Sunday, September 26, 2010

Ditmas Park Blog wants you to be leery of black financial criminals



In the wake of the greatest financial theft in history in which the President of Brazil caught flak for saying that "white, blue eye bankers had brought the world economy to it's knees" The bloggers of the ditmas park blog want you to be leery of an "email from a neighbor" about a "young black male" driving a "Mercedes" going around to yard sales passing "fake $20 bills". The underlining tone of the post is to look out for "fake $20 bills from young black males in baggy jeans" because we all know white males like insurance agents at AIG, people like Bernie Maddoff are completely trustworthy and we don't ever have to be leery of anyone like that (especially white honest white people who are very white and very honest) passing around fake money. I'm sure that the lowered value of the mortgages of the vitorian houses at Ditmas Park was due to "young black males passing around fake $20 bills" The financial crisis where trillions of dollars were lost would have surely been averted had it not been for those pesky fake $20 bills at yard sales. In light of Tim Wise's imagine game. Let's see how the ditmas park post would look like and if they would even post it if it was a white hipster that was "accused" by a "neighbor" in an "email".


Bad Money

September 25th, 2010 2:54 pm

Watch out at the yard sales for a person paying with fake $20 bills, a couple of neighbors emailed on this:

There is a young man passing bad 20.00 bills and at least 4 people I spoke to got them.

They believe it is a White Beatle driven by someone and a younger, 20 something white male , very polite with Skinny Jeans and a fedora cap comes out and buys something for 1.00 or 2.00 and gets the change. He asked one person if he could take a picture of something and told 2 others to hold something he would be back once they got change.

We have alerted the Ditmas Park Parents Association and one is riding around on Vespa, but since the West Midwood Yard Sales are tomorrow, wondering if posting would help alert their parents so they can knock it off.

The bills are lighter and have blurred print and if you look, you can tell they are fake, but when someone is not on the alert they dont really pay attention and then get stuck with the bad practical jokesters money.

- Liena

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

BROOKLYN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION LAUNCHES First EVER Brooklyn Do GoodER Awards

-- Foundation celebrates anniversary, recognizes community heroes and gives $25,000 to charity via crowdsourcing initiative --



BROOKLYN, NY, August 24 2010 -- In honor of its first anniversary, the Brooklyn Community Foundation, the first borough-wide charitable organization focused solely on Brooklyn, today announced the first-ever online Brooklyn Do Gooder Awards campaign to identify and honor local individuals who embody the highest values of community giving and service. The campaign invites the broader Brooklyn community to identify individuals who display an outstanding sense of giving back locally—with time, talent or charity and to nominate and to vote for them online at www.DoGoodRightHere.org. The campaign will culminate at the Foundation's anniversary celebration on November 3, 2010 at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Palm House, where the winners will be honored. Media sponsors to date for the campaign include Gothamist, GOOD Magazine, WNYC as well as other community partners.



“The work of the Brooklyn Community Foundation is to encourage giving and service to our communities. Through this effort we hope to recognize those Brooklynites who are giving back everyday to make our borough stronger and kinder. Our motto is Do Good Right Here, and we want to encourage the public to nominate and vote for those people who exemplify that spirit of generosity and goodness in their community,” said Marilyn Gelber, President of the Brooklyn Community Foundation.



Brooklyn Do Gooder nominees should have a demonstrated commitment to Brooklyn through their work within the Foundation’s five fields of interest: Arts for All, Caring Neighbors, Community Development, Education and Youth Achievement and Green Communities. Each of the five winning Brooklyn Do Gooders will receive an award as well as $5,000 to be used as a reinvestment in a recognized 501(c)3 charitable entity working in Brooklyn or in a Brooklyn Community Foundation Field of Interest Fund.



