It’s going down tonight if you haven’t heard Ta$temaker will be elaborating on his infamous world beat down at Fred’s (the smokiest bar in Appalachia). Dancing ’till sundown is likely. See you there.

Seeing as how I haven’t posted in a while I’m going to catch-up on the last couple of weeks/month.

A string of articles have appeared in The Asheville Citizen-Times, Mountain Xpress, and the Daily Planet on the subject of the “graffiti problem” mostly pro-business and anti-graffiti. All this came on the heels of a press release in which the APD announced a new graffiti unit also the capturing of three graf writers. Of course they left out the fact that they only caught one and he in fact ratted out the other two.

I have yet to see an interview or proof in these article that the actual writers were contacted at time of writing.

Solidarity to those writers still getting up. You make this town beautiful.

This marks the beginning of spring (aka the beginning of tourist season), and with this season change (every year for the past five or six to be precise) comes repression on the homeless, evictions, and stricter enforcement on the kids that just want to hangout downtown. Oh spring and soon summer, out of towner’s please take our city from here on out and until next winter, infest are neighborhoods and grocery stores we are your welcome mats stomp all over us just remember to tip well when your enjoying your mediocre meal.

Advice in dealing with cop: refuse to talk to them other then to give your name until you have a lawyer present and have spoken with him/her. This is perfectly legal and don’t let them tell you other wise they will try to put the fear in you with threats, stand strong. Cops don’t tell the truth they are not to be trusted. Check out Beat the Heat: How to Handle Encounters With Law Enforcement by Katya Komisaruk. for more info

Show your ass!

Last week I posted something on this website entitled “Slightly drunken late night ramblings”, which was basically just a treatise about what was on my mind…mostly about how bored I am with underground culture lately, and how assimilated into the mainstream all the good underground art movements have become. Then, buried in the fifth paragraph of the blog, I said that one way to fight back against the hegemony of our modern society would be “To put as many bricks as possible through the windows of the Whiskey Tavern and Carl Mumpower’s house.”

I then hit �Submit� without much after-thought. The Cakalak Munitions Website hasn�t been publicized too heavily, and doesn�t have a whole lot of readership. I mostly wrote the thing just to get down some of the stuff that was on my mind before I forgot it.
Well, about a week later, Mumpower apparently was googling his own name, and came across the post. Apparently, worrying for the safety of himself and his windows, he sent the blog to the authorities. Well, I�d like to clear this up.
THIS WAS NOT MEANT TO BE TAKEN LITERALLY!

It was meant as a joke, an expression, like �Someone ought to smack that guy!� People say this stuff out of frustration and anger. Smacking people and breaking windows, however, doesn�t get a lot of long-term results. I didn�t think anyone would really see this as a threat of violence. Like when Garfield says, �”When Garfield says that the guy who invented Mondays should be drug out into the street and shot”, I don’t think people who like Mondays call the cops on Garfield.

I picked Dr. Mumpower and that fratboy-aquarium known as the Whiskey Tavern as symbols of the homogenization that I feel is ruining Asheville. Asheville is in the midst a culture war, with art and heart against the powers of capitol and development. Mumpower is an active participant in that war. His micromanagerial style of politics that focuses on small-time drug users and graffiti artists is just the sort of �Quality of Life� campaign that Giulliani and his predecessors used in New York to pound all of the character out of New York, which is what is being done now in Asheville (and I�m not saying that drug use=character, I�m saying that people smoking weed and doing other drugs are the tiny end of a huge drug problem, and cracking down on these people, who are already victims of drugs, is like blaming smokers for the evils of the tobacco industry. And it�s this �from the bottom up� type of politics that crushes the energies of the working class and the artist class. This affects the personality and character of a town.)

I�M NOT ADVOCATING VIOLENCE.

Or even destruction of property, I was just trying to cite these people as part of a bigger issue. It�s funny that my quickly scrawled and typo-filled treatise about how we need to shake things up really shook things up. So, Dr. Mumpower, to you�don�t worry about your windows or your personal safety, at least from me. If you keep ripping off crack dealers, you know, they might hurt you, and I can�t vouch for them. This goes for the Whiskey Tavern as well, I won�t be smashing your windows. I don�t like your place, but I�ll stick to writing about things and trying to express ideas and opinions, not randomly breaking stuff. That doesn�t create real change. Maybe words can�t either, but apparently they can cause quite a tizzy when shout out over the ether, so maybe they can.

