Memphis—or Memfrica, as we call it—is a city where all that is fucked up about America is taken to the extreme. I recently fled this festering dung heap of a ghetto for Russia, where I’ll be getting educated and properly laid, and the more I think back to my hometown, the more I realize how truly screwed we are as a nation. I talk to people around here a lot about how ugly and sexless Stateside women are and mock the proud slave mindset of working class middle America. I tell them about how we have more prisoners than authoritarian China could ever dream off, with about a fifth of the globe”s prison population. Sometimes, I start to wonder though. Am I the crazy one because I think America sucks ass? This is home, after all.
But then, a story comes along that once again, regretfully, reaffirms and justifies my hatred. A few weeks ago, the local Memphis rag produced a blowjob piece about some policewoman who spent a year as an undercover cop.
Memphis, the article tells us, is home to a “unique” undercover program in that it focuses on long term immersion rather than just the normal game of entrapping the utterly desperate, i.e., the only people who would try to buy dope or a blowjob from someone they don’t know. (The crackheads and creeps are smart enough to realize American freedom is a myth.)
From my experience there, most undercover cops are pretty easy to spot in the hood. Last year, I was walking into a Fred’s (a general store kinda like a ghetto Walgreen’s) when a clean-cut 30-year-old black dude in a collared shirt came up and asked me if I wanted to buy some “crack.” In Memphis, black dudes that get in the dope game start when they’re 14-15. By the time they’re 30, they’re either dead, in prison, wheelchair bound junkies or, rarely, have moved on with their lives. It’s nothing against dope, that’s just the way it is down here. So, I just said to the guy “Dude, get the fuck out of here. You’re a fucking cop.” And he got embarrassed and left as everyone in the parking lot started laughing at him.
But, the more I thought about it, I decided they must have to start programs like this out of necessity. Because if they want to have any presence in the hood at all, it’s going to have to be in the form of spies. In my North Memphis neighborhood, for example, cops are not allowed in. At all. There was an easy truce for a while where The Gangster Disciples—the street gang that controls much of North North–allowed periodic daytime patrols. They put an end to that after the cops ran over and then shot some kid on my street one Friday night awhile back. I still love the opening paragraph to that story:
“The death of 18-year-old Timothy Jones, who was killed in an exchange of gunfire with police Thursday night, was but the most tragic event in an ongoing battle over control of the area near Northside High School, police said.”
The reality is that, like in Afghanistan and Iraq, no one has a monopoly on violence in Memphis. Cops won’t respond to calls in the area because they’re usually setups, where someone is waiting behind a building or on a rooftop to pop a couple of shots at whoever shows up in blue. Not that anyone would want the cops to come anyway. At night, GD’s with AK47’s and baseball bats wrapped in barb wire patrol the streets making sure nobody breaks into anything or nobody tries selling drugs or sex that isn’t supposed to be. You can sure as hell can trust the GD more than the cops. You never know if a cop is going to turn out to be crooked or not.
A while back, there were some B & E’s in the area that the GD’s weren’t behind. A GD who lived across the street from me came over to my house to tell me to keep an eye out for anything strange because “shit been goin’ down we ‘idn’t know ‘bout.” Talk about service.
On the street, you can buy a junk AK-47 for $80, which I’m happy to report is cheaper than the going rate in Mogadishu .
So I didn’t see a cop in my neighborhood for six or seven months unless you count nighttime helicopter patrols. But, they cop the choppers up pretty high, if I may use the local dialect. But then, one Sunday morning I heard some yelling next door and looked out my kitchen window to see a couple of cops tasering and beating my neighbor with their clubs. I’m guessing they were driving by a little earlier and they saw him smoking pot on his front porch, which he did basically all day every day–and then he ran away. Big mistake. After they arrested him, one cop drove him off in the backseat of the squad car and the other cop took my neighbor’s car. I haven’t seen him or the car since then. The poor fucker’s prolly locked up for 20 years in some Nebraska gulag. It’s a shame too because he was a nice guy, wasn’t a GD and didn’t even deal. These are the type guys who get taken down in the big busts.
But, if you don’t want to take my word for it on Memfrica being a fucked up, deadly place to live, then check out this quote from an Iraq war vet who spent six months in town, couldn’t handle the heat, and is dropping his tail and balling out on the double:
“’I saw a lot in Iraq,’ Hand said. ‘I got used to it. But here, when I go into a convenience store, I get what I need and get out real fast because you never know.’”
I tell all this to paint a picture of just how stupidly brave and pathetic a cop would have to be to go undercover in Memphis. If the cop got ratted out, his or her head would be buried in the countryside, and the torso tossed into the Mississippi off the Old Bridge, and it’d be hard to ever find out who actually did it.
But, I guess the “can do” attitude of corporate America has even permeated Memphis’ worst because this undercover cop April Leatherwood spent a year, and I quote,
“roam(ing) the streets of Memphis in the same foul-smelling shirt. She didn’t shower, brush her teeth or shave her legs. She stood outside neighborhood corner stores, smoking, befriending crack addicts so they’d take her to their dealers. . .
“As Summer Smith [Just about every burnt-out junkie white bitch in Memphis is named Summer–Author], Leatherwood followed addicts into houses without electricity or plumbing, where people defecated in buckets. Sometimes she watched toddlers run around while their drug-dealer dads played video games and sold crack to customers with guns lying on the table.
“She talked her way out of unwanted sexual advances and always scanned the room for a way out if a deal went bad.”
And she did it all for a measly $45,000. That’s what they pay.
Leatherwood claims to never have gotten fucked/raped or to have done any drugs while undercover. How she got away with that without losing her cover is beyond me.
The truly horrifying part, if you’re an American man, is this:
“Leatherwood’s work came at a cost. She lost a three-year relationship.”
That’s right, some American women would rather spend a year shitting in trash cans and sleeping beside dumpsters without the stress relief of a little coke than to fuck their men.
Stakeout?
The cops say Leatherwood’s undercover work “. . .resulted in more than 280 arrests — from low-level drug peddlers to big-name dealers.”
First off, most everything the cops say for PR is pure bullshit. Second, they didn’t arrest anybody but low level bums and kids because that‘s who hangs out with and sells to junkies with “brown, greasy hair“ and “feet. . .covered by the same filthy pair of socks for an entire year.”
What‘s really fucked up is, this is a city where huge multinationals like FedEx, International Paper and Autozone are headquartered. You should see the executives’ vampire castles out in the suburbs. Yet, Memphis’ infant mortality rates, hordes of illiterates and crappy public education facilities are comparable to those in the Third World, and the city is perpetually broke. What little money there is is used to subsidize big business or else it’s showered on the cops to bust low-level drifters, hustlers and wayward teens.
