Click, doesn't get bigger, but gets more offensive
"Uncle Remus"
by Frank Zappa
Whoa, are we moving too slow
Have you seen us, Uncle Remus
We look pretty sharp in these clothes (yes we do)
Unless we get sprayed with a hose
It ain't bad in the day
If they squirt it
Your way
Except in the winter when it's froze
And it's hard if it hits
On your nose (on your nose)
Just keep your nose to the grindstone they say
Will that redeem us, Uncle Reemus
I can't wait til my fro is full grown
I'll just throw away my du-rag at home
I'll take a drive to Beverly Hills just before dawn
And knock the little jockeys off the rich people's lawn
And before they get up I'll be gone, I'll be gone
Before they get up I'll be knocking the jockeys off the lawn
Down in the dew
=================
The Hartford (Connecticut USA) Courant
daily broadsheet
A-VP NOTE:
I'm not sure when The Courant was founded, but they recently apologized in an editorial for running SLAVES FOR SALE ads.
9 July 2000
by MARK SPENCER, Courant Staff Writer
The BJLA
During the long, hot summer of 1979, the BJLA terrorized towns from the Farmington Valley to east of the Connecticut River.
Some residents would peek through their drapes at night, fearful of what menace lay hidden in the shadows.
Yes, the Black Jockey Liberation Army was a force to be reckoned with.
The clandestine group's target was those lawn ornaments of an earlier time -- now considered by most as monuments to racism -- that showed a black man dressed as a jockey, holding a lantern with outstretched arm.
The BJLA would nab one of the lawn ornaments under cover of darkness and leave behind a note, some saying,
"For 'tis the goal of our army to wipe clean the face of the earth and remove all forms of bigotry."
Another note, left later in the campaign, read:
"Fools, when will you learn that nobody is safe from the Black Jockey Liberation Army [provisional wing]? The tar and feather gang strikes again."
More than 15 jockey statues were eventually stolen in West Hartford, Avon, Simsbury, Burlington, Windsor Locks and Manchester. [all towns near Hartford.]
"It was an odd one,'' said Anthony Duffy, a West Hartford detective lieutenant who retired eight years ago. "Some people got really uptight about it and painted their statues white.''
Scott O'Mara, who retired as a master sergeant from the state police in 1995, recalled telling state troopers about the incidents during roll call one day.
"The guys were like, 'Yeah, sarge, we'll get right on it. We'll set up a road block and catch these desperadoes,' " O'Mara said.
Some of the statues were found in the Simsbury dump. The police thought they got a break when a worker noticed several of them in a Windsor Locks home where he was doing repairs. The police raided the place and a man eventually was fined $270 after pleading no contest to third-degree larceny.
[NOTE: "no contest" is a criminal court plea which doesn't admit guilt, but accepts punishment -- usually for nickle-and-dime stuff.]
But the case was not closed. The BJLA contacted The Courant and said the Windsor Locks man was not associated with the group. The BJLA apparently consisted of young Caucasians, and the statues "kind of rub us the wrong way," the man said.
Two BJLA freedom fighters later visited The Courant. They explained to a reporter that they would cease their activities because "It's really getting heavy with the cops." They insisted they were serious about their cause and knew there were risks, which were beginning to take a toll.
"We flipped when we found out [the Black Jockey lawn statues] were worth $300 to $900," one of them said.
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