No Charges for Chicago Gang's Machine Gun Slayings, Millennials Ruin...The Mob?! Netflix vs. Netflix, WhatsApp Brings Developing Nations to Their Knees. (The Five for 10/08/21)
Hey, welcome to The Five.
I’m grateful for the increased number of subscribers, including some folks who jumped in since Tuesday’s issue…so here’s a quick intro.
It’s Friday, so these five stories are focused on Culture & Commentary.
Let’s dive in.
[one]
Kicking things off with the story that should arguably be the biggest in the nation right now…and one that intersects with my own experiences this week (more on that in a moment).
The Chicago Sun-Times reports:
Mayor Lori Lightfoot and a group of City Council members urged Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx Monday to reconsider prosecuting five suspects in a deadly gang-related shootout last week in Austin after they were released when prosecutors rejected charges against them.
Chicago police sought to charge all five suspects with murder and aggravated battery after they allegedly engaged in a Friday morning gunfight between two factions of the Four Corner Hustlers street gang, the Chicago Sun-Times first reported.
The state’s attorney’s office, however, declined to charge any of them, calling the evidence insufficient. A police report further noted that prosecutors told investigators charges were rejected because the shootout involved “mutual combatants.”
During an unrelated news conference at Prosser Career Academy in Hanson Park Monday, Lightfoot said that she and a group of West Side aldermen sent a letter to Foxx imploring her to reconsider filing charges in the case.
“It’s complicated, for sure, but we really urge the state’s attorney herself to get personally involved, look at the evidence,” Lightfoot said. “And I believe that there are charges that can be brought at a minimum against the individuals who initiated the gunfire. We can’t live in a world where there’s no accountability.”
Around 10:30 a.m. Friday, members of the Body Snatchers faction of the Four Corner Hustlers drove to the 1200 block of North Mason Avenue in two Dodge Chargers and began shooting into a home using handguns that were modified into automatic weapons, according to an internal police report and a law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation. Members of the rival Jack Boys faction then fired back from inside the home.
If you’re not familiar with the mechanics of firearms, it is possible (if you really know what you’re doing) to modify any semi-automatic gun (pull the trigger once, a bullet comes out) to a fully automatic one (hold the trigger down, bullets spray). It’s incredibly rare because even hardened criminals get nervous about adding a minimum of 10 more years to a sentence if they’re caught…and the possibility of doing the modification wrong and literally blowing your hands off are decently high. No stats are kept on the use of fully automatic weapons in crimes, but this may be the first time a “machine gun” has been used in a shootout since Mississippi in 2019.
This is a dereliction of duty, plain and simple. District Attorney Kim Foxx has given no explanation why gang members who sprayed hundreds of rounds into a residence are not being charged. Tragically, this is becoming a trend as St. Louis D.A. (allegedly intentionally) skipped three consecutive court appearances for a murder trial, which resulted in an alleged murderer going free, despite eye witnesses who watched him pull the trigger.
These stories about lack of prosecution hit close to home this week, as the catalytic converter was cut from my SUV while I was at work. A witness photographed the thief leaving the scene of the crime. Despite the fact that there’s an ID on the perp, the St. Louis City Police are not calling me back on any progress to pick the guy up.
We live in St. Louis County, which has different local government, much lower crime and more attentive policing. However, since my office is in STL City, I’m forced to pay a 1% income tax to STL City. The privilege of being taxed does not permit me to vote in STL City elections…or, it seems, to get police help when I’m robbed.
One of the tricky things about local government is that it’s often adjacent local governments that (positively and negatively) affect the lives of everyday people.
Here in St. Louis, STL City is only about 10% of the population, and 10% of the land mass of the general metro area. That means my family and I can enjoy food, music, culture and events without setting foot inside the city for most things.
…and the lack of police support around the robbery doesn’t inspire me to spend any additional time there. Which hurts local businesses and corporations alike…and leads to less jobs…which leads to more poverty….which results in more crime.
And the circle spins ever downward.
[two]
Millennials and their texting are (metaphorically) killing…the Mob?
Millennial mafiosos in New York have been accused by veteran mobsters of going soft, becoming obsessed with their phones and using text messages rather than fists to intimidate victims.
