've got That's Not Funny That's Sick
floating around there, play some of that later.
Okay, anything in particular?
It's been so long since I've heard it.
That's a great record.
But it is a great record.
Oh, you know what would probably be good?
Wasn't there a bit about the oil companies on there?
Oh yes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Play that, alright?
Alright, I'll see if I have time for that.
My phone number is
212-279-3400
as we chat with people
who keep their eyes open
and keep their hands busy.
That's the kind of thing I like to see.
Good morning.
Good evening there, I mean good evening, Emanuel.
Or whatever it is.
I woke up about an hour ago.
I'm asleep here.
I figured I'd give you a call.
They're not in touch for a while.
I heard this thing you mentioned that they have
with the media.
That just came out today.
With all the shows related to the mob and murder
and blowing people up and crimes and shooting and guns.
Why didn't they start with that 25, 30 years ago?
Uh-huh.
Newton Minow claimed that television was a vast wasteland.
It still is.
Well, only because people don't demand something better.
They've gone down the tubes.
They stifle real creativity, real talent.
They don't give a real talented person a break.
I happen to be a writer.
Instead you get ripped off by people who can't access
your work and misappropriate it and you become
the ghost writer of the pop music world.
Isn't it a horrible world?
Then you go back to times like Hank Williams
even before that, to Gershwin.
They rip people off and murder them and cover it up.
You don't know what's going on out there, Emanuel.
When you come from a people like our people
who have been slaughtered and murdered for a long time
you know something evil's going on out there.
When people masquerade that they have some kind of
Christianity and they're lying.
Everything in life is based on the big lie technique.
And that's what Hitler used and it's going on
in North America this year.
Okay, what I want to get to is some comedy, okay?
Yeah, do that, please.
...of this aggravation and neurosis.
I'm glad you set that up for us. Go right ahead.
First of all, the good creator that put us on this earth
wants us to have pleasure and love.
He says, be fruitful and multiply.
And then in another book he says,
love one another as I have loved you.
How could religious organizations
call themselves by that name
and victimize people and sit in judgment
upon people who really love each other
when sex is only an act of love?
If people understood the real nature of sex
there wouldn't be sodomy, molesting, and raping
and killing because it's a vicious cycle
if you study emotional
psychological self-help books, you understand?
We live in a mentally ill world.
They believe it's right to hate, hurt, and kill.
And that's what you've got.
You thought those days were over?
It's always under the surface because man is an animal, okay?
Enough of this. Let me do some comedy, okay?
I thought that was... okay, go ahead.
I created my own little character lately.
It's called Andrew Nice Gay, okay?
There isn't anything as straight or gay.
It's unfortunate that people have to define things by words
and words that are derogatory
that put people down.
You may have dysfunctioning people out there
in certain categories who really want love
and security and affection, but basically
the basic issue is love, you understand?
I understand.
Let's just do my shtick here. There isn't too much.
Don't get off the air. Okay.
Okay, Andrew Nice Gay. How about a little parody?
And it is clean. I've been keeping my material
not only recent, but decent.
Here it is.
Twinkle, twinkle, movie star.
Didn't I meet you in a gay bar?
When we bid each other goodbye,
you told me that you were bi.
Now how's that for a parody, huh?
That's not bad.
I've contacted some big people in the business about it.
I've been trying to reach them for at least two years.
You know what? Nothing.
Not a phone call, not a letter, nothing, huh?
Everything is controlled by people just like politics
or religion, even in comedy.
Even in the movie industry where prostitution
has been illegal for more than 60 years,
where they've denied us three-dimensional movies,
where they've denied us everything.
Everything we've been denied.
It is just horrible.
How could people control people
when real art is the expression
of the humanities?
Can you understand why this country is like this?
Well, yeah. I can't understand why,
but I can see that it is.
And you'll see that the whole world has been deceived.
I don't belong to any of that organized
religious stuff out there.
I'm not putting it down, but I'm saying that
things happen in people's lives.
Something big happened in my life,
and I know about it, but I'm not here to discuss that.
I just wanted you to know that
there are people out here who not only
have led lives of pain and hurt,
but this is where comedy comes from,
from tragedy.
