Blowing Smoke

Toker Volunteers Unwelcome?

 



Yesterday Kai Price made me aware of this complaint filed with the Monson Police over the way a volunteer, helping with recovery from the deadly tornado that roared through our Valley earlier this month, was treated by local police officers:

On Jun 10, 2011, at 4:24 PM, "subversive01057" wrote:

I do not want to discourage anyone from helping with the tornado volunteer cleanup effort. The town has been devastated, and we can still use all the help we can get. And overall the police have done a tremendous job. However I wanted to report that I am about to file a compliant with my town of Monson, MA, as follows:

Sometime around 10pm on the evening of Tuesday, June 7th, Will of Amesbury, MA, was outside the Unitarian Universalist Parish of Monson, which had been affected by the tornado, dropping off some extra slate tile donated from elsewhere, with the fore-knowledge of UUPM minister.

Will had heard about the tornado in the news, saw the devastation on TV, and being a tradesman/electrician, he thought he could help and he packed up and moved to the Monson campground and worked as a registered volunteer around town for a week, including at the UUPM, where he made a real difference. At the time, three of his chainsaws had been well used by the First Church of Monson and were in the process of being repaired by him.

Given the rubble outside the church, the time of day and the looting that has occurred in town, this constituted suspicious behavior, and Will was stopped by the Monson Police Department, questioned, and his vehicle was searched. In my mind, this was all very reasonable (with the exception that Will's glove compartment may have been damaged during the frenzy of the search). The Monson PD does an excellent job of helping residents feel safe and secure in their homes and businesses.

Will explained his presence, presented the Rev. Jackson on his cell phone to the officer involved to corroborate his presence, and as no evidence of looting was found, Will was not arrested.

In the search of Will's vehicle, the officer found a small amount of marijuana. It seems that as a result, Will was ordered to leave the town limits of Monson immediately under police escort and threatened that should he ever return he would be subject to immediate arrest. When he explained that he was staying at the Monson campground and that the medication he was under made it seriously unsafe for him to drive, he was told that he would not be allowed to stay there and must leave Monson immediately.

The Monson PD should be very well aware that following overwhelming voter approval that in Massachusetts, simple possession of an ounce or less of marijuana is a civil infraction punishable only by a maximum $100 fine and forfeiture of the marijuana. The penalty for possession of marijuana does NOT include being run out of town. Will has had a challenging life and was deeply emotionally hurt by being (unofficially?!) trespassed from the Town of Monson and denied the opportunity to help further, especially after he had just donated a week of volunteer labor and had done nothing that would warrant this banishment.

The Monson PD has responded incredibly well to a challenge that few police could have ever imagined that they would be called upon to face. The widespread tragedy of this tornado, combined with the heat and the long hours, make the generally magnificent response of the Monson PD in the past week all the more heroic.

However sometimes mistakes are made--I've certainly made mistakes in my life, and I'm sure that nearly everyone else has too at some time or another. The way Will was treated is deeply appalling to me as a Monson resident and home-owner (and please note that I am not nor I have ever been a member of the UUPM), and I would like to think that it was just a misunderstanding. Surely this was not the instance of prejudice that it appears to be. And when mature adults make mistakes, what they are called upon to do is man-up (or woman-up), admit to the mistake, apologize for the mistake, and reasonably try to rectify the situation.

Today Kai Price released the following update:

Lesson learned: file the written complaint.

A half hour after I dropped off the form the police sergeant stopped by and explained that it was all a big misunderstanding, Will was not trespassed at all and is welcome to come back to volunteer without fear of police harassment, and the problem was that his associate/passenger did not have ID, gave sketchy answers to questioning, and they were both in an area where looting had been reported and it was late at night.

You may now return to your regular programming.