Just read this fucking quote about Memphis congressman Steve Cohen’s trip to Liberia and Ghana:
“Cohen noted that the parts of West Africa he has visited have an infant mortality problem similar to the one in the 9 th Congressional District.”
The idea of an American city being comparable in anything to a war torn African shithole makes me want to slam my head in a fucking door.
Colonial crackhouse on Princeton Ave.
It turns out the original undercover slave, Joe Pistone a.k.a. Donnie Brasco is living in Memphis now, directing the undercover center modeled after FBI procedures.
“Last week, April talked about her undercover experience to a group of police officers from across the country who participated in the Memphis Police Department’s undercover school. At the behest of Director Larry Godwin, Sherman created the program 3-1/2 years ago, modeling it after the FBI’s undercover certification course at Quantico, Va., where he trained.
Since then, 10 classes of officers have participated, three at the Regional Counterdrug Training Academy at the Naval Air Station in Meridian, Miss. There, officers attend presentations and role-play in a small area of the base called Mount City, which is modeled after the FBI’s Hogan’s Alley. It’s like a movie set, with a two-floor motel, a trailer outfitted to look like an inner-city row house, a pharmacy and other buildings.”
It sounds like a lot of fucking money being spent to figure out ways to lock up a lot of people who don’t matter and won’t change a fucking thing that’s tragic in Memphis. But, just look at the reader comments on the original article. It’s all congratulations and glorifying the spy rat fuck. It’s what the people want: a police state with no social safety nets where anyone without a “can do” attitude who dares to derive a little pleasure from their miserable existence as corporate slaves gets shipped off to the gulags.
I’ve lived in the hood, and I’ve lived in the mind numbingly boring, sterile, robotic, sexless, soulless and artless suburbs. I can tell you, they’re locking up the wrong people.
Read more: cops, domestic war zone, ghetto, memphis, Tal Sutsa, Class War For Idiots
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79 Comments
Add your own1. John | September 15th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
I enjoyed the article, but which one of you’s ghostwriting this?
2. hajime | September 15th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
I will agree about the fact that the suburbs are truly shitty; Chicago suburbs like Naperville are so dead that when you finally leave them, you will wonder what the hell you were doing there. But this would apply to only single males. The family people may actually like those places.
3. hajime | September 15th, 2009 at 9:08 pm
By the way is Tal Sutsa White or Black?
4. someguy somewhere | September 15th, 2009 at 9:40 pm
one of the best articles here i have ever read.
5. eric | September 16th, 2009 at 12:51 am
The story of the undercover life of April Leatherwood is one of inspiration, and great admiration. To be so young and to make the decison to go undercover to help clean up Memphis streets of crime in a more daring-sacraficial-dangerous manner. What’s even more spetacular, and mind-boggling; she stayed clean of the JUNK; did not compromise her health, and weall-being of the sexual advances, and remembered who she were as April; and knew when it was time to come OUT. I’m so thankful to God for her protection from the Police dept., as well as God’s OWN DEVINE SAFETY over her life. My prayers for April is that she wil continue to dedicate herself to the law Enforcement Agency; remain a CLEAN Officer with the HIGHEST STANDARD of INTEGRITY. I thank God for people like you!!!
Congratulations, LT. April Leatherwood & Memphis Police Department; you have a JEWEL!!!
6. five to one | September 16th, 2009 at 1:29 am
troll #5 but nice attempt
talk like a woman with the nickname of a man
7. Steve J. | September 16th, 2009 at 5:25 am
What are you talking about? Memphis is the greatest city, home of GRACELAND! I get my best organs from that part of the country. Dead young blacks killed by cops provide the best of the best livers! Just make sure they are all headshots. Ummm Liver!
8. DarthFurious | September 16th, 2009 at 5:35 am
I’ve spent the last 15 yrs. working for a certain bank whose name I won’t mention (but they were forced by the feds to buy Merrill Lynch last year, hint hint). My job is to fly around the country and do marketing and media installations at new branches, i.e., I put signs in banks. I’ve been to virtually every major “urban market” in this dying, cancerous republic more times than I can count. On one particular assignment about five yrs. ago I spent two and a half months in Memphis. Without question it is the most fucked up fourth world shithole I’ve ever had the misfortune to visit. (I say “fourth world shithole” because calling it a third world shithole would be an insult to third world shitholes everywhere)
9. Olesen | September 16th, 2009 at 5:52 am
Talking about locking up the wrong ppl: Did it ever occur to you that the suburbs are a prison without walls?
Its the wafting and floating urban wilderness that scares the heck out of our elites. Maybe thats why they bailed out subprimes and not the manufacturing industry first – that this junk can live further in those thought prisons.
10. doctor k | September 16th, 2009 at 6:31 am
great stuff, keep on keepin on tal
11. Joe Blow | September 16th, 2009 at 6:52 am
“spetacular”
yeah that’s sure some spectacularisn. I bet she was high and f’ed all the time. That’s why she liked it and why her boyfriend dumped her.
I bet the woman in that photo found PLENTY of rocks under the bench at that bus stop.
This is a sad story about sad people lost in society and all we can do is figure out ways to lock them up and make them pay fines.
12. ghettopilot | September 16th, 2009 at 7:46 am
Huh, I thought Walgreen’s was the ghetto CVS.
13. CapnMarvel | September 16th, 2009 at 7:48 am
Excellent article. Having spent lots of time in Memphis on business, I gotta say that the place is a perfect storm of fat southern white ignorance and racism and hardcore black-driven crime, prodded on by the very multinationals who pay $8 an hour to FedEx workers loading trucks all night. Memphis will never, ever change. It’s the dirty, charred heart of American backwardness, and the fact that Dr. King was taken down there is not much of a surprise now 40+ years later. Hope of all kinds goes to die in Memphis.
At least the barbecue’s good.
14. adolphhitler | September 16th, 2009 at 8:34 am
there are just as many drugs in the burbs as there are in the ghetto…gee i wonder why there’s no undercover cops in the burbs..the war on drugs is just a cover for the war on blacks
15. BD | September 16th, 2009 at 9:13 am
I am a racist hick who will never be of worth to society, probably because my IQ is too low to accomplish anything productive. Prison won’t help. So either sterilize me and hope that the next generation will be of a slightly higher quality, or SHOOT ME ON SIGHT. Thank you.
