if i didn't care

hrrrthrrr:

A small medium at large.

icanseenewyorkcityfrommyhouse:

Law enforcement officials in Newark are hailing the end of what could be the city’s first murder-free month in more than 40 years.

Police Director Garry McCarthy says the last time the city went through a calendar month without a murder was in May 1966. Two years ago, the city went 43 days spanning parts of January and February without a murder.

Ten people have been murdered in the city in the first quarter of 2010, the same number as last year but the second-lowest since 1941.

Other violent crimes are down an average of 14 percent compared to a year ago, and McCarthy said Wednesday that shooting incidents are down 18 percent.

McCarthy attributed the decreases to progress by the police in combatting the narcotics trade.

Go Mayor Booker and the Newark PD.

via

It could be the record rainfall this month.

By Scott Horton

Frederick Douglass was traveling with a friend of another color in a part of the country where public sentiment was bitterly hostile to the association of colors. They stopped at a tavern and dined together, at which spectacle the village, growling and grumbling about the stove in the bar-room, was immediately disposed to mischief. The bar-room philosophers were sadly troubled for the honor of their color.

“What business has a white man to be traveling and eating with a — nigger, anyhow? If he doesn’t know what’s decent, we’ll teach him.” The crowd was, indeed, very anxious to give the offender a few summary lessons in decency. They were like duelists, who have a ludicrous conceit that they know what honor is. Douglass slipped out quietly, and returning after a little while, he remarked to his companion, in a good-humored way, that he had just seen a very singular sight in the stable; and the crowd turned to hear what it was. “You’ll hardly believe it,” said Douglass, addressing his companion as if there were no one else in the room, “but I gave my white mare and your bay horse four quarts of oats each, and there they are, eating side by side as quietly and contentedly as if they were of the same color! ‘Tis most extraordinary!” He did not laugh nor wink, but made his remark with a simple sincerity that was irresistible.

There was a moment of silence. Then came the echo. Human wit had spoken, and a human heart answered. “What cussed fools we are!” said one of the crowd, sententiously; and a loud laugh followed, which scattered like a burst of sunlight the gathering cloud of mischievous intention. A little tact had been a hundredfold more effectual in melting a prejudice than a series of solemn lectures.

–George William Curtis, A Recollection of Frederick Douglass, Harper’s Magazine, April 1876.