From: Sgt. Mike Yelton
Sent: Saturday, January 13, 2007 5:41 AM
To: Lt. Chris Young
Cc: Captain Sarah Benson; Lt. Rutledge; Sgt. Eric Lauffer
Subject: Mumpower Interference During Traffic Stops

As Sgt. Creson mentioned in his earlier email, I stopped a vehicle on Haywood Rd. tonight at 2331 hrs. Prior to stopping this vehicle, I already knew at least one of the occupants to be a known drug offender with whom DSU has dealt before. The vehicle, and all four occupants, ended up stopping right in the front parking lot of the West District office. Mark Byrd arrived moments later to assist.

At one point, Ofc. Byrd was performing the duty of cover officer as I was conducting a hand search of the vehicle for narcotics. One adult male suspect was in handcuffs, another adult male was seated on the sidewalk along with one of the female occupants. The remaining female occupant was located near the front of Officer Byrd’s vehicle. In all, Officer Byrd was responsible for watching the actions of four adults, all potential suspects at this point.

As I was searching the car, I turned my head and saw Councilman Dr. Mumpower standing near Officer Byrd speaking to him. I immediately thought this was a strange occurrence, but assumed he was conducting another of his many forays into law enforcement activities and had seen us stopped and wanted to observe. My intention was to complete my search of the vehicle and then determine if I could assist him in any manner.

A short time later, I observed him to walk towards the front of the district office where a marked unit had pulled up (which I later determined was that of Sgt. Creson). Moments later I saw him cross Haywood Road towards a grey Mazda Miata
parked in the Franklin’s parking lot and leave.

After speaking with Officer Byrd I learned the nature of the Councilman’s visit. He approached Officer Byrd and asked if he could take the time to allow him to “pass along some information”. Officer Byrd, following the principles of contact/cover, realized that doing so would decrease his ability to vigilantly observe the four suspects while I conducted the vehicle search. He then properly and politely informed Dr. Mumpower that he in fact could not do so, but offered to assist him at the conclusion of our business, explaining that we were actively involved in a vehicle stop. Dr. Mumpower continued despite the fact that we were clearly busy, asking if anyone was inside the district office to take his information. Officer Byrd replied that he did not think so, but offered to call a district supervisor for him, which he did. Sgt. Creson arrived a short time later, as detailed above. As I am told, his information for which he felt the need to interfere with officers involved in a vehicle stop involving four subjects concerned a suspicious person in Pisgah View Apartments.

My concerns are as follows:
1) Our vehicle stop involved two officers and four suspects. While two of the suspects were young females in their late teens who were not problematic at all, the remaining two adult male suspects had between them:
-24 prior charges for narcotics violations, many at a felony distribution level
-6 gun related charges (CCW, Stolen Firearm, Firearm by Felon)
-13 charges of resisting public officers
-6 arrests for assaults, to include 4 for assault on government officials and 1 assault inflicting serious injury

Much of this information was known to myself and Officer Byrd as he was watching these suspects while I conducted the vehicle search, but was presumably unknown to Dr. Mumpower.

2) The principles of contact/cover, as utilized by DSU officers during our operations, provide for a contact officer to conduct all investigative business to include interviewing, records checks, searches, etc. The cover officer remains attentive for blatantly threatening suspect action, covert communication between suspects that may indicate developing threats or investigative hindrance, concealment or discarding of contraband, and exterior threats such as additional suspects arriving or even approaching vehicles that may pose a threat to officers and suspects alike. The cover officer SPECIFICALLY avoids in-depth conversation as it causes an unacceptable level of divided attention, reducing observation acuity and increasing reaction time to developing threats.

3) According to the FBI’s Law Enforcement Officers Killed in Action (LEOKA) reports each year, officers working under the following conditions face the statistically highest risk of death:
-Night hours
-Weekend nights
-Southeast region of the US

This stop, conducted at 2331 hours on Friday night in NC, was further complicated by multiple suspects with known histories of drug and violent crime. Under circumstances such as these, risk factors do not multiply themselves in a linear fashion, but instead compound exponentially.

During the course of this stop, outstanding felony warrants were served and crack cocaine was seized. As a supervisor with the Drug Suppression Unit, I believe that the business being conducted by Officer Byrd and me was in direct accordance with our stated mission and helped to enhance public safety. I cannot venture to guess why the Chairman of the Public Safety Committee would find a need to interfere with such business. I would have been more than happy to speak with Dr. Mumpower at a point in time where it was more appropriate, which would only have been a matter of minutes. It was apparent that this option was not acceptable. Based upon my observations, the West District officers were not present to take his information because they were out conducting similar business. The clear reality is that the call for service that Dr. Mumpower wished to generate would have been much more quickly built and answered had he simply phoned APD Communications, a procedure with which he is clearly familiar. In fact, following Sgt. Creson’s call, APD Communicators dispatched the call in less time than I could have driven from the district office to Pisgah View in my patrol vehicle.

