a single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.
milwaukee's ghetto is bonkers. straight up bonkers.
it was my job to pick up beer yesterday morning before the brewers game for tailgaiting. i stayed downtown w/ ann on saturday night, and i know how to get from downtown to miller park...i just don't know where to get beer. i was just banking on finding a kwik trip or something along the way. i found a Mobile station, and when i pulled in the parking lot all the windows and doors had bars over them and it was locked up. so i drove down canal street towards the stadium and saw a Citgo sign up on a hill, so i chased it. turns out it was in one of the more seedy, crappy run-down parts of milwaukee...27th street off of st. paul avenue. it was ugly.
i found the Citgo and went inside (it's worth noting that this one was fully clad with iron bars as well, only it was open), and the clerk behind the bulletproof window took one look at me and said "i dunno anything about it man!" white kid walks in, black clerk freaks out. cool. i told him i just wanted beer, and he pointed at the building kiddie corner across the street...Lucky's Corner Market or something. i had to park about a block and a half down, which made me fear for my car...and when i walked into Lucky's Corner Market i feared for my life. the floor was all torn up, the fridges were empty, the shelves looked like they hadn't been stocked in months....not to mention that "overkill" doesn't begin to describe the level of security on this building. i felt like i was in prison...buying beer. the clerk was an arab dude with a turban and he barely spoke english. his hands had severe burns on them and he was missing a few fingers...like he had partaken in a real life jihad.
i bought two cases of beer and two bags of ice, and the guy offered to help me carry it to my car, which was cool...but when i showed him where i parked he decided he didn't want to help me anymore. probably because it would require him to leave his store for more than a minute, in which case he would probably get robbed.....really. so right as i was about to tell him it was fine and that i would make two trips, a homeless guy popped up out of nowhere and was like "i'll do it!" ....so i had a homeless guy carry beer to my car for me. i gave him one. i figured it was kinda like cutting out the middle man, considering it would have only prolonged the process had i given him cash. we talked about politics and the brewers. nobody died.
moral: most people are friendly.
right now i'm sitting in the news room at work listening to the police transmitter...we get to listen in on cops' radio conversations so we hear all these whack stories right as they're unfolding, send a camera crew out, be the first to break the news, piss off ABC etc...the one that just came down right now involved a kid stealing 100 bucks from his mom, threatening to go buy pills to kill himself, then disappearing. they're looking for him right now, as i'm typing this. tune in tonight at 6 and 10 for details!
seeyall @ okie dogs