Obama’s 30 Gun Salute

By Helen Pointer

Crowds thronged the streets, people leaned out of cars exchanging high fives with each other and American flags were waved into the wee-small hours of the morning after Barack Hussein Obama was elected the first black president of the United States.

Renee Samuels, having voted for Barack Obama, anticipated a celebratory atmosphere outside her apartment on Albemarle Road in Central Brooklyn. When she watched Barack Obama win Pennsylvania she “knew he was in.”

Her night continued until it was disrupted by what she called “loud bangs.” At 11:33 p.m. she heard her first blast. She remembered looking at her alarm clock. Then another. Then another. Then another.

“I heard about 30 shot from midnight to about two in the morning,” said Samuels. “They were shooting from the roofs.” She said she heard the rat-a-tat from an automatic weapon. “I was calm, you know, I knew people were celebrating,” she continued.

A neighbor, Jerome Shaw, also heard the gunshots and saw the red glare from gun barrels, he assumed it was to celebrate the Obama victory. “I knew nobody was getting hurt or anything,” he said.

Police from the 70^th Precincts on Election Night, had to contend with about 600 revelers taking to the streets, said Shaw. “It was a wild night.”

Police officials contacted by this paper to confirm the reports said they were unaware of the shots. However, eyewitnesses said Brooklyn South’s Task Force was brought in, because of the unruly atmosphere. Shaw, who knows police in the 71^st Precinct, was informed that police were told to stay away from Albemarle Road while shots were fired in fears for police safety.

“I think this is the exact reason Obama wants to limit who can own a gun,” said Fred Vaughn, who lives on Rugby Road in the area.

Celebratory gunshots can often be heard in this section during the Fourth of July and New Year’s Eve. Some gunshots were heard in other cities including Flint, MI, and Miami, FL.

Police officers across the borough remained cautious. “The cops knew they weren’t shots aimed at people, but they also know there are some nuts out there that might do something stupid,” said Shaw.

A police office from the 63^rd Precinct who spoke on terms of anonymity, said two shots were reportedly fired in his precinct during Election night and police were informed to stay alert. Photo by The Flatbush Gardener

Election Season? In Marine Park You Wouldn’t Know It

By Edmund DeMarche

 Marine Park residents seldom, at least outwardly, exhibited political opinion with the zeal bordering neighborhoods display. This year’s presidential election was no different: mum was the word.

For some, the election neutrality points to the area’s diversity. Republicans and Democrats live in close proximity. Placing a large McCain sign on a front lawn, facing a home for Obama might be considered “neighborly.”

Noreen Gorry, who works in Marine Park, says showcasing s sign favoring either candidate could create tension in the community. She says during the campaign, people are already emotional, and signs may turn friends into enemies.

“We live so close together,” said Gorry, from behind the counter of McGuiness, an Irish gift store. “People just want to get along with each other.”

Marine Park is largely a blue-collar section of the borough, made up of firemen and cops. These workers are generally socially conservative. A viable Republican candidate is rare in the borough, but in 2002, State Senator Marty Golden, a Republican and retired cop, was elected to represent the community.

Brooklyn is overwhelmingly Democratic. In 2004, about 75 percent of the population voted for Senator John Kerry, the Democratic nominee, and the borough has not voted for a Republican presidential candidate in more than 50 years.

Can one assume Marine Park is simply lacking political fervor this year, uninspired by either candidate?

“I think people in Marine Park don’t want to be labeled racists,” said Jim, who worked for 10 years in Bubbles II, a Laundromat in the area. “They probably figured if they support John McCain, some people would question why.”

Jim, who did not give his last name for publication, has an Assemblyman Alan Maisel, a Democrat, headshot in the store’s front window. He said he supports Barack Obama. “I think I saw one Obama sign on E. 38^th St., but that’s it.”

 

Other residents did not want to provoke acts of violence. On Oct. 18, in the city, a man–without provocation–grabbed the woman’s McCain sign, ripped it up, and hit her with it, bruising her face, according to thesilentmajority.com, a conservative blog.

“I have a fear of violence,” said Marie Basselini, an Old Mill Basin resident who works in Marine Park. “You don’t know if some kids see a McCain sign and decide to break your window.”

Basselini said young children have become more involved in this election than previous years. She said when a teenager sees a sign for an opposing candidate, it may provoke him to damage the property in some way.

Getting a hold of McCain signs also proved difficult for some residents in the area.

“It seems like they were handing out Obama posters on welfare lines and unemployment,” said Andrew Hetzler, a resident of Atlantic Beach who works at a delicatessen on Ave. S. “If someone came into my store with a McCain poster, I would have put it in my window.”

Another resident said he would have proudly put a McCain sign in his yard.

“I would never support a Muslim running for president,” said Joe Napoli, a Marine Park resident and retired firefighter. “He is friends with terrorists and he has a racist preacher.”

Napoli said he has an incurable eye injury that can be deadly as the result of Sept. 11, 2001.

Joan Griffin, who moved to Brooklyn from New Hampshire in 2002, has an Obama sign in a large concrete flower pot in front of her home near Prospect Park—the one that has the ubiquitous Obama sign of a sun rising over a plain in red, white and blue.

“Newspaper have their opinion pages, celebrities have the media and we have our window,” said Joan Griffin, a Park Slope resident for Obama. Griffin said she only knows one person in Prospect Park with a McCain sign.

“She told me sometimes people call her crazy,” said Griffin, who could not recall the woman’s name because the relationship usually consists of a “Hi” and “Bye.” “But I would be kind of worried having a McCain sign, your house would stand out.”

Holy Sheitels

By Elmer Hassan

The first time Esther Goldman watched Governor Sarah Palin address the crowd at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis, MN., she knew what kind of wig she wanted.

“At first I was going to go with the standard Jennifer Anniston-type wig,” she said. “But when I saw Palin, I was like—“Oh, there it is.”

Goldman is a housewife who lives in Borough Park. She refused to say who she is voting for, but said she admires Palin’s sense of style.

“It’s nice to see a woman be sexy and beautiful at the same time,” she continued.

Georgie Wigs, a store patronized by many Orthodox Jewish women in Borough Park, has seen a spike in sales of wigs called the Sarah P’s. The company has sold about 50 Palin wigs (or Sheitels) since the Alaska governor joined John McCain on the GOP ticket, according to its vice president, Shlomo Klein. The all-human hair wigs can fetch $700.

According to Klein, the store has sold Jennifer Anniston, Princess Diana and Hillary Clinton wigs this past year, but Palin is by far the biggest seller.

“If you don’t think it sends a political message you’re nuts,” said Moeshe Freedman, a merchant near Georgie’s. “Most Orthodox women are definitely in Palin’s corner, because of her pro-Israel stance.”

Other residents see it differently. “Look, she (Palin) is an attractive woman and it’s a stylish look,” said Steve Levy, who was in the store with his wife. “But I’m not sure you can suggest it conveys political support. I mean, most of these women just wouldn’t look good in an Obama wig.”

Wigs worn by Orthodox women can vary in prices. Modest income women may spend less than $100 on a wig, while moneyed women can spend up to $1,500 per wig.

“One of our stylists thought it would make a good style, so we produced it,” said Boruch Shlanger, one of Sheitel.com’s owners, in an e-mail to The Shmooze. “It is very easy to maintain, and is a very classic look, yet fashion forward!”

 

After marriage, an Orthodox woman must cover her hair because hair is considered sexual.

Halloween costume stores across the country are also reporting a high demand on wigs with her distinctive combination of her something of a beehive top and cascading waves. However, that may be people trying to imitate her, a la Tina Fey from “Saturday Night Live.”