Totally Awesome Girls Organize Hmong in NoMi

Post by the Hawthorne Hawkman, photo from Jay Clark.

Over the past several days, Minnesota Public Radio has run two stories on Hmong organizing in NoMi (primarily in Hawthorne).  The first explains what I've come to dub "stealth organizing" around common events such as soccer or Halloween parties.  Calling people up or showing up at their door out of the blue and organizing them around issues such as housing or public safety can be difficult at best.  Throw in language and cultural barriers and the task becomes even more daunting.  But when parents and kids are gathering around a soccer game, bringing up community concerns in a casual setting becomes far easier.

One such issue that has been consistently raised is the desire to get a Hmong-speaking police officer on the day shift in the fourth precinct.  We know this wouldn't solve every communication difficulty between the Hmong, Hmong-Thai, 911 dispatchers, and the fine officers of our precinct, but it would go a long way towards building a stronger relationship throughout these groups.  In this MPR story, a group of kids Jay Clark of CURA calls "The Totally Awesome Girls" talk about their experiences and why such a move is needed in our community.

I've had the distinction of meeting these kids, and they are, as advertised, indeed Totally Awesome.

I have to take issue with one thing that the police spokesperson Jesse Garcia said, that they cannot assign officers based on race.  That's not what the Hmong in the fourth precinct are asking.  They are asking that officers be assigned based on an intersection of the precinct's needs and the officers' abilities.  From another community meeting, we know that the police officers' union contract explicitly allows for such assignments.

Conversely, putting one (or even several) Hmong officers on the day shift is not going to be some kind of magical elixir that will resolve all facets of this sometimes thorny issue.  The MPD rightly has their own criteria used to determine which officers respond to what calls and how quickly.  And Hmong and other Southeast Asian residents must also become more comfortable calling in to 911 and 311.  I hope that I can be a part of bridging this gap, either with my individual efforts or through my work with the Hawthorne Neighborhood Council.

Refugee Nation and the Laotian Secret War

Post and photos by the Hawthorne Hawkman, bottom photo contributed.

I've been close friends with Bryan Thao Worra ever since we worked together at Hawthorne over three years ago.  By the end of my first day on the job, we were cirbbing Star Wars lines to each other; it was "buddy-ness" at first sight.  You could say we grokked each other, and we would know exactly what that meant.  And yet we haven't discussed much in the way of his Laotian heritage, opting instead for intricate arguments such as whether Hellboy 2 remained faithful to the source material.  Who needs to be burdened with personal details when you can both agree on the irony that Heath Ledger's performance in The Dark Knight might very well be the defining portrayal of the Joker, in spite of the fact that the story never appeared in comic/graphic novel form?

That's what friendship is all about, right?

So when one of my closest friends started getting accolades for his involvement in the Legacies of War exhibit (Strib, City Pages, TC Daily Planet, Southwest Journal, and Asian-American Press, just to name a few), I took him up on an offer to see an exclusive preview of the "Refugee Nation" performance.  The play, interspersed with video clips of the carpet bombing of Laos, is both meaningful to those with direct experience with the subject matter, and accessible to newbies such as myself.  It begins with the traditional Laotian greeting of "Sabai dee," which means...

Cooking With the Feared Ghost Pepper

Available at Cub Foods on Broadway

Yes, the ghost pepper is strong enough that you must wear gloves when preparing it.

Post and photos by the Hawthorne Hawkman, except where I am in pictures.  Above photo of me taken by the Irving Inquisition.  Below photo of me taken by my sister-in-law.

Earlier this year, I heard an NPR bit about the hottest pepper on the planet, the ghost pepper, or bhut jolokia.  This little baby is so strong that farmers in India and Bangladesh - where it is native - cut it open and rub it on fenceposts to SCARE OFF ELEPHANTS.  In fact, in India, the government is actually looking at weaponizing it as a tear gas/crowd deterrent.  Do you sometimes have trouble with a jalapeno?  Well, that clocks in at about 1,000 Scoville units.  The hottest habanero can get up to 577,000.  A ghost pepper hits as high as 1,050,000 - 1,300,000.  The Scoville scale is imprecise, as the same kind of pepper can vary in hotness depending on cultivation conditions.  At times the Trinidad Scorpion pepper has measured around 1,463,000 on the scale, and could now be considered the hottest pepper in the world. "Trinidad Scorpion," which would make an excellent name for either a death metal band or a WWE wrestler.

