blog 63

7 September 2024

MANIFESTO OF A MADMAN PART 9

SOUR NOTE

FACE OF EVIL

THE MOUTHPIECE HAS FALLEN OUT OF THE HORN AND ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE!

526. Welcome to the Blog. Today we will pick up where we left off last time.

Now back to the “MANIFESTO OF A MADMAN.”

THE LONG LETTER

On the last Blog we left off with the Mayor saying that Jordan was “Begging” me to close after the second shooting, the one I call the non-shooting-shooting on May 26, 2022. The one that didn’t even occur on our property. I then said that Jordan actually talked to me about closing after the ONLY shooting on March 18, 2022 as well. All this so the Mayor can try and make us look like irresponsible owners who only care about making money and not the safety of our staff or customers. So let me explain the reality of the situation.

527.

POINT # 1

As I have said before, any act of violence in a bar or any other business is a money loser. Whether it’s a heated argument, a fight or a shooting, they are all money losers. I have never met a business owner in my life who encourages this type of behavior. Only stupid politicians seem to think that owners embrace this stuff.

And if business owners are responsible for this type of behavior when it happens in their establishments, is it not fair to say that when these things happen in the streets of Superior that Mayor Paine, City Council and the Police department are responsible for these incidents. Or, does it make more sense to say that the only people responsible are the ones that perpetrate these crimes because Mayor Paine, you can’t have it both ways.

528.

POINT # 2

We all have issues that we are passionate about and ones we are not very passionate about. Issues today like the prices of everything going up, public safety, the border and many more. And then there are the social issues like abortion, gay rights, men in women sports and many more.

My number one passion, and I don’t mean it in a good way, for almost the last fifty years or so, has been criminals, corrupt politicians, liars and a dysfunctional justice system. Over the last fifty years the way we deal with these people, especially over the last few years, has changed dramatically. One of the stupidest changes is the no cash bail issue. And other stupid things like light or suspended sentences and the shift by stupid politicians, and there is no shortage of them, is to blame everybody and everything except the criminals, themselves and the justice system. No, they would rather blame good hard working people and businesses because you know, these criminals have had a tough life and we need to do everything to help them. And one of those things is let them out of jail asap so they can commit even more crimes. Folks, this where we are at today.

But the worst part about this and it’s the part that pisses me off the most, we are then punished again when politicians pass new laws to restrict our freedoms because a few bad people committed a crime and we are stuck with these new laws while in a lot of these cases, these criminals get off scott free or receive very minimal punishment. So our lives change forever and they get a little slap on the hand. And let’s not forget the harm to those that are the victims of these crimes. In many cases, their lives will never be the same. It’s a fight between good and evil and unfortunately I find myself thinking that evil is winning more than it should. And for the most part you can blame lousy politicians and a corrupt justice system. I know I am rambling here today but it is leading up to few important points.

Probably the most obvious example of criminals changing our lives was 9/11. It changed the way that pretty much the entire world travels today. Flying was scary enough for many people before 9/11 and there is a lot of them that have never flown again to this day after that. It has made all of our lives more inconvenient and I don’t blame the government for implementing the rules they put in after it happened. They had no choice and if they hadn't we could have been looking at a much different scaled back airline business. But this was a major win for the bad guys and I hate it when they win. Do you remember the first time you flew after 9/11? I do. I was scared. I was eyeballing everybody in the airport, every passenger on the plane, looking around the plane after we took off and listening to every sound the plane was making. It was very scary.

POINT # 3

I was born in 1955 in Ottawa, Ontario. Growing up in Ottawa was great. Back then we didn’t have cell phones, computers or video games. We didn’t even have TV hand controls. Maybe that’s because we only had three channels. Some of favorite shows were Leave it to Beaver, Dennis the Menace, The Three Stooges, all cartoons and many many more. We lived six houses away from a large park called Heron Park. I had two younger brothers and we probably spent ten hours a day there, weather permitting. I went to a catholic french school called Lamoureux. Then The Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show on Feb 9, 1964 and my life started changing. I really didn’t pay any attention to music until I saw them. After that, music became a large part of my life and still does. I was eight years old when they appeared on Ed Sullivan. Life was good. But then one day something happened.