Anyone can nominate and vote for a Brooklyn Do Gooder 18 years of age or older via an online platform which is fully integrated with social media tools like Facebook and Twitter. Online voting will help determine 20 Brooklyn Do Gooder finalists, after which a distinguished panel of judges will choose the winners. Judges currently include WNYC’s Laura Walker, Freelancer Union’s Sara Horowitz, MoCADA’s Laurie Cumbo, award-winning author Peter Hedges and other local leaders. Nominations are being collected through September 30, 2010; Online voting will be open from October 1-October 15, 2010. The community celebration, “Brooklyn Does Good” takes place on November 3, 2010. Start here: www.DoGoodRightHere.org.

Taxi sting

A recent undercover investigation conducted by the Taxi & Limousine Commission found that 17 percent of New York City’s for-hire car services are either denying disabled passengers or overcharging them for rides.

The 10-month-long investigation occurred in two ways.

In a method called "Bait, Fish, and Hook," when investigators requested vehicles in the guise of disabled people, 31 bases ignored the special requests and sent insufficiently equipped cars.

In another operation done by phone, investigators requested price quotes. Once an investigator received a quote, they would say they needed a wheelchair-accessible vehicle. After receiving the additional information, 49 car services upped their original price quotes, the TLC said.

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, livery cab companies are required to provide equal service at the same cost to disabled and non-disabled riders alike.

In total, 80 out of the city’s 460 livery cab and black car services were caught in the TLC sting, and will summarily be fined $1,000 and have their operating licenses suspended.

Read more: http://dnainfo.com/20100603/manhattan/eighty-new-york-city-car-services-caught-tlc-sting#ixzz0xfdAtrgp

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Life is a Dream

A Festival of Fools is pleased to announce its second annual free summer production: "Life is a Dream” by
Pedro Calderon de la Barca, Translation by Gregary Racz . The production is directed by Amanda
Thompson. Performances are August 14th, 15th, 22nd and 28th at 2pm at the Prospect Park Music Pagoda. For
more information call 908-319-3527 or visit www.afestivaloffools.com

The King of Poland has banished his only son Segismund to a tower after a prophecy predicting the prince’s
tyrannical rule begins to come true. When an experiment to reinstate the prince goes awry, Segismund is
once again confined to the tower and left to question what is real and what only exists in dreams. This
classic Spanish verse play features vengeful lovers, epic sword battles and the eternal questions of existence
and morality.

Featured in the cast are: Timothy Bungeroth, Hannah Corrigan, Mike DeSantis, Jesse Kane-Hartnett, Sam
Maxwell and Claire Nasuti.

The Design Team and Crew include: Amanda Thompson (Director), Jack Neylan (Poster Designer), Jessa-
Raye Court (Costume Designer), Jared Kirby (Fight Choreographer) and Megan Finnegan (Executive
Producer).

Inspired by the Elizabethan verse play, we place language at the forefront of our productions to explore
mythology and folklore. At the same time, we seek to visually captivate through acrobatics, sword
fighting and mask. While we are determined to stage established verse plays, we also produce original work
tailored for a contemporary audience -in length and vernacular. Focusing on these elements allows us to
engage and excite our audiences with performances that are both cost efficient and affordable.

Performance Schedule: August 14th, 15th, 222nd and 28th
2pm
Location: Prospect Park Music PagodaBrooklyn, NY
(Take the Q Train to Prospect Park. Enter the park through the Willink
Entrance at Empire Blvd. and Ocean Ave.; follow the Blue Trail signs.)
Tickets: Free
For more information about A Festival of Fools, please visit http://www.afestivaloffools.com or
call (908) 319-3527.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

NYPD Sued

Adam Cooper, a 32-year-old African American, was charged with trespass and held in police custody for three days. The charges were eventually dropped. Cooper claims that the police did not bother to knock on Suarez's door to check whether he was a guest.

Over a year later, Cooper and Suarez are now plaintiffs in a federal class action suit against the New York Police Department and the New York City Housing Authority. The complaint accuses the two agencies of encouraging aggressive patrols and illegal stops and arrests in public housing all over the city. But more significantly, the complaint, headed by the Legal Aid Society and the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, asserts that this practice of vertical patrolling discriminates against blacks and Latinos. The complaint comes only a year after the Center for Constitutional Rights filed a suit alleging the NYPD practices racial profiling during its stop and frisk procedures.