Despite the way Kai Price bends over backwards to praise the police, is this really a happy ending? Unanswered questions remain. Would the police have backed off if no complaint was filed? When they realized that there had been, in their words, "a big misunderstanding" why didn't they contact the person involved on their own and apologize instead of waiting for a formal complaint to be filed? Does the glove compartment damaged in the search need to be repaired, and if so, who will pay for it? The police justify what they did by claiming to have been searching for looters, but was everyone stopped in that search given a police escort out of town?

This incident is hardly the most earth shattering local controversy, but it does clearly illustrate the tendency that law enforcement still has to overreact in instances where marijuana is involved, despite the fact that the drug has been nearly legalized. To prevent further such overreactions in the future, the best and most effective way would be legalize marijuana entirely.

Meanwhile, fascinating videos from the June 2nd tornado continue to surface. Here's an amazing one showing the dangerous scene as severe winds strike a downtown Springfield parking lot. Notice how a car moves just in time to escape deadly debris that soon strikes that spot.

 

There was some dark clouds and thunder and lightning this past week, but thankfully nothing like the violent storms of the week before. Here's some of the electrical show the other day over Holyoke as captured by Greg Saulmon. 

Mary Serreze caught these dark clouds hovering over Northampton City Hall.

My neighbor assembled these stones on his front steps in accordance with a feng shui pattern of good fortune.

Happy UMass summer school students. 

Kurtis and Rob are traveling in style to the Amherst Survival Center.

 



The following feelgood video was filmed entirely in Amherst. 

This

And That

 



This great video has surfaced of the first minute or so of the St. Patrick's Holyoke Road Race:

 

 

When Jeff Ziff and I went to Conant Brook Dam earlier this month, we couldn't help but be intrigued by the gigantic Chinese characters someone had painted on a spillway.

Here's a close-up that Jeff took.

We wondered what the hell the message was that someone had gone to so such trouble to paint, but we had no way of finding out. Well, leave it to the internet to produce the answer. Leon Zheng wrote in to say: "These are eight separate words, and the meanings are: justice, bravery, humanity, courtesy, honesty, fame, loyalty and honor."

So now you know.

Jeff also took this picture of some signs at an exit in Palmer. Notice the gambling casino sign. 

Hmmm, does Palmer know something we don't?

Here is the class of 1981 from Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Church in the Pine Point Section of Springfield. 

Miss Markett, Lynn Rossmeisl, Dawn Roberts, Christine Gibbs, Becky Sullivan, Paula Garvey, Darlene Dusseault, Maggie Berthume, Gail Donermeyer, Ann Woodbury, Chrissy Brennan, Christina Torro, Marie Peck, Tom Stabilo, Brian Elliott, Jim McCoy, Roger Sagendorph, Tim Quirk, Tom Bretta, Tom Quapian, Shawn Corbitt, Robin Dunn, Michael Poole, Bill McMahon, Jimmy Kervick, Jim Cicerchia, John Danio, Bob Pastreck, Joe Santamaria, Malachi Gladden, Kevin Sullivan, Mike Dunn, Eddy Ebberston, Chris Dalecki, Anthony Tarrantino, Jim Stote, Mike Kervick, Brenda Girard McMahon, Jeff Prairie, Marissa Miles, Missy Cyr-Shockroo, Kathy McKenzie, Kim Keddy Kennedy, Lisa Messier, Kara L. Cruz, Michele Lariviere Gropp, Carol Angers, Liz Mulcahy, Moira Pasini

The Music Section

Longtime local Grateful Dead tunesters Lobsterz from Mars at The Lighthouse in Ludlow.

 

Northampton's School for the Dead has a new video out. 

Monson 2010

And Thereabouts

Yesterday I went with my friend Jeff Ziff , the Cray Soda heir and renowned blues videographer, to check out the new business he and his wife Sue opened in Palmer a few weeks ago. We met in Hamp and stopped first at Northampton Coffee.

The lady behind the counter there is a real wizard of pouring cream on the various coffee concoctions, making them look like pictures. Here is a fern embedded in a heart.