It is a mask for tragedy.
That's all I have to say.
Good trip to California.
See you when you come back.
worn down with to a frazzle just just number one who I live with Jimmy
Pearsall for two years and I'm saying it now Lee that's a real shock that's a
real shock a little shock to me Lee no shock to me either there are a lot of
little girls on the set coming up now who just can't who just can't step
forward like we can and we're so happy to be able to help them out like who
Ken Howard for instance Ken Howard right Ken came up to me he was shooting that
dreadful series whatever that was called about the two solicitors whatever
they call Ken came up to me crying crying her eyes out said where do I go
who's gonna take me and I just I just held him and said it'll be all right and
it was I mean the show flopped isn't it do they pick it up it's that kind of
compassion that Lee for instance has and Clint here and Paul Newman who's been
doing a tremendous amount of work for us Paul Newman is gay for gay of course I
don't believe that for a minute oh well this is well go down to headquarters
than ask him dear really he's right there he's typing right now well I know
you've made movies with a lot of actors like there was a movie called the
Magnificent Seven you had Yul Brynner and Yul Brynner you have James Colbert
Eli Wallach now they weren't everybody in the film was gay and I think that's
how it worked except for Horst but they called that the summer of sin when they
made that movie and we were well now that's just so Horst Buchholz was the
only one in that movie it wasn't gay that's right Charles Bronson now you
made a movie The Great Escape I mean I just asked where you got where you got
that belt John I'm sorry to describe it I got a buckle sort of looks like a
snake I got a leather store on 10th Street somewhere oh yeah um anyway um
The Great Escape The Great Escape you made that film with a number of you meet
James Garner you made it yeah Queen I'll never forget you and Steve McQueen on
that cart when you were stuck you'll never forget I think that's where I
really got to know Steve well he's Steve came out just after that now you see
Steve's another small small man he's not gay well but Steve is gay see yes there
are some small men who are gay oh yeah I'm sure you'd like to know about a lot
of people who are gay and of course I would like here to spread the word on
people who are gay people who are gay you don't want other people to know
about it but we're do we are here to say that we're gay and we are the head of a
rather large organization now of gay people who are proud to be gay if we
told you right now who people were I mean who for instance Walter Cronkite
Walter Cronkite is gay Casey Stangle Casey Stangle I can't you know she has
the biggest collection of tiaras I've ever seen really for instance there are
people that you just wouldn't expect you know couples I mean people that don't
know about couples for instance Linus Pauling and guess who just try to match
them dr. Spock dr. Spock but you know it's not important who's gay or who
isn't gay what's important to us is that it's how gay they are oh yeah I'm being
selfish yeah now you're making a joke of this is this a serious organization or
is it a lot of other gay groups that he is always making jokes always drinking
he's always a little bit out of touch girls the boozer and she's not ashamed
of it Oh God yes all of wild turkey and I'm happy now what about other any
sports people that are there gay Nitschke rate I went out with Nitschke for
two summers Kareem Abdul-Jabbar who used to be known as Lou Alcindor is gay
oh boy everybody knows that of course that's amazing I didn't know that when
he swims now you can't tell me a guy like Dick Butkus is gay Dick Butkus is
gay you never seen Dick Butkus in a muumuu he's incredibly gorgeous what about
some what about some rock stars Jerry Garcia Jerry Garcia is gay this is
incredible what about Beach Boys
and what we heard was the National Lampoon one more time with Gay Alliance
off their white album and you heard the voices of John Belushi Chevy Chase
Christopher Guest and Steve Collins and I came from the National Lampoon's radio
hour and that record came out in 1980 ten years ago my god well we're still
welcoming your phone calls we only have about ten minutes to go before Bob Fass
comes in and we'll have all kinds of interesting things on WBAI throughout
the night but right now something that I've always been a little curious about
let's see if we can find an answer well we won't find an answer right away
because the phone hung up on us but we're going to try it again
yes hi operator I'm trying to place a call to Antarctica thank you
hey TJ how can I help you yes hi operator I'm trying to find out the country code for
Antarctica please where Antarctica no Antarctica it's a continent on the
southern hemisphere yes I need to know the country code I'd like to get
information over there please well yeah it's it's a continent and the country
at the same time thank you it's it's the least populated of the continents
but it's also quite quite a landmass Scott is okay thank you well there's a
I think there's a Fort Scott there or something what are you listening the
computer usually knows these things well yeah you have to know how to ask okay
Antarctica KC and Antarctica Scott and how would I go about dialing that it's
