On Friday, February 13, I was invited to discuss BAMN's protests at Western Market and other downtown Ferndale stores on WJR's The Frank Beckman Show. John McCulloch was sitting-in for Frank Beckman.
Today, WJR posted the audio for that nearly 30-minute segment. Also on the program were Western Market's Steve Selvaggio and Ferndale School District spokesperson, Stephanie Hall.
Click on the links below to hear a recording of the broadcast.
Showing posts with label BAMN. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BAMN. Show all posts
Monday, February 16, 2009
BAMN's Ferndale protests featured on WDET
Today, Detroit Today host, Craig Fahle, interviewed Western Market's Steve Selvaggio, BAMN's Shanta Driver, and Ferndale School District's Stephanie Hall. The audio may be available on the Detroit Today's podcasts, but a lively discussion continues on WDET's forums.
Saturday, February 07, 2009
You keep using that word...
Except for BAMN supporters' falacious and specious rants, the most frequent observation about Domestic Terrorists in Ferndale (posted February 3, 2009) in Tif's and my in-boxes are concerns about the word terrorism.
Webster's New World Dictionary defines terrorism as: the use of force or threats to intimidate, etc. [ibid] esp. as a political policy.
It's possible the colloquial use of the word terrorism has moved beyond Webster's, Princeton University's, or others' definitions. None of the definitions I read required violence, murder, assault, or property destruction. Threats as a means to coerce is a good enough definition.
To make our case for us, BAMN's national coordinater, Donna Stern, couldn't help but make more threats in The Woodward Talk regarding attempts to stop their intimidation:
If you'd like to suggest another word than terrorism to describe BAMN's threats to Ferndale businesses to join their fight against a 3rd party or risk pickets, boycotts, harassing customers, and economic penalties to business and employees, I'm anxious to hear from you.
Webster's New World Dictionary defines terrorism as: the use of force or threats to intimidate, etc. [ibid] esp. as a political policy.
It's possible the colloquial use of the word terrorism has moved beyond Webster's, Princeton University's, or others' definitions. None of the definitions I read required violence, murder, assault, or property destruction. Threats as a means to coerce is a good enough definition.
To make our case for us, BAMN's national coordinater, Donna Stern, couldn't help but make more threats in The Woodward Talk regarding attempts to stop their intimidation:
The topic of police intervention led Stern to deliver a taut reminder that BAMN is well aware of its civil liberties. “If Ferndale (tried to stop us from protesting), they would be in violation of our freedom of speech and our freedom of assembly (rights), and we would sue,” she said. “Just because you don’t like what we’re doing doesn’t mean you have the right to block democracy.”Maybe the problem with describing BAMN's actions as terrorism isn't with the word terrorism. Rather, it may be because the terrorists we're most familiar with; Hamas, al-Qaeda, Timothy McVeigh, as well as eco and animal-rights activists, have taken terrorism to extremes previously thought unconscionable. Sure, al-Qaeda may represent the vanguarde of uber-terrorists, but their pushing the envelope doesn't make BAMN's threats and intimidation any less coercive, it only makes other terrorists more blood-thirsty and desperate.
If you'd like to suggest another word than terrorism to describe BAMN's threats to Ferndale businesses to join their fight against a 3rd party or risk pickets, boycotts, harassing customers, and economic penalties to business and employees, I'm anxious to hear from you.
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Domestic terrorists in Ferndale
Words are important. They have meaning. When used indiscriminately we either fail to communicate or dilute the meaning of the words we misuse.
Domestic terrorism is an appropriate and fitting description of BAMN's protests in front of Western Market, Como's and other Ferndale businesses. Before continuing let's look at some definitions.
Princeton University's WordNet on-line dictionary defines it:
Wikipedia has a good introduction to their definition of terrorism:
Terrorists should not be negotiated with.
I oppose BAMN's methods. I oppose BAMN's tactics. I oppose BAMN's disregard for others' rights.
BAMN may wrap themselves in Dr. M.L. King's imagery, but their fruit has fallen a long way from the tree.
