They got another one

A week or so after another young person is murdered in her council district, Bonnie Russell is no where to be found. Her assistant attended last night's community meeting and offered Ms Russell's advice that none of this would be happening if we would all just form block clubs.

Note to Russell: We are watching and calling. The problem here is we call and the police don't come. Block clubs can't fix that.

Beleaguered Officer Stabler was there. Officer Stabler, I know you don't hear this enough, so here goes: We are incredibly grateful for the officers of E District. We think you guys do a great job with the limited resources you have been given. Our problem is with your boss(es).

Evidently, more than a few people in City Hall think that the Halloween weekend here was a success. Sure, someone died, but we caught the killer less than a week later. None of this could have been prevented, just an unfortunate accident (not).

According to Officer Stabler there were 8 to 10 "parties" the size of the one at 112 Lisbon going on in the Heights that night. Several thousand kids from high schools and colleges around the WNY swarm the Heights and are sold all the alcohol and other consumables they can consume. Yeah, no one could predict a bad outcome from that.

Brown's complete absence and out-of-touch response to the death of another young person in the Heights this leads us to believe that he has also been kidnapped by aliens and has joined his councilwomen on Alpha Centauri.

Note to the Aliens: If you are going to kidnap politicians, please take the entire politician. Leaving a bunch of Edgar Suits behind to do your bidding is just not fair.

Edgar Suit

Sam Hoyt delivers for the Heights

After Javon Jackson was gunned down last spring, passing the NYS Assembly and Senate Bills that would allow SUNY Campus Safety police to patrol off campus took on added urgency and importance. Unfortunately, the Bills died an untimely death with the Golisano/Pigeon orchestrated melt down of the NYS Sentate.

Lentol, Schroeder, Colton, Hoyt, Kolb and Townsend are still working to get the Bill passed, A4940.

PURPOSE: To extend the jurisdiction, as it pertains to infractions and violations, of New York State University Police Officers from State University of New York property to an area within the radius of one hundred miles of any campus.

Valesky has the same Bill in the Senate, S4302-A.

Thank-you so much Lentol, Schroeder, Colton, Hoyt, Kolb, Townsend and Valesky. Once again, the death of a young person in the University Heights and the alcohol related death of the the SUNY Geneseo student add urgency to the bill passage.

Let's hope you guys can get this passed this time without interruptions from the blowhard billionaires and their bird brained advisors.

Heights Stabbing Arrest - a look under the 'hood

The arrest of Todd Heatley for the stabbing death of Jacob Herbert illustrates just how tawdry, stupid and dangerous the "party" scene in the Heights has become.

Let's speculate a little about how it all might have gone down:

• The Vernon boys learned that there is big money to be had running a "party for profit" house in the Heights. Money is not the only motivator. Tang, especially that fresh high school tang is another benie. (Sorry, The Verbose One insisted I include this.)
  
• They hire Todd Heatley, a fairly well known DJ in the Buffalo area, to provide that trip hop edge that all good little underage suburbanites crave. The Vernon boys may or may not have known, or cared, about Todd's little anger management/violence problem.
  

  Todd Heatley, 27, of East Main Street was charged Aug. 24 with menacing with a weapon along with Harley Tong, 27, who was also charged with assault with intent to cause physical injury after the two were involved in an altercation. The Observer, Dunkirk

  
  
• Underage partiers from suburban high schools and colleges in the area swarm Lisbon Ave and pay a cover charge for music and all you can drink. Or perhaps just music, with the all you can drink being an extra charge. The police say 250 people, so there were probably many more than this present over the course of the night. (Attending "Parties for profit" in the Heights is a very popular pass time for Amherst and Williamsville High School kids. Just check facebook to confirm this.)
• The police are called repeatedly by irate neighbors sick to death of the noise, drunk high school and college kids slumming in the City for the night.
• The police come, see another college "party", and make very little effort to shut it down. After all, they have real crime to attend to and not enough manpower to do that.
• Jacob probably gets upset because his good time is ruined by the police coming and allegedly demands his money back. Todd the DJ, who makes part of his living off of the proceeds of "parties for profit" like this one, probably wouldn't take kindly to a rich kid from Clarence cutting into his livelihood.
  