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 26, 1965

I had just turned 10 in October, Christmas was a month away and I am sure I thinking about what toys I was hoping for. That was 58 years ago. There wasn’t many french schools in Ottawa at the time so kids came from all over at our school. In fact nobody that lived in my neighborhood went to my school. So I had my school friends that lived in different areas of Ottawa and I had my closer friends that I hung out with in my neighborhood. None of my friends smoked or drank booze. We didn’t even know what drugs were. The boys thought girls were yucky and the girls thought boys were morons. I guess you could say we took our time growing up and I attribute that because of the lack of technology like cell phones and the internet.

We were one of the last generations that grew up without technology.

I don’t remember almost anything from not only that day. November 26, 1965, but from the entire school year. I don’t remember who the teacher was or any of my classmates names except one. It was this tiny little girl in my class. She couldn't have been more than 60 pounds soaking wet with two gold bars in her pocket. And she was quiet as a mouse. I don’t remember ever talking to her. As soon as I got to school that day, the principle made an announcement over the school intercom that she had died the day before in a car accident. I was just a little kid and I never knew anyone that had died. I remember being sad but not really sure what it all meant. The principle then asked all the students to say a prayer for her and then I guess we got on with the school day. I’m sure I must have talked to my classmates at recess and lunch and my mother when I came home that day but like I said, I have no other memory of that year except the principal talking over the intercom that day. But that little girl that I hardly knew had a huge impact on how I viewed certain things in life. Her name was Joanne Chenier. She was born on September 27, 1955 and was taken from us far to soon on November 25,1965. I found this picture below of her headstone.

529.

COMMENTS

So, how does Joanne’s story fit into what we are talking about here today?
Well as I got older, probably starting in my later teens, every time I heard about a young person dying my mind would automatically take me back to that day in 1965 when Joanne died. I wondered how the people close to the child who passed dealt with it. I especially thought about how their classmates were handling it. You see, back in 1965 there were no school councilors or grief management people. We just had each other. And don’t get me wrong, I am not knocking the “new” way we deal with these tragedies today. I do think about whether we were better off just grieving with the people who were closest with that person which of course children still do or is it better to have that extra layer of “experts” as well. I really don’t know, but let’s say if you are over 40 years old you probably dealt with it the way I did and if you are under 40 you might have dealt with it the way we do now. Then as I got older they started closing things down for a period of time as well. There was two very serious examples of this week alone.

STORY # 1
THIS HAPPENED LAST SUNDAY

‘A ray of light’: At reopened Park Tavern, family mourns hospital worker killed in crash

Gabe Harvey was set to graduate this winter. Past co-workers, who gathered at Park Tavern on Wednesday as the spot reopened, said he made a name for himself as a kind figure in the intensive care unit.

By Louis Krauss

The Minnesota Star Tribune

September 4, 2024 at 2:25PM

Friends and family of Gabe Harvey sobbed as they set up tribute posters on Wednesday outside the Park Tavern in St. Louis Park, which reopened for business Wednesday following the tragic crash there three nights earlier.

Harvey, a 30-year-old hospital worker, was killed Sunday night along with restaurant employee Kristina Folkerts when a man crashed his SUV into patio seating. Harvey’s aunt, Mindy Kennedy, said her nephew would brighten the day of everyone he interacted with at Methodist Hospital.

“Everybody that knew him knows he was a ray of light to everyone,” Kennedy said, standing with sister Colleen Costello next to a memorial at the tavern. “He would help anybody, do anything for anybody.”

Steven Frane Bailey, who made his first court appearance Wednesday afternoon, is charged with two counts of criminal vehicular homicide, and other felony counts. Besides the two deaths, nine other people were injured when Bailey sped from the establishment’s parking lot into an outdoor patio around 8 p.m. on Sunday. Bailey recorded a blood alcohol content of 0.325% during a breath test at the hospital Sunday night, charges say.

