ANTI-PRESS EZINE #24 "We're Positive About The Negative" **SPECIAL EDITION** (C) Copyright 2001 Anti-Press All Rights Reserved JUST SAY NO TO APATHY A while back someone emailed us and asked why we kept talking about Plattsburgh, NY. We follow a basic rule for zinesters: Rant about what you know. Also, we're stuck here due to circumstances beyond our control -- for now. Anyway, Plattsburgh can be seen as a microcosm of what is wrong with America. Hell, why bother with just this country? Lately this overgrown podunk reflects what is wrong with the world at large. What follows is a copy of an email that was sent to Plattsburgh's mayor, the TeeVee station, the local (news)Paper, and us here at the Precision Reality Center. We'll follow up with our opinions after this email. + + + Apathy & The Plattsburgh P.D. I found the bowl to a hash pipe in the men's room at the Plattsburgh Public library. It was loaded with residue. This restroom is right next to the children's room in the library. So what did the city police department do about it? Nothing. I didn't expect the P.D. to rush down to the library and immediately arrest the owner of the bowl. That person was probably long gone. But I assumed at some point that an officer would go there, pick up the drug paraphernalia and the amount of illegal controlled substance, and then properly dispose of it. Then I thought they would file a report, doing the minimum amount of paperwork. The library staff did its part. They called the P.D. and then locked up the men's room so that the police could stop by at their convenience. But instead the cops told the librarian to take the bowl and its contents and just "throw it out". Gee, I didn't know that there was a section in the city charter that said the library was responsible for the disposal of evidence and controlled substances. Well, it's better that I found that hash bowl instead of some kid who could've wandered in from the children's room. I can see it now: little Johnny with residue all over his hands, saying, "Mommy, look at what I found." For the record: if someone wants to do drugs, that's fine by me. I don't care if it's pot or heroin, it's your body, do what you want. Just keep it at home. I don't want your crap lying around in a public building for a kid to pick up. It's interesting that posted in plain sight at one of the city schools is a sign proclaiming that the school is a drug free area. Apparently that doesn't apply to the city library. There will always be a drug problem. I laugh when I hear that government officials will stamp out the problem. So I don't expect the local P.D. to eradicate all dope in the city. But since it sponsors the DARE program, I expect it to do its job and at least file a report, getting off its doughnut-enhanced butt and setting an example for the kids it *supposedly* wants to protect. Then again, if someone doesn't file a report, then they can claim that crime statistics are improving. Out of sight, out of mind. Luke T. Bush + + + We know where this guy is coming from. He doesn't expect the police to be supercops, solving every crime. But he's fed up with the false illusion that this community is Heaven-On-Earth, the crime rate is so low that it's non-existent. After all, Plattsburgh was voted as one of the best micropolitan communities to live in the U.S. And we can easily imagine what the city officials are saying about the author of the above email: "That bastard is making us look bad! And after all that money we spent promoting the city as a Great Place!" Wake up, politicos. Plattsburgh has problems and one of them is drugs. This city serves as a way station between Montreal and New York City for dealers. We've talked to kids who say it's easy to score around here. Of course, the cops will put on a big drug bust every couple of years or so, i.e. small fish are caught in the net and new ones swim in to take over. We're sick of politicos flapping their yaps, spitting meaningless feelgood words in the wind. We're fed up with the crap, "We care about the children, we have zero tolerance for drugs." Put up or shut up. The status quo is to wage a "war" on some drugs. It's all about image, not action. If a report is never filed -- especially one dealing with a controlled substance found in a public building -- then it seems that the "war" is keeping the problem under control. And it's not just the cops and the politicos who like to live in a sunny world of illusion. We've talked to a few locals, gauging their reaction to this incident. It's amazing how a middle-class person, half-blinded with dense rose-colored glasses, acts like there is nothing wrong. "Why did that guy bother to write a letter?" We mentioned to one woman how she would feel if her young son found that hash pipe bowl. She replied she would just tell her son that it was nothing, that someone forgot their tobacco pipe. Hmmmm, we wonder what she would say if her son was pricked by a dirty needle... Another woman, a patron of the library, also shrugged it off. _Tsk, tsk_. It must be nice to suffer from severe pink myopia. Working our sources -- and we can honestly say our sources are better than what the local mainstream media uses to gather "news" -- we're seeing a pattern developing, a bad one. From what we've learned, The Paper was going to run a story tomorrow (Saturday, June 9) about the hash bowl incident. The email-author/activist was interviewed and provided some quotes and background detail about what he witnessed. Now the story is being dropped for a while because the reporter is unable to talk with anyone at the police department who knows anything about the incident. At one point the story had to appear this weekend because it was timely. Now it's being put off until next week. Also, the activist was contacted by the TeeVee station and was put in the position of explaining to the reporter why this incident was "news". It reminds us of that classic scene in the movie, "The Night Stalker", in which a reporter is telling his editor why they should run a story instead of killing it. "Because it's NEWS! The purpose of a newspaper is to publish NEWS!" Then again, since we're talking about TeeVee, image is more important than substance. If it ain't flashy or sexy, it ain't news. Like they say, this story is developing. Whether or not the local media do anything or just help to maintain the sunny illusion, we'll keep track and see what happens. We don't like to be cynical. Maybe someone, besides that email-author/activist, will do something. By the way, there was an interesting assault in Plattsburgh during the week. A couple of inbred yahoos drove into town, spotted a guy walking down the street, called him a "faggot" and then one of the rednecks coldcocked the guy, splitting his lip. The victim, a peaceable fellow, had to go to the emergency room for stitches. Besides drugs, we wonder what the openly gay-mayor of Plattsburgh thinks about "hate crime". Plattsburgh. Such a lovely place, in *every* way. More next time. (Unless they find us floating face-down in the lake, a doughnut stuffed in our mouth.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Submitted works must be ready for publication (edited and proofread). Word Limit: 1000 words. No sci-fi, poetry, sci-fi poetry, poetic sci-fi, etc. Do some research and read a couple of issues to find what we want. Submissions and readers' comments should be sent to Antipress1@aol.com. 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