Last week, a lounge singer was arrested on suspicion of racism for singing the Frank Sinatra classic “I’ll Do it My Way.”
The song, performed by Durka Mohammed, 28, a native of Somalia, is said to have offended a Westchester couple as they walked past the Hindu Kush Bar in Manhattan.
The entertainer regularly performs the 1967 hit, but when the passers-by — identified by police as Ms. Mary Smith, 34, and Jane Farnsworth, 36, of Bronxville — reported his routine on Sunday, Mr. Mohammed was arrested for racially aggravated harassment.
“We were performing ‘My Way,’ as we always do — it’s a crowd favorite,” said Mr. Mohammed, “and these two blonde ladies walked by and started swearing at us, making obscene gestures, and taking pictures. ‘DO what your way?’ one of them kept screaming.”
Smith and Farnsworth called the police, who later apprehended Mr. Mohammed when he was eating at Le Bistro Français, a nearby restaurant.
An NYPD spokesman said Ms. Smith and Ms. Farnsworth had felt racially and sexually abused by the song. “If a victim believes a crime is racially or sexually aggravated,” he said, “the police will treat it seriously.” Investigations into the incident are continuing.
* * *
OK, sorry: I made that up. It never happened. Mr. Mohammed, whose full name is “Durka Durka Mohammed Jihad,” doesn’t exist, and the Westchester babes are completely fictional. But the incident, with a few ethnic and other adjustments, is utterly real, as we’ll explore after the page jump.
no problem, Roger: http://www.monstertones.com/Ringtones/Artists/the-twilight-zone-ringtones.html
I can’t even begin to imagine how your fictional couple would respond if they had seen Sid Vicious perform the song.
In today’s United States you are nobody if you are not offended by somebody over something. I’m proposing that Roger and I form a united front against the crude abuse of our given names.
There’s a lot or work o be done. A couple of years ago I wrote a letter to Maine’s governor protesting the appearance of “Port-a-Johns” at a state building site. Never got a response. And the SOB is named John Baldacci.
And why are patrons of prostitutes called “Johns” not “Eliots?’ A scandal!
I’m offended at the way people look for ways to get offended over things that are none of their damn business. But will the Ministry of Silly Walks — er, I mean the Department of Protecting Delicate Sensibilities take my case? Noooooooooo-o-o-o!
They can’t take your case -
the Government spent less on the Ministry of Silly Walks than it did on National Defense.
“You’re nobody till somebody resents you,
“You’re nobody till somebody sneers…”
Everybody was kung-fu fighting
Those cats were fast as lightning
In fact it was a little bit frightning
But they fought with expert timing
They were funky China men from funky Chinatown
They were chopping them up and they were chopping them down
It’s an ancient Chineese art and everybody knew their part
From a feint into a slip, and kicking from the hip
I remember a dust-up over this … over the meaning of the word “funky.” It can mean the down-at-heels things of poor folks, and therefore shoddy and reflecting a lack of taste, or rhythmic and cool and in the groove.
Hey, who you callin’ a funky Chinaman? Seriously. And I think the “Chinaman” part was objectionable, too.
As a white counterpart, I like using “redneck” to mean doing the best you can with limited resources, even if the products of your inventiveness look strange. Think about it. And smile when you say that!
“Frank Sinatra classic “I’ll Do it My Way.”’
Like everything else, RK gets the title of the song wrong.
‘OK, sorry: I made that up. It never happened. Mr. Mohammed, whose full name is “Durka Durka Mohammed Jihad,” doesn’t exist….’
But he never misses the chance for some gratuitous religious bigotry.
In what way is Roger writing “Durka Mohammed” – “religious bigotry?”
(Oh, wait, I see, it falls under, “Thou, as a western infidel, shalt never write the name “Mohammed” (PBUO) at any time, ever, lest you be guilty of gratuitous religious bigotry.”)
and with all the Mohammads being born every day how can one assume that it is the religious one referred to?