Please join Tiffani and me and stand up for Ferndale businesses', residents', and vistors' rights to work, live, and shop in Ferndale without intimidation. Please download the graphics I've attached to this post, print them at home, and display however you wish to demonstrate your opposition to BAMN's extortion, coercion, and yes, their terrorism.
Domestic terrorism is an appropriate and fitting description of BAMN's protests in front of Western Market, Como's and other Ferndale businesses. Before continuing let's look at some definitions.
Princeton University's WordNet on-line dictionary defines it:
terrorism practiced in your own country against your own people. "the 1995 bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City was an instance of domestic terrorism."The method of domestic terrorists, or terrorists in general, isn't to attack their enemies directly, it's to cause enough collateral damage that civilians, the ones paying the terrorists' prices, force their enemies to give in. BAMN doesn't really have a fight with Western Market, but they're hoping that slandering the owners and employees of the store, shouting at shoppers, and ultimately hurting them economically, that Western Market will give in to their demands and hang BAMN's posters accusing the Ferndale School District of segregation.
Wikipedia has a good introduction to their definition of terrorism:
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion.[1]As far as the definition of terror is concerned, the owners of Western Market, Steve and Tony Selvaggio, are justifiably scared. They're scared their customers and employees will be intimidated and harassed. They're scared disruption to their business may cause them to fail to meet financial obligations to their families and employees. They're scared that in our battered economy the employees they've come to treat as family may be unable to get new jobs if they're forced to lay them off, or that BAMN's slander may be irrepairable.
Terrorists should not be negotiated with.
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."For reasons that infuriate me beyond words (and should also infuriate businesses) both Ferndale's DDA and Chamber of Commerce are incapable of defending businesses or supporting them against BAMN's attacks. Neither, I suspect, have they put as much effort into brain-storming how to protect Ferndale businesses or our city's reputation as they have increasing dues or taxes.-- Edmund Burke
I oppose BAMN's methods. I oppose BAMN's tactics. I oppose BAMN's disregard for others' rights.
BAMN may wrap themselves in Dr. M.L. King's imagery, but their fruit has fallen a long way from the tree.
Please join Tiffani and me and stand up for Ferndale businesses', residents', and vistors' rights to work, live, and shop in Ferndale without intimidation. Please download the graphics I've attached to this post, print them at home, and display however you wish to demonstrate your opposition to BAMN's extortion, coercion, and yes, their terrorism.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
BAMN nominated for annual Basket Crab Award
The Detroit-based community activist group known as By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) has since last fall accused the Ferndale School District of Segregation.
No, you didn't misread that.
BAMN is alleging Ferndale Schools is segregating students. To be honest, I had to look-up the definition of segregation just to be sure I wasn't misreading the newspaper articles. And to make sure we're all on the same webpage together, here's my working definition of segregation for this conversation:
One last example for those of you born after 1965: if I were to write, "This is a whites-only article. I've written a separate but equally compelling and inflammatory article for colored people at the bottom of this page," I could be accused of segregation.
Admittedly, it wouldn't work well here because you can choose to read it or not (choice is important later in the article). I would never write such a thing anyway because I haven't time to write separate articles for black and white readers. I do write some for liberals and recent college graduates. Those posts use small words, shorter sentences and simple imagery so they may keep up with the rest of us.
The good news is, BAMN knows our school board is neither discriminating against nor segregating black students. Their own website article betrays this as its Jim Crow arguments are the weakest and least compelling of all the points they make.
The bad news is BAMN also knows racially divisive politics are good for business. It provides a steady stream of press clippings and donations to an organization desperately seeking relevancy. That's partially why I've nominated them for the annual Basket Crab award.
In a Washington Post article, writer Clarence Page describes the award just as I would have (if he hadn't published it first):
In the case of University High School, a magnet school jointly operated by Lawrence Technological University and the Ferndale School District, enrollment is a choice. The 400+ students that attend there do so because their parents choose to send them there. Their parents choose that school because they deemed it a better alternative to their neighborhood public school.
