Video Of The Week: Ice Cube

If you were to categorize the best rappers of all time, chances are Tupac Shakur's in your top-3; he's in mine as well. Eminem has taken himself out of contention because his most recent material doesn't match the quality of his previous output - say, anything until the 8 Mile soundtrack; it seems he's been trying to re-do Lose Yourself all the time since then, except perhaps for Berzerk. Ice Cube, the king of squared, 4/4 rap, also makes my cut, and the third spot is a toss-up between Busta Rhymes, Mos Def and a few members of the Wu-Tang Clan, particularly Raekwon and Ghostface Killah.

In terms of rap lyricists, my #1 pick would be Public Enemy's Chuck D, who's always stayed on point regardless of how long he's been in the game, his words always current, carrying the political weight of truth. I'd probably go with Everlast (House Of Pain, Warpon Industries) in second place and, again, Ice Cube in third. KRS-One misses by just a bit, as does Tupac.

My favourite current-day rapper just might be Donald Glover, though - a.k.a. Childish Gambino: smart, incisive, good flow, diverse subject mater, equally at ease  rapping about toys from the 1980s as he is politics.

Which makes Cube the rapper I find to be most important. And, as I've mentioned here before, he's kept his output quality at a high level throughout the decades - ok, maybe his records aren't all killer and there are fillers, but his records' high points are always consistent.

For Good Cop Bad Cop, which will appear on the 25th Anniversary Edition of his seminal Death Certificate album, he tackles the subject of racism and police brutality in a post-Black Lives Mater world, and his conclusion is fairly simple: we are no better off today than in 1988 when his group N.W.A. sang "Fuck The Police".
Good Cop Bad Cop (Official Video, Explicit) by Ice Cube on VEVO.
The video was directed by Gabriel Hart.

''Fuck Your Breath'' As Nominee For Worst Sentence Uttered This Week

This is how bad shit has gotten in terms of police violence in the U.S.: we're happy that when one deputy murders a man with overwhelming evidence, he's at least getting charged with manslaughter and will have to face the justice system.

And this is how bad it's gotten for me, personally: I'm more outraged at the cop who responds to Eric Courtney Harris' plea of ''I'm losing my breath'' with ''Fuck your breath'' - you can see it at the end of this one-minute clip:



That's the guy who should be facing the harshest punishment, in my opinion.

The deputy was a 73-year-old former cop who paid his way into basically tagging along on joyrides and made a fatal mistake. That's involuntary manslaughter. It's bad, for sure; on a ''humanity needs to improve'' scale, it probably ranks a 7/10, but as a scale of a bad person, it scores pretty low.

The other cop, however, is heard justifying the shooting by saying ''you ran'', excusing a fatal gunshot by means of placing blame on the victim, then adding insult to injury with the order to tie his hands behind his back when he's clearly already incapacitated. On a scale of police corruption, it scores at least an 8/10, and hides a character that could possibly be a 10. Adding the famous last words ranks a 10/10 on the asshole scale.

At the very least, this guy should have internal affairs on his ass for two years, making sure he stays in line. He is the symptom and the reason why all citizens now have a low opinion towards those who are supposed to serve and protect us. If they find anything, he should be stripped of his badge, fired and tried.

The only way to change the culture of the locker-room... is to change the culture of the locker-room. You get rid of the bad seeds, you promote the good guys, and you remember to Hold The Line, 'cause love isn't always on time.

Bad Cops, Bad Cops, Whatcha Gonna Do?

Here is a list of recent ''awful cop stories'' excluding those involving them killing someone.

They came to light after this video was leaked:



Again, I come from a family of - I hope -presumably good cops, including one who arrests other cops. I know the ''guy culture'', and I understand some might feel underpaid for the shit they have to go through.

But police committing crimes should be subjected to twice the penalty a citizen would, on one hand. And there should be no level of tolerance of minimizing crimes they might have to deal with.

I'm as appalled in this video by the cops' talk of ''turning a blind eye'' as I am of the rape ''joke'', as a principle, but this is exactly what people refer to as us living in a ''rape culture''. If you can't trust the police to take you seriously, when they are merely the first step on a long and arduous ladder of justice, then the case is hopeless from the start.

That's why a lot of sex crimes go unreported. Events like this one, precisely. As much as news stories about rapist cops, maybe more so because it occurs more often.

You want to make jokes? Grab a microphone and get on a stage. When you're paid and wearing your uniform, take your job seriously. Or quit. Or volunteer to get raped yourself.

Go Texas, eh?

Fucking SPVM Cops

At first I thought it was a joke, a photoshop job that made the rounds on social media...

