Tag Archives: Chicago

Green Island Grrrl, Rosalie's Blog, Uncategorized

Slots parlors, our city health dept. head, and big rooms

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By Rosalie Tirella

Yesterday, driving around, running my biz – new issue of InCity Times hits stands this Friday – I had the chance to talk with lots of folks. Some interesting nuggets of information:

One fellow and his wife were pretty frequent visitors to one of the big Indian casinos in CT. One year they spent $80,000 gambling. They did not spend their mortgage/bill money, but extra dough. At the end of the year, if you are a high roller at a casino, they send you a letter, a print out telling you how much $$ you spent. Because this man spent so much money, he earned a lot of casino POINTS. These points were like free dollars to be spent at the casino’s restaurants and retail stores. All casinos and slots parlors do this. The guy said he never paid for a meal. The dinners were always free because of the points. Drinks too. Even clothing and other goodies at the shops. One year they did all their Christmas shopping at the casino’s mall with all the POINTS they had earned.

The man said you are given points to keep you gambling in the casino. You are fed and watered and everything else so you can lose …$80,000 in one year. At the casino.

Sometimes the man and his wife would not take the highway, but as a kind of scenic jaunt, drive the backroads between Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods, explore the towns between the casinos. NO STORES, RESTAURANTS, DINERS -anything – could be found in these towns. All commercial life was dead. The casino had sucked the life out of all the neighboring downtowns. Ghost towns, as far as commercial activity went.

The man said, within a five mile radius of the casinos, NO COMMERCIAL ACTIVITY.

Points also got him free nights at the hotel owned and operated by the casino. Well, one night his points earned him a room, a room so huge, with a living room area, dining room, baths, seating area, it felt miles long. Luxury room. Free. To keep him and his wife gambling spending … $80,000 in one year.

Something to consider: WHY THE HELL ISN’T THE CITY OF WORCESTER HEALTH DEPT CHIMING IN ABOUT THE PUBLIC HEALTH PROBLEMS CAUSED BY GAMBLING. WHERE THE FUCK IS THE NEW PUBLIC HEALTH DIRECTOR, DEREK BRINDISI?

Probably kissing his bosses’, especially the city managet’s ass. Too afraid to speak the truth about gambling addiction. Too afraid to come out and say how a slots.parlor will affect the nearby Green Island families and homes. Hell, his office is right on Meade Street, practically across the street from the slots parlor site, Wyman Gordon. How ironic in a pathetic sort of way.

If Dr. Morse were still the director of Worcester’s public health dept., you can bet he would be at the vanguard of protests. In his very polite, sweet way he would disagree with his bosses and take the stand closest to his doctor’s heart.

Not Brindisi. A pointless twerp. Nothing more than a municipal p.r. flak and yes man. City Hall is filled with ass-kissers like Brindisi who will shut their pieholes at times like these to keep their $100,000-a-year jobs.

Dr. Morse broke the mold.

Brindisi is mold.

InCity Letters, InCity Voices, Uncategorized

Worcester cop slapped with civil rights lawsuit

BOSTON — A civil rights lawsuit has been filed by a Chicago resident against Worcester Police Officer Jeremy Smith, alleging the use of excessive force during a routine motor vehicle stop.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts has announced that Wakeelah Cocroft, of Chicago, Illinois, has filed the case in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

The complaint alleges that Ms. Cocroft was a passenger in a vehicle being driven by her sister, Clytheia Mwangi, of Worcester, on December 29, 2007. The two women were pulled over at a gas station on Park Avenue at 7am by Officer Smith. According to Ms. Cocroft, the officer aggressively approached the vehicle they were in and began screaming at Ms. Mwangi for speeding.

While the officer wrote the ticket, Ms. Cocroft, who was a passenger in the car, went into the station to purchase gas and then returned to use the pump. The police officer began yelling at her and ordered her to return to the car. As she went to the car, she told the officer that he had no right to speak to her in that manner and that she knew her rights.

Officer Smith grabbed her from behind, and threw her on the ground, slamming her face against the concrete, according to the complaint.

She alleges that he then kneeled on her back until a second officer arrived in response to a 911 call by Ms. Mwangi.

The complaint alleges that the use of force caused bodily injury to Ms. Cocroft’s face and shoulder.

The civil rights claim alleges that the use of force was excessive and unnecessary and that there was no probable cause to arrest Ms. Cocroft for charges of Disturbing the Peace and Resisting Arrest. In addition, the complaint alleges that Officer Smith arrested Ms. Cocroft in retaliation for speaking up about his conduct.

Hoffman

The 1968 Democratic Convention

Forty years ago, it rocked Chicago, the nation and the world

By Jack Hoffman

There has never been a year like 1968, and it’s highly unlikely there ever will be one again. It was a year that has had more books written, music composed, scenes from movies, parts of plays all portraying a piece of that tumultuous time than any other year in American history. Even today historians, academics and students are still analyzing, dissecting and debating over why and what happened during the most disturbing and pivotal year in American history. It all seemed so incongruous to my feelings about Chicago, where I once attended college nearby, a city I always loved, to see America undressed and exposing its ugly side along the picturesque shores of Lake Michigan and once tranquil Grant and Lincoln Park.

Now forty years later and to the week and day watching The National Democratic Convention of today I can hear the strains of Crosby Stills and Nash singing a welcoming song to Chicago 68, one of several metaphors of the sixties, In To begin to try and understand what led to Chicago we need a chronological encapsulated picture of that momentous year.

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