I was left with the distinct impression that Dr. Mumpower desired an immediate and personal response to his presence, and waiting was not an option. Whether his intrusion into a stop such as the one I have detailed above was executed out of ignorance of the realities of police procedure and the dangers associated therewith, or was the result of a passive-aggressive effort to force police personnel to drop whatever they were doing to answer his calls for service above those created by and for the citizens of Asheville, I do not know.

Either way, I find it patently unacceptable. The political machinations surrounding the recent controversy between Dr. Mumpower and our department are none of my concern. What is my concern is the safety of not only the officers in the Drug Suppression Unit, but all the officers of the Asheville Police Department who do not deserve to be placed into a situation that requires them to decide between doing what they know is right for their safety and possibly offending an Asheville City Councilmember who has already made clear his opinion of our worth, dedication and effectiveness.

Thank you,
Sgt. Mike Yelton
_____________________________________________
From: Lt. Chris Young
Sent: Saturday, January 13, 2007 8:53 PM
To: William Hogan
Subject: FW: Mumpower Interference During Traffic Stops
As you can see from the tone, duration, and content of Sgt. Yelton’s e-mail message, he is upset with Dr. Mumpower’s latest interruption. While any officer knows that at any time a citizen could interrupt a traffic stop in a similar manner, Dr. Mumpower’s actions are not welcome and were out of line. This is based on his own comments of dozens of observed drug interdictions, therefore he should have known proper protocol. I have personally spoke with Officer Mark Byrd and found out that Dr. Mumpower approached him (3) times to engage him in conversation during this stop.

His actions to continually belittle the police department are beginning to tear at the fibers of morale of the working officers. They will continue to be the professional officers we have trained them to be, but as an elected city leader his efforts to draw attention to his cause will begin to have devastating effects on troop morale. Especially when they are working extremely hard to fight the drug problem. Please use the below information as documentation as you see fit, but I would like it conveyed to Dr. Mumpower, that under similar circumstances he should phone in his call for service to communications, or if he wishes face to face contact, wait until the officer(s) have finished their business before approaching with his information. His intent on delivering information while officers were dealing with suspected drug dealers could well enough have caused distraction in where someone could get hurt

_____________________________________________

From: William Hogan
Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2007 2:09 PM
To: Gary Jackson; Jeff Richardson
Subject: FW: Mumpower Interference During Traffic Stops

Here is more on Dr. Mumpower’s interference with the drug traffic stop. I just want to give you some understanding of the frustration of the officers and to ask if there is anything we can do to ensure that he does not further jeopardize our officers’ safety.

Thanks,
Bill

_____________________________________________

Carl:
I’m concerned about this, and I’d like to discuss it with you as soon as
possible.
Gary

_____________________________________________

Mr. Jackson,

On Friday night sometime around midnight I entered Pisgah View and was directly solicited to buy drugs. Shortly thereafter I traveled to Deaverview and on the way passed the West Asheville Sub Station and noted a half dozen or so officers at that site. I went on to Deaverview and there was solicited 3 times by 3 separate dealers. I did as I have done consistently over the past several weeks, and traveled back to the West Asheville Substation to directly report drug activity in their district. When I got there I noticed two officers in some policing activity and asked if there was someone in the station I might report the activity to. The officer indicated he did not know, and I went to the door to check. There was no one on site and so I returned to the officer and asked if I might report the drug activity to him - he indicated he was busy. I asked if I might best call the main number and he courteously offered to call the West Asheville duty sergeant. I waited for the sergeant and shared my information with him on his arrival - he, too, was courteous.

The contact with the officers was incidental to my agenda in stopping at the police substation, and, frankly, I didn’t know what they were doing one way or the other. I am not a police officer - do not know police protocols and did nothing different from what I have done in the past when I was on formal observations. In this case I was there not to chat, observe their actions, or otherwise interfere or participate. I was there to report 4 drug dealers in 2 public housing developments within the past 15 minutes.

This incident occurred on Friday evening. For you to raise this issue with me by email on Tuesday one hour before what was anticipated to be a confrontational City Council presentation of our failure to adequately police our open air drug market was an exercise in poor timing at best or intimidation at worst. I’ll leave it to you folks to decide your motivations. If I violated any law during my time at the substation, it would be appropriate to arrest and charge me. I hold no special privilege as a Council member.

