Interview via email by Mr. Nitetrotter - September 2, 2014
We wrote Joe to give him chance to defend himself and pick his brain a little on why so many people suddenly hate him. To our surprise he actually wrote us back. If you have just tuned in JOE QUEER has been accused of being racist and even compared to the KKK by IMPOSE MAGAZINE.
I assumed that the main reason you were playing devil's advocate for the police
officer is that you have fans or maybe friends who are cops and have evolved
your thinking from the basic tribalist punk view?
We have fans and some pals that are police officers yeah. Not a ton or anything. I know maybe 4 or 5. Only 2 I talk to somewhat regularly. I really wasn't trying to be devil's advocate. I honestly had no idea anyone would even notice that I put a Like on that cop's support page. I didn't think it was anything really. So I had no thought of inciting people for or against me. It hit me like a ton of bricks when the guy called me a racist publicly. I couldn't believe it. What this has taught a lot of us is be your own person and don't make a decision based on popular opinion. I wasn't trying to piss anyone off-I just think this time around the officer was attacked and justified protecting himself. And there's certainly enough evidence that I've found to at least keep an open mind about it. Saying I supported the cop this time was apparently the litmus test on who is racist or not. If I stick up for the cop I'm racist-I love all cops-hate all blacks and support police brutality. It's ridiculous.
How do you feel about the police in general? Have you seen a shift over the years?
Eh there's good cops and bad cops. I don't condemn all cops everywhere or love all cops everywhere. A lotta people have this generalized opinion ingrained in their head that all police are bad and they're not at all. There's plenty of times I've been pissed a cop shot some citizen needlessly and not been charged. I don't see a shift but there are so many cops getting shot and so many more guns on the streets that the cops have responded in like. They wanna go home to their
families as well as everyone else.
Do you think Ferguson was a psychological operation in order to advance the federalization of police and further erode local control? IE they have been militarized and were ordered to stand down during looting but shoot protestors and reporters with rubber bullets/gas. It happened in a very controlled area not somewhere like Chicago where children are gunned down regularly.
Psychological operation no. I doubt highly they thought that deeply into it. Cops at times are fucking bullies. If you have a chief that's a heavy handed motherfucker than the other guys will follow suit a lotta the time. When it's bad it's bad. The whole militarization of cops is insane a lotta the time. Do we need a tank in every town and hamlet and village in the USA? I've seen where we have a small little tiny town-barely a town where nothing ever happens good or bad-and they have a tank! Just outside Atlanta. Where is it gonna end? The looters and protesters were totally wrong. The cops showing up in full battle regalia with grenade launchers and combat vehicles were totally wrong as well. They're both wrong. By everyone focusing on the cops showing up with tanks and combat shit they seem to have given a free ride to the other side which is if those idiots were orderly or at least not looting and burning things around town the cops probably wouldn't have shown up all gangbusters. I may be wrong. Hardly anyone has given the looters shit though. And the rubber bullets tear gas thing yeah rubber bullets come on. Tear gas-hit 'em with water hoses-don't shoot rubber bullets-they're not needed. It was retarded. The whole thing is fucked
So basically you think since this guy stole a box of blunts and attacked a cop giving him a black eye so it was reasonable for the cop to defend himself?
OH people saying he only stole a box of cigars and was unarmed are not telling the whole story at all. Not from what I hear. I may be wrong. But saying he was unarmed the poor child-isn't telling the truth. First off it doesn't matter if he stole the Hope diamond or a box of cigars. He stole them and was a thug and a fucking bully to the tiny little store clerk. You can see that much on the video. He wasn't a nice guy in spite of everyone bending over backwards saying he was. It doesn't take much of a stretch of the imagination to see that thug on video robbing the store attack a cop. Michael Brown was 6'2" or 6'4" and 292lbs. That guy doesn't need a gun to be dangerous. I heard the cop saw him and his pal walking in the middle of the street. He asked them to move over and they said no. He pulled over to get out and talk to them. At that point on his radio a call came in saying a store was robbed by 2 black guys-one huge-that took a box of cigars. He sees Brown carrying a box of what appears to be cigars. He goes to get out of the patrol car and Brown slams the door shut. He attempts to get out again and at that point Brown jumped in the car after him and a struggle ensued. At one point they both had their hand on the cop's gun and it went off. At that point Brown and his pal ran off about 30' away. Brown turned around and taunted the officer saying shoot me shoot me etc. The cop had his gun on Brown and was apparently saying get on the ground or freeze. At this point out of the blue MIchael brown-292lbs-came charging full blast back at the officer at which point he was shot. So people shouldnt' cherry pick this shit and say oh he was