• And we all know how this story ends.

We don't have the manpower to baby-sit 150 kids - police official

Mayor Brown we are not asking you to baby-sit. We are demanding adequate resources be dedicated to this neighborhood. Numerous laws were broken the night Jacob died. If you can't do the job, step aside and let someone who cares take over.

Some of the laws that were probably broken at 112 Lisbon, any one of which could have been used to shut the "party/business operation" down permanently:

• Noise ordinances.
• Fire code violations - 250 people or more in a house violates all sorts of regs.
• Serving alcohol to minors
• Selling alcohol to minors.
• Selling alcohol without a permit/license.
• Holding an event without a permit.
• Open container.
• Drug possession?
  

Sunday's Buffalo News had a good article by Jay Tokasz. It confirms much of what we suspected, Heatley was the DJ at the illegal event, Heatley and Jake Herbert argued over a $7 cover charge, residents think the police response on this was completely screwed up ...

Todd at work YouTube

Todd Heatley on the cover of Artvoice July 22, 2009 (he's the guy standing by the TV in the blue suit)

Step away from the pie

SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher came to town this week to talk about leaky pipes, specifically New York's leaky education pipeline. The crisis of the week is "too many people falling out of a leaky pipeline", better translated as a crisis with SUNY's leaky funding line, I suspect.

After less than a year here, Nancy has developed a deep concern for New York's high school dropouts and adults who never graduated, a problem that can, of course, only be solved by more SUNY funding.

Nancy, here's a little economics lesson for you. New York's economy can best be described as a shrinking pie. Every piece that you get, means less for someone else.

New York already has an great system in place to support life long learning. Its often called the Peoples' University or the Public Library. It is an excellent, COST EFFECTIVE way for people to learn just about anything they want. And unlike SUNY, everyone who applies can get in.

While SUNY is dealing with budget cuts, the Peoples' U funding is being devastated. So Nancy, put down that piece of pie, from the looks of you (and SUNY) you really don't need it.

And P.S - While you're at it, ditch that big, hairy, audacious goal thing. It sounds like either a bizarre fetish or something needs to be surgically removed.

Hyper(ventilating) Bob McCarthy annoys me again

Bob McCarthy has apparently been working overtime to insure victory for the troops.

Sunday's puff piece (Collins, post-gaffe, gets back to work) lets us know that Collins is back to his hard charging, businessman-like ways and off campaigning for governor again. Repeatedly comparing an orthodox jew to Hilter and calling him the antichrist, no problem, simply a matter of open mouth, insert foot. Its just a temporary glitch that can be dealt with with an apology and the right spin. (I guess spin and especially spin control is one of those things they teach you at businessman school.)

And then there's Wednesday's followup (GOP picks up three seats). According to Bob:

• "instantly doubling the GOP presence in the 15-member Legislature from three to six"
  
• "Collins narrowly lost his bid to replace Democratic nemesis Mark C. Poloncarz" (Poloncarz got about 10,000 votes more than his challenger)
  
• "voters have sent a message in strong support of our agenda, when they elected three new members of the County Legislature." (What about the nine democrats the voters sent back?)
• yada, yada, you know how it goes
  

Reality check to Bob: Thousands in Kris Kollins Kampaign Kash purchased a "veto proof minority" (reapeated ad nausium) and a severely flawed Sheriff.

That got me wondering, how many times did the legislature actually thwart Kollin's will and overide a veto. Once, was all I could find, and that was to keep him from raising taxes. (Collins says he'll stick to his guns on tax rate; Blasts overrides of budget vetoes, Buffalo News December 8, 2008)


Oh well, don't let facts get in the way Bob. But here's a little suggestion for you: Bend over, insert head is just as good way to describe the Kollins administration.

Stabbings - industrial accidents waiting to happen?