I am fascinated to learn that I represent a threat to the safety of our officers and their morale. It would be my sense that those active dealers in Pisgah View and Deaverview would represent a more authentic risk factor.

Carl Mumpower
Asheville City Council

_____________________________________________

Mayor Bellamy and City Council:

I’m forwarding to you the message that was the cause of Carl’s comment tonight at the beginning of his Council meeting presentation. My intent was to share the officers’ comments and have a constructive conversation about the safety concerns.

Gary
_____________________________________________

In my experience adults are more authentically threatened by failure than by
criticism- cm

Mr. Jackson,

It seems we share a similar concern with safety - one for an officer standing over a seated handcuffed suspect - a second for the folks in proximity to four unhandcuffed drug dealers operating freely operating at midnight in two West Asheville neighborhoods. Both matter, but may I suggest that one of two offers a curiously timed exaggeration of realities?

Going forward it will be my please to call the main police number to report drug activity and discontinue using the West Asheville Police Substation for that purpose. I am sure that the frustrations of an ongoing open air hard drug market create enough police morale issues without my adding to the mix.

Carl Mumpower
Asheville City Council

They have a fine sound system down there at the Broadway’s, I tell you what.

Friday March 23: the Joli Rouge will be hosting a benefit for Asheville’s transgender awareness group TranzMission. Featuring our own DJ Ta$temaker on dance party duty, but also including a drag show and also also including local punk faves Trouble Trouble Trouble and Fanger. The show starts at 9pm and it’s sliding scale $5 - $10. Come out for a good time!

You know you’re gonna drink beers on Friday nights, come do it at the Joli ROuge on Firday, ROck and SOul Night, to hear all of our unusual (and some not so unusual) records, saved from the dustbins, and served one on top of another, like some rhythm-and-bop-jump-hop-glam-psych-garage-oldskoolfunk-rock n’ roll turducken.

Friday nights, ten to close. Requests and dancing highly encouraged.

Things just didn’t come together for the tenth so instead of doing things half ass…
We’ve joined up a local circus & variety show(sunup giddy up)…

The result, well were not actually in the circus as far as I know but we are playing the after party.
The doors open at 8pm on Saturday Feb. 24 with music by Shep+ME. With juggling, Acrobatics, trapeze, fake lions, real humans all local talent!

Later that night The Cakalak Munitions unit will spin (soul+hip hop+baile funk+garage+Dubstep+crunk+80’s+emo math rock+Baltimore club/philly club+grime+hyphy+dark disco+post punk+ give or take a few) From the folks who brought the New Year’s freak out.

All this and more at The Future of Tradition in the Wedge Bldg entrance on 129 Roberts St.(First five people to utter blueberry Afghani at our Mixtape table gets a free present.)

Directions from downtown:

go down patton Ave.

go down clingman Ave. toward sliver dollar

take left before clingman Ave. bridge

Future of Traditions will be on the right (it’s in the front of wedge building)

Directions from west asheville:

take haywood Rd.

turn on Clingman Ave.

take first right after clingman Ave. bridge

Wedge building on right

need more info contact 225-8905

The truth is I haven’t been posting up to much, something I don’t really need to point out. I can only speak for my self and how hard it’s been to bring my self to sneak into an empty office building or wait at the public library for an hour just to get a post down. So this is a big fuck you to the Cable Company for shitin’ on my name I don’t owe you shit.

Now for an update…

There have been rumor of Clipse coming to town. Well it’s no longer a rumor it’s confirmed and all over the internet Mar 28 is the Date, Orange peel is the place mark it in the calendars. There on tour supporting there long over due and finally released album Hell Hath No Fury. The album is hotter then anything to come out in months highly recommended(but where’s full length vinyl release pusha and Malice). And word on the street and now on the internet Cakalak Munitions just might be hosting a after party next month, we’ll keep you posted.
Also next week…

Friday Feb. 23

The Asheville Global report is having a benefit featuring the Ahleuchatistas (I believe to be a great dance band , people haven’t caught on to this yet) with DJing afterwards by Cakalak Munitions DJ Mongo and DJ mid-night snack. There is a whole lot more to be said about this show but you should just go check it out . Support The Asheville Global Report one of the only truly Independent weekly news paper in the whole country(now also a TV show and a radio show!).

And we will be playing next week. At The Future of Traditions after sunup giddy up (local circus) update shortly.