“But he never misses the chance for some gratuitous religious bigotry.”
You should sue…
I agree, Joseph, sue. Just remember, discovery works both ways.
“…gratuitous religious bigotry.”
Roger is in big trouble, now.
I hear that Sheik Yerbouti is really pissed.
And Frank (peace be upon him) is still looking for his funky little Jewish Princess.
Heard she ran off with Willie the Pimp.
Clearly someone doesn’t watch nearly enough South Park.
Like everything else? What else? This bit of satire is spot on. And your bitchy reply is as caricatured as the original insult ridiculously taken.
This post was unintentionally funny…
AND a Team America reference.
My mother was a WWII war bride and I’ve been going back to Old Blighty on a regular basis to visit relatives since I was a little kid. I love Somerset and Devon which continue to be among the lovliest places Earth. Over this stretch of time I also have been an eyewitness to the stunning moral and cultural collapse of the English as a people.
Concerning the “Kung Fu Fighting” incident my old auntie would undoubtedl;y say “Don’t get your knickers in a twist.” It is truly deprsssing that the country that has given us the priceless heritage of the common law and free speech should now be reduced to prosecuting citizens who bruise the subjective sensibilities of another. The word “subjective” is the most important here. For centuries the law has been based on an objective standard. In order to violate the law one must act in a way that a “reasonble and objective third person” would find wrongful. We are now arriving at a point where if it is MY feeling that are hurt or MY seinsibilities that are offended I can initiate a criminal complaint against a fellow citizen. In these case the law changes from an instrument to protect liberties to a machine to generate grievances. Since these grievances are invariably based on one’s racial or ethnic identity the law now seeks to elevate “group rights” over those of the individual.
Incidents like this are the “clouds on the horizon no bigger than a childs hand.” It seems small and laughable today. It won’t in ten years.
We are living in Bizarro world. And it gets more bizarre every day.
He should have stuck to less controversial 70s songs like “Play That Funky Music White Boy.”
i am not so sure that is a good idea – Imagine the (awful) Melanie song from 1971, “Brand New Key” :
I got a brand new pair of roller skates,
You got a brand new key.
I think that we should get together and try them out, to see
Of course, it really means that in good Communist tradition, soldiers will be by later to confiscate the key in the name of the Motherland…
Good thing it wasn’t “Brick House,” or the Mason’s Union would be right on him.
Well now, I was pretty offended when Lang Lang played the Anti-American “My Motherland” at the White House not too long ago. I’d like to file that as “Hate Crime” as I feel culturally abused and offended and hurt.
“My Motherland”
I agree, very offensive.
This song highlights an areas where we still find exclusivity or a sense of hierarchy in the use of language to place one group of people below others. It shows that language discrimination still exists and causes unnecessary misunderstandings.
(From “Do’s and Don’ts of Inclusive Language” (1998) by the Media Task Force,
Honolulu County Committee on the Status of Women.)
I suggest “My Personland”…..
I find idiot PC terms such as “personland” to be extremely offensive. Twaddle of that sort takes the long-lived pearls of the English language and tosses them before rampaging swine.
Did I need to add the and ?
The “and” what? My post was merely in spirit of and in agreement with yours, not born of offense, and right now my brain feels like Mars Attacks on absinthe :\ – so you’ll have to explain.
Assuming you were talking to me in the first place…
*blither*
I take offense at your taking offense at his taking offense about something or other.
This whole thing is just offensive
Why do people think that they can say whatever they please about swine with complete impunity? Illiterate boobs! Don’t you know which animals are more equal than others?
Hmmm. better make that “person-understandings” as the term mis-understand is derogatory towards single women.
Wait, gotta change that to “per.” “Son” indicates only males. Can’t have that!
I am offended by the term “person.” That’s peroffspring in our new PC world.