There are peppers that are simply hot.  Then there are those that make you respect the pepper.  Finally, you have spiciness that's the equivalent of a religious experience because it makes you realize there are forces in this universe that are far more powerful than you will ever be.  The ghost pepper is one such experience.  I've tried it once before, on chicken wings in a restaurant in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan of all places.  In terms of the religious aspect, it did not disappoint.

My pastor says I make the same face when I take Holy Communion.

I turned a healthy shade of purple, I was dripping sweat from just about everywhere, the entire lower half of my face was numb, and I needed two beers to chase down six ghost pepper wings.  It was glorious.  If there is a Heaven, it might be exactly like this.  If there is a Hell, then these meals don't come with beer.

Naturally, when I saw the ghost peppers for sale at Cub on Broadway, I absolutely had to try my hand cooking with them.  There was one little problem though...

Amecio Enge: Another Violent Criminal Taken Off the Streets

Post by the Hawthorne Hawkman, image from the Star Tribune.
Editorial note:  I have searched extensively for a photo of Amecio Navaro (also shows up as Navro) Enge, but to no avail.  If any readers can provide one, I will replace the above photo.

The weekend was marred by another tragedy in north Minneapolis when Maurice (Mo) Meeks was killed and another man critically injured when a person named Amecio Navaro (also Navro) Enge drove his vehicle directly into a front porch and a crowd.  He was reportedly intoxicated, it's not known if drugs were involved, and the act was clearly intentional.  Earlier this year, we heard Chief Dolan and Mayor Rybak state that a big cause for the uptick in violent crimes was due to a small number of very violent offenders.  That was a tough pill to swallow for many dealing with the violence on a regular basis, but recent events might bear that theory out to some degree.

This is certainly the case for Navaro Enge, who was NOT a nice man.  He has a rather lengthy criminal history, which we'll get to.  But like Alonzo McCoy, the more telling part of his past may be what he was NOT charged with.  For Enge, that was...

Trick Play Spoils Ballard's Return, Polars' Homecoming

The Polars kept the pressure on Millers' QB Hughes all day long.

But Hughes was often quick enough to get rid of the ball in time.

Post and photos by the Hawthorne Hawkman

Although Morocco Ballard dressed last week after being injured early in the season, this was his first game back where he had significant playing time.  Through most of the game Friday, the North High Polars and the Minneapolis Washburn Millers were evenly matched.  Their defenses were evenly matched, and kept either offense from finding any sort of rhythm.  The Polars struck first, but their lead was negated by an efficient offense and a fluke play on special teams in the third quarter.

North High's first score of the game was made harder than it needed to be when...

Moving the Bus Stop at Penn and Golden Valley Road

CM Samuels speaks with the Wally's Foods owner while Kenya McKnight asks questions and Al McFarlane records.

Post and photos by the Hawthorne Hawkman

Several weeks ago, Metro Transit temporarily relocated two of the bus stops running north and south on Penn Avenue and Golden Valley Road.  There are thankfully very few intersections left in NoMi that give me pause whenever I drive, walk, or bike through them.  This is one such intersection.

There has been near-constant loitering in front of Wally's Foods, contributing to the violence and drug sales at the intersection.  So when I first read in a monthly email update from CM Samuels that the stop would be relocated, I was immediately relieved, and hopeful this would lead to a reduction in violent crime.  Recently, Al McFarlane wrote a piece in Insight News questioning the move.  In my reading of that article, I found very little of substance beyond some whining about having to walk an extra block or so.  True, Insight brought up the fact that the hypothetical senior citizen might have to walk another block or so (no one in the article claims to have been directly burdened by the move), but let's weigh that against what has happened recently.

Hmm...walk an extra block or risk getting shot in the face?  That was how I was looking at the issue before fifteen to twenty people protested the bus stop location change on Saturday.  As it turns out, things are rarely that simple.  In speaking with a local businesswoman, I found that...

Alonzo McCoy is off the Streets, Thank God

Post by the Hawthorne Hawkman, image from a website that frequently uses racial epithets and will therefore not be named or linked.

By now it's commonly known that Alonzo McCoy has been indicted in connection with the murder of Alisha Neely.  Not only was he among those who fired bullets into the crowd the night Neely was murdered, he also brought a gun to Neely's funeral and was charged (not tried due to lack of evidence) in the murder of Charez Jones.

Unfortunately for him, that's not the extent of his criminal record.  Here are several more reasons (GBT4P) that we can be thankful he's in jail where he belongs, and hopeful that he stays there until he's no longer a threat to society...