To be more specific, their parents discriminated against their local schools and in favor of University High because that's what good parents do--make decisions for their children between available alternatives. Whether it's the school they attend, the music they listen to, the movies they watch, or the friends they hang out with, it's what parents and other responsible adults do for their charges.
It's called parenting.
If BAMN got its way and University High closed, those parents would no longer have that choice. BAMN would be responsible for removing those parents' ability to choose a better education for their children.
From that perspective, who's segregating now? Now you know why they may win the Basket Crab of the Year award. Whenever a crab tries to escape the Detroit Public Schools' basket, BAMN reaches out and pulls them back in.
BAMN's real issue isn't with Ferndale Schools or University High. And it certainly isn't with Ferndale businesses like Como's, Western Market, or The Record Collector. Their issue is with the Detroit Public School system.
Ferndale resident and possible council candidate, Greg Pawlica, described it this way: "If you want a Whopper you should go to Burger King, not picket Taco Bell because their Spicy Chicken Crunchwrap Supreme isn't a Whopper."
BAMN is tilting at windmills because they lack the credibility, clout , or perhaps the critical evaluation to hold Detroit's own school board accountable. As the dentist Doug Madsen (Tim Allen) said in the movie Wild Hogs while recovering from a stress attack, "I'm in a hospital. It's a lot easier for me right now to blame other people for my problems."
In other news, both good and bad, even BAMN picketers know what the boundaries of Ferndale's DDA should be. They haven't wasted any time visiting business more than a block-or-so from Nine Mile because even BAMN knows where the foot traffic is. Coincidentally, representatives from the DDA are rarely seen that far from Nine Mile as well.
To read more about this specific issue, the Ferndale School District has created this web page with links to BAMN's articles, newspaper articles, and the school district's own responses.
No, you didn't misread that.
BAMN is alleging Ferndale Schools is segregating students. To be honest, I had to look-up the definition of segregation just to be sure I wasn't misreading the newspaper articles. And to make sure we're all on the same webpage together, here's my working definition of segregation for this conversation:
Laws and policies designed to separate black students from white students.BAMN throws the term Jim Crow around a lot as well. Jim Crow is the common name for laws designed to keep blacks out of white schools, restaurants, neighborhoods, and in the back seats of buses.
One last example for those of you born after 1965: if I were to write, "This is a whites-only article. I've written a separate but equally compelling and inflammatory article for colored people at the bottom of this page," I could be accused of segregation.
Admittedly, it wouldn't work well here because you can choose to read it or not (choice is important later in the article). I would never write such a thing anyway because I haven't time to write separate articles for black and white readers. I do write some for liberals and recent college graduates. Those posts use small words, shorter sentences and simple imagery so they may keep up with the rest of us.
The good news is, BAMN knows our school board is neither discriminating against nor segregating black students. Their own website article betrays this as its Jim Crow arguments are the weakest and least compelling of all the points they make.
The bad news is BAMN also knows racially divisive politics are good for business. It provides a steady stream of press clippings and donations to an organization desperately seeking relevancy. That's partially why I've nominated them for the annual Basket Crab award.
In a Washington Post article, writer Clarence Page describes the award just as I would have (if he hadn't published it first):
"The prize, which I just made up, is awarded to the public figure who best exemplifies the often retold legend of the basket crabs: Every time one of them tries to get out of the basket, the others pull it back in."The problem with segregation and Jim Crow is it requires people not be given a choice. With Jim Crow, black people couldn't choose to sit in the same restaurant, attend the same theater, or drink from the same water fountains as white people without breaking the law.
In the case of University High School, a magnet school jointly operated by Lawrence Technological University and the Ferndale School District, enrollment is a choice. The 400+ students that attend there do so because their parents choose to send them there. Their parents choose that school because they deemed it a better alternative to their neighborhood public school.
To be more specific, their parents discriminated against their local schools and in favor of University High because that's what good parents do--make decisions for their children between available alternatives. Whether it's the school they attend, the music they listen to, the movies they watch, or the friends they hang out with, it's what parents and other responsible adults do for their charges.
It's called parenting.