UB students attending the Halloween party on Lisbon St this weekend, got more than they planned for when the party ended up fatal to attendee Jacob Herbert.

Big and noisy parties are nothing new in the city's University Heights neighborhood, but the Halloween bash put on by some young men on Lisbon Avenue took a tragic turn that won't soon be forgotten.

The party at 112 Lisbon was so big that it spilled out into a parking lot across the street, and it was so noisy that Buffalo Police officers came by twice to break it up.

Neighbors said the party was extremely loud and was so big that many of the partygoers went to a nearby school parking lot, where it became a tailgate party with people wearing Halloween costumes. Buffalo News

An impromptu memorial to Jacob Herbert on site where he was killed

This stabbing illustrates just about everything that is wrong with Buffalo. It reads like an industrial or airplane accident; missteps, that taken by themselves, are insignificant (or in our case major nuances, but not generally life threatening), snowball to a catastrophic result.

• Put a bunch of young people into absentee landlord housing with little or no adult presence anywhere.
• Ignore the few remaining homeowners repeated requests for help dealing with young people learning how to be adults.
• Add large sums of money to be made by selling alcohol to a huge audience of underage consumers. At $5 a cup, there was easily over $1000 made, not bad for one nights work. This would be just for the beer, shots etc extra.
• Understaff a police department so badly that there is no one to run a burglary or robbery patrol and certainly so understaffed that there is no one who wants to spend the 4 hours or more it would take to round everyone up, take them to the Motel Hell and file all that paper work. Just tell the desperate residents that you had “real crime” to deal with and leave it at that.
• Throw in one of those neighborhood killing corner "stores" that attracts Bennett HS juvies to rampage during the day and gets the real bad asses to show up at night. Put up a crime camera in front the store because its such a frequent crime scene. Don't shut it down.

Buff City - neighborhood scourge. 90 Lisbon

The story ends in all those unfortunately predictable ways, someone dies, more homeowners get fed up and leave, more slumlords buy up whats left and Buffalo continues spiraling downward at an ever increasing pace.

Epic FAIL for all involved:

Bonnie Russell for allowing "Buff City" to continue to exist in the neighborhood and for not being in Brown’s face daily demanding more resources for her district.

Buffalo Police for not taking these mob scenes, quaintly know as “parties” seriously.

Byron Brown's failure to deal with the slumlords in any meaningful way. Waiting for everything to fall down, so you can sell it off to realestate buddies for pennies on the dollar and then get the feds and state to pay you to rebuild may be a plan, but its not working out so good for you or Buffalo, eh?

Byron Brown's failure to staff E district to deal with the changing demographics and escalating violence in the Heights.

Simpson and the other overpaid UB administrators who think $10s of millions in sports spending, a fake Main St and fake lake ($5 billion and counting of NYS tax dollars) will do anything to keep the kids from coming to the Heights. You can’t blame the students, unlike The Rez, the Heights can be fun until it all gets a little too real.

But, unlike industrial accidents that get investigated by OSHA, FAA etc. in an effort to keep them from happening again, we can count on Brown to deliver more of the same.

The Vernon boys had quite a playpen at 112 Lisbon. That's a Volkswagon hanging from a swing set. I won't even speculate what that's for.

42.948152 -78.824351

Another kid dies in my neighborhood

19 year old Jacob Herbert of Clarence, died in my neighborhood this weekend. He was stabbed to death while leaving one of those quaint little house parties that happen from time to time around here.

Jacob Herbert,19, was stabbed multiple times in what police believe was a fight that erupted as people were leaving a large house party. The stabbing occurred around 4:30 a. m. Buffalo News

I saw this comment on WGRZ and I have to say it mirrors exactly the experiences of everyone around here. Only most often, you can't even get the cops to show in the first place.

There was a house party with about 200 students on the front lawn and the COPS WERE THERE at 1:30 and the COPS DIDN:T STOP THE PARTY and the party continued. This could've been avoided if the cops broke up the party and told people to leave. OH and guess what! THere is a camera that my tax dollars paid for on the corner--- and they can't use that for anything or evidence bc thats where the incident took place. THey have to use the stores camera! The detectives have been on this street all day! They should talk to the cops that were at the party at 1:30~!

