Benjamin Whitmer's Blog, page 27

What to do if you are the head of a massively powerful institution that is maybe looking the other way while people get raped

From Adulting.

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You'll never leave Harlan alive

Just because.

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James McParland's gun

Colorado's had its share of bad men. By way of example, there's Robert Ford who killed Jesse James and was himself gunned down in Creede. And there's Colonel John Chivington who led up the Sand Creek Massacre, butchering hundreds of peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho. There's been murders, blacklists, and all kinds of mayhem, running right up to the present day.

But I don't think there's been anyone quite like James McParland. Coming out of Pennsylvania after having dismantled the Molly Maguires, McParland headed up the Denver Pinkerton office, which included such duties as initiating Tom Horn's career of assassination bounties and crushing the labor side of the Colorado Labor Wars. As bad men go, he was one of the worst.

And, somehow, I stumbled upon an auction notice for his piece.

The description:

This is a very fine example of a historic Pinkerton detective inscribed Colt Cartridge Conversion revolver that was manufactured c. 1873-1880. The revolver has the "S" lug, solid" barrel manufactured for cartridge revolvers, late style barrel wedge without spring and is not fitted with an ejector rod or loading gate. The revolver has a nickel-plated barrel cylinder and frame, case hardened hammer and brass trigger guard and back strap. The one-piece walnut grip has a varnish finish. The barrel has brass pin front sight and is roll-stamped: "COLT'S PT. F.A. MFG. Co./HARTFORD .CT. U.S.A." in two lines. The left side of the frame is stamped with the patent markings: "-PAT.JULY 25. 1871-/-PAT. JULY. 2. 1872.-" in two lines. The left shoulder of the trigger guard retains the percussion marking "36 CAL". The cylinder is roll-engraved with the Stage Robbery scene and "COLTS PATENT/NO". The full serial number, "5049″ is stamped on the bottom of the barrel lug, frame, trigger guard and back strap. The cylinder is stamped with the partial serial number "049″. All of the visible serial numbers match. The back strap is engraved: "J.P. McPARLAND" and the butt is engraved "Chicago". James P. McParland was a famous (or infamous) detective for the Pinkerton Detective Agency. McParland was a native of Ireland who settled in Chicago in 1869. Around 1871 he joined the Pinkerton Agency. McParland's specialty was labor unrest. He made his reputation in the Pennsylvania coal fields where he infiltrated the famous "Molly Maguires". McParland's infiltration and subsequent testimony led to the trial and execution of twenty members of the Molly Maguires. McParland continued his work for the Pinkerton Agency in the west and as late as 1906 he was instrumental in obtaining evidence that led to the conviction of members of leaders of the World Federation of Miners for murder in Boise, Idaho. James McParland and other detectives established the reputation Pinkerton Detective Agency as a merciless tool of the mining industry in the fight against organized labor in the 19th Century.

And pictures:

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Thought for the day

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Slowboat Films Maverick Cinema

The folks at Slowboat Films, who are some of my favorite folks, have set up a tumblr.

This should be fun.

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Remastered Satan Is Real, available Tuesday

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The remastered deluxe version of the album we named the book after will be available on Tuesday. Per the Wall Street Journal.

This remastered album captures the harmonies of the Alabama siblings (Charlie low, Ira high) at their peak, along with their spooky style of cautionary gospel songs ("The Drunkard's Doom," "Are You Afraid to Die"). One of the rare albums that lives up to its outlandish cover, it was art-directed by the Louvins themselves, who erected a 16-foot demon of plywood in a rock quarry and simulated brimstone by burning tires. Originally released in 1958, the reissue includes an interview with Charlie—he died last January, outliving Ira by 46 years—and a second disc of 14 Louvin Brothers songs picked by songwriters such as Beck, Kris Kristofferson and Dolly Parton.

The full list of handpickers: Mark Lanegan, Graham Nash, Beck, Emmylou Harris, Will Oldham, Lucinda Williams, Jim James, Kris Kristofferson, Devendra Banhart, Chris Hillman, Zooey Deschanel, The Black Angels, Dolly Parton and M. Ward.

Update: Also, here's a little on how Zooey Deschanel (who, embarrassingly, I had to Google), Dolly Parton, and Mark Lanegan made their choices.

Guns, Books, Etc.

