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Captain Xavier Obvious
Update on the Orange County Postal Stalker.
I’m closing the case from my side. They have my suggestions and are taking back up the fight. Apperantly they had just given up and were fine with receiving stalker mail for the rest of their lives. But they were encouraged to start anew. Here is a portion of the email she sent back. To understand it more thoroughly, I was dealing through a friend of the victim.
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To: Paragon Prime
Thank you for your help. I relayed your information to my friend who realized that she was settling for complacency because it has been so long. She is intending to use the letter you sent once she is more certain of who is targeting her. Her and her husband are more active now into taking it to higher sources to get this resolved.
So, thank you very much for your help. The insight has helped her refocus on stopping this person rather than accepting this to be her life now.
Much gratitude,
Lisa
____________________________________
Orange County Postal Stalker: Case closed.
Where: http://www.frappr.com/reallifesuperheroes
When: Tuesday Septempber 12 8:00Pm Pacific Standard time
This was Ragensi’s idea…and a good one at that! Of course some people gotta work that night, but if not “come on out”.
There’s a saying in showbusiness that there’s “no such thing as bad press” (which of course is false, look at Michael Jackson but I digress.)
Being that this is not (entirely) showbusiness, in what cases would press NOT, be “good press” in your opinions? I’m speaking outside of the obvious such as accidentally destroying public property or somethin dumb like that.
My voice is VERY easily recognizeable and I specialize in dealing with crackheads, gang officers, etc…to bring down operations that terrorize neighborhoods in key spots of Chicago. These organizations are usually spread over the Chicagoland or Illinois area, or nationwide, and in some cases WORLDwide, consisting of hundreds of members in the city limits. My “codename” being mentioned in the media someday would be one thing. But I take certain risks to get the job done that could easily put an end to my work.
I realize awareness and “spreading the word” is important. But if you play it the way I do, or anything close…you might want to consider these points and evaluate the EXTENT to which you will “draw the line” when it comes to publicity.
I have no idea how Angle Grinder Man hasn’t been caught, but he’s lucky. Should “superheroes” only be neighborhood watchmen (and women), or is there a place in this “age of heroes” for people like Terrifica, Angle-Grinder Man and others who take that extra step?
There is a hero here in Chicago who only works alone because he works much along the same lines as me. I wont even mention his name right now, but suffice to say he has hits out of him.
As I was in the chat room tonight, I got the chance to talk to a few of our fellows, and the topic of Press came up. I’m not sure, but it seemed to me that after talking for a while, my stance on personal coverage not being something that each one of us should hunt down, the conversation quickly ended. I hope this was not the reason why.
Teams AND individuals might want to consider the corny slogan “What type of hero are you?” When teams are being constructed. There are different “specialties” for us to choose from.
We COULD stick to picking up litter and helping old ladies cross the street, but personally I see the potential for “SUPER” actions from Real Life “SUPER” heros.
The first time I designed a uniform, donned a mask, started a neighborhood patrol alliance and fought urban terrorism in this city was when I was about 15. My “legend” didn’t make it past the South East side ghettos but more than 10 years later it was surprising to find out that 2 friends of mine had heard about me (my codename) wearing the uniform and fighting for good in the middle of a 3-way turf war. They had no idea it was “a kid”. I look back upon the memories of the times that my missions went exactly as planned, the times I learned from mistakes and my heart racing when I was almost spotted doing surveillance 15 feet away from a drug spot…neighborhood thugs putting out a hit on me because I became a threat to thier dirty money, and the look of hope in the eyes of citizens who were made part of the neighborhood watch.
I always realized it, but I feel that it should be addressed that there are different archetypes at work in our community, and it’s probably in everybody’s best interest to pick one if you are starting out.
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Photo essay originally published online at Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics at New York University
“Yo comparto la idea de que tiene que haber una transformación de la política económica, y si la política económica se está dictando desde Wall Street, desde el Departamento de Tesoro […] el gobierno norteamericano tiene un papel sustancial en diseñar esta política económica … Por eso, lo que yo estoy haciendo es atacar por los dos lados. Con la organización social, con la gente en movimiento, con propuestas de modificar la propiedad económica, y con la candidatura a la presidencia, para modificar de fondo esta política. Y sin dar el beneficio de la duda, en la cosa de la candidatura, podemos perder aquí, pero no podemos perder en el movimiento social.”
