pattycakes
Well-known member
I think we both want this forum to reach it's potential. At the moment I'm trying to do my part in nudging it in that direction. There's a lot of talent here and maybe with some reflection and stern words we could recalibrate and get back on track to realizing some of it, who knows. I just don't like seeing it so stagnated, and I think certain elements have been keeping it in that state. See: several posts from people saying they don't feel like participating much. Imo it's going to be more productive to cultivate healthy competition and constructive criticism over just walloping any seedling that sprouts up with a hammer. Also, I honestly think bullying sucks. Especially when it's being sold as just a laugh or even for someone's own good (fkn lol) when it's clearly just a bunch of jackals taking a sly bite of an already down antelope. Everything in moderation, but when it's the overarching tone of a place, that doesn't engender productivity. Just my pov
pattycakes
Well-known member
And don't get me wrong, it shouldn't be a creche where all the walls are painted in primary colors and we've got our poster paints and drawings on the wall. There's ways to do this without it being infantilizing. I think my main point is trying to allow things to breathe a bit more
pattycakes
Well-known member
How did you end up on the other side eventually?
Yes, although I'd wrongly assumed you were a policeman, and from there I was wondering how many other officers are reading Fisher in the break room down at the station. Question still works for a CO though
Good stuff. Glad I asked
Even though I haven't read Debord, the concept of the spectacle is huge. I read a book partly inspired by SotS from Chris Hedges called Empire of Illusion - the end of literacy and the triumph of spectacle, which breaks it down in a more modern context. Should probably read the Debord, maybe put it on the top of the to do list
pattycakes
Well-known member
We're all guilty of it and it's fun a lot of the time but there are periods where it goes to far and becomes the default and that can fuck up the flow of the spice
I'd say we're due some spicy flow
I'd say we're due some spicy flow
Murphy
cat malogen
We need The Dudes to post out America’s best hashish, rosin and extracts, maybe with a little inside knowledge from @GhostofKinski 
GhostofKinski
Well-known member
Hashish is scarce in NYC. If you’re drinking in the right pub, and happen to start BSing with a Morrocan, it’s not unheard of to be invited to partake. As a bartender they would sometimes tip you with small square. They tend to not want to reveal and/or connect you to a dealer though. Very insular in that way.We need The Dudes to post out America’s best hashish, rosin and extracts, maybe with a little inside knowledge from @GhostofKinski
A bit like the Chinese and true opium.
Cannabis is essentially legal here. There is a legal dispensary within walking distance from my place.
In the jails, when we would confiscate weed, it was all supposed to be tested (I doubt most is) But, of the weed tested, over 90% was laced with methamphetemine! This was shocking to me but also revealing. Similar to the cigarette companies being caught adding chemicals that would essentially open up the lungs to create more absorption (therefore hastening addiction) this seemed to be the reason for that finding.
I would notice when working a house with pot smokers, if their supply dried up/was intercepted, they would get violently irritated.
This puzzled me in the beginning/until I was briefed on reality of the situation.
Normally, as long as they were discreet (I don’t see it etc. I wouldn’t mind so much because a high (on weed) house is generally a chiller tour (not as violent, quieter).
That all changed though.
On Rikers the drug most used is K2 (synthetic
Poison) & fentanyl. Both really bad news.
Lots of dudes spazzing tf out and/or ODing.
The drug sniffing dogs cannot detect these drugs which were almost exclusively soaked into paper (mail). I witnessed and had to get a mail call officer who handled the mail without surgical gloves (a big no-no) to a medical emergency. All letters are delivered to the housing area and opened in front of the inmate for inspection before letting them have it. This officer was an old timer, he nearly died.
A lack of access to ppe was a serious problem for us. Whenever I would go on a hospital run, I would be compelled to liberate as many boxes of gloves/masks as I could conceal.
Murphy
cat malogen
worked inter-agency for addiction services most of the last 20 years supervising testing and treatment of benzos, opiates, tranqs, combination abuse, withdrawal, reintegration
did part of a sabbatical program on prisoner overdoses late 00’s, fuckin monstrous, prehistoric response times and nearly every incident was a mortality yet even then you had to attempt futile cpr every alarm call .. haunting shifts, high hep/hiv rates, got spiked twice during random offs - no ppe let alone when someone comes at you with a needle
standard practice to leave sharps in discrete places for cell searches here, cue disease test stress, same issues with synthetic cannabis - not a grim Britannia convergence point, more how in denial the system here is re systemic failings eg not being able to keep prisons drug free, the hypocrisy at societal levels, how easy it is to administer naloxone but try finding it on any wing etc etc ..
did part of a sabbatical program on prisoner overdoses late 00’s, fuckin monstrous, prehistoric response times and nearly every incident was a mortality yet even then you had to attempt futile cpr every alarm call .. haunting shifts, high hep/hiv rates, got spiked twice during random offs - no ppe let alone when someone comes at you with a needle
standard practice to leave sharps in discrete places for cell searches here, cue disease test stress, same issues with synthetic cannabis - not a grim Britannia convergence point, more how in denial the system here is re systemic failings eg not being able to keep prisons drug free, the hypocrisy at societal levels, how easy it is to administer naloxone but try finding it on any wing etc etc ..
GhostofKinski
Well-known member
Well said, right on! It is medieval on Rikers.
We e had 35 inmate deaths in the 2 years I belive.
Where are you (in UK)?