Growing up in wealthy suburbs as social media exploded, the new generation is said to have become less brutal, and less versed in traditional face-to-face tactics like pistol-whipping.
According to court documents relating to a recent extortion plot in the city, one alleged gangster involved sent his victim, a union official, a message saying: “Hey, this is the 2nd text, there isn’t going to be a 3rd.”
The situation has left aging crime family bosses concerned over their succession, and has also meant they have had to be more personally involved in the minutiae of criminal operations, leading to their more frequent arrests.
Using text messages to make threats also leaves potentially damning evidence for the FBI to find.
“Everything is on the phones with them,” one former senior member of New York’s Colombo crime family complained to The Wall Street Journal, criticizing the younger generation.
Richard Frankel, a former FBI agent, said text messages would be “frowned upon” by older mobsters.
Obviously, this is hilarious.
Beyond the hilarity, it does raise some (both serious and funny) questions.
A. It does seem like older managers are delaying retirement and not allowing younger managers to step into leadership…in all kinds of organizations (the mob, included, apparently).
B). Speaking as a Millennial, this (again, hilarious) story does line up with a broader trend of my generation (and Gen Z) struggling with face-to-face communication.
C). Based on the first story in this issue, maybe Millennial criminals should conduct illegal operations via text…just move to St. Louis or Chicago and you won’t get prosecuted anyway.
Hat tip: Craig from Second Drafts sent this one to me. Definitely check out his Substack.
[three]
The latest special from superstar comedian Dave Chappelle hit Netflix this week, which caused quite an online stir concerning trans jokes.
This caused the showrunner of Dear White People to pledge not to work with Netflix in the future, unless the streaming giant removes the content.
Jaclyn Moore has always considered Dave Chappelle one of her “comic heroes.”
“His shadow is huge,” says Moore, who was a writer and showrunner on Netflix’s “Dear White People.” “He’s a brilliant goofy comedian, he’s brilliant as a political comedian. He has been brilliant for so so long, but I also don’t think because you’ve been brilliant means that you’re always brilliant.”
Moore announced on Twitter and Instagram on Wednesday night that she would no longer work with Netflix after she watched Chappelle’s latest standup special, “The Closer,” which premiered on the streamer on Tuesday. In the special, Chappelle makes numerous jokes about trans women.
Moore transitioned during the pandemic, a journey she has chronicled across her social media platforms.
“After the Chappelle special, I can’t do this anymore. I won’t work for @netflix again as long as they keep promoting and profiting from dangerous transphobic content,” she wrote on Instagram.
Slow. Clap.
For the record, I haven’t seen Chappelle’s special yet, so I can’t judge the content.
However, I’ve grown extremely frustrated with seeing employees “demand” content removal from tech platforms…often in online chat or anonymous internet groups…such as when Spotify employees demanded the ability to “block” Joe Rogan podcast episodes from production.
For the record, Jaclyn Moore’s contract with Netflix was done, as the final season of Dear White People has already been shot, so the showrunner isn’t exactly “walking off the job.”
But losing Moore does hurt Netflix, as Dear White People has been one of the streaming giant’s more acclaimed originals.
Whether or not I wind up agreeing with Moore’s stance that Chappelle’s jokes went “too far,” I will always respect taking a stand on principal.
And it’s not really standing on principal if it doesn’t cost you something.
If you’re company is doing something that you don’t believe is ethical…first try to work on a solution from inside.
And if that doesn’t work?
Quit. And in your exit interview, explain your position, calmly and carefully.
[four]
Facebook’s apps going down earlier this week caused quite the uproar in the United States (both from those who missed the digital dopamine hits and from the camp that wished the apps would stay dead forever).
One element that was overlooked in all this was how much of the local economy in developing nations is dependent on an often forgotten Facebook owned property—WhatsApp.