The Future is Now
In favor of progressive transnational politics via what can be understood as global gobernance, Superbarrio 1995’s electoral campaign for US president proposed that the citizens of the Americas must have the right of self-governance by having control over the US electoral vote. In other words, Latin Americans, and Latinos/as alike, must be able to participate fully in the US electoral process by having a representative voice. Superbarrio Gomez for US president against the “politics of fear” was the logic consequence.
Nine years later, from September 20, to October 4, the “Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride”, a national march organized by labor and pro-immigrant rights organizations toured the US nation. Their claims, the provision of voting rights to non-US citizens. In the tradition of the 1961 “Freedom Rides”, more than 120,000 immigrants arrived to Flushing Meadows Park in Queens, New York, the largest pro-immigrant march in US history. Predictions attest that by 2080, Mexico’s north and the US southwest will unify. The Mexicanization of California has already taken place long ago, now we are in the North East.
“Voy a estar en Harvard el próximo viernes, y me da miedo encontrarme a los mexicanos ahí, porque son ellos los que están pensando en qué va a hacer nuestro presidente, y hoy están estudiando un material nuevo que se llama: desastres económicos nacionales. La gente tiene una politización muy alta, tiene una conciencia social también muy alta, la gente ha desarrollado sus aspiraciones y sus formas de organización. El gobierno no ha sido recíproco con este sacrificio.”
“The problem of NAFTA is not about workers, it is about corporations because they are the ones benefiting from this situation….the corporations take the industry to México because the conditions are different, that is the problem. When the workers can find and meet each other, when they can talk between them, the problem is clear…it is not our problem it is the corporation and the government’s problem. We want to be a voice that identify these problems and think together about the solution. The workers from Canada, the workers from the U.S., from México should think together what is the solution about the problem of unemployment, social security, and work with unions…”
“…una política económica de carácter CONTINENTAL en donde también se puedan tener medidas para las plantas nacionales.”
While John Kerry, Rudolph Giuliani, and George W. Bush propose an America to reconcile either class division or national security promises, in 1995 Superbarrio’s campaign proposed an America comprised of alternative transnational political cultures. Superbarrio’s unified America, in conversation with Benito Juarez “America for Americans”, incorporated the participation of Latin American and Latino/a civil societies within and beyond the US.
“El concepto americano hasta nostros mismos lo hemos tenido que asumir, ya que nos hemos negado a nosotros mismos nuestra condición de americanos nacidos en el continente.”
Superbarrio has been a fundamental figure in Mexico City’s electoral concientization, the way in which winning for the majoritarian class became a real political imaginary. Superbarrio’s premonitory discourse further promoted the possibilities of global governance as the only consequential logic in a global world economy and its centralized accumulation of capital. Superbarrio’s candidacy for U.S. President promoted a cross-border alliance among workers in the search of what are human rights, decent working and living conditions. Because the U.S./Mexico border has been the location to rehearse and promote the dehumanization of the labor force, and NAFTA its later institutionalized model, Superbarrio’s transnational mobilization becomes the wrestling scenario to conceptualized “new geographies of governamentality” (Appadurai 2002). Superbarrio’s transnational activism became a fight for alternative forms of global citizenship in which to keep the mask on means to own one’s home within and beyond the Nation.
Photo essay originally published online at Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics at New York University
The voting of Mexicans for Mexican President in the US allows citizens to practice their rights of “national citizenship”. On the other hand, the effect of Superbarrio as a political figure in the US allows us to imagine a utopic space in which the interest of the Latin American majoritarian class is represented not by a corporate State, but by a social fighter at the transnational level. This transnational vote becomes a practice of global governance.
In the year 2000, 9.9 million people were potential candidates to vote for Mexican president in the US. They constituted 16.5 and 17.5 percent of the total of Mexican citizens. Currently, Mexicans, or the children of Mexican nationals living in the US have dual-citizenship. This means, 15 million of US citizens of Mexican descent would be able tovote in the 2006 Mexican presidential election.
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Global Governance via National Actors and Cross-Border Government Alliances
“Yo creo que es muy difícil que un solo país pueda lograr una transformación económica únicamente en nuestras fronteras, dentro de su territorio. Creo que tiene que haber una reacción de una serie de países sufriendo el mismo poderío económico de manera tal que permita remontar esa situación, eso es lo primero.”