undialable right there are two bases I believe
countries non-dialable huh but you can go to an operator just one moment now
okay and this is Antarctica Scott Scott base
first I give Antarctica base uh-huh and I gave the thing change let me go back
sir AC is one AT is another AC is Casey base okay one is Casey base one is Scott
base now we back to Casey base that's an undialable country now let me go back
to other one this one here is Antarctica Scott base undialable but I can give it
operator okay well okay I was just calling to find out how I would call so
in the future when I try to call Antarctica what do I do oh you have to
come to the exit country sir the operator route to which one you want
Scott base or the Casey base okay and there's no magic numbers to give out or
anything like that okay okay so I'd have to know if it was Scott or Casey
and then they take it from there okay well I guess that answers all my
questions then okay thank you you too I always wanted to know that I always
wanted to know how you supposed to call Antarctica well now we know there's no
country code it's undialable and you go through the operator well let's take a
couple more phone calls we have about six minutes or so our number is two
seven nine three four hundred area code two one two good morning hi I'm so sorry
that you can't be on for a long period of time you know I wish I could too when
are you coming back why you this your last show well this is my last show
until mid-august somebody called up before and said play music I think you
really don't have a long enough program to really play a lot of music and I I
kind of felt to be the beginning stuff I couldn't really get into I didn't know
what was going on so I really went somewhere else and had to come back well
you see music is the spice of life and it sort of gets me into into a different
mood every every single track I play sort of alters me in some way well you
know your program is so unique that it either requires more time or you you
gotta give more you know in the times that you've opened up the lines it's
really been there you can always play stuff some stuff is background you know
uh-huh well not on this none of this crazy phone system we have because if I
play if I play anything in the background people can't hear what's
going on it's really if you check out some of the late-night people especially
who do that the stuff you play may not be quite able to do that but let me
ask you I just want to encourage you to be as open as possible visit your show
is quite unique uh-huh and important I appreciate that and could I request that
when you come back maybe you could line up some phone guests one week maybe
someone who speaks for consumers maybe it could be by phone if they can't be
there well since I'm going out to California and it's three hours earlier
there I'll probably find some people like that will be happy to be guests the
people here in this city or around here they're always coming up with lame
excuses like they have to go to sleep at 1 in the morning
interested in the consumer rights or who are working for it I guess they got to
get up early to do the fighting if their employees or organizations or
something but also civil rights you know you get people on and those stuff like
that and I want to ask you if you can check out for us update what's happening
to the computer kids who've gotten busted well there have been some
developments I know a couple of trials are scheduled to start in a week or so
well there's there's a lot that should be done right now I think the important
thing is to remain aware of what's happening with regards to all that
because
might be able to cover it a bit too uh-huh okay let me let some other
people get on and good luck have a good vacation thank you and we'll see you
soon two seven nine three four hundred good morning hello yes go ahead okay
hello good morning in relation to your discussion before about credit cards and
telephone etc I heard about a year ago that this is hearsay that the government
has plans to get people in debt through extending the credit and what they want
people to do is to overextend themselves and that then they're going
to have a currency exchange and that this currency is printed up right now
and that it may eventually actually even be a five dollars to one dollar exchange
which will create a situation where people won't be able to pay back the
credit that they've built up for themselves how would such currency
exchange work well I don't in terms of talking about having a one-world currency
that what's going on now in terms of in Germany and different countries where
they're talking about having an economy that will be more universal that that in
fact this isn't necessarily working towards democracy for everyone but the
opposite for the whole world well I think it's something that we should be
concerned about overextending that's the exact word that that credit person used
on me they said I'm overextending myself and I wasn't aware that I was extending
myself at all in my particular case but a lot of people not only it's incredible
I was listening to the news the other day and there is a story on about how
what you said is actually happening people are are using too much credit and
not being able to pay it back and going into debt and it seems to be a