Market researchers here in North America will often talk about the “mobile-first” generation when talking about Gen-Z, which is a polite way of saying that teens and tweens are pretty much glued to their phones all the damn time. But in the developing world, it’s not a matter of mobile-first—it’s mobile-only. In countries like India, Indonesia, and Brazil, cellphones are often people’s only way to access the internet. The same goes for the vast majority of sub-Saharan Africa, where close to 50% of citizens have access to some sort of mobile device when only a fraction have any hope of owning an at-home computer of any kind. In a 2019 Pew Research survey of 11 different emerging markets—including Kenya, Columbia, and the Philippines—54% of the web surfers surveyed said they were using the internet without any access to a computer or tablet at home. That same year, the number of mobile-only young adults in the U.S. topped out at 22% (and among older adults, that number was closer to 12%).
This wouldn’t be an issue if mobile carriers in these regions offered citizens affordable mobile plans, but many of them don’t. The most recent reports from the World Wide Web Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to crushing the digital divide globally, found that 1GB of mobile data can cost a person from 2.7% of their monthly income up to a whopping 7%, depending on where in the Global South they’re living. And when you’re living in extreme poverty already, suffice to say that the average phone plan is going to be out of your reach.
In the U.S., Facebook is more or less for bickering and Instagram is for bragging.
Globally, Facebook has now cornered a huge chunk of local economies in the global south…and nobody knows what that could mean in the future. With so much personal communication and commerce going through one app, Facebook (via WhatsApp) own the phone, the phone book and the local “Google” if you will.
That’s an incredible amount of power being wielded over the global poor.
[five]
As always, let’s head into the weekend with a pop culture roundup:
Daniel Craig’s final outing as James Bond debuts this weekend as No Time to Die (finally) hits your local multiplex after a bevy of delays. If you have even a passing interest in the franchise, this looks like a good one to catch in theaters, as it’s certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
Another major Netflix trailer drop happened with a fresh look at look at tick…tick…Boom, which takes some explaining. It's an autobiographical musical by Jonathan Lawrence, who wrote the famed Broadway hit Rent about his early years as a playwright. Sadly, Lawrence died before bringing the material to a wide audience, so this version is directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton, In the Heights) and stars Andrew Garfield (The Social Network, Hacksaw Ridge). I found In the Heights, Miranda's first musical movie this year, to be unwatchable, but this one shows real promise…and will likely make a splash come awards season.
In the ongoing battle for your streaming dollars, HBO Max stepped up this week with a first look at House of Dragons, a prequel to the uber popular fantasy series Game of Thrones. When the original series debuted in 2011, it was hailed as a breath of fresh air. Since then, the swords-sandals-sorcery format has been copied and copied again, and many G.o.T. fans felt a deep disappointment at the ending of the original series…so it’s unclear if HBO can recapture a massive audience for this one.
Katherine Hahn is getting her own spinoff show on Disney+ thanks to the success of WandaVision.
A couple of video game notes, Far Cry 6 releases today for console and PC platforms, and is getting stellar reviews. Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City and San Andreas (originally released 2001-2004) are being updated for modern hardware as a remastered trilogy. These games were a big part of my college years, so I’m happy to see them get an experience facelift.
MUSIC NEWS: Adele is set to release her 5th studio album on October 15th. Her last album took home Album of the Year at the 2015 Grammy Awards, but she’s been mostly silent (musically and otherwise) for nearly a decade. The teaser video features the British songstress popping a cassette tape into a vintage convertible…everything else 90’s is coming back…wonder if we’ll get this album on cassette?! We’ll have to wait until next week for a debut single from the record.
NEW ALBUMS: Acclaimed Americana singer-songwriter Natalie Hemby adds to her catalog with Pins and Needles. British indie/soul vocalist Sam Fender drops his sophomore record Seventeen Going Under. The hyper-lyrical solo act Tennessee Jet releases South Dakota…which you should listen to if you like story songs and/or being sad and staring out the window with a cup of coffee in your hand.
NEW SINGLES: Bluegrass legend Allison Kraus reunites with Led Zepplin front man Robert Plant for the first time in over a decade for “High and Lonesome.” Hip hop OG Nas drops the short-and-sweet “Big Nas.” Indie rock outfit Slumberville gets help from acclaimed Canadian songwriter Donovan Woods on “I Was OK,” which is definitely worth a spin if you’re into the likes of Bon Iver, Bleachers or Taylor Swift’s more recent albums. Emo-rapper nothing,nowhere. put out “Pieces of You,” which will likely stay in regular rotation for me.
Until the next one,
-sth