If BAMN got its way and University High closed, those parents would no longer have that choice. BAMN would be responsible for removing those parents' ability to choose a better education for their children.
From that perspective, who's segregating now? Now you know why they may win the Basket Crab of the Year award. Whenever a crab tries to escape the Detroit Public Schools' basket, BAMN reaches out and pulls them back in.
BAMN's real issue isn't with Ferndale Schools or University High. And it certainly isn't with Ferndale businesses like Como's, Western Market, or The Record Collector. Their issue is with the Detroit Public School system.
Ferndale resident and possible council candidate, Greg Pawlica, described it this way: "If you want a Whopper you should go to Burger King, not picket Taco Bell because their Spicy Chicken Crunchwrap Supreme isn't a Whopper."
BAMN is tilting at windmills because they lack the credibility, clout , or perhaps the critical evaluation to hold Detroit's own school board accountable. As the dentist Doug Madsen (Tim Allen) said in the movie Wild Hogs while recovering from a stress attack, "I'm in a hospital. It's a lot easier for me right now to blame other people for my problems."
In other news, both good and bad, even BAMN picketers know what the boundaries of Ferndale's DDA should be. They haven't wasted any time visiting business more than a block-or-so from Nine Mile because even BAMN knows where the foot traffic is. Coincidentally, representatives from the DDA are rarely seen that far from Nine Mile as well.
To read more about this specific issue, the Ferndale School District has created this web page with links to BAMN's articles, newspaper articles, and the school district's own responses.
Monday, July 31, 2006
US District Court Judge John Feikens misses on civil rights commission
The Honorable John Feikens wrote an op-ed piece that appeared in Thursday's Free Press supporting the Civil Rights Commission's investigation of alleged fraud by signature collectors for Michigan's Civil Rights Initiative.
The article, This is no time to weaken state Civil Rights Commission, makes its major point here:
In this specific instance the opinion itself is discriminatory because it seeks to protect the civil rights of one party at the expense of another, which is what affirmative action is all about--more discrimination. Worse, the opinion and the issue brought before the civil rights commission wasn't that the complainants were discriminated against but that they didn't understand what they were signing. It's unclear to what extent the state constitution protects ignorance or tempermentalism, but it clearly protects citizens' rights to amend the constitution by petition.
If being misled is a violation of civil rights politicians would never be allowed to speak or act. Democracy is necessarily caveat emptor, but we can correct mistakes at the ballot box or by petition when our elected candidates haven't the political will to do what citizens feel must be done.
The article, This is no time to weaken state Civil Rights Commission, makes its major point here:
".. the state Constitution directs the Commission to investigate alleged discrimination against any person because of religion, race, color or national origin and to "secure the equal protection of such civil rights without such discrimination.Judge Feikens' bias, like the commission's, is in favor of affirmative action regardless whether it is warranted, achieves its purpose, is deleterious to blacks, or ultimately unconstitutional. His op-ed misapplies Article-1 Section II to petition signers claiming they didn't understand what they signed. But the real violation of equal protection and "civil and political rights" was committed by BAMN and the commission itself when they conspired to obstruct citizens' rights to exercise their constitutionally protected franchise to draft petitions, gather signatures, and shape their government.
".. if complaints of discrimination are brought before the commission and its members believe them to be credible, they are obligated to pursue those complaints... To do anything less would be a failure to do the job they were appointed to do, and indeed a dereliction of their duty as public servants sworn to uphold the laws of Michigan and the United States."
In this specific instance the opinion itself is discriminatory because it seeks to protect the civil rights of one party at the expense of another, which is what affirmative action is all about--more discrimination. Worse, the opinion and the issue brought before the civil rights commission wasn't that the complainants were discriminated against but that they didn't understand what they were signing. It's unclear to what extent the state constitution protects ignorance or tempermentalism, but it clearly protects citizens' rights to amend the constitution by petition.
If being misled is a violation of civil rights politicians would never be allowed to speak or act. Democracy is necessarily caveat emptor, but we can correct mistakes at the ballot box or by petition when our elected candidates haven't the political will to do what citizens feel must be done.