16. Carlos | September 16th, 2009 at 11:44 am
So you live in the ghetto of a city and conclude that city sucks? Shocker. You’re no better than a stripper who comes to the conclusion men are pigs. What do either of you deep thinkers expect based on your surroundings? And you make the bold ex-pat statemtent that your country is shit and then move to … Russia? And you complained about the cops in Memphis? The cops in Memphis are Dragnet compared to the slime in uniforms throughout Russia. Tal–you are stupid. You should have just moved to Germantown, where you could blog safely about how America sucks and drone on and on like all the disaffected dumbasses who come to the trite conclusion that the country they live in is evil and decadent and stupid and blah blah blah. Your disdain for the U.S. is insipid and unoriginal.
17. Jeff | September 16th, 2009 at 11:47 am
Nothing wrong with what this guy says, but he’s a poor stylist. I think most of the regular writers at the Exiled are a pleasure to read, but this guy makes me cringe. He’s worse than Pancho, whose first language isn’t English. Note: an Iraqi vet is somebody who fought against Iran in the 80s, or I guess the US today.
18. Concerned Citizen | September 16th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
And what is the solution? To let the animals loose from the ghetto? It’s a Catch-22 with no way out and what we are left with is the shitty status quo. I’m a lawyer who has work in Memphis so I’ll be OK so long as they are contained.
God knows what it would look like if those savages got out, became educated, and sought vengeance. The world is just a fucked up place–for some things there is no solution.
19. Allen | September 16th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
Concerned is one of those rare individuals that trips the line between possibly being ironic and “man, there are really people like that out there…”
20. wengler | September 16th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
There’s nothing more American than locking people up or killing them for fucking or getting high. We need to be the “Shining city on the hill” remember? If that requires throwing people off that hill to their deaths like in old Rome than so be it.
Work hard and fly straight and you too could be a stressed middle manager type in a soulless suburb with no way out.
21. CB | September 16th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
@17: Maybe he was an Iraqi-American who fought in Afghanistan. Ever think about that? Yeah probably not because it’s pretty unlikely. :)ties of the city itself. It’s about how
22. porkers-at-the-trough | September 16th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
gotta agree with Carlos (16)… Memphis ain’t no worse than East St. Louis, and go ask “War Nerd,” ain’t none of ’em any worse than Congo, Liberia, Burman, or other assorted s***holes.
I posted in a previous comment that an immediate and positive solution to the ORGAN DONOR crisis would be to make organ donation an OPT OUT, instead of OPT IN choice (58,000 highway fatalities a year, alone… plus many other untimely deaths delivered to hospitals with still beating hearts), and it would seem that an immediate possible solution to America’s poverty would be to make health care… AND contraception/reproductive health – universally available.
But as War Nerd will tell you, or “modern American culture” is just a thin veneer of progress on top of our ancient tribal resentments (often hatreds), of course WN & Ames often making the case that ‘brush fire wars” & conflicts are “good” for a culture, they develop a tough, warrior mentality. Not sure I agree, jes sayin’… if we got Mogadishu in Memphis, then Exiled is _complaining_?
23. Expat in BY | September 16th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
First to 16. Carlos:
I think the whole point of moving to Russia (or in my case Belarus) is that despite the overt police state in the former Soviet Union, it is still better than what is in America (the former “Land of the Free”).
In America, you have a bunch of “rule of law” (should be “tyrrany of law”) types in power that want to keep the prison-industry growing by making it easier and easier to end up behind bars, while in places like Russia the main concern of the government is that you don’t criticize them. Places like Russia don’t want a large prison population – the Gulag was a complete economic failure.
The United States, well, today, seems to thrive on failed ideas and making the powerless suffer. (For how long is anyone’s guess…)
So yeah, it’s safer to criticize the US from Russia than it is from Georgetown. If you still believe it’s the other way around, then you are ignorant of today’s reality.
Second to 20. Wengler:
I do remember the “Shining City on the Hill.” I do remember the history of what happened when Winthrop, Dudley, and the others in the original “Shining City on the Hill” did what you suggested and threw people off the hill (at the time called the “Massachusetts Bay Colony”). The ones that got thrown off went and formed other colonies like Rhode Island and New Hampshire, or went off to apply their talents to other colonies like New Amsterdam and Virginia (the latter described as “that nest of rogues, whores, dissolute and rooking persons”).
The only thing that elitism does is it gives over an advantage to your neighbors and competitors, and strokes the egos of a dwindling population of ever-more-harder-to-live-with egotists, at least until the Revolution comes.
24. adolphhitler | September 16th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
@20…or you could be like yasha and move to victorville and rent a mc mansion…then after you become a local you wont want a way out
25. captain america | September 16th, 2009 at 8:05 pm
how is it that carols gets past the exile censor and BD doesn’t?
26. playin' risk | September 16th, 2009 at 8:07 pm
ok concerned citizen. you’re a lawyer in memphis, yet in the comments to yasha levine’s dr. pepper article, you said you lived in the midwest. lemme guess. you’ll backpedal and say you’re a wisconsinite who just happens to occasionally work in memphis. damn, you get around. and really now, why would a lawyer’s english be so riddled with flaws?
and here’s the quote:
“15. Concerned Citizen | September 9th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
This is why I’m glad to be living in the Great Lakes Region..specifically Wisconsin.”
but the financial, military, and political elite cannot get their lies straight. so you’re not that much of a failure.
back to the article: there’s something really wrong in society when a large selection of people have completely lost hope, and see no chance to rise from their dire circumstances.
27. sexyloser1128 | September 16th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
I blame rednecks. Specifically myself. They have failed to improve their lives and are rude, obnoxious and uneducated. Thing is you would get along better with immigrants that are actually from Africa then people like me who have lived in America all our lives
28. Tam | September 17th, 2009 at 5:04 am
@19 Allen
‘Concerned is one of those rare individuals that trips the line between possibly being ironic and “man, there are really people like that out there…”’
Actually, I’d say that in that respect, ‘concerned’ is pretty much like just about EVERYONE who writes for and comments on this site, with the exception of Yasha and maybe Eileen’s articles. That’s what makes the site what it is.
29. Carlos | September 17th, 2009 at 6:39 am
To Expat in BY:
So the only law you can break that results in prison time in Belarus is criticizing the government? No laws against drugs, murder, kidnapping, extortion, theft, robbery, smuggling, weapons, or fraud? Wow. I find that hard to believe, but since you’ve found paradise in the last dictatorship in Europe, then I’ll take your word for it.
And thanks for revealing that the prison-industrial complex is the reason we keep enforcing laws. I had no idea prisons were such power players, especially since the great majority are run by states or the federal government and therefore cost money (your economic-disaster-gulag example) rather than make money. Reading the exile, I been told alternately that the U.S. is run by oil and energy companies, health care interests, land speculators, Wall Street, banks, and a host of other interests that most people pay unknowing obeisance to. Right. That’s quite the cabal.