But no, it seems this picture, of an on-duty cop with a nubile young woman on his lap grinding back and forth (he may not have been protecting, but he seemed of service), is real:

Real enough that his employers have taken notice, have told the population (via Twitter!) that an inquiry is underway, and there may (meaning won't) be consequences:

It reads:

We are looking into the matter. We ask witnesses to contact us at our media relations email (so we can try to diffuse the situation).

The person who took the picture actually took a few more which add credence to their story that both on-duty cops took two (allegedly) underage drunk girls in their car, even letting them drive a bit, then had some sexy time in the car before proceeding to enter the young ladies' residence and have more sex there, while being paid by our tax dollars:

So, we thought cops were just standing around looking the other way (or beating kids nearly to death) while our government was fucking us over; turns out, the cops are also fucking us - in the more classic sense. Well, fucking our girls, then fucking us over by not doing it on their own time.

And - again, allegedly - with underage jail bait. Although we all know cops don't go to jail (or even get fired) for even the worst crimes; but these girls'd be jail bait to us normal folk.

I wonder where all the cynicism comes from.

Bad Boy, Bad Boy, Whatcha Gonna Do?

Again, I feel I need to specify: I respect (good) cops, come from a family full of them. Two families, in fact, on both my mom's and my dad's sides.

And that is exactly why when one of them commits a heinous fucking crime, it needs to be told to the public and why I once put forth the proposition that policemen should receive double the sentence of a civilian when they commit crimes, once for the crime itself and once more for disrespecting the uniform and corroding the public's confidence in its institutions. Same goes for politicians, although we'd need to build a shitload more new prisons to keep those fat cats locked up.

This story will shock you throughout your fucking soul: a woman called 911 after having one of her windows smashed by a brick, and the cop who came raped her. Key moment:

She now stood on a floor littered with broken glass and pointed to the brick. The cop she had summoned to protect her instead chose this moment to grab the back of her head by her hair and sodomize her. Then he raped her.

Sounds like a scene from Straw Dogs. But with a dirty cop named Ladmarald Cates instead of a dude from True Blood. He was found guilty and could face up to Life in prison. Good start; let the inmates take it from there.

Cocaine Babies (Revisited)

It was already a fact that most currency (dollar bills, not so much small change) contains trace amounts of cocaine. Many studies confirm it, many times over.

Now, we learn that British public baby changing tables are also full of them, whether they be in malls, restaurants, hospitals, churches, even... police stations.

Ah, yes. Either the ''so close they won't see it'' theory, or the ''they're all corrupt'' point of view. Still, it sure takes a fucking cokehead to use a babies' changing table instead of the side of a sink, or a hooker's tits.

Best comment so far?

I cut off the middleman and snort it directly on the baby.

Fuck Authority! Wait, I'm The Authority!

File this under whatever you like:

1. Things that happen only in Boston
2. Metallica brings out the rebel in anyone
3. Another cop being a shitty human being
4. Cops go lightly on criminal cop - again

Either way, this story has its moments.

An off-duty police officer at a Metallica concert thought it would be a good idea to get R. Kelly on another fan's head and provide him with a golden shower. Yes, he peed on him.

Presumably, the piss recipient was not pleased, as the policeman was arrested for his actions. During the arrest, Joseph Houston, the cop, tried to use the “But I’m a cop!” routine, and it didn't quite work.

Now, if it had been me urinating on someone else, I'd be accused of disorderly conduct, assault, exhibitionism, public nudity, and maybe even resisting arrest. What Houston got was an accusation of ''trespassing'' (seriously, what the fuck?) and PAID LEAVE while the story blows over. Makes sense, yeah.

I've said it time and time again, and I'll keep repeating it until it gets in their stupid heads and they react accordingly: I come from a family of cops and military men. Stand Up Guys who did the Right Thing because it was the only thing to do, because if you can't trust the Uniformed Men to uphold the law with higher moral standards than anyone else, the institution they represent loses its credibility.

When something like this happens, the cops shouldn't protect the asshole, they should get him into court and try him as they would anyone else; and when the sentence comes, it should be double what anyone else would receive - one time for the crime, one time for betraying the institution and the public they should be serving.

This would achieve two goals at once: 1. it would keep the weak-hearted and criminally-bent from even thinking of applying for a Service job, and 2. it would help restore the public's faith in an institution that has seemed to be more vile and wrong than even the mob for the past 40 years, with each passing day bringing a new news story of abuse of power, corruption, criminal activity and/or bad decision-making.

You wear the suit, you are responsible for living accordingly - with respect for your fellow citizens, The Law, and the society you're living in. If not, we're no better than banana republic police states - and that would mean that, once in a while, a good riot would be in order, with deaths on all sides and maybe even some politicians' heads getting chopped off.

And we don't really want that, now, do we?