Monday, April 03, 2006
BAMN borrows from Taylor's Liberia
By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) has been using some surprising tactics to keep the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI) off the November ballot. True to their moniker, their outbursts have disrupted Board of Canvasser and other official meetings with shouting and up-ended furniture. Though nothing of their reasoning is especially noteworthy (though perhaps newsworthy) one of their tactics that is especially disturbing is their manipulation of children as foot soldiers in their war on civil rights.
Political consultant and blogger Chetly Zarko has followed BAMN's antics for months. BAMN has made a habit of using students in their protests from the beginning, and has marched them (OK, bused them) to Lansing more than once when they should have been in school. Just last week BAMN was connected to a student protest in Detroit presumably against the loss of a Free Dress Day. Eight students were arrested. On Saturday, April 1, BAMN showed up in Lansing again with 12 buses, 500 people including students to shout slogans and bang on windows (eventually breaking one). Their use of children is analogous to former Liberian president Charles Taylor's using children as soldiers in that country's civil war.
Though Taylor's recruiting children into his army with lethal outcomes is more reprehensible than BAMN's accessorizing their protests with students, both situations demonstrate the extremes desperate political activists will go to further their cause By Any Means Necessary -- even if it includes abusing children. BAMN uses children for its dirty work and as decorations, hoping their participation will pull sympathetic strings from politicians and voters alike.
Children are not adults. They haven't the education or experience to discern motivations or bias. Regardless what Denver-area teach Jay Brennish may believe they haven't internalized the processes of critical thought necessary to reason their way to informed opinion, or perhaps even to recognize it. Studies have shown adolescent brains have under-developed frontal lobes, used for reasoning, and depend more on other parts of the brain controlled by emotion. This certainly makes them more easily manipulated than adults.
BAMN steals pages from the play-books of the most despicable regimes in modern times -- manipulating children to be foot soldiers as Liberia's Charles Taylor and others have done, and hiding behind and among them as terrorists hide behind and among civilians. These actions are criminal at one extreme and inexcusable at the other.
Though it's unlikely BAMN will be sued for violating children's civil rights it would be best if they voluntarily refrained from using them in future demonstrations, but that's unlikely since they are desperate and their tactics keep them in the press.
Political consultant and blogger Chetly Zarko has followed BAMN's antics for months. BAMN has made a habit of using students in their protests from the beginning, and has marched them (OK, bused them) to Lansing more than once when they should have been in school. Just last week BAMN was connected to a student protest in Detroit presumably against the loss of a Free Dress Day. Eight students were arrested. On Saturday, April 1, BAMN showed up in Lansing again with 12 buses, 500 people including students to shout slogans and bang on windows (eventually breaking one). Their use of children is analogous to former Liberian president Charles Taylor's using children as soldiers in that country's civil war.
Though Taylor's recruiting children into his army with lethal outcomes is more reprehensible than BAMN's accessorizing their protests with students, both situations demonstrate the extremes desperate political activists will go to further their cause By Any Means Necessary -- even if it includes abusing children. BAMN uses children for its dirty work and as decorations, hoping their participation will pull sympathetic strings from politicians and voters alike.
Children are not adults. They haven't the education or experience to discern motivations or bias. Regardless what Denver-area teach Jay Brennish may believe they haven't internalized the processes of critical thought necessary to reason their way to informed opinion, or perhaps even to recognize it. Studies have shown adolescent brains have under-developed frontal lobes, used for reasoning, and depend more on other parts of the brain controlled by emotion. This certainly makes them more easily manipulated than adults.
BAMN steals pages from the play-books of the most despicable regimes in modern times -- manipulating children to be foot soldiers as Liberia's Charles Taylor and others have done, and hiding behind and among them as terrorists hide behind and among civilians. These actions are criminal at one extreme and inexcusable at the other.
Though it's unlikely BAMN will be sued for violating children's civil rights it would be best if they voluntarily refrained from using them in future demonstrations, but that's unlikely since they are desperate and their tactics keep them in the press.
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