New York Mayor Bloomberg and New Pioneers Terrorize Steelband Youth A clear case of reckless endangerment of youth, family and community... The terror, that terror wants...

[Pan Times]

New York Mayor Bloomberg and New Pioneers Terrorize Steelband Youth
A clear case of reckless endangerment of youth, family and community... The terror, that terror wants...

New York, USA - ....Close your eyes and envision over one hundred people with guns, armored vehicles, assault-teams - waiting for the word to move in. Afghanistan, Iran, Gaza? Nope!

Like a scene out of ‘Die Hard’ or ‘The Siege,’ there were lights flashing, horns blaring, dozens of squad cars, paddy wagons and over one hundred police officers equipped with guns and other ‘arms’ ready to use them. They cordoned off the entire block from one end to the other - and waited for the order to move in. Only this is not a movie and it sure is not Hollywood. This is real-life and it’s Brooklyn, New York on Friday, September 3, 2010, just after 10:00 p.m.
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[Bugs]

Catt if we did what Sherwin said and gave them back their labor day and we instead kept our 300 million -- the mayor would resign the day after labor day, the MTA boss would get a heart attack, the boss Heineken's beer would commit suicide, the merchants association who rob us deft, dumb and blind would leave town with all the other parasites that leach off of us.

bugs

[Catt]

tell dem bugs.

and maybe then we'd have a whole HEAPA good panmen & women come to FLA, and raise up the the music here.... well i guess one can hope at least -

i know I won't be back for Labor Day anytime soon. i hadn't really planned that as any kind of personal boycott, I just don't wanna be part of that mess again. but i wouln'dt be sorry if others did the same and showed the city of NY how much they REALLY have to lose without us.

Wankers.

[Sherwin Campbell]

Like I said a few months ago when the topic was the 300 million dollars the city was about to make from us over the Labor Day weekend. "Give them back their day and keep your money in your pocket". If you can travel freely in and out of this country, then I suggest you go home to whichever Caribbean nation for we all have carnival and spend your money there. I definitely can't see anyone spending their hard earned money enriching a city only to be treated like an animal.It seems as though everyone is scared to call what happened at Sonatas and Despers panyard the night before Panorama what it really was. Outright racism. Straight and clear. Then look at what happened on Eastern Parkway on Labor Day. The last mas band had to literally run, and I mean run three long blocks because as the man with the loudspeaker on the truck said " We have five minutes to reach the stage". It was only 4:00pm in the afternoon.I'm a panatic and I really love to see the beautiful people enjoying themselves playing mas, but the question is. Do we really need carnival in this city?. How about going to Miami or Toronto?.
Give them back their blasted day, who needs it, since they are the ones who make all the money and we have nothing to show for it, only memories of hostility from those who don't like us.

[Bugs]

Tell dem Sherwin. We should keep our 300 million and they can have their day.

bugs

[MakeItPlain]

Ah Sherwin,

You are asking Black People to stand up. That is going to take a lot. That is not something they are accustomed to doing. Instead of addressing the real people and issues behind what makes the that kind of "police" showing turn out for bands doing what they had been doing for the better part of the summer, instead, people are trying to figure out where they themselves went wrong, LOL. That's like a pedestrian crossing properly in the crosswalk at a major road, then a car comes speeding, breaking that major road, knocking down the pedestrian, and then the pedestrian if they survive, starts blaming themselves as to what they did wrong to cause the accident.

Go back on the thread, and count how many people are actually "Standing Up." And while we are at it, let us call for a complete boycott of the wiadca Panorama 2011, and if anyone can get the mas people to join the action for Labor Day. Want to bet from now, how far you will get with that effort?

[Catt]

"How are we at cause in this police action. Indeed, what was our role as a community in allowing this police action?"

WHAT???? how is this any fault of a band practicing in their yard, as has been done for how-many-years, every year.

"WE" are NOT at cause. "WE" (meaning the pan community) did NOTHING wrong.