Think about your individual reaction to this story. It appears that most of us are more than willing to compartmentalize it away as just some more progressive and especially British wackiness. There is also a strong undercurrent of “We can’t do anything about it, it is just another incident in a long and continuing line of such incidents, so we’ll just keep quiet and accept the further erosion of our fundamental rights and liberties.”
Our reaction to this story says more than the story itself. Our society ends with a whimper, not a bang, and we have only ourselves to blame.
The way you handle it is by forcefully countering them. Don’t be milquetoast about it like most conservatives. Rather, be blunt. Point out to them, for example that if white racism in the past makes you a legitimate target for something unjust today, then all blacks can be judged by the damage done by black criminals in the past. Collective judgement and condemnation gets nasty, very quickly. You have to show them that you’re willing to up the ante if they want to play that game.
I don’t think I want to hear this song done karaoke by Mr Ledger either, with its clumsy forced rhymes (fighting, lightning, frightening, timing). But I wouldn’t put Mr Ledger in jail for it.
The UK hasn’t been a free country for years. Now they’re just pussies because they’re afraid to hurt someone’s feelings.
I don’t think they are afraid of hurting peoples feelings. I think they are afraid of being thrown in jail. They are being conditioned (like the old USSR) to not question authority.
It started with them losing their faith and then they lost their past (their history is not taught in schools. They have nothing to hold onto anymore.
These British would have surrendered to Hitler before he lobbed the first bomb.
Here’s Jack Black (an actor) and Cee-Lo (a rapper?) singing Kung Fu Fighting in Hollywood at some red-carpet event: no one seems offended.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6Hi2njzaT0
“Disco Duck” might have been a better choice. Of course, that might offend sensitive British citizens of waterfowl heritage.
That’s not even slightly funny, and deeply offensive to ducks:
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/does_it_also_demean_ralf_that_i_open_his_tin_of_pal/
The case was dropped before you even wrote this. Just too good to check?
http://iwgazette.co.uk/index.php/2011/04/no-wong-doing-for-island-musician/13412
Good. But it should never have happened in the first place. It’s a nasty little method of intimidating an entire nation by whichever minority wishes to, whether ethnic, religious, or political.
Go find a copy of “The Return of the King” and read ‘The Scouring of the Shire.’ That’s the part that got left out of the LotR movies, possibly because of budget/time restraints, or perhaps it just seemed a silly ending to a great dramatic story.
There are tens of thousands of Sharkeys amongst us, some of them with the power to have harmless persons arrested or harassed just because some ingrate of a twit knows he can make it happen.
They don’t just want their own soot-gardens to be two inches deep; they want yours to be two inches deep as well. It gives them a high voltage rush to bully people they hate.
Color and race isn’t the problem: the human heart is.
Your point is? No harm done? Is that your point?
The man was ARRESTED and BAILED for singing “Kung Fu Fighting”.
There’s no nice way of saying this. If you think that’s OK, you are an idiot.
The case was dropped, yes…after the guy was interrogated by the police, arrested, posted bail, and was then interrogated by police again. I don’t know about you, but I think the whole thing was a bit of an overreaction, even if no charges were eventually filed. You like spending time in jail waiting to post bail?
the slimeball who brought the charge should be given a minimum of six months at hard labor. first offense. three years second offense,
Sure, the KUNG FU FIGHTING case was dropped….but if the “offender” were singing I SHOT THE SHERIFF, he would’ve served life w/no parole.
Would anyone care to mention the punishment for the ” ” song” ” Friday, or anything by Yoko Ono?
The singer’s DNA was also harvested as part of his arrest..
Guys, a few facts. Read the daily mail article carefully, then read this:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-13218522
He WAS “arrested”, but was not taken anywhere. He was given “street bail”, which is a UK trick which lets police record the “arrest” and make a time to follow it up later – it’s used for minor matters to let everybody just get on with whatever they were doing and resolve things in a civilized manner. So nobody was taken anywhere, and nobody sat in jail “waiting to post bail”. Ledger finished his meal, went to the police station voluntarily to follow up the story, the police decided there was nothing in it and that was that. So he wasn’t charged, his DNA was not “harvested” and that’s that.
