Unconscionable Ad Hysterics
Bostonian Triumvirate put citizens on notice: art, electric lights, and cartoons will not be tolerated in combination.

February 8 2007
Counterbias.com
by John Calvin Jones
 

Bush has told us that his job is to protect the American people. I say he is failing! Terrorists have struck again. I am a victim. I am appalled. I am terrified. Will the government protect me and others? Or does Bush expect citizens to take matters into our own hands? 

Of all the people I know, save G. W. Bush, there are no more dangerous people on the planet than some White men from Boston. Call out the Marines, where is the National Guard, tell Negroponte to use the Salvador Option.

Who are these evil-doers? They are the Assistant Attorney General John Grossman, Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis, and Congressman Ed Markey (D). To say that these men are and were hyperbolic about a promo for a cartoon is to give them credit for being sly. Rather, I must insist that either these Bostonians are insane, or that these men have intentionally tried to terrorize us all by strangling the First Amendment, public art, creativity, and the highest American value of them all, marketing.

After the arrest of Peter Berdovsky and Sean Stevens, two artists, charged with “creating a public panic” (stampedes, looting, and murder not necessary) for working on an ad campaign for Turner Broadcasting, three terrorists in suits (note – not uniforms, I think that qualifies them as unlawful enemy combatants, punch their tickets for Gitmo), went nuclear, denouncing those who would use art and electricity as a threat to peace, safety and security in a post 9/11 world (aka the Land that Forgot the Constitution).

Gross-man, Disgusting Abuse of Logic

While Al Gore is being nominated for the Nobel Prize, Grossman is gunning for a Sherlock Award with his fantasies of fiction, as drawn from his ever insightful comments about real life. First Grossman called a set of small signs with batteries and lights “bomb-like devices.” Apparently Grossman has not bothered to discover what actual bomb devices look like. But then again, maybe bombs come in packages that read “refills and D-sized batteries sold separately.” Then Grossman impressed the world with his powers of imagination saying that: “if [the bomb-like devices that were only light boards with batteries] had been explosive, they could have damaged transportation infrastructure in [Boston].”

How did the waitress Flo, on the sit-com Alice, put it with her Southern accent and shrill voice? “If pigs could fly …”

Of course Grossman, if wishes were evidence, you could round up most of the members of the Massachusetts Bar who, by now, realize that you are a disgrace to the profession, and charge them for plotting your disbarment. But why stop your reign of terror and illogical with two hair-style aficionados? Go all out, like Robo-Cop or Dirty Harry. I have a suggestion that will make your day. Instead of attacking 20-somethings who advertise cartoons, turn your fantasy rampage on Boston’s hairdressers. Arrest them on the theory that if they drove their scissors into the necks of their clients, they could kill people and cause a panic. 

Consciously Living in a Glass House

Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis called the ad campaign for some cartoon characters “unconscionable.” Though nearly 200 similar light fixtures placed in seven other cities generated no police reports for two weeks, and though there was a video on-line where one could see that our heroes posted these ads in the form of flashing lights, Davis called the action unconscionable. Unconscionable? 

Unconscionable has a specific meaning in law and is often referenced by courts as they evaluate the legitimacy of contracts or police abuses. In contract law, an unconscionable contract is one that is unjust or extremely one-sided in favor of the party that has superior bargaining power. Courts find that unconscionable contracts result from the exploitation of consumers who are often poorly educated, impoverished, and unable to find the best price available in a competitive marketplace. For example, unconscionable acts include that of Halliburton, charging the military, i.e. the U.S. public, $45 for a six-pack of Coca-Cola, or $99 per bag of laundry. 

Unconscionable conduct is also criminal, in acts of fraud and deceit, where facts are deliberately misrepresented. Like in 2004, when Boston PD arrested Joe Previtera – a war protester who stood in front of a military recruiting station dressed as one of the men tortured in Abu Ghraib.  Charging him with two felonies, Boston PD claimed that Previtera filed a false report of explosives and was possession of a hoax device (that sounds familiar). I wonder why the charges were dropped? Maybe the arrest was Unconscionable?  

