Perspective on the NYC cabbie stabbing

[lapislzi]

I live in the town next door to Brewster, the alleged stabber's home town. Here's a textbook example of the truism that all politics is local.

Brewster is home to many Central American immigrants who seek day labor in Putnam County, a working class area known for many small construction, landscaping, and related businesses. Brewster is also the epicenter of the a particularly vicious douchebag (er, tea bag) contingent led by the assemblyman for NY99, Greg Ball. This piece of work never met a photo op he didn't like, and is notorious for his "patriotic" and "liberty" rallies in the town. He has managed both to stack the town government with his proteges, and foment anti-immigrant sentiment to a fever pitch. There have been a number of attacks on Hispanics in recent months.

It does not surprise me one whit that a product of this milieu, possibly with other psychological problems, well soused with alcohol, could attack someone.

"But, oh!" the tea baggers on the LoHud message board bleat, "we're against illegal aliens! We have nothing against Muslims! He's just a troubled kid!"

All politics is local. When your neighbors are steeped in hate, when hate is the word of the day from your elected official who's supposed to represent YOU, what is the likely result for an impressionable kid?

[AngryAmish]

1. Teabagger terrorist.

[UTUSN]

2. K&R #1 for, let's take a closer look at this slime-BALL

(Clickable of this graphic at this link: ) http://thetruthaboutgregball.com/



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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_R._Ball

.... Ball was born in Pawling , New York, and grew up on the Kennedy estate of Stephen and Jean Kennedy-Smith, sister of President John F. Kennedy, where his parents were both caretakers. ....

At times Ball's campaign was noted for its unorthodoxy, including hiring a man in a chicken suit to follow around the incumbent after Stephens refused to debate him.<43> Ball again garnered attention at an event in August 2006 where he carried trash bags to a press conference and drew attention to Stephens, who also served as the legal counsel to the town of Southeast, New York, for having accepted $9,355 from Waste Hauling CEO, convicted felon and reputed mob boss James Galante, who was later awarded a $1.5 million no-bid garbage contract by the town board on Stephens' recommendation. ....

Ball made illegal immigration a focal point of his bid for office.<5> In October 2007, he strongly criticized Governor Spitzer's plan to give driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.<108><109><110><111> He was at the forefront of the opposition to the plan, and his Statewide petition to stop it led to the Assembly Minority Conference's decision to sue the Governor to stop the plan.<112>

Ball has worked to promote businesses that hire legal immigrant laborers, and has begun to create a database for usage on his campaign website.<115> His campaign headquarters in Pawling, New York may have been targeted over the contentious issue, and was vandalized with swastikas in October 2006, ....

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[no_hypocrisy]

3. Hate doesn't discriminate ironically.

[pampango]

4. Gotta hate "them" (blacks, gays, illegal immigrants, Muslims, etc.), I guess. Reminds me

of my youth, when poor whites ("white trash") were looked down on, but with the acknowledgment that "at least they aren't blacks".

They were often more racist (at least overtly so) than more well-to-do whites. The motto seemed to be "My life may stink but at least I'm not black." With the recession and a lot of pain for so many people, the motto may appeal to many again just substitute "illegal immigrant" or "Muslim" for "Black" (or in addition to "Black"). The hate makes the pain go away or at least masks it with another pain.