Violent Times Call For An End To The Carnage Carnival

Imagine that you throw a huge party every year...A special BBQ or an annual family get together that includes months and weeks of preparations. Maybe you feel so good about the event that you decide to invite some of your co-workers - they're like family!! OK, so a few people who were invited gave you a hard time - always stirring problems and arguing over food servings or who should help with the cleanup. 

You ban those few "bad seeds" from the party - inviting some new and exciting revelers to your special function...Those new people wind up practicing some of the same poor social habits thing- and then your regular guests - the ones who are well behaved - are frustrated to the point where they become violent and it's not a celebration of anything... It becomes more of a social experiment, seeing who can make it through your shindig without raising hell! 

After a few years of senseless planning and headaches, you decide not to throw your party any more. Instead, you safely visit your friends and family at their house and lay the hectic "celebration" days to rest...

Unfortunately, the same scenario seems to be playing out when it comes to the West Indian Day Parade - now called the New York  Caribbean Carnival Parade (or as I coined it the Carnage Carnival)- but namely J'Ouvert, the celebration leading up to the colorful parade attended by thousands of New Yorkers.  Nothing will stop the guns from blazing and nothing will stop those few violent bad guys from stirring problems at an event that is supposed to bring people together instead of tearing them apart and sending them to the hospital.

The two teens who were shot and killed during the early morning party on Monday, September 5th, probably didn't surmise that this would be their last parade. As if last year's bloodbath, which resulted in the death of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's aide Carey Gabay, wasn't enough, more violent hoodlums decided to rouse another round of tragedy at this year's festivities. WHY?

I wholeheartedly agree that cancelling J'Ouvert is a MUST for our city. The NYPD will never be prepared adequately - or equipped with enough man power - to handle the violence that precedes the Caribbean Carnage Carnival. 

As I've questioned in prior columns about this parade of bloodshed, have you ever seen a more violent gathering during a celebration in the city? Why is this one of the ONLY events in our city where guns make more appearances than politicians? 

The one question I keep asking - to no one in particular - is how are the events at J'Ouvert different from terror attacks like the ones that took place in France in November 2015? How are these crowd shootings in our city different than the ones that take place in a movie theater, mall or house of worship in a small suburban town? Let's not bring up black-on-black crime when we can also say James Holmes committed white-on-white crime when he killed 12 people and injured 70 during that Colorado movie theater shooting in 2012. Someone opens fire with no mercy and no regard for human life...PERIOD!

Regardless of color, nationality, background or age, someone who carries an illegal weapon with them to a function or meeting place that's supposed to be peaceful, inviting and productive for those in attendance has clear intentions to ruin the day with violence by endangering thousands of innocent people. 

Let's get real - asking those thugs who bring guns to J'Ouvert every year to "please stop"....please "leave your weapons at home"...It's an irrational request being asked of irrational individuals who haven't been stopped - and won't be stopped - by a wall of police officers.

Cancelling J'Ouvert - and possibly the entire parade - would not only eliminate gunmen taking to the streets on this planned day, it would save the city millions of dollars on not just the basic security - but beefed up security the city paid for this year as well. In my opinion, the cost of additional officers at the parade was a waste of tax payers' money and a waste of NYPD deployment. Those officers - reassigned from other precincts to cover parade detail - could have been in their own command keeping those neighborhoods safe.  

Unless someone can cough up enough money and resources to place hundreds of metal detectors in and around the parade, as if it's an airport or city building, the celebration should NOT go on and the open invitation to gangsters should no longer be announced. They're probably going to go bullet crazy in the confines of their own community anyway! Keeping these home-grown terrorists who have irrational vendettas off the streets is impossible. Doesn't the NYPD know this by now?

No one likes when the bad guys rain on their parade - but a hail of bullets storming at revelers every year should be enough of a reason to call it quits.

Some Men Can't Wean Themselves Off Of A Bad Reputation

Okay - enough already with the perverse, tongue-and-cheek headlines about disgraced politico Anthony Weiner and his cockamamie shenanigans! We get it, women all over have seen the likes of him...being testy when it comes to showing off who he really is. Truth be told, Weiner is just another man who can't keep his goods to himself and starves for attention from women other than his wife. On a human level, he's no different than any other man who stray or go to irrational lengths to get a rush through social media.