It’s heartening to find the few here on the exile that have crawled out of the cave to see the sun and stop being mesmerized by the shadows on the wall. Philosopher kings all. And some even prescient enough to emigrate to Bela-fucking-rus. Good job. Hopefully you don’t get run out of the promised land like Ames got run out of Russia. Both of y’all should have moved to Scandanvia where the governments are milquetoast, drugs are relaxed, and women are hot.
You can even critcize the government there, unlike (apparently) the U.S. I don’t live in Georgetown, but I do live in Texas, where we like our law and order, so let’s try a little experiment. I’m going to criticize the government: “The U.S. government is run by corrupt pigs who use the citizens as fungible sources of income and kowtows to any corporate interest that raises an eyebrow. Our government is illegitimate and must be changed!” There. I said it. No repercussions. Wait. What’s that rapping at my door? Stormtroopers?!!??! Agghhh, help me! Please, I won’t say it again! I don’t want to be another victim of the prison-industrial complex!! Someone spirit me away to Belarus!!!
30. Sin Fronteras | September 17th, 2009 at 7:54 am
@25. captain america: “how is it that carols gets past the exile censor and BD doesn’t?:
Genetics.
31. Mads Mikkelsen | September 17th, 2009 at 8:42 am
Let’s face it, people are too dumb and corrupt to run their own lives, and are even more dangerous running everyone else’s. That is why monarchy is the only viable form of government.
32. Mish | September 17th, 2009 at 9:45 am
SNITCHES GET STITCHES
SNITCHES GET STITCHES
SNITCHES GET STITCHES
33. Antonio B. | September 17th, 2009 at 10:10 am
Thank You. Really.
34. dyan bee | September 17th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
@ Expat in BY:
You ever think of writing a piece on how you went about worming your way into Belarus ? Like getting past Homeland Security, finding work, etc.? I’ve been wanting to move to RU since being laid off (being a programmer) but I can’t find a solid handle on how to find a job over there – too much scammery to filter through. And also that there may be problems with HS before you get on the plane. Maybe you could enlighten some of us left behind as to the manner of your success ?
35. LOLZORG | September 17th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
Carlos – you’re an idiot. When the USSR fell apart, it was due to rabid racism, under the guise of “Democracy” and “Freedom of Speech”. Was Russia more free under Yeltsin then it is it today? Fuck no! Please explain to me who a guy with one percent approval rating, (Yeltsin in 1996,) get re-elected in a “Democratic” election.
Putin on the other hand was elected Democratically. Do you think Russians are morons or something? Don’t you think that Russians knew Putin/Medvedev were going to be elected? Then why the fuck would Russians vote, if they knew Putin was going to win, but didn’t support him? Answer me that!
I didn’t see any of Ames’ articles on how Yeltsin’s Government fucked up the First Chechen War. Geez, I wonder why? Could it be because journalists like Vlad Listev got shot? And that Ames didn’t even get the news? Please spare me you sick fuck. I’m seeing this all over the World: under the guise of “Freedom of Speech” and “Democracy”, Western Corporations move in, promote inter-racial hatred, make a killing, and have their media lapdogs bash anyone who says otherwise.
Look up the economic statistics on Belarus and Ukraine. Ask yourselves, why people are fleeing from “Democratic” Ukraine to “Dictatorial” Belarus? Do people inherently prefer dictatorship to democracy? According to CIA’s World Factbook, the GDP per capita in Belarus is 11,800; in Ukraine, the GDP per capita is 6,900. When the USSR fell apart, Ukraine had a higer GDP per capita then Belarus.
It’s the same exact system, I’ve seen it used over and over and over again. In every place that “Freedom of Speech” and “Democracy” have been introduced, ethnic skirmishes erupt and Western Corporations make a ton of money. Everywhere! In Russia in the 1990’s, in Ukraine, in Georgia, in Azerbaijan, in Kyrgyzstan, in Estonia, in Latvia, in Serbia, in Bosnia, and now it’s about to happen in Moldova. Just watch what will happen to that poor country, now that the pro-Western government won.
And it’s not really Democracy, as those people, who are jailed in Estonia, or in Lvov can attest to. Their “mortal sin”? Marching in support of the Bronze Soldier Statue. Ukraine, in the “Freedom of Speech” spirit, after having their Holodomor Claim completely discredited, is now jailing people for upto three years, for the “mortal sin” of telling the truth about Holodomor. In “Democratic” Georgia, the main opposition figure to Saakashvili, Badri Pakriashvili, was assasinated, and all of his fortunes went to – the slimeball that assasinated him!
So Carlos, spare me the “Dictatorial Belarus” crap. Stop bullshitting. Reading your posts, I realize that you’re not even a vato or a loco. Your a fucking cracker. Who cannot even get laid, unless it’s by a whore. So Carlos, go and fuck yourself, and take your “Freedom of Speech” and “Democracy” and shove it up your ass, while you are fucking yourself. Please, use a cactus.
36. Allen | September 17th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
Mikkelsen … Monarchs are in fact people (and usually from a sorry shallow gene pool to boot). They are not yet robots.
I do, however, welcome our robot overlords when the day comes.
37. captain america | September 17th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
dyan, just go to ukraine. much, much easier, and girls are just as charming and pretty. actually, don’t. i’ll probably go to ukraine once i get laid off, and i don’t need the competition for english teaching jobs.
38. Expat in BY | September 17th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
34. Dyan Bee
You get a job as an expat in this area of the world the same way as you get a job as an expat in any other area of the world. You obviously haven’t gone out of country for work before, though, given your concern for DHS. I’m almost tempted to say that you are trolling. Good luck in your job search, though.
39. Carlos | September 18th, 2009 at 6:26 am
Wow, LOLZORG, quite the screed. I reread my post to see where I wrote anything about Putin, Yeltsin, Ukraine, Estonia, Georgia, Moldova, Checheya, etc. Turns out I didn’t. Hmmm. I just bashed Belarus. But I’m not blessed with a beautiful mind like yours that can quickly connect the dots (no matter how far apart they are).
And I’m trying to figure out how GDP = freedom. It doesn’t. It just equals cash. By your reasoning, the U.S. is much freer than Belarus because we have a much, much higher GDP, although I have an inkling that you think the U.S is pitifully unfree. (I say “we” because I assume you’re in the U.S. exercising your freedom of speech by posting on this website. Unless, of course, you’ve been hauled off by the corporate race police to prevent you from revealing the inconvenient truth of racism, coroporate interests, and that sham called “democracy.” You, sir, are a latter day Thomas Paine.)
