Coronavirus: Better Call Sol - CORONAMANIA (1 Viewer)

[David Kronenbourg]

So, in the areas where Shomrim are running patrols would people report crime to the police or Shomrim?

And do the police and Shomrim interact?

That's what seemed odd to me. The Shomrim were the force that dealt with law and order, and NYPD just did not want to be involved. I didn't understand what was happening until someone explained it to me.

Yeah I think so. There’s a good relationship between Shomrim and the local cops in Stamford Hill I’m led to believe. They often get to crime scenes quicker than the regular police in the area and do their thing - not sure what that is exactly, take statements, crowd control etc - before the cops show up. I dunno though. Going off second hand reports and the Shomrim twitter account I follow!

 

[David Kronenbourg]

Apparently this was the funeral

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[flashback]

Yeah I think so. There’s a good relationship between Shomrim and the local cops in Stamford Hill I’m led to believe. They often get to crime scenes quicker than the regular police in the area and do their thing - not sure what that is exactly, take statements, crowd control etc - before the cops show up. I dunno though. Going off second hand reports and the Shomrim twitter account I follow!

Yeah.

Right. I'd imagine the guys in NY would get there fast. Shomrim seem to walk their patrols, NYPD are in cars mostly, which means they can't get places as quickly. NYPD wouldn't be called anyway. Actually right, that aspect was crazy, they were just sort of omnipotent. They'd just materialize and be there. Along with 10 other lads.

I didn't live in the area, so I can't really tell, but they seemed to be *the* enforcement group, like, instead of the cops. I saw cops would talking to them, but the interactions I saw did not seem best budz, it was cops scanning, generally looking leary, phalanxes of Hasidic men, increasing over time, offering opinions, and cops seizing any opportunity to get out of Dodge.

Initially I thought Shomrim *were* cops, like a Hasidic branch of NYPD. I don't know what I was thinking. Confusion mainly.

 

[Cornu Ammonis]

There's areas of NYC where the Orthodox and Hasidic guys come close to running the show. There's areas in the boroughs that if you even travel through, or sit down within, it will be made clear that you're not welcome.
They even have their own special police force, Shomrim, NYPD seem to steer well clear of them if possible.

It's weird.

This honestly reads like when that Islamophobic US politician started talking about Birmingham being a Muslim city and it being a no-go area for non-Muslims.

 

[Cormcolash]

They've got Muslamic Ray Guns

 

[seanc]

Never heard of the Shomrim before, but I live in a very different neighbourhood to Bernie Lomax. It wouldn't surprise me though. They're a tight knit community, why wouldn't they have some sort of community watch type scheme? I don't think it's on a level with what that stupid guy said about Muslims in Birmingham.

 

[Cornu Ammonis]

I don't think it's on a level with what that stupid guy said about Muslims in Birmingham.

If I had read it on Twitter, I would dismissed entirely what @flashback was saying. But I had no reason to doubt him here, though at first it set off the same bullshit detector alarm as that Birmingham story.

 

[David Kronenbourg]

It’s not like that in London at all. The main orthodox Jewish area, Stoke Newington/Stamford Hill, has also one of the biggest hipster populations in London. both communities just sort of ignore each other!

 

[flashback]

This honestly reads like when that Islamophobic US politician started talking about Birmingham being a Muslim city and it being a no-go area for non-Muslims.

Yeah. I'm not sure how to defend myself here, and I'm not sure I want to.

I'm not all that anti-Semitic. Not out of huge moral courage or anything, more to do with ignorance and being really hot and probably a bit dehydrated at the time.

This specific incident was with a woman on a step waiting for her job to open. Her boyfriend was physically beating her up at the time and she was scared to go home. I was probably about 80% mental, and I most likely had a crush on the her. Either way she was upset and asked so I slept with her on a step in queens.


I didn't sleep all that much. She was cold despite the fact that she had no right to be cold (summer in NYC), and I was not. She'd fall asleep and then I was in a weird position to make sure warmth was consistent.

The morning was bad in the sense that the people passing by were really upset. I'm not used to sleeping rough on concrete inside cities, I wasn't in an great headspace when I woke up.

I didn't know we'd landed in this area we should not have been. Clearly the morning passers by were not happy. Eventually serious looking men came out and looked at us. She took us to a park not far off. Once her job opened, she went to work, I rode home.

It's a thing though. If I'm honest I love how the Hasidic / Ultra Orthodox community just does not care. They do not care about Covid, or NYPD, or funeral regulations, or any other bullshit. They do not give a fuck. I've been with plenty of Israelis who are fucked off about Orthodox guys not serving time in the military, I've heard lots of more secular Jews talk about how annoying those communities are. I don't live in those communities, I'm not a jew, I just see them giving the finger to NYC in general and this sparks joy. I also think they are funny bastards. Like, if you get into conversations, these guys are bleak and funny.