unarmed and it was only a box of cigars or cigarettes. He wasn't shot over a pack of cigarettes at all. He was shot cos he jumped the cop and went for his gun and came charging back at the guy. Now I am basing this info on what I have read and what I heard from a woman friend of the Officer's family who got the story straight from the cop and his wife and did a radio interview that I linked to on here somewhere. I choose to believe it. You don't have to. It could be BS. But me-in my opinion-I think it's true. There's so much more than a cop shooting an unarmed guy for a pack of cigarettes I mean come on. And who cares if he gave him a black eye or a busted eye socket anyway? It's not what he stole or how badly injured the cop was. That's not what happened at all. 292lbs and he was twice the size of the cop apparently. And had tussled over the cop's gun. If that's what happened I say he was totally justified in protecting himself. That's why I am thinking this isn't police brutality. I may be wrong. So might everyone else thinking it was police brutality. Not every police shooting is police brutality. Everyone takes this one size fits all view of a cop shooting someone and it's not right at all. Every situation is different. None of them are the same. Man I am a liberal person-liberal as hell-but I look at things thru my eyes-not as a liberal or a right winger or black or white-I call them as I see 'em. From what I am basing my opinion on the cop was justified. If it comes out it went down differently I'll be with everyone else saying this fucking cop was wrong. I usually am against these police shootings anyway. I don't run around sticking up for cops much if at all. Matter of fact I don't think I ever have stuck up for a cop shooting someone. But I have an open mind. And that's how I see it. You may feel different I respect that. But let's respect everyone. I'm called a racist for all this? That's racist right there if you ask me.
How do you feel about the government in general?
Government is overboard and there's just too much of it. So many politicians get caught stealing and taking bribes it's just really sad. A lotta cops are the same way when I grew up if I got caught with beer at 16 they'd take me home and talk to my Dad and the cop and my Dad would give me a lecture. Now a days cops will bust you for the most foolish shit that should just be a slap on the wrist. Or at least a get out of jail free card and a lecture. It really sucks. Before you respected cops and a lotta politicians-not all of course-but for the most part there were a lot of honorable public employees out there. Teachers were very respected and considered a backbone of society in the towns they worked in. You looked up to them. If you got in trouble you didn't go get a lawyer or go on the Montel Williams show or call your House Representative. Kids nowadays just yell and swear and seem to have no respect for teachers. And the parents back the kids up! My wife's a teacher and my fill in drummer is a para pro teacher so I have firsthand knowledge from them on a lotta stuff. A lotta the inner city schools are like that with underpriveledged black kids. Its not cos they're black-they're just underpriveledged a lotta times-no father figure-broken homes-live in a bad area with gangs-they just don't have the opportunities a lot of us do. That doesn't make a white person bad. But that's a whole other can of worms on how to fix it and I'll be honest I have no clue. I really don't.
How long has this been going on where anyone you doesn't go along with the
establishment "liberal punk PC" talking points of getting rid of the government and replacing it with even more government? Has it always been this PC?
Oh man no. Kids were way more open-minded to both sides of an argument. They didn't look at things as black and white but right and wrong. And made their own opinion. Nowadays it's just like a flock of sheep. All follow each other. Punk was about being an individual. You stuck with what you believed in whether it was popular or not. Sometimes you were called a nut-but everyone knew none of us were racist. No one would ever consider you a racist for taking one side of an argument or the other. They knew you made the decision on right and wrong and not who was white and who was black. I honestly think white people have it so ingrained into their psyche that black people are oppressed and they are the victims and always right. And white people are doing the oppressing of the blacks and all white people who say a word against a black person is doing it because they hate blacks and are racist. It's like no middle ground. Look at this mess I'm in. Some dude-I have never met-saw I liked this cop's support FB page-from that I have been called a racist-been threatened-accused of loving all cops and I approve of police brutality and all police shootings are good etc. I think it's all cos people have it drilled into their heads that all blacks are victims. And of course they're not. The ultra left wing nazis have people so scared to say the slightest thing against a black person that a huge part of the population in the USA is terrified of speaking their own mind for fear of getting called a racist. Like I have been. These people are actually racist against whites for taking away our right to say how we think without fear of repercussion. To me they're the racists. They think they're so open minded and they're the most close minded fucks on the planet. It's unreal it really is.
Why is there such a concerted effort to throw YOU under the bus?