nationwide phenomenon then they broke for a commercial and the commercial was
for a hotel and the hotel said okay let's let's look at this scene and give
you the choice of paying by cash or paying by credit and they implied that
paying by credit was the only sensible way to to stay in their hotel and it's
incredible don't these people listen to what was just said on the on the radio
don't they program their commercials at least so they don't completely counter
what what was being said on the news it's it's something that's a major
problem and not only is it a major problem on an individual level to major
problem on a national level the country is in debt like never before and what's
going to happen I don't know well mostly this is what I've heard it's part
of a larger plan to have more control over and that when people then can't pay
back their debt because of this currency exchange which will be presented as a
way of unifying the world they'll then be issued a debit card and their their
bank accounts will be attached directly and their pay will go towards paying
back this debit and if that doesn't work then they'll claim people's houses and
property and if that's not enough and I've even heard that they had plans to
give people laser tattoo numbers which sounds absolutely outrageous but this is
what I've heard from two different sources well nothing is impossible given
given the advances in technology and it's only by saying what if that we have
any chance of preventing worst-case scenarios like that but I urge you to
stay aware and let us know what you learned well what well what I have
learned is that there's a lot of subliminal programming that goes over
televisions and radio waves that could also be inducing this credit extension
that people feel compelled beyond their rational logical thinking to do and that
it's important not to watch television and you know so that you think more
independently and to not have any debt and if you have any debt to pay them up
that when this if and when the currency exchange interaction were to occur have
debt uh-huh and a lot of people are now looking to move out of city or on the
land and establish alternative lifestyles where they're more independent
from the system but they can supply their own food and where they live
community situations where there's a mutual support there that they're more
independent but if you do live in a city important to not be in debt and to
get rid of your credit card if you can but part of what's going on with the
telephone company is part of getting people on these cards because they're
creating a situation I believe that the telephone company has been ransacking
all the phones so that people will ask to have a better system and they'll say
well we have this card as part of getting the whole card system into control.
Well I certainly I know the phone company is in love with with calling
cards of their own and all kinds of computerized computerized ways of doing
things it's it's something to take keep aware of we're gonna have to stop there
though because Bob Fass is here and we want to continue with our radio
programming tonight it's just about two minutes after one o'clock this is
Emanuel Goldstein the program has been The Fifth Corner and I'm going out with
this Debbie McClatchy song or am I coming in with another song I'm not sure
we're battling dueling turntables here my Debbie McClatchy song is all about
California because that's where I'm going and I don't know what that was but
I'm sure you'll hear more about it in a little while good night folks see you soon
they settled down in Marysville in the Sierra Mother though a booming mine
Shack City built where the Feather River flows they built a home of logs and
stone where the river starts to wind and Joe worked running buckets in the Little
York hydraulic mines just before the first snowfall Maggie bore a little girl
they named her Faith and Faith became the center of their world ten years
passed and Faith grew strong in her piney mountain home and everyone in Marysville
felt Faith to be their own old Joe was second foreman he still worked in the mines
and he often said to Maggie I'm worried about springtime slickens are always
rising the bottoms up by feet if this year's snow is heavy then we're in for a lot of grief
I've tested out the river every springtime we've been here and just as
I've suspected it's risen every year I've spoken to the manager he won't give
me a chance all the owners are for profits and the owners live in France
that winter was both cold and long the woods were choked with snow and with the
thaw the Feather grew to a swollen raging flow and as the swirling waters
hit the mine above the town well the slickens were so heavy the water had to move to higher ground
46 million cubic yards of gravel muck and mud turned the peaceful Marysville to a 15 foot high flood
and high above the city Joe found his Maggie safe but none of all the neighbors there had seen a sign of Faith
she'd gone down to the river to find flowers in the snow and Joe I could not find her
when the river overflowed I searched I cried I called her name but I heard no return sound
and the waters got so very high I had to move to higher ground
Oh Maggie dear don't fret don't mourn I'll find our little girl
I can't believe that God above would take so sweet a pearl