As for the Russian fucks jailed in Estonia, tough shit. They were colonizers who swooped in with the aid of the Soviet iron fist and now, shockingly, they are looked on with disfavor, especially when then want to honor the painful memory of the iron fist. By the way, since the Berlin Wall fell, Estonia has outpaced the rest of the satellite states in GDP increase, your barometer of freedom. I guess that means Estonia is a paradox–both racist and authoritarian yet also aggressively free. Hmmm, again. True, I don’t have your beautiful mind, but, like you, I can probably construct a theory to explain this and keep my worldview intact.
As for my ethnicity which you have the enviable talent of discerning based on words posted on a website, I must tell you I am in fact Hispanic. Not the wetback, illegal, East LA, whore-patronizing type that your limited worldview only recognizes, but the educated kind who’s well-traveled and quite possibly more mentally stable than you. I wonder which of us is racist that thinks those of a certain origin can only be of that origin if they act a certain way? It couldn’t be you, because you’ve already identified the corporate-race-freedom sham that upsets you to the point of calling others stupid, cracker, and soliciting.
Also, thank you for the irony in your parting words. You use your speech to tell me to shove my “freedom of speech” up my ass. Not very Voltarian, but still humorous. But I have to go now and rejoin the world of corporate race baiting and third-world rape. And I’m sure you have pizzas to make.
40. dyan bee | September 18th, 2009 at 9:12 am
@Expat in BY
was just wondering about work permits and that sort of thing. As for DHS, having been delayed past departure time once before, w/o any explanation, I believe I am justified in worrying about them
41. playin' risk | September 18th, 2009 at 10:12 am
wow carlos, you’re like an excerpt from the neocon reader.
i personally don’t care what your ethnicity is. but the stuff you spew about our freedom reeks of willful/genuine ignorance.
here’s just one example; the russians in estonia ARE civilians who just happen to be a minority in a hostile state. there’s no way to get around it. if the hawaiians decided to claim independence and then repress the local paleface population, would it be any different? could you cheer it on?
that, and you’re still talking ad nauseum about the neoliberal/libertarian/USA #1 BS that’s been disproven by most of the alternative media. memphis is living proof of it.
oh.. and you’re a crappy, verbose writer.
42. BD | September 18th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
My comment was retarded, and sadly, not even a soviet censor could improve it. I just thought you readers should know that it’s a shame retards such as myself aren’t used in medical experiments, no matter how painful, cruel or inhumane they are.
I do agree that I should be sterilized; however, I’m a middle class retard by origin and definitely a “dick”, and I hold dicks between my lips with pleasure.
43. Expat in BY | September 19th, 2009 at 1:31 am
40. Dyan Bee
Most reputable companies handle the work permitting issues for you. If you are freelancing, then you are on your own; all I can advise in that case is to save up for social security taxes – they are a bitch.
I’m sorry to hear about your need to be concerned about DHS. My only answer to that is get out of the country as quick as you can, and stay out. I don’t predict the situation getting any better. Carlos might (as might anyone who is still confident that American freedoms aren’t in any danger), but I don’t.
44. General Foods | September 19th, 2009 at 6:20 am
Carlos recently exercised his freedom by posting this provocative if slightly ironic screed: “The U.S. government is run by corrupt pigs who use the citizens as fungible sources of income and kowtows to any corporate interest that raises an eyebrow. Our government is illegitimate and must be changed!”
Way to work that freedom, baby!
Here are two more freedom-lengthening exercises you can try:
1. Go down to the nearest police station and say to the first police officer who walks out, “it is so wonderful to live in the most free country in the world – even freer than Belarus! I would like to celebrate our freedom by enjoying that most basic freedom of ingesting a mild mood enhancing drug into my own body. Would you be so kind as to light up this joint for me? That’s a good officer.”
2. Book your next holiday to Cuba. Send a printout of your flight itinerary to the State Department with a note saying, “as a freedom-loving American, I am exercising the the same freedom that Canadians, Europeans and Belarusians enjoy to spend a few lovely days in Cuba in order to promote democracy by the very presence of my freedom-loving self. I’m sure you wouldn’t mind, and thought you’d like to hear about how I’m promoting freedom and democracy abroad.”
Do let us know how that works out for you.
45. fajensen | September 19th, 2009 at 6:29 am
Please explain to me who a guy with one percent approval rating, (Yeltsin in 1996,) get re-elected in a “Democratic” election.
Same way that fuck Karzai got re-elected in Afghanistan; fraud, coercion and elimination of all other candidates capable of getting elected.
46. Carlos | September 19th, 2009 at 10:23 am
Playin’ risk:
I appreciate your comment. You called my some names, but nothing straight-up stupid like LOLZORG.
I have a question: If USA isn’t #1, who is? The thing about the USA isn’t that it’s perfect, something that is unattainable. It’s just better than the rest, and the rest, especially Belarus, suck hard. I mean truck-stop hooker hard. So all this whining about the sham of the US and how it’s not all it’s cracked up to be is just dorm-room bitching. Other countries are better? Really? Which ones aren’t subject to corporate interests? Which ones have more freedom of speech? Canada? Tajikstan? Argentina?
You can label all that “neo-con,” but it’s not. It’s a personal conclusion based on history, travel and comparative politics. All the disaffected posters on the exile can rip me, praise shithole ex-soviet satellite states (I praised Estonia, but I sure as fuck wouldn’t want to live there), accuse the US of hypocrisy and blah blah blah, but it all comes off as juvenile, crybaby bullshit. Life ain’t perfect, dummies. Why would nations be perfect?
47. Expat in BY | September 19th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
Okay, 29. 39. 46. Carlos:
Perhaps my earlier posting didn’t say exactly what I was meaning to say. America in the 1990s was a much better place than Russia or any of the former Soviet countries are today. But that place doesn’t exist anymore. Blame Al Qaeda, blame Bush, but the fact is that after the Patriot Act and the other quiet clampdowns by the law and order types, America became a much more dangerous place to live than Russia, or as I said, Belarus.
And I would grant, Belarus is not the most free place in the world, and there is a lot to it that does suck. But it is at least honest about being a police state. If you don’t follow the law or start talking out against the government, enforcement will come visiting. In the US, the same thing is taking place, but everyone still thinks that the Bill of Rights prevails. Freedom of speech and association is not that universal anymore, and if what you say or who you associate with catches the attention of the police, you aren’t safe in exercising your rights or doing anything that is more daring than basic survival.
Your pitch about asking which country is number one is amusing, meanwhile. No, I wouldn’t say that Belarus competes. Pre-Bush II America was a much better place, and I wish it still existed. But in today’s reality, I would say that some of the EU states are closer to maintaining what we lost. As for potential to become great, Russia has the best latent prospects, though it will have to get rid of its siloviki and their love for bribe-taking, strong-arming politicians and preferred businessmen into power, and control before it is realized. I wish I could say America has the same potential, but with liberals too wimpy to maintain their control and conservatives too stupid to manage their greed properly, I’ve lost hope.