Buuut, the misogyny and racism bits are less cool, and they are real. Have a look at the photos posted above for example, the women are sequestered into a small group away from everyone else. The exclusionary aspects are real. The community is real, the area is real, it's a real thing. I don't have anything to do with it, I don't live there, I don't care all that much. The treating women poorly thing is frightening, the role of men in that society is (from my perspective) a bit odd. The having their own police force seemed fucked. (Although, what's the alternative, NYPD?)

I'm on the fence, these guys want to set up communities. They are clever, they sort shit out, businesses run, things function, NYPD respects them. When I was in NYU I worked with two ultra orthadox women, they were both way more mentally healthy than I was, and cleverer.

That group is extremely exclusionary. The males of the group do not want you encroaching on their area, they like their communities as they are. They do not appreciate seeing a black skinhead woman and a skinny white asshole sitting on the steps of a shop when they are going to school. And NYC is this harsh environment, you have to be tough. I think.

Too long, didn't read: I love the fact that the orthadox community just had their funeral and did their thing. I love that NYPD didn't even get out of their cruisers. I love that they've built up this power by telling everyone to fuck off, wearing black hats and having silly twirly side burns, I think it's way more punk than any other punk bullshit I've seen. Those guys are proper anarchists.

I don't think it's all perfect. I think covid is real, abusive people live in that community, and women and children (in particular) can be put in abusive situations with very little room for escape.

 

[hermie]

'So what?': Bolsonaro shrugs off Brazil's rising coronavirus death toll

Outrage at president’s response to news that more than 5,000 people have lost their lives

www.theguardian.com

Trump's not going to stand for getting casually out-cunted like that, he's going to have to step up his game.

Fuckin hell!

 

[egg_]

Those guys are proper anarchists

They're the exact opposite of anarchists though, aren't they? They have hereditary leaders and shit

Anyone else see Unorthodox on Netflix? The couple of episodes I've watched are very good

 

[David Kronenbourg]

They're the exact opposite of anarchists though, aren't they? They have heriditary leaders and shit

Anyone else see Unorthodox on Netflix? The couple of episodes I've watched are very good

Yeah it’s good except for the subplot with the music students

 

[flashback]

They're the exact opposite of anarchists though, aren't they? They have heriditary leaders and shit

Anyone else see Unorthodox on Netflix? The couple of episodes I've watched are very good

Within their own community?
True. I was thinking about the fact that they don't care about external laws, or other people's society.

I was drunk when I wrote all that. What I meant was a lot of people, especially more secular Jews and Israelis, really get worked up about the Hasidic and Ultra orthodox guys. The fact that they are such a strong community that NYPD won't even really mess with them. Nobody messes with them, the Mayor of NYC personally sends out a tweet saying "here lads, would you mind not?", and I guarantee they still won't give a fuck.

It's weird, those hardcore Hasidic / Ultra-orthodox areas feel odd, it's very exclusionary, the special police force is weird, but creating those communities is also a really impressive feat.

 

[egg_]

Remembering my teenage self back in Holy Catholic Ireland, I expect if I grew up in one of those communities I'd fucking hate it

 

[flashback]

Remembering my teenage self back in Holy Catholic Ireland, I expect if I grew up in one of those communities I'd fucking hate it

Oh, I'd hate growing up inside one. It's different than Holy Catholic Ireland, it's not society more or less as a whole, it's just pockets. There's a uniform, they'll speak Yiddish, which isn't a million miles away from German I learned. There were a couple times where they'd be talking about some part of a transaction with me, and I'll answer questions in English before they asked them in English. So, then they have to take the conversation out of earshot and so on.

 

[David Kronenbourg]

Bizarre country

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-england-52441937

 

[Lili Marlene]

Can't fight coronavirus without Spitfires, everyone knows that.

 

[David Kronenbourg]

Bizarre country

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-england-52441937

When this is over and the pubs are open again there will be British patriots with Captain Tom tattoos alongside swastikas kicking the shite out of Chinese students outside pubs in places like Gravesend

 

[Cornu Ammonis]

Yeah. I'm not sure how to defend myself here, and I'm not sure I want to.

It wasn't really a dig at you, as I said above I've never known you to be racist or anything here - it was more my first read-through with absolutely no context of my own to filter it.

 

[flashback]

It wasn't really a dig at you, as I said above I've never known you to be racist or anything here - it was more my first read-through with absolutely no context of my own to filter it.

I know!

I'm intimidated by the community, I will not fuck with them, if they are staring at me or making me feel like I'm not welcome I'll leave, quietly. I've seen other people cause a scene with Orthodox guys, it always ends badly for the outsider.

But the reality is, I'm also awed by how they've set things up. i was interacting with guys inside the community for a short while, it's another world right in the middle of NYC, it's wild.

When I read The Yiddish Policeman's Union it reminded me of that a bit. But, that was a community isolated out in Sitka Alaska (right?) This is right in the middle of this huge cosmopolitan city.