Law Enforcement vs. Witches Brew Coffeeshop.

[xiane]

This makes me really fucking angry. I know they've been having problems with the law enforcement, but this goes beyond the pale.

And I thought I had it tough in C'ville with trying to keep all-ages shows going. Jeez.

Comments

[short-line2.livejournal.com]

So many things are wrong with the attitude of the police in that town. Small town police come in two types. Nice ones that want to do the right thing and bitter ones that feel that policing a small town should be done with an iron fist. Often they have been turned down by big city police forces, state and federal agencies and have had to settle for the small town much to the small towns detriment.

I hope more outraged citizen complain about the strong arm tactics.

[xiane.livejournal.com]

I think a few really bad [prejudiced] apples are spoiling the whole bunch. One of the real problems there is one I've experienced a bit since moving south - there's a strong "Christian"* movement here, and those people seem inclined to make trouble for anything that doesn't fit into their ideology. They use that as a mask for making themselves feel more holy, more righteous-than-thou. That means that Witches Brew gets a lot of flack from certain aspects of the community. [unfortunately that seems to include some of the cops there!]
Then you have the other half of the town, the people who are trying to move the town to a more "enlightened" point of view - of course that includes a lot of the kids that hang out at The Brew, and often their parents, too. They are the ones who need the most to step up and speak their minds loudly, because without that, The Brew will fall.
I know that Kym and her business partner have had a really tough time with some people in that town. I thought they were particularly brave to step up and say "No, we won't hide being pagan and having a business that declares it loudly. No, we won't stop offering events that welcome the teenagers of the town to participate, because otherwise, where will they go? No, we won't stop featuring music and other events that don't appeal to a certain aspect of this town, because you aren't ALL of the town."

They are brave folk, and I support their work completely.

* "Christians" in this case represents those mealy-mouthed types that love spewing scripture when it suits them, to make their point, yet don't live their religion. They give a bad name to real Christians. [just wanted to make it clear I'm not bashing the good god-folk, I know a lot of them and I feel really bad that they have to deal with this, too.]

[short-line2.livejournal.com]

It is not the kids that are in plain sight that are the problem.

The People that scream about "Christianity" the loudest are most often the people that are the least christian. That makes the police attitude seem even worse. It adds bigotry to the stupidity.

I will stop here before I get on my Constitutional and Bill of Rights soap box.

[xiane.livejournal.com]

I think you and I are on the same page here. And don't worry about soapboxing, I climbed up earlier with this whole Lincolnton cops/Witches Brew debacle. :)

I never added you when you friended me, because I didn't know you. I'm going to rectify that now; I'm really glad you commented to this post. You'll be able to see a lot of other posts that I make here, as I post a *lot* as friends only.

[short-line2.livejournal.com]

I also think we are on the same page. Many years ago I was in the video and pinball arcade business. I specialized in opening new store locations. I worked in a lot of small towns in VA, MD, PA, WV and NJ. What was said about respect was true in all the small towns I was in. If you treated the youth with respect they respected you back. The good kids did not want the few bad apples to ruin the only form of entertainment that many of them had outside the home. We normally had one confrontation with the macho alpha type and if you did not let them get away with shit but told them the rules in a respectful way we never had trouble again.

It worked the other way as well. If you gave them an inch they would take a mile. Little things like seeing a kid toss a empty drink can on the ground in the parking lot and not saying anything would be an invitation to let them see how much they could get away with. Those were a very small minority of the kids. Most were polite and respectful.

It was very hard to pick the permanent location staff for these arcades. It had to be people that were local but had not been significantly bullied in school. The manager was not much of a problem, but the assistants and the parts timers were the vulnerable ones. They also had to show respect to the kids, have the respect of the kids and not be intimidated. The staff was only as strong as the weakest employee.

Your friend seems to fully understand this based on the post. In this case the lack of respect is not from the store owners it is from the police.

Dashboard cameras were put in patrol cars as much to reduce police abuse as much as to document DUI arrests. I wonder if the officers would behave differently if they knew they were being filmed.

One other thought on this. My wife and I worked EMS for over 23 combined years. We often shared meals with Law Enforcement Officers (LEOs) from many different jurisdictions (small towns, university security, state police, county sheriff, etc). Almost all these men and women had the same attitude as did most of the older EMS personnel. The best shift was a quiet shift, NO CALLS. We had a few people at EMS and there were a few LEOs that were not happy unless they were up to their elbows in blood or for the LEOs arresting someone. Those few LEOs give the rest a bad name.



I do not remember for sure how I came across your journal. I think it is when I was looking for alternative forms of entertainment for our house guest. She was having problems meeting nice guys in Baltimore night spots. evilcresyluna pointed me at a long list of alternative sites in Baltimore for Robin (our house guest) to check out. I think your journal was one of those sites. I added it because you were planning a spread the good will day by dressing as a pixie. It seemed like a great idea.

Thank you for adding me. Many of the friends posts in my journal deal with the personal relations of the people around me and me being outraged when someone trespasses against them. Or acts in a bigoted way towards redheads in general (I am not a redhead, but many of my friends are).