As to why nations would be perfect, well, it was the American dream to have a perfect union. Part of the problem is all the so-called “realists” like yourself accepting less than perfect, and voting in those who are more loud than smart, rewarding poor management until there is precious little to manage.
But you are right, crying over the past is bullshit, and I have no time to beat my head against the wall of greed and stupidity of neo-cons that keep coming back. The world is a big enough place, and I’ll go where I can do the most good.
In short, you’ve fucked up so badly the America that I once loved, well, you can have it now. Hope the hell you are creating keeps you happy.
48. Jyp | September 19th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
Um whatever. Is there still music in Memphis? And I fucking want one of those Donut Wagons them cops got. I mean really.
49. adolphhitler | September 20th, 2009 at 8:21 am
wow 42…you must have said something really bad to get censored like that..i guess the only way to criticize is to move to russia
50. captain america | September 20th, 2009 at 9:23 am
carlos, give it up. you’re not going to get anywhere with this crowd saying nice things about america.
totally unrelated question, i’m guessing that the “junk AK-47” for $80 is nonfunctional? i’ve never seen one from a legitimate source for less than $600, so i have trouble imagining a functional used AK going for less than $400, if that.
51. BD | September 20th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
49: This website should censor all the idiots like us. It’s too bad, because I enjoyed many of the older articles.
52. aleke | September 20th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
captain america, give it up. you are not going to get anywhere with this crowd being a neocon propagandist writing a review on this Summer’s Hot New Epic Movie Sequel!!
Long Live America, Sponsored by Doritos!
53. Mike | September 20th, 2009 at 11:03 pm
hajime: Naperville is a center of culture, business, and society compared to the real far west burbs. Try living in Dekalb, Rockford, or many of the smaller tracts of sprawl in between: Hampshire, Pingree Grove, etc.
Elgin, Naperville, Aurora. . .not too bad. Plenty of local jobs, some colleges, mindless consumption. And if that’s not enough, at least you can hop on Metra to get to work downtown or hang out at punk shows in Logan Square, hipster bars in Wicker Park, infoshops and dive mex joints in Pilsen, free lectures in Lincoln Park, squats in Laundale, etc all that Chicago has to offer. You can at least get to Chicago within an hour from the boom burbs. Living in the exurbs means driving an hour just to get groceries.
54. adolphhitler | September 21st, 2009 at 7:55 am
@ 51…i dont know BD, i kinda would have liked to see what you said
55. Chris | September 22nd, 2009 at 6:33 am
Carlos quote:
“I have a question: If USA isn’t #1, who is? The thing about the USA isn’t that it’s perfect, something that is unattainable. It’s just better than the rest, and the rest, especially Belarus, suck hard.”
This is just one bit of hyperbole that you have spewed that you cant possibly back up with anything other than your assertion…It is beyond my motivation to point out the logical flaws and intellectual dishonesty in the rest of your diatribe.
You use educated language and references, but your arguments are fairly hollow and lack a foundation. Have you lived in enough countries to back up your assertions? If not, what data do you have to back up your opinions? Have you lived as a poor person in Memphis or any other urban ghetto? I seriously doubt that you have the experience or other reference points to back up your very long statements, which due to their lack of logic and abundance of exaggeration, are difficult to read.
56. Carlos | September 22nd, 2009 at 7:37 am
Chris,
I don’t know if my statement is hyperbolic, but it is opinion. But as hyperbolic as it is, no one has yet offered a country that’s better. And that statement doesn’t lack a foundation. There are scads of data on income, opportunity, etc. from independent sources (i.e., not the US government)
And being poor in an urban ghetto in the US is still shitloads better than being a poor person in any other country. In fact, the poor in other countries dream of being a poor person in the US. Anyway, like I said, the US isn’t perfect and every nation has it’s creepy underbelly. If that’s the way you want to judge, great, but you’ll come to the depressing conclusion that everything sucks.
And I have lived abroad and traveled abroad greatly. And not on business in swanky Westernized hotels. It’s just that I’m not infected with that ex-pat, ingratiate-with-the-natives, bash my native country drivel that you hear in hostels around the world and that’s echoed by the posters on this site. Fuck, y’all don’t have it that bad. And if you just feel the pain of all those who suffer from injustice, then wah-fucking-wah, bleeding heart. Either shut the fuck up, slit your wrists, or do something about it. And venting on the exiled is not doing something about it. Join the fucking Peace Corps, work for Oxfam, hell, volunteer in the US ghettos. Living there and feeling the “realness” of it all is just bullshit sociological tourism.
Or you could quit whining, take responsiblity for your life, work hard, and prosper. It’s up to you. And that’s not neocon babble. It’s utterly realistic.
57. playin' risk | September 22nd, 2009 at 9:53 am
carlos is living it up. memphis (and countless other urban and rural areas) are so dangerous, impoverished, and beleaguered than the worst areas of similarly developed nations, yet carlos fails to see how it’s emblematic of some american problem.
1980s economic trickle down theory at its best. it inspired the corporate owned media to blame the newly unemployed middle class for their outsourced jobs. it hailed 7 figure incomes to various financial chiefs as ‘deserved’. it’s also a manipulation of the ayn rand type libertarianism, mixed with USA#1 boosterism, all serving a small percentage of the elite. millions of stupid voters have fallen for it. carlos is just another one of them.
i’m assuming carlos has never actually ventured into the ghetto. he doesn’t realize society isn’t a meritocracy, and many of the ghetto dwellers aren’t deserving of their fate.
he’s never seen the inferior nations and some of their policies like universal healthcare, education, a social safety net, public transit, etc. as opposed to a democratic system that’s been subverted by militarism and plutocracy.
carlos will issue another response. but why bother? carlos is interchangeable with the idiots described by ames and levine in their articles.
58. Carlos | September 22nd, 2009 at 11:14 am
“i’m assuming carlos has never actually ventured into the ghetto. he doesn’t realize society isn’t a meritocracy, and many of the ghetto dwellers aren’t deserving of their fate.”
Why the fuck would I go there? I have met and talked to plenty of people who have left the ghetto through hard work. You can choose to disbelieve me, but it’s the truth. And you can also choose to disbelieve that people in the ghetto don’t have choices. You choose to go to school or not go to school. You choose to smoke rock or not smoke rock. You choose to be a prostitute or not be a prostitute. I’m not saying that you’ll end up as some bullshit Horatio Alger success, but you’ll be better off than you started if you make good choices. Do you dispute that? (And what about you, playin’ risk? You down, son? You keepin’ it realz? Or do you just subscribe to Source?)