A makeshift memorial has grown along the outside seating area since the crash, with dozens of flower bouquets, signs and photos of the victims lining the side of the St. Louis Park restaurant. About 10 friends and family members of Harvey arrived in the early afternoon to grieve and add to the memorial. Harvey’s partner brought a sign with photos of the two and a printed message: “I will love you always.” Inside the restaurant, about 25 customers were seated for lunch.

Harvey was also a nursing student who was set to graduate in December. He and his partner recently purchased a home together.

Some of Harvey’s hospital co-workers stopped by the memorial to offer condolences to his parents and friends. Beth Erickson, who works in guest services for Methodist Hospital, said Harvey was “one of the kindest souls” and that he made a name for himself working in the intensive care unit.

“He brought so much joy, and that’s a tough floor — the ICU is always a tough floor,” Erickson said. “Everybody knew Gabe. His heart was very big.

In first court appearance, driver charged in Park Tavern crash says his alcohol use

Erickson said there has been a strong connection between the hospital and the tavern since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the restaurant would send free meals to hospital workers. In return, many of the hospital employees dined at Park Tavern.

Owner Phil Weber, who opened Park Tavern in 1980, offered grief counseling services to his employees before the restaurant’s reopening. While workers are still grieving, he said he hopes the return to normal operation can help people process the tragedy.

“It’s hard, but I’m just trying to get everybody to move forward now,” Weber said. “Grieving’s a natural reaction we all go through. But I think it’s important to get back to whatever daily

routine we do at the tavern. It’s therapeutic.”

STORY # 2
THIS HAPPENED ON WEDNESDAY

‘They made a difference:' 2 math teachers among victims of the Apalachee High School shooting

Updated: 10:51 PM EDT Sep 5, 2024

The community of Apalachee High School and Winder, Georgia, is mourning after a mass shooting Wednesday left two students and two teachers dead and nine others injured – the latest toll in a nation where gun violence persists seemingly unabated.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation identified those killed as Richard Aspinwall, 39;

Cristina Irimie, 53; and Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14. Of those taken to hospitals with injuries, eight were students and one was a teacher.

Apalachee High School teacher Stephen Kreyenbuhl shared with CNN's Sara Sidner how "tough" it is losing two of his peers.

"They made a difference," he said of Aspinwall and Irimie. "They were there for their students each and every day, and it's going to be very, very hard and difficult to move forward from that."

AND THEN THIS ANNOUNCEMENT

All Barrow County Schools Will be Closed on 9/5 - 9/6

Posted September 4, 2024

School is canceled for all BCSS schools tomorrow, Thursday, Sept. 5 and Friday, Sept. 6, 2024. We will offer crisis counselors at the Central Office during both days from 8am-4pm. Please visit 179 W. Athens Street in Winder to meet with them.

530.

COMMENTS

In both these cases I agree with how the Park Tavern and Apalachee High School dealt with things. Every crime is different and there is no “One size fits all” solution to them. They all have to be looked at individually and dealt with individually. But as I have said before I hate, and I mean really hate when the criminals win. And winning to me are things like no cash bail, light sentences and changing the way the victims of crimes have to live in the aftermath of their crimes. And in the case of the Park Tavern I am talking about the family and friends of those who died, the ones that are fighting through their injuries, the staff, owners and the customers of the Park Tavern. For many of them their lives and the way they live will be changed forever.

Same goes for the people at Apalachee High School. The students, the teachers and support staff from the school, how do they get back to normal any time soon? And then there is all the parents of the children that go to that school. What do they do? Do you think that some of them are thinking about home schooling? There are no easy answers here. But that is the hand that criminals leave us with isn’t it?

531.

WHERE DOES THAT LEAVE US?