No extra charge for the edible art. As we passed the "oxbow" section of the Connecticut River, I asked Jeff to stop so that I could photograph something. Many times on the Holyoke bus I have spotted this rusty old sign and I always wanted to check it out. It is located on the side of this leaning shed.

It is a beautiful location right by the water, where swans sometimes go and the trees are really friendly.

 



This is the sign. It is badly deteriorated but you can still see that it once advertised Pepsi. Even more interesting is the upper advertisement for something called Nu-Grape.

Jeff is an expert on soda memorabilia and said the sign dates back to the 1930's. Unfortunately at the rate it is rusting it will soon be no more. Eventually we arrived in Palmer where we visited Jeff's Trinkets and Treasures Shop.

 



It is full of everything its name implies. Check it out for yourself on Rte 20 someday - it's a nice ride to get there too.

While in Palmer we figured we may as well check out their historic and recently restored train station.

 



The inside has been made into a beautiful new restaurant. When you go shopping for antiques at Jeff's place be sure to make plans to have lunch at the train station after.

Since we were in the area we decided to take a look at Monson's Conant Brook Dam, which we had heard was really scenic. On the way there we passed the Quaboag Riders, where my friend Bodie Chesbro used to go.

We decided to stop in and watch the kids zoom around the track for a while.

Driving through Monson we came upon this ancient building by Lynch Street. No clue as to when it was built, but this is a true New England Classic.

Also intriguing was this thick coil of searope on the old handmade stone wall in front of the house. Rope like this was probably used for a big boat on the Cape.

Finally we arrived at the dam, which was just as beautiful as advertised.

The Wikipedia describes the dam thusly:

The Conant Brook Dam is located on Conant Brook in Monson, Massachusetts, about 7.4 miles (11.9 km) upstream from the confluence of Conant Brook and the Quaboag River. It is approximately 15 miles (24 km) east of Springfield, Massachusetts.

Designed and constructed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers, this dam substantially reduces flooding along the Quaboag, Chicopee, and Connecticut rivers. Construction of the project began in 1964 with completion in 1966 at a cost of US$2,950,530.

The Conant Brook Dam is located within the Chicopee River watershed and is part of the Connecticut River basin. Access to the site is available from State Route 32 and State Route 19.

The water level however was unusually low. Frankly we've had more cold than snow this year, and the Conant Brook is running quite narrowly.

In the areas meant to handle overflows it is bone dry.

 



Later we went to a ghostly Monson churchyard.

 



There I discovered the highlight of the trip - The first flower of Spring!

The Music Section

This is the best mix of music and politics I've seen in a while.

Photo by Tony Mateus

Fright Night Reunion

Hey everybody, I have zero time today for blogging. However, I do have a few pics someone sent me from a reunion of some of the cast members of one of my favorite films, Fright Night.

Yes, I mean Fright Night the movie, not the politics. 

Here are three of the main stars from a recent horror convention. 

Stephen Geoffreys, Chris Saradon and Amanda Bearse.

Wow, Chris Saradan is almost unrecognizable! My favorite actor in the film is Stephen Geoffreys, who went on to have a hot career in gay porn, such as the film below. 

The movie was promoted as follows:

Riffing on old-fashioned, playful T&A comedies of the past, HUNK HOTEL turns the table and gives the guys their long-overdue turn. Five incredibly hot young men land the summer job of their dreams, at a beautiful resort populated by even more hot guys. The only drawback in their plans for a summer of parties and sun is their evil boss (Stephen Geoffreys, FRIGHT NIGHT, 976 EVIL), whose wrath they are constantly incurring or evading. So begins a hilarious chain of events that often results, of course, in nudity.

Nevermind, Stephen, we still love you. 

Here's a video excerpt from Fright Night featuring Geoffreys. Opposite him is the legendary Roddy McDowell, appearing in one of his last roles. 

 

At a recent Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in Edwards Church in Northampton I came upon this paper-mache camel that the church members no doubt use in their Christmas celebrations.

However, camels also have a special role in AA culture. Why?

Because they hardly need a drink.