he has so many treasures I know we'll find her safe and the very next time you see me
well I'll have our darling Faith
all the neighbors gathered there searched far into the night
and up and down the flooded town were boats with bobbing lice
and as the first shall pink and gray brought promise of the dawn
weary searchers went on home to bed but Faith had not been found
all two days passed hope grew dim there'd been no sign at all
and many friends gave up the search as the waters began to fall
there'd been so many loved ones lost the toll was mounting high
but why should Faith so young and strong been chosen then to die
music
Joe searched and seethed and cursed the mines and mourned all he had lost
the gold they found was worthless now they paid too high a cost
and as the night brought darkened hopes he knew the time had come
he climbed the hill above the town blew up the little york mine
oh all the neighbors came to watch the sky was lit by fire
and all the world grew warm and gold as the flames leapt even higher
and from the dark into the glare a small form crept along
and someone shouted Joe come see your Faith at last is home
oh daddy I'd gone down to find some flowers in the snow
and then a mighty water wall pushed me on down below
I caught and held a sturdy log I prayed I would not drown
well we floated down for miles and miles before I could reach some higher ground
at first I thought I can't go on I cannot even try
but someone whispered close at hand I'll save you or I'll die
since then I've walked through snow and mire my strength was fading fast
that voice kept me from losing hope and now I'm home at last
now hoses pumps and buckets are gone from Marysville
they passed the law in 93 the mine is ever still
the men went back to panning and digging for the gold
well the family is together and my story has been told
well that's incredible you know Debbie McCarty is singing a song
that is a veiled encrypted reference to 1977 didn't you notice that
sure that's exactly what it was
Dolores Costello is here with me this morning
and maybe more frequently than that if things work out
and so is Mitch Korber
and Mitch Korber is not the only videographer in the room
Marcy Wilson is and Clayton Patterson who is not just a videographer
he's a felon is that true Clayton
I don't know about felon but convicted a convicted person
convicted a person with convictions
a person with more than one conviction
well could you
I mean could you just stop clicking that automatic camera for a moment or two
I mean this is the most media overloaded room on the face of the planet at the moment I think
I mean look at all the video cameras
you're getting to be a very important person Clayton
I think a lot of important people because of what's been done to you rather than
what you succeeded in doing
I think that basically what you tried to do was to act as a witness
to a certain kind of activity
that the press didn't seem willing to cover
and as a result of that you're being
prosecuted? persecuted? I don't know harassed? harangued?
I don't know yeah I guess that's the way I would see it
to be convicted for a first amendment issue seems highly unusual
I think that
you know to be convicted of obstructing governmental administration
really for just videotaping the police making arrests
there's something highly unusual about that so is that persecuted? prosecuted? I don't know
but anyway yeah basically what I was doing was videotaping the police making an arrest
it was interesting I think the whole thing was a setup it was like 1.30 in the morning
it was the anniversary of the August 6th 7th riot
and this was 1989
and it was after that time while I was videotaping this arrest that
all this action took place the streets were basically empty by this time
and nothing was going on and I was videotaping
a person called Don Aladdin Chris Flash talking to Deputy Inspector Julian
and then behind the Deputy Inspector was a youth of about 18
standing behind Julian looking
by and seeing what was going on
and so what happened was all of a sudden
an undercover cop came along and grabbed the kid and started rushing him down the street
so everybody rushed to videotape and to photograph the arrest and as it was happening
and so I was rushing down the street videotaping
and there was really nobody on the street
on the sidewalk although the police in court said that there was about 25 to 50 people blocking the street
and I was yelling link arms link arms link arms
and that I had my video camera up above my shoulder
and I was bashing it down under the police
and that I was pushing them physically
and trying to grab the prisoner away at the same time
and the whole incident took 44 seconds
but anybody that has had any experience with the police at all
knows that if you physically touch
never mind bashing with your camera
or physically pushing them backwards
or trying to wrestle away a prisoner that you would pay a price
anybody that has ever dealt with the police know that that's a fact
certainly in New York they shoot people for less
certainly it's a fact that they beat people up for doing that
certainly it's a fact that one would go through the system
which means that when you're arrested you do your 72 hours in jail
and certainly it's a fact that you would be charged with assault
and obstructing a peace officer
none of which had happened
what had happened...