What’s in a name?
Todays T&G has a bit on one Kelly Hoose who had charges of possessing child pornography against him, dropped Dec. 19 in Worcester Superior Court. Justice served and all that, end of story. Except there is an interesting side note that didn’t seem to make the paper. Hoose was apparently in possession of pics of Melissa Bertsch, a Dr. Christine Barron determined that some of those pics constituted child pornography. Bertsch never worked in porn as a minor, so this would be a mistake on the part of the good Doctor. It happens.
But how can it happen? A quick google search reveals a similar case played out involving pics of Bertsch in Belfast 18 months ago, does a Doctor trained in forensic pediatrics not know how to use google? This story reads like Hoose was trying to report child porn and ended up getting busted for it; maybe he is a dirt bag, but if not, thats a pretty big hit to ones reputation. Especially if a simple google search could have saved the courts, Hoose and Bertsch the trouble.
T-Minus 15 minutes and counting
Well it looks as though I’ve managed to use up another block of time on my Warhol clock, having been named one of the Pulse Magazines ‘27 people to watch in 2007′. This whole being ‘watched’ thing is kind of creepy, to be honest. It’s like staring in a home movie with Paris Hilton, but while wearing pants. Big thank you to the wonderfully talented Linnea Sheldon for treating me with kid gloves in the interview.
You won’t hear Brendan Melican complaining about much. He’s too busy working to make positive changes in the community. Melican, known to many as Buck Paxton, attended Worcester public schools, as he expects his two-year old son to do. His responsibility to his community was something that he never questioned. “I grew up in Worcester following three generations for whom civic responsibility was never a question,” he said. “For me, the light bulb moment came while I was heavily involved with Worcester’s music scene. I was astounded by the talent that existed under the radar of the city. A convincing argument can be made for the cultural community being the catalyst for long term sustained growth in a community, but it’s a new direction for Worcester and many people have yet to be shown the light. I enjoy being a part of redefining our city along those terms.” His involvement in the community takes many forms. He is a co-founder of the Volcano Boy Media Network and is also a member of the Worcester Cultural Commission. As for the future, Melican plans on continuing his service to the community. He is keeping his options open, but he is always willing to do whatever it takes to make Worcester the best city it can be. “For the foreseeable future I’ll continue building relationships and connecting interested parties within the cultural, political and business communities, who in my opinion hold the keys to redefining what it means to be from Worcester,” he promises.
Sounds almost like someone I’d drink sambuca with. There’s no shortage of interesting people to check out on this years list including none other than former band mate, filmmaker and artist Allie Bomba (who, for the record is not 27. He’s like 48).
Check out the article at thepulsemag.com.
Creative solutions to nonexistent problems
This weeks WoMag has an excellent bit on a rather ridiculous plan being hatched by local crazy person and full time activist Billy Breault and his accomplice in lack of accomplishment District 4 City Councilor Barbara Haller. A plan to track and map the travels of stolen firearms, they’re calling it “Track & Map”, inspired naming indeed. So the plan, devised by our two aspiring underpants gnomes apparently goes something like this:
1. gun gets stolen, Billy maps where it was stolen from
2. gun turns up, Billy maps where it turned up
3. ???
4. profit!
What’s not made clear in this amazing business plan is where the actual usefulness comes into play. Maybe part of the grieving process for those who have lost loved ones by way of the gun, is knowing where the point of origin was. But Billy gives an odd example of his plans “urgency”
“Several years back (1999) we learned that a Worcester gun manufacturer, Saeilo Inc., had at least 15 cases of guns stolen.” He adds the company did not initially inform the Worcester police of the missing weapons because it was not legally required to do so.
On Friday, Dec. 8, a Worcester man, Derrick Gary, was arraigned in U.S. District Court on firearm theft and possession. He was charged with stealing guns from Saeilo Inc., trade name Kahr Arms, at 130 Goddard Memorial Dr. Among the weapons confiscated were a .45-caliber rifle, a Bushmaster .223-caliber rifle, a Romarm/Cugir 7.62-caliber rifle and a Kahr Arms M1 carbine. Gary pleaded not guilty.
When I toss around terms like ‘urgency’ it tends to be related to things which are, well, urgent. Like ‘oh my god! I’m on fire! It’s urgent that you extinguish me!’, not 7 year old gun thefts from a company owned by the fucking Moonies. Those 15 (possibly up to 50 according to the ATF) guns are just as likely to be in Tijuana as Worcester, with the obvious exception of the one used to shoot Danny Guzman back in ‘99. The problem here is no valuable data can possibly come from this exercise. Even if every firearm, including legally owned firearms, were to be tracked with the greatest diligence one could not possibly expect murder to end; just a particular flavor of murder with a particular flavor of weapon. As one would expect the Brady Center has offered to entertain Billys idea, unfortunately the Brady Center has accomplished nothing beyond further regulation of the guns not used by criminals. Don’t tell them that though, if asked they’ll happily claim to have cured cancer as a result of all their hard work.
If Barbara and Billy were truly interested in making/keeping their neighborhood safe they would be working closely with Chief Gemme, on whose watch the cities murder rate has all but vanished, in identifying the real cause of violence in Worcester. There is a reason for that decline and it has nothing to do with any of the buybacks or relatively new state laws on the books. But since Worcester is starting to look like a model for extinguishing premeditated violence, we should be working our collective asses off to find out a. why that is and b. how to keep it that way. Those of us who pay attention to this sort of sociological shift have already watched once celebrated theories like broken windows get dismantled by the likes of the Freakonomics crew. Making today the perfect time, after two pretty rocky decades, to nail down what really works. Not just throw money and time at some hair brained, exercise in ego masturbation of a tracking program with no real value to either the scientific or law enforcement communities beyond some warm fuzzy feelings and a B- for effort.
On a totally, absolutely and 100% unrelated note. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby may be the best movie since, well since ever. With Sacha Baron Cohen easily pulling off the greatest evil Frenchman since the Taunting French Guard in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The movie has nothing to do with gun control, but is more grounded in reality than 99% of what Billy and Barbara have to offer the planet.