In 2003 the NYPD launched Operation Clean Halls, which allows the police to stop, search and question anyone they deem to be suspicious. When officers conduct a "vertical patrol," they walk through and do a sweep of the hallways, stairwells, rooftops and landings, to ensure the building is safe and that no one is trespassing or engaging in criminal activity. The NYPD may only do this in buildings where they are given permission to do so, such as NYCHA buildings. Residents can be charged with trespass if they enter prohibited parts of the building, such as the rooftop or the basement, or if they cannot provide identification or proof of residence. Non-residents can be charged if they are uninvited or if the person they are visiting is not there to confirm they are a in fact a guest. More

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Don't Believe The Hype

Guest post from one of our readers Sam. If you would like to guest post, please email us at therealflatbush(at)gmail.com

Because of Gentrification and the false, perverse and evil idea that white is somehow better, I would like to point out and show that there are some out there who are fighting the good fight and who will continue to fight for true equality. This past month the Ditmas Park blog posted a real estate video showing the virtues of an all white ditmas park by a real estate agent. The idea of gentrification is in fact inherently racist because society as a whole is inherently a racist society. The believe that white is better is ingrain into the collective mind-frame of not only white people, but a growing number of black people, hispanics and asians. They falsely believe that somehow if they can kiss enough white ass, they will become white. The beauty of this is that just because you live in an inherently racist and toxic environment, it does not necessarily mean that you have to abide by that ideology.

Although the media, Hollywood and society would like to make you believe that white women are more beautiful then black women, the facts just does not prove it. (just take a stroll down flatbush on a saturday afternoon and you will see it) There has been reports that Chad Ochocinco has a dating show where he wanted to pick an all white female hoochies or whatever they call contestants on a dating show. Does that make him a racist? Probably not in the traditional sense. But does he reflect a society that is out of whack? Yes. Does it make him someone who has bought into the white Hollywood supremacist ideology? Maybe. Did he have a choice? Yes and No. The facts are the media likes to portray a certain image of what is suppose to be the ideal and normal. Some in the black community has bought into that false ideology. But we have the power to change our own thoughts and ideas. We don't have to fall into this white supremacist ideology. If we do. We all loose. Anyone who follows such ideology is doom to live an empty life of nothing. When you rely on your outer appearance instead of your inner strength, you will be at a great disadvantage. When you have that great inner strenght and call people out on their B.S you will be unstoppable. Just like this woman.

Friday, July 9, 2010

The Murder of Oscar Grant

The Murder and subsequent unjust verdict of Oscar Grant did not happen in a vacuum. The formula and recipe for this type of senseless killing by the Oakland Police can be seen here in NYC and especially Flatbush. The 70th Precinct is being blindly supported by a local blog (the ditmas park blog) that has the eyes and ears of the New York Times, The Daily News and a number of other news organizations. The Ditmas Park Blog is the face of white privilege and white ambivalence towards injustice. They protect the police. They make-up stories to demonized black youth, They romanticize the virtuosity of gentrification, they encourage police profiling and they write out of proportion stories and narratives specifically geared towards white fear and hatred of black youth and black culture at large. Just this week, they posted a story about the "dangers" of building a "hoops" courts in the back yard of an elementary school. Their solution to this perceived problem on a story that was planted by them to the Daily News is to "have more police patrol." Their reasons for this concern is that black youth cannot be trusted to be on their own without constant police supervision and police harassment.


from Huffinton Post:
News came this week that the U.S. Justice Department will review the case of a New Year's Day 2009 BART police shooting, following recent protests and a vocal outcry from Oakland, California's black community. The case involves the fatal shooting of an unarmed man, 22-year-old Oscar Grant, by former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle. Mehserle was convicted in State court this week of involuntary manslaughter, but many in the community say this charge falls short. More