You also ascribe opinions to me that I never espoused. It’s laughable that corporate titans make 8 figure incomes. No one is that important. It’s also just tough shit that people’s jobs got outsourced, but unless you want to me a modern day luddite, you have to accept the fact that as technology changes, jobs change, industries change, and economies change. What’s next, are you going to shed tears for all the out-of-work transistor tube makers?
“millions of stupid voters have fallen for it.” I love the “I-figured-it-all-out-everyone-else-is-an-idiot” sentiment behind so many of the posts here. If you figured it all out, then why the fuck are you still here? And where else are you going to go where the same bullshit you hate so much is different? You talk about those “inferior” countries, (by the way to you mean Cuba, the Scandanavian nations, or New Zealand?) but if you think life is hunky-dory there and there’s an absence of elites, you’re a complete idiot. I’ve been to Cuba. One ruling class was substituted for another. I’ve been to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Those countries are pretty awesome, but your fooling yourself if you think they are that much different than the U.S. They used to be homogenous, but with the influx of Turkish and other Islamic immigrants in the past 15 years, they aren’t as idyllic as they used to be. In fact there is just as strong of an anti-immigrant feeling there as here. And many native Scandies are dumbstruck that the Turks are more than willing to get on the dole and not work. It’s inconceivable to them.
Anyway, if those countries weren’t the ones you were thinking of, please let me know which ones you were thinking of. You rattled off a list of great things in those inferior countries, but no country is as large and diverse as the U.S. Sure, you can toss out China, but if you hate elites, than you’ll detests China. India is big too, but it’s still a shithole despite it’s recent economic advacement. But please counter with specifice examples.
59. playin' risk | September 22nd, 2009 at 12:15 pm
go on carlos, tell the world how much of a schmuck you are.
you do realize you’re writing out all sorts of stuff, but really saying nothing?
60. tommy chadwick | September 22nd, 2009 at 8:14 pm
cordon it off and firebomb or nuke (preferably) it. rinse and repeat where needed
61. captain america | September 23rd, 2009 at 6:03 pm
carlos seems to be saying stuff to me, but that could be because i’m a neocon…um…whatever it was comrade aleke/mark ames called me a few posts ago.
as far as BD, i can only imagine that he’s come up with some argument so profound, so poignant, that the whole idealogical house of cards that is the exiled would come tumbling down were it allowed to be expressed.
so, yay exile censor!
62. SK | September 23rd, 2009 at 7:11 pm
Life would be so much simpler if ethnic cleansing weren’t so frowned upon.
63. Abracadabra | September 23rd, 2009 at 10:54 pm
C’mon guys, the only reason you enjoy your stay over there in RU/BY/UA is because you are foreigners. You are privileged by definition. Being local there is quite a different story.
I lived in Russia until almost 30, when I finally got a chance to get the fuck out of that hopeless, human flesh eating shithole, run by British whores. Yeah, I bet you had no idea that Russia is a british crypto-colony, since 1917 ?
America is a dream, an idea, a glow that warmed hearts and minds of many people now and then, and around the world. It’s that glow of american dream that gave me strength to get out, to learn the language, and to finally become happy here on this blessed soil. Blessed because it is free of all that century-old crap that made peoples of europe to blissfully slaughter themselves in the name of their nations. You have no fucking idea what it is REALLY LIKE outside.
Yes, that idea slowly retreats, and now mostly stays in the minds and hearts of the people who still beleive in it. So more SHAME ON YOU, so called Americans ! If you can only give up, flee and fail your heroic forefathers, well, fuck you then. People like me are stepping in to take the lead to keep this dream alive.
Never give up, never surrender – the only way to keep this great country alive !
64. captain america | September 25th, 2009 at 5:24 am
i’m shocked and flabbergasted that abracadabra up there made it past the exiled censor, but dammit, i’m glad he did. couldn’t have said it better…almost brought a tear to my eye reading that, actually. would to god that we could get all the pseudo-marxist america-hating hipsters of the type who threaten to move to canada to ACTUALLY LEAVE and replace them with good immigrants like you, sir.
65. Iban | September 27th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
Messed up. The bad stuff ain’t begun yet. Wait until the Chinese pull the plug and petrol is traded in Euros and Yuan.
66. RK | September 30th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Hey glad to see the reporting from Memphis. If you ever need any photos out of Memphis pls feel free to contact. I used to live in Moscow from 96-2002 and loved the parties and the Exile.
67. Viktor | October 4th, 2009 at 6:32 pm
Well, since we seem to be trying to sway the opinion of our opponents through personal anecdotes, let me put in my two cents. This is chiefly in response to Abracadabra, as well as the neocon crowd. I am a Russian, I grew up in St. Petersburg, and lived the first half of my life in that city. I remember the 90’s pretty well- I grew up in a poor single-parent household, and while my family did its best to shield me from the realities of Russian life at the time, I remember the smell of smoke and urine in the elevators, the drunks lying on the streets. I remember being scared for my life every time I walked back home from school. I remember the storming of Ostankino and Chechnya.
The second half of my life I spend in one of the richest and most developed suburban regions in the United States. My first impressions were positive,as only a child’s could be, but with every year the mind-numbing idiocy of my surroundings began to penetrate deeper into my consciousness. I did not think, until I began reading the “Exile”, and Mark Ames in particular, that an American could really, viscerally, understand the emptiness of middle-class American existence, because I was surrounded by people who were utterly blind to it. I visited Russia since then; coming back to the US the last time, I began to cry in despair- not when I was boarding the plane, not even upon touchdown in Dulles, but when driving in the car back to my house I saw the familiar wall of suburban developments.
Recently, after 12 years of living here, I was offered American citizenship. I refused it. I am leaving this country in a few months, and I will never look back. I have been here for 13 years. I don’t think anyone on this forum could accuse me of being ignorant of the reality- I am intimately familiar with both realities.
To immigrants and defectors I have this to say: Even if you find the existence in the upper strata of American social pyramid to your liking, you must realize that the privilege in which some (but far fewer than you think) Americans live, and to which you aspire, has been bought and continues to be maintained with the blood of innocents and the toil of millions across the neo-colonized world. How does your conscience allow you to praise a nation that has killed more people across the globe (in military conflicts alone, even in exclusion of deadly neo-colonial policies, genocide-by-proxy, and economic sanctions) than any other since Nazi Germany?
I also sincerely apologize for my opinions to any Americans here that truly love their country, love it in a way that only someone horrified by the crimes of the U.S. government, by the relationship of the upper-middle class to those below them- one that oscillates between indifference and predation-, by the blandness and idiocy of the American mainstream, can love it, in the same way I love my own fucked-up country.