How many more kids have to die before Mayor Brown admits that there is a problem here and asks for outside help, like maybe from the State Police. And for that matter where are all our fine government officials while all this is happening? We have City Councilwoman Bonnie Russell so MIA that we're tempted to offer a reward to anyone who has spotted her, Mayor Brown hiding from the FBI, Sheriff Tim Howard refusing to provide patrols to the City because he's mad at a County Legislature's boyfriend, and County Executive Chris Collins searching for the third anitchrist.

To any lawyers reading this: Residents of the Heights have been notifying both UB and the City, repeatedly, for years, that these "house parties" are accidents/manslaughter/murder waiting to happen. Have at it, guys.

Full-bore wingnut, batpoop crazy

News that this wasn't the first time Collins had joked about Nostradamus, the antichrist and Sheldon Silver (he has evidently been practicing it for a while) got me curious. This stuff just doesn't come out of nowhere. What kind of people/politicians use this kind of allegory?

Warning: googling this takes you directly to looney tunes land, without even passing Go.

• Its very popular with unhinged republicans to describe Obama’s presidency
• Many of them think the world will end in 2012
• There is a solid contingent who think Hugo Chavez is the third antichrist not Obama, (or Sheldon Silver).
• Its rumored that the Pope thought Bush was the third antichrist.
• Hilary was a popular choice for antichrist until she lost the nomination.
• I saw at least one vote for Joe Bruno
• The United Nations and a single world currency are suspect, apparently because the UN personnel wear blue helmets (as predicted by Nostradamus).
• And as for Mabus – don’t even go there.

Full-bore wingnut, batpoop crazy - is often used to describe the indescribable, people who actually believe this stuff (among other things).

Note to Chris: Didn't your Mom ever tell you; you're known by the company you keep.

Lewis Black on Politics and Religion - Feb 7, 2008

Dumb as Rock(efeller)s

Lately, the annual theater surrounding the NYS budget mess has gotten so predictable its becoming downright comical. First the Gov proposes cuts, then State agencies pile on showing how they are so absolutely essential to the functioning of the state that we couldn’t possibly even consider cutting them.

In what passes for op-ed in the Buffalo News, a reprint of the Rockefeller Institute's latest “research" is case in point. The Comptroller suggests that we raise out-of-state tuition at SUNY and the Rockefeller Institute responds with the somewhat bizarre argument that young people are leaving New York, but if the NYS taxpayers subsidize their education, some out-of-state students might decide to stay. "Upstate’s best hope for making up its loss of young people may well be the ability of its colleges and universities — both public and independent — to attract students from out of state." Damn, and I was pinning my hopes on people finally focusing on creating jobs ...

Essentially the Rockefeller Institute arguement is, NY is getting old. If we don’t pay people to go to school here the NY population will continue to slide and NY as we know it will cease to exist. Aside from the fact that 90% of the country would have no problem with this, I guess that lack of jobs thing doesn’t have a lot to do with the Rockefeller Institute's understanding of where these young people decide to live.

All I know is that the, so far out-of-state that they live in China, Iran (or Nassau County), students in my neighborhood appear to come from very wealthy families. Unlike many Heights homeowners, these out-of-country (or Nassau County) students can afford to drive new cars and live what looks like very comfortable life styles. The average income in the Heights is $14,952 - $16,492. Having NYS taxpayers subsidize these kids' education by $8,500 a year or more borders on criminal.

Maybe we should consider means based tuition, as well as hiking the out-of-state tuition for SUNY.

Note to Governor Paterson: I see that you have cut the $3.1 million State subsidy for the Rockefeller Institute. Good choice. That’s $3 million on “research” nobody will miss.

Another Neighbor Robbed at Gunpoint

Our neighbor was robbed at gun point outside of the NFTA LaSalle Station, Wednesday evening, on his way home from work.