Unconscionable was what the Boston PD did in 1989, believing the story of Charles Stuart – a White man – who shot and killed his pregnant wife and then blamed it on a Black man. Then Boston PD arrested a Black man, Willie Bennett, and coerced Bennett’s nephew to swear that Bennett had confessed. No evidence necessary, just blame it on the Nigger. Unconscionable. 

Unconscionable was in 1994 as Boston police beat, arrested and killed Accelyne Williams (he was Black too – what a surprise), a 75 year-old Methodist minister, during a no-knock raid based on a tip from a paid informant. The police abuse caused the Reverend to suffer a fatal heart attack. Not only was the warrant fraudulently obtained, Boston’s finest went to the wrong residence. Unconscionable.   

“As God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.”

Never one to shy from the needs of the police-state to terrorize its citizenry through talk of threats or by using coercion, Democratic member of Congress, Ed Markey, added to the feeding frenzy against artists and cartoons, saying, “It would be hard to dream up a more appalling publicity stunt.”

Perhaps Mr. Markey needs to leave the House more often. I think that nearly twenty years ago someone did dream up a more appalling publicity stunt. It occurred in Cincinnati in 1978.

An advertising stunt dreamt up by a Cincinnati radio station went terribly wrong when twenty live turkeys plummeted to their deaths after being dropped out of a helicopter under the misguided assumption that “turkeys could fly.” “The turkeys were hitting the ground like sacks of wet cement,” stated WKRP newsman Les Nessman, who reported the event live from the parking lot of the Pinedale shopping mall. Nessman added, “It was just terrible. People started to panic and were running around the parking lot screaming. One of the turkeys even crashed right through the windshield of a parked car.”

Of course, Congressman Markey, it was all just a dream or rather fantasy – an episode from the sit-com WKRP. To borrow the illogic of your security-state brother Grossman, if someone really threw turkeys from helicopters into a crowded mall parking lot, killing turkeys, damaging property and potentially killing people below, that would be more appalling that hanging a few signs with cartoon characters around a number of American cities.  Turner Broadcasting hired them for goodness sake! 

What our hero artists did in Boston was not a hoax, but an ad campaign. They didn’t harm or threaten anyone – unlike you. Maybe, Mr. Markey, you can ask Alberto Gonzalez to arrest them for violating Section 802 of the USA PATRIOT act (you voted FOR that one) or have war criminal, now head of the Department of War, Robert Gates, detain the two in accord with the Military Commission Act of 2006. I know you voted against the MCA, but I could not dream up a more appalling bill. In fact I could not be more appalled by the Pelosi-led, war mongers of the Democratic party, who have taken impeachment off the table, have not repealed the MCA or the USA PATRIOT act. Your Ashcroft-like attack of art and against commonsense could not be more appalling. 

Resisting the War of Terror

Ronald Reagan said that terrorism is “the calculated use of violence or threat of violence to attain goals that are political, religious, or ideological in nature ... through intimidation, coercion, or instilling fear, typically targeting civilians.” Mssrs. Berdovsky and Stevens did not commit a crime and certainly did not effect any acts of terrorism. They did not commit or threaten violence. While they acted in concert with certain ideological beliefs: the beauty of art; an inalienable right to exercise free speech; and the joys of market-capitalism, Berdovsky and Stevens did not attempt to instill fear, intimidate or coerce anyone. On the contrary, a Bostonian Triumvirate attacked civilians and put others on notice that art, electric lights, and cartoons will not be tolerated in combination. The message is clear, sit down, shut-up, and obey. 

G. W. Bush has told us that countries that harbor terrorists will be considered rogue states and outlaw regimes. Does this rule apply to local government too? Bush says that we fly and enjoy life, go to ballgames and Disneyland, but before during and after, we must stamp out and resist terrorism wherever it is found. In this instance, the invasion of Anti-Constitutionalists who would kill off Mooninite promoters, when we have clear evidence that they enemy has taken the fight to us, what shall we do?

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This article was originally published on Virtual Citizens.

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