SMDH - how can anyone hang their head and take blame and 'yes massa' in this situation? that is
SO backwards and just wrong. it IS racism or culture-ism or SOME kinda "ism" - that is absolutely plain as day.

i 100% agree with makeitplain, as i find myself usually doing

(also, re: my previous post... as i don't live in NYC, i go to play as a guest for labor day - i wasn't fully aware about WIADCA's role (or lack thereof), and that they have little or no bearing. thanks to whomever pointed that out to me. its helpful towards my better understanding the context of whats happening with pan in NY)

eta; Also agree with Sherwin's comments. i'm pretty frustrated with the state of pan in Phillly and am making moves to relocate to Florida - and ppl keep asking me "but WHY, when there's so much good pan right in NYC?". well - the LAST thing i wanna do is get involved in the state of pan in NYC now either -

am in fact in Miami right now to play for Carnival here, and while there may not be a Panorama, and it may not be the kinds of awesome technical arrangements that you get in NY, there's still several bands to play in and SO much less issues with the city.... it's actually a lot more FUN, and a lot less hassle, than NYC.

IMHO anyways -

[Sweet Eustace]

folks get this there was a time you could full yuh belly with pan night before panorama till the sun come up those days are gone and will not return in a hurry, I fuss, I cuss, I beg, help beg, "you in America now" as some would say, this is sledge hammer country, and people on the whole likes to make mountains out of mole hills, money might be the only thing to avoid this, if the police have money to get more police out there to work seperately and specifically in the pan yards it will not happen, but then it will have to be listed as events and those who deal with such issues know bout how much red tape is used to set up such,know it is not worth it, police every where on the planet are scared of huge crowds, is frighten they are frighten and with the number of scheduled events that goes on on those days the police is obligated to deal with bona fide events, reharsals turn into an event but is not a scheduled event, they try to work with us but in thier judgement they are not going to exhaust their limited resources baby sitting pan practices, WIADC needs to umbrella the pan sides in their premits and have at least those two days listed as an event so funding can be set aside for it that way it will be treated as an event and they will have a better time frame to work with, contrary to myth no body calls the police it is no conspiracy against pan as some suggests it is a police decision, and not being a scheduled event the police is not obligated to protect it, they have to under public safety to protect it, but if they believe that they have an inability to do so properly they have the powers to break up assemblies even though the constitution allows it, public safety over rides that ammendment, basically if they have x amount of events to deal with and are contracted to be there it will be on their heads if a problem happens in a panyard and they get tied up in it and something happens in another event and they could not respond because they were in a panyard for example some body gets too drunk gets hit by a vehicle traffic is backed up in the panyard police have to deal with that and some where else in a scheduled event something occured more serious and they could not get by they will be liable
as far as the heavy stuff, it is one of the biggest Holiday weekend in the United states police every where are usually prepared for unrully crowds and if they know they going to break up a good lime they take no chances, they did not go to lock up people, one night before a miami carnival they break up we lime they smell weed the man who was somking hand them it they give him it back and told him smoke it inside, they have no time with petty stuff they just short staffed and trying to avoid unessary drama, so the best bet is to find a way to get in the listings of scheduled events, we lucky they don't not stop it all together, 10 pm is a lil bit unreasonable though, those who did not face it in sonatas its because Sonatas have been working with the police and halting the practice, it might have been a missunderstanding on the comander's side and they sometimes go against instructions,

[Gus Hinkson]

Sweet Eustace,
You make great sense and you have some classic lines, like "breaking up a good lime" and "this is a sledge hammer country." You bring up critical points such as "scheduled" vs unscheduled events that pertain to municipal liabilities. You also touch on constitutional issues related to freedom of assembly as against the public safety. What I get from your post is that there are important legal and political issues that steel bands must handle before we can enjoy the privilege of "a good lime." Now lawyers can either be "social engineers" or "social parasites." Also, as one attorney at war has highlighted, there is a distinction between "legal presence" and "legal representation" as is there a difference between "political presence" and "political representation."

I think you will agree, that there is nothing personal here with the police action, its just as our beloved President Obama would say, "It's a power thing".

May peace and blessings abound to you!
Gus

[kevin browne]

I think i know what can Solve all of this..1 or 2 ways..
1. Boy Cut Labor Day and let the NYC mayor/others see how big of a money LOSS its to them..


or


2. where at Jouvert Time each band has police escort..Y not have police at each practice time..thats if 1. the the city would spend that kinda money for over time or 2.some how Bands pay for it..Some Bands my agree on this and Some wont..

[momo]

Kevin Brown where will the bands get the money from or did i not understand what you are trying to say