NFTA and Brown administration both FAILed our neighbor on this one.

• Brown’s FAILure to staff E District with the resources they need to police this area properly.
• FAILure of the gun buyback program. Nothing like a gun in the face to get the point across that there are WAY too many guns on the streets of Buffalo, especially in the hands of idiot teen gang banger wannabes.
• Brown’s FAILure to even remotely deliver on his election eve Santa act.
• Brown’s FAILure to develop this area into more than a humongous parking lot (always more than half empty even at the busiest of times). He had the chance to do this but opted for a land grab that would enrich his real-estate buddies, only to have that FAIL too.
• FAILure of the NFTA to patrol the LaSalle adequately. This is the second violent incident there in the last month.

Our neighbor's story in his own words:

A long barreled gun of a thief was pointed near my chest in the parking lot behind the LaSalle Subway Station Parking Lot at about 7:40 PM last Wednesday evening, October 21st, 2009, as I was making my way toward the Linear Park walkway on my way home after having worked only a couple of hours later than usual downtown that evening. The lead thief brandishing that curious gun had initially passed me at some distance proceeding at a fast pace in the other direction with a companion, who would later also produce a gun after their robbery of me had succeeded. Both were very young men, appearing to me to be in their late teens. As they passed me, they seemed determined to get somewhere in the opposite direction than I was proceeding. By the angle at which they approached me, it seemed they must have been coming up from the Shoshone Park steps to the LaSalle Station Parking Lot. They were moving not so much toward me as beyond me in the direction I had left, with some breadth between us. They seemed to be taking no cognizance of me at all. A moment before one had landed to one side in front of me, blocking my path with his gun, I had heard the other say to him something to the effect of "Now show us what you can do". I thought nothing of what I had overheard until startled by the context my robbers had created in assuming their roles. My lead thief's companion said and did little during the robbery; but he stood menacingly behind me slightly to the same side. Supported by the occasional echoes of his companion, the lead thief, who may have been more a novice in a test of initiation as I thought at the time, he demanded first my money and then my cell phone. At each demand, I told them I had nothing to give, conjecturing they might be put off and that I could move on. The gun looked strange to me; I was not sure at first how real it was. When the lead thief waved it at me in agitation and threatened to frisk me, I thought the gun might be homemade and that the better part of wisdom was to yield to their demands. At their successive commands, I first gave them some cash and then a cell phone. Although they were demanding it all, I began to turn away from them toward the back entrance way to the apartment building running alongside the LaSalle Station Parking Lot. I repeatedly pleaded with them that since they got some considerable cash and a cell phone that they leave me alone. As the lead thief started to run off with his booty, his companion lingered a moment, hit me on the back of my head with the butt of his gun and ran to catch up with his co-thief, evidently not wanting to face me alone even though armed. I was not injured by the hasty blow.

A minute and half later, when my escape had been made good and I was with people at the apartment building, I phoned 911. They took a detailed report from me over the phone. A Buffalo Police Car appeared in about 7 minutes. The officer took me at my request to the scene of the crime and so gathered further information from me about what had transpired. Another officer pulled alongside to relate that they had stopped two suspects fitting the description I had given but that they were neither armed nor had my cell phone. Earlier, I had been asked whether I could identify them. I unhesitatingly replied "yes," but later qualified that in saying I would not want to misidentify any innocent person, expressing confidence I would be able to identify them if found together. At that, the officer then challenged me saying "In other words, you are saying you cannot identify them". I asserted that was not what I was suggesting. In any case, I had not that night nor at any time since been called to identify any suspect or suspects. The Buffalo Police Officer who arrived at my call kindly took me home.

The following day, an aide to City Council President David Franczyk called the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority Police on my behalf, since the crime occurred on NFTA property. An NFTA detective finally reached me. I gave him a report over the phone and later in person at his office. The NFTA appears to be actively investigating the robbery.

Although I have left a message by phone on the recording machine for the Detectives with the Buffalo City Police Department, as of this writing I have not yet heard from them.