Murphy
cat malogen
Tend to go where the system has failed badly enough to be parachuted in. Equates to about a third of the year around Glasgow, a third nationwide/Bath/Bristol/southwest and a third training toxicology/respiratory system classes to NHS grads/emergency workers/charity sector
Can vary from batch testing new seizures in current circulation (favourite aspect), formal investigations for failing units (the worst of the worst), overhauling inept management tiers .. lab time is its own reward and checking in on old clients who’ve relapsed/reoffended and filtered into mental health ‘secure’ units
Been on the other side of the fence too. Used to misbehave this side of pond which led down your east coast - route i95, xyz, long boring story re culmination of bad choices to fund a habit, Philadelphia, DC, northern Virginia, grocery supplies masking distribution for xyz. Did four months here and there’s only so many excuses you can throw up when the first week yielded near constant violence. The noise at night ..
Mad who you learn from, eg o.g toxicologist who cracked my own habit was mid-80’s, ex-fiend and jazz percussionist who found the perfect detox recipe. Applied it to others, boom, circles squared
Can vary from batch testing new seizures in current circulation (favourite aspect), formal investigations for failing units (the worst of the worst), overhauling inept management tiers .. lab time is its own reward and checking in on old clients who’ve relapsed/reoffended and filtered into mental health ‘secure’ units
Been on the other side of the fence too. Used to misbehave this side of pond which led down your east coast - route i95, xyz, long boring story re culmination of bad choices to fund a habit, Philadelphia, DC, northern Virginia, grocery supplies masking distribution for xyz. Did four months here and there’s only so many excuses you can throw up when the first week yielded near constant violence. The noise at night ..
Mad who you learn from, eg o.g toxicologist who cracked my own habit was mid-80’s, ex-fiend and jazz percussionist who found the perfect detox recipe. Applied it to others, boom, circles squared
GhostofKinski
Well-known member
I’m sorry, I totally missed this Patty. Small phone, bad eyes, the whole 9.
I will be sure to respond in the morning EST when I’m able to get on the computer.
GhostofKinski
Well-known member
Pretty much by accident. I had arrived at a point in life where existing in a bohemian way (working for cash in various ways, you can use your imagination) was increasingly unsustainable. I took every civil service open competitive exam that didn't have an age limit. Most of the best paying civil service jobs here have an age limit (29-35 respectively )and/or educational background that I didn't have (a bachelor degree or better).
The tests are quite easy (multiple choice) in that if you can read and have a modicum of common sense, you will pass.
The Dept. of Correction paid most, had better benefits, but most importantly, called me first being the most desperate for staff. It's an extremely high attrition rate job. Most Officers quit in the first year. That environment ain't for everyone. I had serious reservations/conflicting thoughts about it. Actually lost a close friend & mentor behind it. I made my choice though. Tried to make a difference when I could. It's a horrible place to work but my mantra was sort of "I am responsible for the effort, not the outcome." There were far too few positive outcomes & I wish I could have done more. Much like the military though, you're fighting for your comrades. Definitely NOT for that fucked up system.
As a young man, fresh out of military service the NYPD was pushing me hard* to join. I was very close to the academy when, while at a NY Rangers hockey game, They wheeled out a young PO who looked a lot like myself onto the ice to honor his sacrifice. He had taken a bullet to the spine from a 15 yo while just questioning him in Central Park for wandering alone in the wee hours of the morning. paralyzed from the neck down for the remainder of his life for nothing. This was in the early '90's & the NYC murder rate was averaging 2k+ per year.
I guess I should mention that at that particular time, if you came from an ethnic working class neighborhood, it had a lot of influence over your life's trajectory. In the area of Bklyn I grew up in, immediately after receiving your High School (or HS equivalency) diploma, if you weren't in the trades (carpenter, iron worker, laborer etc.) you more than likely took the top tier civil service exams PD, Firefighter (the holy grail) or Sanitation.
This was a fact easily fact-checked to the point that these jobs were commonly referred to as ,'Irish Welfare'. Anyway after locking eyes with the aforementioned officer, I realized I had been going through the motions and wasn't keen on taking a job where I was risking a similar outcome because I wanted a dental plan.
* I had taken the PO exam a year or two earlier.
As for how many CO's I met who read Fisher, the answer is zero. I gifted 3-4 copies to a few fellow officers who had read the likes of Chomsky, Nader,...I think 3/4 of them were also former military. I think maybe one had read it in its entirety. The general consensus among this very small sample found it too philosophical/abstract.
I have read Hedges, attended some of his speeches and was very casually acquainted with him from the Nader POTUS campaigns (he was a speechwriter for Ralph) & during the occupy movement. I loved his book 'The Death of the Liberal Class ' I was Nader's bodyguard in NY during the 2004 campaign as he was being threatened/harassed by orthodox democrats, and even though he was a presidential candidate, he was given no protection. The NYPD had assigned him one(1) PO. So, his campaign knowing a bit about me from the 2000 election leaned on me to be there for him & I didn't need much convincing. I hold him in very high esteem.
I happen to love, & was profoundly influenced by debord. It was written the year I was born (68) same as Fisher btw. It just spoke/made sense to me personally. Therefore, quite subjective.
Hope this answered your questions.
just chuck hegel down yer gullet. the argument flows like water. The Logic I mean. feuerbach and Kant will start to make sense after that. Don't worry about immediately getting it, it's like listening to Beethoven. you can't take it in all at once.
Why do you claim I pretend to have?
This is like that weirdo jek opel who was so adamant that he wasn't a communist when @Mr. Tea called him a Stalinist. COWARDS, THE LOT OF YOU!
And I don't even respect Stalin as a theorist... he was more like .. a blunt tool of history.