The police have made it clear that they don’t have an agenda. Somebody made a complaint, and they followed it up. Like they’re supposed to.
My point in that post is that the story has moved on considerably since the original outrage reporting, and the author (like most reporters) didn’t bother to check that. The original story is just to good to spoil.
As for whether there should even BE a criminal sanction called “suspicion of causing racially aggravated harassment, alarm or distress”, that’s another discussion. Most countries don’t have a first amendment. It does mean that violent freaks can be arrested for incitement, but it also means that prats with a chip on their shoulder can complain when they’re sworn at.
A parting observation: We actually don’t know what the complaint was. It’s possible that it was related to the song, but that’s largely journalistic assumption.
Welcome back to reality.
Techno,
It’s not a minor matter at all. An arrest, in the UK as in the US, and irrespective of your attempts to characterize it as trivial, is a matter of considerable legal significance. It involves the deprivation of liberty for the duration of the arrest. If Mr Ledger had said to the arresting officer that he wasn’t interested in talking to the police or being detained, and attempted to move away, he would have been jailed, and would have faced the serious charge of resisting arrest.
I could go on. An arrest, even one that is not followed up by a charge, stays on one’s police record for ever. A foreign person who has been arrested is automatically disentitled to visa waiver in entering the US, even if otherwise from a visa waiver country.
You don’t understand the difference, in British terms, between the police questioning someone and arresting them. The vice of the procedure you refer to is that it is ridiculously antithetical to the commonsense procedure that has always hitherto applied in Britain. In former times, in a case like the present, the police could not seriously have formed the view that an arrest was required. Mr Ledger was wholly cooperative. He supplied his identity. The police would only have been entitled to require him to provide his or her identity. They could have attempted to question Mr Ledger there or then, or later, but of course he or she was not obliged to answer any question and certainly was under no compulsion.
An arrest, on the other hand, was something for which there had to be proper grounds: not merely a reasonable suspicion that an offense had been committed, but a proper basis for detaining the person concerned – the gravity of the offence, flight risk and so on.
To arrest someone is a significant event that puts the person, however briefly, in the power of the arresting authorities, with consequences for the person’s independence and state of mind.
He WAS arrested, and WAS bailed, quite unnecessarily and absurdly. In a former time he would have been able to sue for wrongful arrest. By statute, however, the police were within their rights to do what they did on this occasion. It is deplorable, and you should rethink your opinions if you think this is appropriate.
“I could go on. An arrest, even one that is not followed up by a charge, stays on one’s police record for ever.”
No. In the UK it doesn’t. The police effectively made a time for him to help them with their inquiries, and it was binding. If he’d refused, then yes – that would have caused a problem for him. But I don’t see how that’s any different to any other investigation in most countries.
This is a beat-up. Was it stressful for ledger? Yes – obviously. But the fault began and ended with somebody making a bogus claim (or so we believe – I repeat that we still don’t actually know what the accusation was), and that’s no different to any other similar situation. If he’d been accused of assault, then we’d all be glaring at the guy who made the accusation. The police will have acted the same way (although there probably wouldn’t have been a street bail).
So guy walked, without any charge or cost. And Roger still hasn’t updated his post to reflect that.
“The police effectively made a time for him to help them with their inquiries, and it was binding. If he’d refused, then yes – that would have caused a problem for him.”
Well, exactly. That’s my point. “They made a time for him to help with their enquiries”. It is a new, unwelcome development in english law to be compelled to attend a police station to “assist with enquiries”, in circumstances that could not conceivably justify an arrest.
In other words, by statute english police are now permitted to arrest a person in circumstances not justifying an arrest, and given “street bail”, for the purpose of compelling attendance at a police station.