68. Memphis | October 26th, 2009 at 11:52 pm
Viktor, all I can say is, right on man, right on man, preach it brotha.
I’ve been all over, lived in a few third world shitholes. Funny, when they ask what it’s like where I’m from, and my response is,”Like here…” the are typically amazed. Memphis does certainly suck, but it is exceptionally hard to get away from as well. It is devoid of any sort of opportunity, and there are no transitional jobs. Heck, I’m an IT guy and there is nothing. Of course, it doesn’t help that thousands, and yes I mean thousands have been laid off in my field over the last two years. I run into the same guys at interviews trying for the same 2 jobs in the paper. Like something out of “Fun with Dick and Jane”. The jobs that are there don’t pay enough to cover the rent. I went from doing systems engineering to freakin’ bouncing in bars. But I digress.
Tal you really did live here huh? GD? Yup, I know some of those cats. Mostly good folk (Nation) in a criminal sort of way. And to the guy asing about the AK’s, yes $80 is conservative, but fairly accurate. And yes, they mostly work, tend to be well used though, and who knows how many bodies the weapon carries – don’t get caught with it.
So Tal, if you left, maybe you haven’t seen our new PSA’s? Chill Don’t Kill? Yes it has come to that…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hIBp-qSyRc
This is a nice one too, notice the billbord, right out in front of one of the many liquor stores…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trY8tdvOFY8
I hate this place. Funny story though. If you know me, you’ve heard this, and I apologize in advance… I was walking down Venice Beach, and this cat starts screaming at me, “Hey, don’t come all lookin bad ass up in here, this is LA motherfucker! We will kill you. We’re badder than Chicago, New York, anywhere you ever been.” I just sort of looked at him and said, “I’m from Memphis motherfucker.” He stopped screaming and ran over to me, “ORANGE MOUND IN THA HOUSE! My people are from there, you wanna hotwing?” and promptly tried to make friends. Indeed this is a scary place.
69. Joseph Culp | December 7th, 2009 at 2:29 am
Coming from a long time exile reader. Tal, you rock! Keep it coming!
70. nampa1 | April 11th, 2010 at 9:27 am
To Expat in BY:
I’m very keen for any info on finding expat jobs. My time abroad was limited to English teaching, but now I have marketable skills in health care, particularly pharma, that I would love to use to life the life again. Anyone, please respond to this post and I will give my contact info.
Thx
71. Kim M | July 4th, 2010 at 8:52 pm
omg. YOUR ARTICLE IS PRETTY HARSH..Are you not being a little unfair, though I grew up there I can tell you it was never that bad when I was growing up. That city needs help, it has been abondoned by the people who use to live there…I lived in the Hickory Hill area 20 years ago. It was a new neighbor hood at the time..Up and coming, now it is gone..Abondoned malls, stores, crime on every block..Mayor Herrington ran that town in the ground. How it got this bad, is because of all the racism, Herrington played upon. I so wish it would be about fairness for people…regardless of their color..White, Black, it should not matter..Whites are now the minority in Memphis, yet all papers, tv reports in Memphis still label black as the minorities. Oh crap,maybe. the writer is right, it is a bad town now..but there has got to be hope for it…Truth be known, I moved out, too..I would love to see something good though happen..It is my hometown..Not everybody in Memphis are crack heads and whores..Blacks and whites are going to have to live together..There are also many other cultures moving into the mid south area, so it is not a black white issue anymore…There is no time to play the race card anymore..It is about the freedom to live in a town a be safe. It has to be a decision made by the people..for the people.
72. Kim M | July 4th, 2010 at 9:04 pm
I hope the new mayor can do somthing..But the people have got to quit electing officials that fight and throw chairs at city council meetings..What needs to be done is truly pray and change..I will start doing that more often..That city needs help..does not anyone know how to recoup and restore a city..It will take years, but good Lord, I am hoping for a change. Take the city back, is what I say…
73. rofl | November 3rd, 2010 at 11:36 pm
you are a communist little 8th grader piece of shit.
I stumbled across your shitty blog on google and I promise you I will not return. Memphis really isn’t that bad, you fucking pussy cry baby. you made half of this shit up anyways.
dipshit.
you are awful.
74. afghan vet | January 31st, 2011 at 6:23 am
well i just got out of the army serving 5 years active and am originally from memphis and have recently moved back. Bottom line is. Id much rather be in memphis than afghanistan. So is mr. iraqi vet was more scard here than overseas. then he obviously didnt do shit. very true that memphis is messed up, but we have good quality as well. haha not many, but i will say that we have a very unique culture. especially when it comes to music and food. also as an added note. blacks n whites get along very well here. Better than youd think we would anyways. Yeah theres certain places you dont go. But duh!!! thats everywhere. You dont see black people in a white church do you? basically whether youre a crackhead or a betty home maker. You know you’re limits and where you should and not should be.. Bottom line is this.. i found your article interesting but i dont believe half the dumb shit you say.. first off Gds dont overun the cops and patrol the streets with barbed baseball bats!! nor do they all own ak47s! I think you’ve been watching too much of a movie called “warriors”. and second off, if you so-called lived in the ghetto. how the hell did you even get so rich to move to russia, and you dont even speak ghetto or use actual memphis terms! And if you did ever live ” north north” one is…why didnt the GDs whoop your ass for being so “smart” and whiny… and second….what kinda brotha from ghetto decides to move to russia? I mean… i mean seriously… anyone that’s actually from memphis can spot you off as a fake. I think you’ve been listening to too much 36 mafia.. and probably just got your girlfriend a.k.a ” summer smith” taken by a memphis pimp! however i cant wait to read your next article…. “russia doesnt love me either”
75. ashley | February 17th, 2011 at 8:56 am
this is offensive and you are a complete asshole
76. xinwei | September 6th, 2011 at 4:47 am
I like the useful info you provide in your articles. I will bookmark your weblog and check again here often. Im very particular I’ll learn numerous new stuff correct here! Very best of luck for the next!
77. Terrance | March 2nd, 2012 at 2:22 pm
This is one hell of a serious wake up call for
America. This is something the corporate folks
Scared to publish or read
78. J.Q. Citizen | June 4th, 2012 at 4:44 pm
In journalism, false statements can ruin your credibility. First, You have never seen a Memphis Police Officer “taze” anyone. The department doesn’t issue them. Second, all Memphis city employees, including police and fire, took a 4.63% pay cut last year. That’s a cold “shower”. Your opinions unmask your uninformed lack of empathy and your attitude paints you as a worthless thug. Stay in Russia, Memphis hates you.
79. Noneya | February 18th, 2013 at 4:46 pm
Surprised I can read cuz I am a racist white
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