Well, when the Mayor wrote the following below, he tried to make the implication that we were soft on safety even though we had more precautions than most businesses in the city. He wanted to make it sound like we didn’t care about our staff or our customers and that we only cared about money. Here is what he said:

“At our first meeting, I asked Ms. Wheat what she felt had caused the problems that led to the closure of the Palace. She did not have an answer. At our second meeting I asked her again and she claimed that she had "begged" Mr. Noel to make changes and he had refused. I asked her what changes she had asked for and she said that she had asked him to close the bar for a few days after the second shooting.“

As I stated earlier in the blog, people under 40 have probably grown up in an environment that closing was part of what you do in these cases. I do think that closing sometimes is part of the equation. Jordan was 28 at that time and she didn’t beg me but it was discussed. And I told her what I thought. First of all there was only one incident. The second one wasn’t even on our property but to satisfy the Mayor’s warped imagination we will analyze it like there was two. Both of these incidents had similarities. Nobody was injured and both of them happened late at night or I guess you could say early in the morning and because of the time the police in both cases told us they would be back later that day to collect more information. In the first case the police knew the two criminals that were involved and were going to arrest them and in the second incident the criminal was already in jail. I felt that with that information and police coming and going all day the Palace would likely be the safest bar in town on those days.

And if we closed what would we be doing? Sitting at home and letting our anxiety go through the roof? And staying closed would have our customers displaced as well. To be honest my staff and my wife and I had little or no sleep those nights and were mentally and physically exhausted and closing could have been an easy way out But I knew that if we did that within a few hours anxiety would have started building up. So in the end I left it up to the employees to decide because after all if they weren’t comfortable working we couldn't have opened anyway. Money had nothing to do with my decision. I just wanted my staff and customers lives to get back to normal and I didn’t want the criminals to have another win. So we opened after both incidents and everything went fine. I think that the owner of the Park Tavern said it best when he made this statement:

532.

WHAT I WISHED WOULD HAVE HAPPENED

After the Only shooting on March 18, 2022 I would have liked the Mayor and maybe a city councilor or two to come by the Palace and share a few words of encouragement to our staff. After all the Mayor and many city councilors only live minutes away. But unfortunately that didn’t happen. We didn’t get Mayor

533.

BUT THIS DID HAPPEN

The following is a reprint from Blog 9:

131. Typed Letter from Mayor Paine to Tylor Elm, March 18,2022, 10:25 AM. That is about 8 hours after the shooting.

Good morning Tylor,

I’ve also spoken to Ms. Hyatt this morning. Here’s the background and next steps. I’ll allow the PD to add anything I’ve missed.

The Palace was a source of frequent frustration for Ms. Hyatt and her employees last year. Several police officers, the Chief, and I spoke with her and the police followed up with the Palace. The general impression we got was of a somewhat rough, ugly, and late night, heavy drinking bar. While I wouldn’t recommend the place to anyone, we didn’t find anything that merited significant action, such as a review of their license or triggering the nuisance ordinance. Most of the actual problems involved drinking in the back alley, some minor property damage, and fighting. The criminal activity wasn’t significant or common enough to merit much response beyond increased patrols and some communication with the owner of the Palace. However, I should make clear that Ms. Hyatt, who runs an early morning business, was enduring a very frustrating and often frightening situation. The loud music and chaotic atmosphere, while within the allowable limits of their license, made life at A Dozen Excuses very hard. After communicating with her and the Palace, we reached the end of our ability to intervene and I didn’t hear anything from her until this morning.

She is correct, there was a rather extreme shooting last night. I don’t believe there was any loss of life but injury appears likely and I am optimistic the police will make an arrest soon. However, this dramatically changes our view of the Palace as a licensed business. I will convene our law enforcement team on Monday and begin discussing all of our options, including our most serious consequences. In the meantime, I’ll ask the Police Department to increase patrols for the weekend and immediately engage with the owner of the Palace to reinforce the license obligation to maintain a safe premises.

I’ve communicated our next steps to Ms. Hyatt and I’ll follow up with her and you again next week after the team has met and especially if and when we decide to take further action.

Have a good weekend,

Jim

AND IF THAT WASN'T ENOUGH THERE’S MORE

534. This was taken from Blog 10, Point 143:

Below is a continuation of conversations between the Mayor and Melissa Hyatt. Note the timely manner that she gets replies to her concerns. This will be important in some future Blogs.