I once went to my friends house in the south Bronx planning to hang out and stay the night and laughed at the ridiculous stereotypes about the Bronx thinking to myself that it couldn't be that bad. I took the 6 and as it crossed over to the bronx a group of hoodlums came in harrassing some elderly passengers and yelling. All of a sudden, another group of gangsters enter from the other sidecars and there is a rumble and I just get the hell off into the next car. So I get off at my stop and all I see is garbage and graffiti and I see black and spanish people eyeing me up and down hard throughout the whole block. I hear fire truck sirens and police sirens and ambulances and wonder to myself "wow, there must be an emergency or something". I go to my friends house and it is some crap project apartment and it smells like cat and prostitutes. As we are talking and hanging out I still hear police sirens, and ambulances and ask him is there a fire or something? and he says "nah, it's just normal around here" and then I hear gunshots and people screaming. This progresses throughout the night and I just can't take it anymore. I call a cab and get the hell out of there and have never been back to the bronx. This was 1998. Everything you've ever heard about the bronx is true. It's like escape from new york out there.

"John", this blog is about NYC, not Virginia. Get a life. Your attempt to race-bait Jen is disgusting. If you want to read about this event, there's plenty of coverage on CNN etc.

I'd have used 'vielleicht' for 'maybe' instead of 'möglicherweise', myself.

And I think the Bronx has bigger problems than the German army.

Fix your community... don't whine when people call you out on your shit-hole community when every resident there has the power to fix it.

I'd bet almost everyone commenting (who has ventured out of Manhattan) has at least one holyshit story about adventures in the Bronx.

Truth hurts politicians. Don't forget who's upset.

Hate to chime in again, but not only does Germany have one of the better equipped, more advanced and professional armed forces in the world, but unlike the US they have very tough laws governing racism, racial remarks and racist behavior in public or institutionalized use (e.g. owning racist literature or music is a crime there.) The Bronx is nothing if not a constant civic improvement project and I'm sure that the relatively culturally progressive German government is ashamed that it let its internal standards such that its trainers make paper targets out residents of a city few of its trainers could know or understand. Bottom line - however - the idea that any solider should fire his weapon out of personal hatred goes against every ethical principle. Germany not only owes the Bronx and black people an apology, but its own citizens and soldiers as well.

"Fix your community... don't whine when people call you out on your shit-hole community when every resident there has the power to fix it."

That hellhole, and any other hellhole will remain as it is until the entire idea of public housing is destroyed. Public funded housing of any form creates ghettos

So, fishtale, lemme get this straight, you believe that because a city is in decay that troops all over the world should be TRAINED TO SHOOT THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE THERE? Exactly when is a German trooper going to have a situation where he needs to fire on black people from the Bronx who CALLED HIS MOTHER BAD NAMES? You think this is funny? This is military training - teaching people when and how to kill. It ain't funny. If you don't find this racist and, well, really fucked up, then would you have a problem with, say, teaching police officers how to shoot Catholic Priests - I mean, they are, to use your word, "synonymous" with child abuse, so fuckit - get over it, right? No way.

The German government promotes and supports bigotry in order to suppress minorities. Look at what they are doing to religious, racial and ethnic minorities presently. Times have not changed much and it is because of the prevailing pseudo-science of psychiatry and eugenics which has kept this bigotry alive and well.

The world is watching Germany, and we will not let history repeat itself.

yeah, the Bronx is just a shit hole, line'em all up - you can start with some of these people, they're all no good, right?

Freakin' bigots, they never stop:

: Danny Aiello, Sholom Aleichem, Woody Allen, June Allyson, Christopher Aponte, Anne Bancroft, David Berkowitz, Joey Bishop, Mary J. Blige, Red Buttons, James Caan, George Carlin, Diahann Carroll, Paddy Chayefsky, Jose Cruz, Tony Curtis, Lauren Conrad, Cus D'Amato, Bobby Darin, Gray Davis, E.L. Doctorow, Don DeLillo, Art Donovan, Chris Eubank, Ace Frehley, Lou Gehrig, Stan Getz, Marty Glickman, Cuba Gooding Jr., John Gotti, Hank Greenberg, Fat Joe, Billy Joel, Helen Kane, Max Kellerman, Kool Keith, Felix Lugo, Afrika Bambaataa, Edward Koch, Stanley Kubrick, Fiorello La Guardia, Jake LaMotta, Ralph Lauren, Miles Marshall Lewis, Tom Leykis, Jennifer Lopez, Linda Lovelace, Sonia Manzano, Garry Marshall, Penny Marshall,Remy Martin, Joel Meyerowitz, Rick Meyerowitz, Sal Mineo, Laura Nyro, Carroll O'Connor, KRS One, Grandmaster Flash, Grandmaster Melle Mel, Grand Wizard Theodore, Grandmaster Caz, Kool Herc, Jerry Orbach, Al Pacino, Justin Pierce, Regis Philbin, Edgar Allan Poe, Chaim Potok, Colin Powell, Tito Puente, Big Pun, Carl Reiner, Vin Scully, Carly Simon, Neil Simon, Robert Sobel, Elliot Spitzer, Lionel Stander and Vanessa Williams.

Law and government

Well,
I'm from the Bronx and I just spent 7 hours today working on a mural with several other artists at a medical center in the Bronx. All of us volunteered to do this. I and many other Bronxites make this whole country a better place to be, because of our giving back.

tags: strong, Bronx, artists