Currently, there are 22 million Mexicans living in the US from which “10 millions can vote for the 2006” Mexican presidential election if Congress accepts the bill.
Superbarrio’s transnational politics result from their political awareness of a future ruled by corporate and privatized nation-states. NAFTA materialized this future.
“Una nueva política económica tiene que ver con garantizar que los beneficios de esta política vayan a las clases mayoritarias. Actualmente los beneficios están yendo al capital especulador, a las bolsas de valores -Stock market. Esta nueva política económica tiene que priorizar la defensa de la planta productiva nacional, porque la planta productiva nacional es la que ofrece mayor índice de empleo a los trabajadores. La actual política privilegia a las corporaciones transnacionales, y la competencia entre las transnacionales y la planta nacional es muy dura. Es decir, el gobierno no estimula la pequeña industria, o la micro industria sino que privilegia el gran capital extranjero. Eso provoca que la pequeña industria cierre, y el número de desempleados crezca.”
Photo essay originally published online at Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics at New York University
In 1989, Superbarrio made his first18-day California tour, “Superbarrio Vs Agente Fronterizo” [Superbarrio vs. INS Officer]. The goal of this cross-border solidarity campaign was to discuss with farm workers, university and community leaders the rights of immigrants, Mexican-Americans and Chicanos/as—particularly their struggle with police brutality and abuse of members from the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). He visited San Diego, Encinitas, Los Angeles (where he was detained by the INS during his speech), Fresno, Berkeley, San Jose and other places. Meanwhile, on the Mexican side of the border, the Assembly presented a petition to the Mexican government to prosecute those Mexican custom officials who extort Mexican visitors crossing the border south.
Photo essay originally published online at Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics at New York University
Superbarrio’s urban politics collapse the thin border between the “inside” and the “outside” of the wrestling ring. For the legendary Mexican wrestler El Santo, wrestling assumed the risk of dying. “Not many have, but some did.” El Santo explains that the highest risks took place in seconds, for instance, when he “flew” outside the ring into the audience’s chairs. The “outer ring” was the easiest location to break one’s head, or the head of somebody else in the audience. Lethal accidents had to be controlled during actions that took place in seconds. “To think in a second, while I am flying, so that by the time I am landing, I know almost simultaneously how to hit the floor and what to do next.” Superbarrio, like El Santo, performs in the confines of the “outer ring”; he risks his head, and his mask, in the dangers of political activism. Superbarrio inverts the wrestling rings inside out turning the streets into a ring of urban politics and performance.
>Photo essay originally published online at Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics at New York University
PREMONITORY PRECEDENTS
Manifest Destiny and El Tamal’s Counter-Attack (or the future weapons of mass destruction?)
George Bush senior, in his war against drugs (chemical substances that would cross north of the border and sustain the cocaine addiction of the upper class right?) invaded Panama. The evidence: Mexican tamales found at Noriega’s freezer. ACORDING TO AN INTERNATIONAL NEWS AGENCY, THE PENTAGON INFORMED THAT THEY HAD SPENT ONE MONTH DOING DETAIL LABORATORY TESTS OF THE SUBSTANCES WITHIN THOSE BANANA LEAVES.
In an emergency response, alarmed that Mexico would be the next target, and given the fact that Noriega’s tamales were of Mexican origin, Superbarrio and the Asamblea organized a tamalada, an action against US intervention in Mexico. Why wouldn’t Mexico be invaded (again) when it is the country with the largest, uncontrolled, unmonitored, domestic and regional production of green, red, sweet and fruit tamales? (photo of tamales should have a text saying: “this is a dramatization”). Marco Rascón, then one of the Asamblea’s leader, inaugurated the event:
“Today, one month after the US invasion of Panama, the killing of thousands of people, the violation of all international laws, and a proved prepotency, the Empire’s judges lack legal evidence to sentence Noriega because what they had found in Noriega’s house [refrigerator] was not cocaine but tamales.”
Luckily for Mexico, tamales were still prepared with national, un-chemically altered corn; after NAFTA, and the US hyper-processed corn invasion of Mexico, tamales have become chemical weapons of mass market destruction!