Former Canarsie Congressman Anthony Weiner at TJ Club/2010.

On a parental level, though, he's more than just a "disgrace" for showing an image of his child next to him in a provocative photo that went viral a couple of weeks ago. What kind of man - especially with his status and already maimed reputation - continues to practice unethical behavior and then proceeds to include their child in the act? As if the first batch of inappropriate photos being released a couple of years ago wasn't enough, he was ready for another round of immoral behavior!

From far away, New Yorkers had an admiration for Weiner when he was Congressman. As a strong and community-oriented Democrat, Weiner once represented a large part of southeast Brooklyn, parts of Queens and my small Canarsie community. He visited the Thomas Jefferson (TJ) Democratic Club many times - speaking about improvements and budgets...and, you know, the usual political banter.

I could have formally introduced myself to him - I reported on a town hall meeting in February 2010 at the TJ Club in Canarsie where Weiner simplified the ideas behind President Obama's Affordable Healthcare Act. He tried to make residents feel more at ease with all of those healthcare terms - and proving he can bring his bigshot self to a small neighborhood where constituents and fellow politicians/Democrats were honored to be in his presence. Hell, even I thought - way after the meeting - that maybe I should have asked someone to snap a photo of me with the "prestigious" Congressman, who wound up running for Mayor years later. Oh, only NOW I think about the jokes I would have made if I DID get a photo of myself with Weiner...

While I'm not a Democrat, I thought Weiner was an excellent public speaker. He was lively, engaging and animated when he spoke to his constituents. I remember him pacing the front of the TJ Club room - using his hands and facial expressions to capture the essence of whatever could be plaguing residents at the time.

Weiner was always making appearances in the community - trying to pull through when it came to encouraging the state to allocate funds so Canarsie Pier could be rehabilitated. Yes..he was a good man - an upstanding political figure - and the way he addressed the public was clear that he had a strong set of values, as we want to think many politicians do...

But after this last stint, it's clear that Weiner not only lacks the values it takes to lead a family, he lacks the reasoning and rational thought of a normal-functioning person who makes poor decisions...over and over again!!

The general public may like to think that a political figure's personal life and poor personal decisions have nothing to do with their ability to pass legislation and do what's best for the communities they represent. So, they know the "law"...so, they know how balance budgets and deal with agencies all over the country. Does this plethora of knowledge and experience stop them from ruining their reputation by practicing horrible social practices?

In my opinion, Weiner is just as dirty as a politician who accepted a bribe, laundered money, or enrolled themselves in a scandal without caring that they would some day suffer the consequences and get caught.

On second thought he is WORSE than a dirty politician - he included his innocent child in a perverted photo without ANY thought the this was immoral, mentally and psychologically abnormal.

How can we trust a man to make decisions for us politically if he can't make the right decisions for himself?

Not only should the Administration for Child Services (ACS) investigate to the fullest extent, he shouldn't be given rights to see his son at all. As part of his long-term therapy, he should also be banned, indefinitely, from creating social media accounts which allow him to exercise his unhealthy sexual behavior. It takes a certain - special - type of sicko to include their child in an unfaithful escapade of that nature.

He'll never be able to wean himself off of the reputation he's built. Screw up once...maaaaybe - maaaybe he was just having a little fun that first time. But repeatedly abnormal behavior- and obviously behavior that includes your child - goes beyond "needing some help."

We can also say whatever we want about Huma Abedin - maybe she should have left him the first time he showed the public who he really is. Maybe she thought he learned his lesson by being an embarrassment to his family the first time. She's like many us women who stand by our men after a slip-up and truly believe that the NEXT time will be different! Good for her for showing this indecent pervert that he'll have to fend for himself when he answers to authorities.

Last Friday, the Daily News reported that the ACS would "probe Weiner" about the awful photo he publicized of him and his son. Embarrassingly, the letter from the ACS about the investigation was sent to his mother's house instead. Guess there's no better way to say "Way to go mom for raising a son you thought was a decent human being!!! Joke is on you!!!"

Whatever happens to Weiner and whatever path his life takes, he's deflated any chance of redeeming his reputation. Even after meeting and seeing the great political feats Weiner can accomplish as an elected official, there's not going to be any happy endings for this pol!