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"The sudden scarcity of jobs in the early 1930s forced a huge number of men to hit the road. Certainly some coins were carved to fill the idle hours. More importantly, a 'knight of the road,' with no regular source of income, could take one of these plentiful coins and turn it into a folk art piece, which could in turn be sold or traded for small favors such as a meal or shelter for a night."
Nicolas Cage Losing His Shit.
I mean, there should be a medal for this kind of thing.
"If it's in the name of God it has a social license. Well, fuck that is what I say. And will say, if it's my last breath."
And here's the whole debate.
And since we're doing my favorite Hitch moments: Bill Clinton.
"For dynamite is both the miner's curse, the outward and audible sign of his enslavement to mineral extraction, and the American working man's equalizer, his agent of deliverance, if he would only dare use it."

Bizco's Memories

I meant to post this a long time ago, but back on October 3 CRIMINALELEMENT.COM posted a great story from Send My Love and a Molotov Cocktail. It's written by Paco Ignacio Taibo II, translated by Andrea Gibbons.

Bizco Padilla became a soccer player in prison, so he saw the game in a unique fashion, like a war where anything went. Nothing could've been further from the supposedly British spirit of honorable competition or the prescribed Olympic ethos. His was a warlike soccer, country or death, the kind from which no one was exempted: not mothers, refs, busybodies, spectators nor the cities, nations, or races involved.

We got into the habit of watching the Pumas' games every Sunday on TV. We were the ideal companions: me because I had a thirty-five-inch color television inherited from a stale marriage, and him because he acted as commentator for the match, filling in for the sound that had long ago died in the appliance and that I had never bothered getting fixed.

El Bizco would arrive half an hour before the match to wake me up. Without much consideration he'd kick out my casual ladyfriend from Saturday night's sad fever and start to smoke, pacing around the bedroom while we talked politics.

The rest.

Again, I haven't said it nearly enough, but I am so proud to be part of this collection.

Occupy Denver 10/29/11

Video of the "the crazy DPD brutality and the beautiful resistance" from West Denver Copwatch. It doesn't happen often, but sometimes you're just proud to live here.

Occupy Denver 10/29/11 from WestDenverCopwatch on Vimeo.

Occupy Denver: we are a leaderless, non-hierarchical movement, so do what we fucking tell you

After getting a little more interested in Occupy Denver over the last couple days, I made the mistake of stopping by their website. Giving myself a migraine as I attempted to create some kind of sense out of the text therein. My absolute favorite:

Occupy Denver is a leaderless, non-hierarchical movement, comprised of autonomous individuals. Occupy Denver does not condone or endorse the behaviors of any individual claiming membership to or affinity for our efforts, and especially disdains individuals who promote, incite, threaten, or resort to violence under any circumstance. Individuals promoting or resorting to violence of any form are explicitly not welcome at Occupy Denver and contradict entirely with the avowed core values of the movement. While the movement prides itself on maintaining public health and safety, and order within its ranks, Occupy Denver cannot control private citizens who choose to act against our sworn principles of nonviolence, and deeply regret their appearance alongside our tireless efforts.

This gets clarified somewhat in the comments:

As you probably know, even at #OccupyWallSt, there is an element that engaged in direct conflict with police (most recently, snatching the orange kettling net from NYPD officers and running through traffic on Broadway).

Unfortunately, these extremist opportunists inject themselves into contexts created by kind, fair-minded people, and exploit those contexts to pursue their own rage-fueled agendas.

This is the kind of nonsense that doesn't really warrant comment, so I'll just try to sum it up: "Occupy Denver is a leaderless, non-heirarchical movement. But if you believe in a diversity of tactics which may not include, say, letting your ass get stomped into a puddle without resisting, then you're an extremist pursuing a rage-fueled agenda, whom we disdain. And being kind, fair-minded people — unlike you — we will expel your ass."

I'll be clear here. If a cop starts beating on you, I think it's probably best to seriously weigh the consequences of taking a swing back. It probably ain't gonna turn out real well for you unless you have a number of equally committed folks with you ready to jump into the fray. It's not something I recommend doing lightly.

But that's a pragmatic consideration, not an ethical stance. There is absolutely no ethical purity in letting yourself getting beaten brainless without lifting a finger to stop it.

By way of example, I would never demand that kind of lay-still-and-take-it horseshit from, say, an LGBT person being pounded to death on a backroad in Wyoming.  Nor, say, of a woman attempting to resist rape. To do so would be a completely unethical demand. That doesn't change when the folks doing the beatings are state-employed.

Which leads me to this. We're lucky in Denver to have an incredible resource when it comes to defending yourself against police violence. The folks at Gumm Mixed Martial Arts are offering a seminar on Self-Defense for Activists. If you're gonna be doing this activism shit, there's nothing I'd recommend more.