It is a procedure by which a person can simply be compelled to attend a police station for questioning on the complaint of a third person – not even a sworn complaint. That does NOT happen in the US. Or formerly in Britain. I doubt it could happen in, say, France or most of Western Europe.
To give it an air of legal legitimacy, it is dressed up as an “arrest”, followed by “street bail”. But it still means that if Mr ledger had said “I’m not interested in talking to you. It’s absurd. I’m going now” (as would have been his right formerly), he would have been thrown into prison for resisting arrest.
It’s not OK at all.
“It is a new, unwelcome development in english law to be compelled to attend a police station to “assist with enquiries”, in circumstances that could not conceivably justify an arrest.”
Not even if one has been identified by a plaintiff as the perpetrator of a alleged crime? Really? Police can’t even compel you to answer questions even then?
I said up-front that I agree that this probably shouldn’t even be considered a “crime”. I think that’s stupid. But I also think you’re massively overstating the significance of this business otherwise, and the author of the thread still hasn’t posted an update to point out that the case had been dropped before he even picked up the story.
“In other words, by statute english police are now permitted to arrest a person in circumstances not justifying an arrest”
That’s begging the question.
“It is a procedure by which a person can simply be compelled to attend a police station for questioning on the complaint of a third person – not even a sworn complaint.”
That’s supposition. Like I said before – none of us actually know what the allegation was. It would be extremely surprising if the plaintiff didn’t have to make a formal statement before police took action.
“That does NOT happen in the US. Or formerly in Britain.”
Uh, huh. So the police have no way to gather evidence if nobody wants to give it to them. Very good.
“I doubt it could happen in, say, France or most of Western Europe.”
Don’t overestimate france’s niceties in its approach to law enforcement.
“To give it an air of legal legitimacy, it is dressed up as an “arrest”, followed by “street bail”. But it still means that if Mr ledger had said “I’m not interested in talking to you. It’s absurd. I’m going now” (as would have been his right formerly), he would have been thrown into prison for resisting arrest.”
I don’t think people previously had the right to refuse to at least hear police questions. Refusing to answer them is another matter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkLxEk_9Vjk
So I guess this is out of the question then I would assume.. You can’t listen to the whole song without having the tune stuck in your mind forever, and ever..
Did somebody say “oriental”?
You can’t say that. You can’t say that now.
IT IS FORBIDDEN! LIKE THAT GODDAM CITY!
AAAaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
I’m sure it was occidentally.
What is really irritating is that the author of this piece felt he had to make up a new story, which ran nearly half the length of the article before telling us the true story. I didn’t follow Techno’s link but the fact that someone was arrested at all for signing a song, in an establishment where the offended person wasn’t even a customer is stupid. The police should have told the offended party something along the lines of “you are an idiot, go away and leave the man alone.”
Chris I disagree. what they should have done is arrest those two dirt bags for inciting a riot. reasd the article again and I think you will agree with me,
Too bad this is in England (Hampshire?). If it were in the states, I would BEG to be the atty for the singer and sue the cops AND the “offended” ones – let’s start: 42 USC 1983, violations of 1st Amend, 4th Amend, 5th Amend, 8th Amend, 14th Amend, the state Constitution Articles, negligence infliction of emotional distress, intentional infliction of emotional distress, harassment, Monell liability for the cops and municipality too: supervisor liability, individual AND official capacity naming of police officials, all the way up to mayor. AND the atty gets his 1/3 + hourly + costs. Oh, punitive damages too!! 30 page complaint – the complainants are truly assholes in every sense. Cops?: ignorants as usual – But hey, it’s Britain where night is day and black is white. Good thing we split from them a LONNNGGGG time ago – good thing WE have a 2nd Amendment.
Mr. Kimball,
The scariest thing about your article is not the true event at the end but the fact that as I read the ‘enhanced’ event in the opening I completely accepted that it was true and of course could actually happen and visualized the many open fronted bars along Broadway near 42nd Street.
