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Akbar and Echoes of the Amish

We'll start first today with a local firefighter who has found himself in the middle of a political firestorm.

On Saturday, we wrote about Rodney Jean-Jacques, a Mt. Airy firefighter who likes to rap on the side as Cal Akbar. Nothing wrong with second careers or aspirations of hitting the big time, but Rodney caught the attention of the folks at Domelights last week when they found a song of his that was clearly pro-murdering cops.

The lyrics have made the rounds enough times by now, but for the uninitiated: "I got a surprise for them cops," Jaques raps, as gunfire erupts in the middle of the song. "I hope the news is taping this, 'cause I'm gonna turn pigs into bacon bits." (If you must hear the song, click here.)

The FOP was, quite naturally, horrified. Cops and firefighters across the board called and emailed, saying they were embarrassed and outraged. The police and fire commissioners remained mum, and a mayoral spokesman tried to put a positive spin on the situation by noting how well the two departments get along.

The situation appeared to be headed towards a resolution over the weekend. FOP president Bobby Eddis talked with Rodney/Akbar, and was told to wait for a written apology by midnight Sunday. The apology never came. Eddis is still fuming mad, and Rodney/Akbar is using the attention to boost his profile as an up-and-coming rapper. (He now refers to himself as "Public Enemy #1" on MySpace.com)

So what's the right course of action? Should there even be a course of action? As many people have pointed out, the man has a right to free speech, and his song was supposedly recorded years ago -- while he was off duty. By the same token, we live in an incredibly violent city -- one that it is just weeks away from marking the one year anniversary of a police officer being shot to death in the line of duty. There's something unseemly about a firefighter encouraging the murder of one of his colleagues, no matter how hypothetical it may be.

Now, for the second part of the headline, "Echoes of the Amish." Simone is spending the week down on the campus of Virginia Tech, covering the impact of Monday's incomprehensible mass murder scene.

From everything I've read and seen on TV, this incident is in many ways reminiscent of last October's Amish slayings. The body count is obviously exponentially larger this time, but the setting is once again a bucolic wonderland that seemed safe from such mind-numbing violence.

Once again, the victims were innocent and clearly not expecting such a brutal assault. And much like the mild-mannered milkman who slaughtered Amish girls in a one room school house, Cho Seung-Hui, the VTech slayer, opted to kill himself rather than face the music. There will be no easy answers for the parents, students and administrators left in the wake of this tragedy, no rational explanation.

What a week.


Posted on April 17, 2007 8:39 PM |

Comments (903)

Gtown_teach:

Akbar should be fired. No questions about it. Free speech or not, that's gotta be the most shameless use of violence I've ever heard. If he were in the private sector, he'd be out on his ear with a lawsuit pending.

Thanks for putting the three stories together, and that's what mainstream news really needs these days. While Akbar is citing violence in his lyrics, he's simply citing the violence to boost record sales. And, Cho was writing about violence in his stories, how is that any different than "American Psycho?" Which is one of the most gory books I've ever read. Maybe he was doing it to become a horror writer? Not unlike Stephen King. And, yeah... we all know this is a tragic tradegy (the redundancy is intentional).

But really... we had 33 people killed in a baghdad bombing this morning, and that's the norm for over there. We are surrounded by violence, and our own government has sponsored some of the worst violence in history. Sure, we don't have gladiator fights were 20,000 people are slaughtered to celebrate a holiday. But, we have massacred civilians just to intimidate. Let's talk about Dresden, Tokyo, Nagasaki, Hiroshima, and probably countless others, which we don't know about.

Like it or not, we live in a violent world. We Americans think we can remove ourselves from it by creating "bucolic wonderlands," but in the end, our society's actions and policies will continually bite us in the ass.

Posted by Gtown_teach | April 18, 2007 8:56 AM

Posted on April 18, 2007 08:56

RICHI:

Nothing should happen.I know philadelphia police dont exactly know the constition,If they did they wouldnt be philadelphia police.but we have freedom of speech.Firefighters actually help people, what does the philly police do,They dress like their in the marines,then write a ticket,Their cowards,They talk tough but the truth is they only fight people when their handcuffed and have five of their fellow gay brothers there.This guy actually helps citizens in need all cops do is cause headaches and fines,They would do better in my salad.

Posted by RICHI | April 19, 2007 12:38 AM

Posted on April 19, 2007 00:38

Gtown_teach:

Well, it's nice to know that firefighters can't call for the murder of the police. Akbar was put on leave. Thank God!

Posted by Gtown_teach | April 20, 2007 12:45 PM

Posted on April 20, 2007 12:45

JohnRC:

I guess it's meant to be Germantown teacher? Massacred to intimidate? Nice try at re-writing history. Dresden, firebombed by the Allies after the Nazis had been bombing London for years with V2 rockets and had over run most of Europe and don't get me started with the Death Factories. Tokyo the capital of Japanese Imperialism. Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Kamikazies are not unlike homicide bombers of the Middle East, fanatics. Two atomic bombs instantly cured Imperialism. The Japanese Imperialists had enslaved China for years before we did that. Your sense of moral equivalency is sick. You should start thinking like the wicked witch in "The Wizard of Oz" when Glinda told her to, 'begone before someone drops a house on you'.

Posted by JohnRC | April 28, 2007 11:53 AM

Posted on April 28, 2007 11:53

Gtown_teach:

What are you talking about JohnRC? I never said that those countries didn't deserve it. Just saying we live in a very violent world. And, yes, when you target civilians and their homes, you're trying to break the will of the people, and destroy moral on a national level. That's what we were doing in WWII. None of us have clean hands... even though US citizens would like to believe they do.

But, back to my original argument. While the Virginia Tech massacre was disturbing, people are murdered every day. I just find it interesting that Americans try our best to remove ourselves from it, and there's always some nut doing something like this to remind us of our own dysfunction. Then swarm the reporters, the vigils, speeches about "resolve." I think I'm more perplexed by everyone's reaction, and not the killer's motive.

Posted by Gtown_teach | April 29, 2007 12:55 AM

Posted on April 29, 2007 00:55

JohnRC:

G'town teacher, OK, I better understand your meaning. But, to me, war is one thing and things like VT are something else. I'm not going to accept any responsibility. It's so exactly the opposite of me. I had nothing to do with it.

Posted by JohnRC | April 29, 2007 2:58 PM

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