East Village Ridiculousness

So I get to my favorite coffee shop/internet cafe yesterday morning to find the block cordoned off and crowds of cops and onlookers inside and outside the cafe. I figure, what the heck, must be one of those temporary distractions that we New Yorkers are so familiar and comfortable with. I mean, if it isn't a jumbo jet flying into the side of a building, we just aren't fazed by it.

Screw it, I thought, too crowded. I decamp to SoHo to liberate my G3 from Varick and then Rector Streets (more of the Orts of Jane scattered all over the tri-state area). My friend who is taking me and my pathetic computer to Brooklyn wants to get busy, but since he is the guy formerly known as "My Married Friend," I demur as kindly and politely as possible. Thanks but no thanks. No backward steps in 2007.

Hours later, I return to my coffee shop only to find that the crowd of police and onlookers has not dissipated -- in fact, it has grown, and to it have been added TV news vans complete with their eye-in-the-sky antennae extended and an NYPD police helicopter circling overhead. It's still standing room only inside the cafe, and I ask one of my fellow gawkers what's going on.

"Something with the He11's Ange1s" he said. Durrrr. I shoulda figured. With a sigh, I call my pal Racer X because, hell, I'm in the neighborhood.

Racer X treats me to pizza (did I mention that if nothing else, my friends are not assholes? I think I did), and we meander over to the 2nd Ave side of 3rd St to see if we can see any activity. Nothing happening, so he goes home, and I wander back around the block to the 1st avenue side of things, closer to the action. I'm hoping maybe I can jump into one of the camera shots and flash a "We're number one" finger or mouth "Hi, Mom," or maybe just do some spastic jumping jacks behind the announcer. I remember I left my flat-brim baseball cap and oversize, stamped-leather coat at home, so I just go home.

Net, net, a 52-year-old woman got into it with some Aitch Ays and one of them beat her nearly to death then pushed her out into the street. (Hey, I'm no idiot, I know better than to actually put their name in this post in a googlable form -- these are stone criminals who clearly don't have any problem beating women)

Now, let me speculate here -- a woman is beaten within an inch of her life and left on the street in New York City and this results in a daylong police standoff and results in ONE -- count 'em -- ONE arrest? Gosh, do you think the NYPD would do the same thing if it happened to, say, me on the streets of Bushwick? Just asking.

I think the NYPD saw their opportunity to get into the clubhouse, which is really why they brought out the show of force. City government being what it is, it took them ALL FUCKING DAY to get the warrant to get into the building (I'm sure Ron Kuby, that Prince Among Men, did everything in his power to slow the process even further), which gave S0nny B@rger's Boyz plenty of time to get rid of their drugs and guns. Hence, a single, piddling arrest.

I don't know where I'm going with this, maybe just to vent about the bikies. I have a friend who glamorizes these lowlifes and will reflexively take their side over the police, even though the evidence of their lowlifeness is lying bloody and bludgeoned in a hospital. She even witnessed their lowlifeness with her own eyes when she was playing a gig in the Village and two of them came into the club and STOLE THE MUSICIANS' TIP BUCKET. And still she says, "Oh, they must just be bad seeds, not everyone is like that." How do I explain to her, "they are all bad seeds, and they're all like that"?

Then you have the neighborhood idiots who say, "Oh, 3rd Street is the safest block in the city because of these people!" What the f***? The criminals make the street safer because of their reign of terror? You frickin morons. Sheesh. They're the modern day Mafia, and if you don't believe it, you need to read this book.

Ok, that's my rant for today.