We are turning into a culture of idiotic political correctness accepted by an ever more subdued population where Sinatra’s seminal piece on independence can be viewed by whackos as porno…and the ‘authorities’ will react in accordance with the over the top PC Culture.
Wow are we in trouble!
I knew about the “Kung-fu Fighting” brouhaha before reading the column; for me, the bogus story felt “what, another?” rather than “this is ridiculous”.
Not me – I KNEW the story would HAVE to be reversed because nobody who is white in that country has any rights any more!
Warning to bar singers! Do not cover anything by Lou Monte, it might offend Italians and you might get sued!
Great Britain does not have a Bill of Rights as part of its peoples basic rights. People who are British are not “citizens” of Britain. They are “Subjects”of the Queen. Traditionally the only spot on the island where unlimited free speech is allowed is Hyde Park Corner. This is why the Westboro Baptist Church ruling recently is important. Please feel free to offend in the USA. Canada is almost as bad as GB.
The real effect of cases like this is to keep whitey intimidated. The way the leftist press covers these stories decides how law enforcement investigates them. I have recently lived the nightmare of having an intoxicated teenage relative provoked into a fist fight by 2 racial slur hurling Asian teens who were also drunk. My nephew was punched in the face by one while the other circled behind him and stabbed him in the back to the hilt 7 times. The victim only survived because of skilled paramedics and emergency surgeons.
Law enforcement refused to even investigate this as a hate crime. Their entire investigation was a lackadaisical sham, including listing the non-knife-wielding accessory as a “credible” witness. The DA’s oft-mentioned concerns during our first conversations were the victim’s high blood alcohol level, the accessory’s version of the story, and concern over even one Asian on the jury.
In exploring the DA office website, I kept noticing multiple, redundant resources for victims of rape, spousal abuse, and child
abuse. Apparently, the racially- provoked attempted murder of a white male by two members of a different race does not generate headlines and consequently not much interest within the judicial system.
No one reading this post can doubt what would be the obviously opposite treatment this case would receive were it an Asian
teen attacked and nearly knifed to death from behind by 2 white males.
The press tells our legal system where to spend most of its resources and energy, and a white male victim just isn’t interesting
enough to cover.
Our country is being destroyed by Hercules’s mythical many-headed Hydra which you will recall grew two new heads every time one was cut off. There are so many battles for conservatives to fight that it seems useless to try, especially when one head is cut off–such as ACORN or Van Jones–only to pop up in numerous new places.
I am beginning to believe the press is the heart of the Hydra and that any successful attack against the Left will involve someone’s ingenious war against the press.
Old Benny Hill skit:
I’ve never been so offended in my life!
U should get out more.
Do the people in the UK still believe the police are there to protect them?
At the risk of being serious here for a moment, was anyone else as surprised as me to find that the police took the time to investigate a complaint made by passersby who weren’t even attending the show? The next time I walk past a bar with a jukebox that plays oldies I pray that I hear “…play that funky music white boy…” so I can sue the bejeezus out of the owners for racially offensive… oh, wait… sorry… as a Caucasian Male I am not entitled to be offended since I am, by definition, the habitual offender.
With the violent crime rate in London sky rocketing due to lax police protection it’s comforting to know the bobbies will jump into action if you’re feelings are hurt.
This incident will only serve to generate a healthy contempt for the law and its enforcers,pc- lobotomized police constables,among most Englishmen.This is a good thing as laws in the UK and the rest of Eurostan are actively destroying human rights,and need to be nullified by a campaign of civil disobedience. British law is an ass, and its enforcers a**holes.
Offended people offend me – WHERE’S MY VICTIM CHECK!!!
I’m offended that I don’t actually have anything to be offended about. Now I’m gonna sue somebody, just not sure who. But I’m making a list and checking it twice.