Eh who fucking knows. I think it goes back to being ingrained in everyone's skull that blacks are always victims. I think everyone against me is making their decision on the color of the skin. I honestly bet not a damn thing would have been said if the cop was black and the Brown kid white. Do you think there would have any outrage then? Of course there wouldn't have been. Cos people wanna pretend they're on such a high moral plane above all us other saps like me out here who dare to say a word against a black person. That's what it gets down to. The cop was white and the kid was black. They'd never admit it in a million years-even to themselves. But that's all it is and also they are so biased against police these days cos it's the cool thing to do they have lost all objectivity when making a decision on some things. I've explained why I think it's not police brutality and the cop was justified. I've posted the radio interview with the cop's family friend who said she got the story straight from them. And I have seen the video showing Michael Brown was no saint and tells me yeah this guy would jump a cop. I'm not going to give him the benefit of the doubt. He's a fucking bully and a thug! We can see it in the video. If people were thinking straight I believe most of them would at least have a wait and see attitude on this. They love to say oh you jumped to conclusions etc but as soon as they heard white cop shot unarmed black kid they had the cop convicted. I at least have shown some solid proof as to why I reached my opinion in all this. No one on the other side as shown me a thing to say otherwise. They just call me a racist some more. Instead of going after actual real racists like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson and Quanell X they go after me. I'm an easy target. Sharpton and Jackson are the two biggest racists in this country and these left wing liberals don't dare to say a word against them. Cos the kneejerk reaction would be you're against them you're against us-we hate you. Can you imagine me saying the stuff Sharpton says about white people and saying it about blacks? Oh god. I'd be killed. No one dares to call them racists for fear of getting attacked. Otherwise you'd get a ton of shit against them.
Have you ever read the book 1984 and if so what are your views on it? I ask this because you seem to be getting attacked by a horde of androgynous pc authoritarians.
Yes of course many times. Great book. I think these people on the left wing who are so sure they are right, have made a lot of people terrified to voice their opinion without fear of getting attacked for their views. So by shutting down a huge part of the population from being able to speak their views it's exactly like 1984. Look at these nuts. I didn't think like them on this one issue and I get called a racist and everything else. If I don't think like them I'm against them. They are right and they are the arbiters of what is right and what is wrong. There is no grey area ever. Black people good white cop bad. This is police brutality and a murder and there will be no discussion. None! Those left wing nuts are from 1984. Nazi shit if you ask me. You are either with us or you like Jews. Jews are bad. You must not have any other opinion or you will be attacked for your views. What's so different from these left wing nuts telling me I'm racist.? I have no doubt the nazis told jewish supporters they would be shot and they were wrong and they were racist against their own kind in WW2. The government had the only voice that was heard. Theirs. These left wing nuts are as close minded as the nazi party.
Why do so many people in punk bands screaming about getting rid of the government go
on to be big liberal straw men? Fat Mike being against George Bush but supports Obama who has done nothing different if not worse with endless proxy war, eroding of civil liberties, and total defiance of the constitution while hiding behind the color of law. Sam McPheeters of Born Against writes pieces in the Huffington Post about how the government is good. You seem to have a dissenting opinion so all the lower level lackeys/political hacks come after you?
Yeah being a punk was all about using your own brain. It wasn't about listening to anyone else. You made your own decisions. Popular or not. To have these people get onstage and denounce or support one candidate or another to me is so conceited and pompous and I hate that shit. I don't go to a NOFX show (mind you I don't go anyway)but I wouldn't go to hear Fatso's views on who should be president. He's a spoiled rich kid in a lame punk band. Why does he know any more than me or you or any kid in the audience about who to vote for? He sits on his ass in his mansion snorting blow and how does that give him special insight into politics that gives him the right to tell people? It doesn't. I didn't go to a Clash show to hear what Joe Strummer thought about the fucking Labor Party. Or Anti Flag. Fuck those guys too. Politics is a shtick for these bands. Who's that other lame fucker-oh Ted Leo. He was politicial. Like he's another Woody Guthrie. Got nothing to sing about so I'll be political! Yay. I have a shtick. Come the fuck on. Fuck everyone getiting on a soapbox in the punk community on who to vote for or what to think. Fucking hypocrites. I voted twice for Obama and if I had to do it again I'd vote for Romney and Republicans. If for no other reason than I have never seen in my 50 odd some years racial tension as bad as it is now. It hasn't gotten better-it's way worse. And we have a black president! Yet they're still not satisfied! MLK's wife said this year at some MLK birthday party here in Atlanta that 'racism is alive and will in the USA' implying all white people are racist. Yeah racism is alive and well. And the most racists now are black people and left wing nazis in my views. From firsthand experience because my skin is white I say this but hey you can take that shit out if you want. My views are my views and I don't say these to influence anyone but to explain why I think the way I do. Sorry to get off track here............
How do you feel about all this racial tension? Do you think its a mechanism of
control why or why not?
Yes it is a way to control people. They're completely trained to think all white people are bad racists and blacks are victims. And none of these supposedly open minded liberal fuckers understand they are the racist ones not me.
Any plans of channeling this political energy into a future song?
Eh probably not. But maybe I'll write one song. That'll be it though. I'm not a preachy kind of guy.
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