Trees, Steve Loved

Steve's Words:

The driver, the
trees, the sun and the seasons.

Yesterday I named three favorite winter trees at 86th and 5th Ave -
"reaching, curling and spreading".

I've gotten so I love trees. When I first got my glasses in about the fifth grade, I came out of the
optometrist's to realize that I could actually see the individual leaves. I had come to see trees as little kids draw
them - circles of green on trunks of brown.

It was before disease stripped the Midwest of its American elms, which really did make cool arched boulevards of our
modest main streets. Old towns now look like denuded suburbs.

Before that only many decades or the big winds near tornados
could kill off a few of them.

In my backyard there was a huge one which took several kids
to touch hands around.

When we learned to get to its lower limbs with a rope, we
began to build a tree house in a very high crotch. My dad took over and built a
big, solid one, much lower down. For beams he used the varnished hardwood
pieces of a big old pipe organ, which had just been replaced in the next door
church where he was pastor. He did not view little kid helpers as actually
helpful or safe, which I understand, but also regret.

Today, in New York City, I often reverse "you can’t see the forest
for the trees". Here they stand
more isolated, individual.

In winter we can see the fabulous differences of their limb
structure. Since they've been cared for and pruned over their decades of life,
I sometimes wonder if an old arborist could say, "Now that's pruned in the
Mendelssohn manner. And you can see O'Neal's work in that one."

The isolation and care of our trees in Central and Riverside Park and around the Natural History museum may
explain why we enjoy some of the few stands of these magnificent trees which
remain in North America.

We all enjoy the first leaves in the spring. The green that
will later seem uniform at first has great various beauty, just as the fall
dying leaves draw bus tours to Vermont,
but may be less noticed in the midst of our city.

Then of course there are the many stages of a tree's cycle
of renewal that each species present to us as the days grow longer, and then
shorter.

If we look up close, we can see the wonderful little
structures that nature has constructed over ages to give each tree the best
chance to live on.

Horse Chestnuts are my favorites. Lindens are good too.

As well as the changes over the warmer months, each day
trees present many different views to us. At high noon, the shade of their
leaves cools us, but obscures the tree's details.

But as the sun lowers, its light cuts between the leaves and
lets us glimpse the structure that we love so much in winter.

These are things I've learned to see over time as I grew
older. Who says there’s nothing to look
forward to. Just like the little piece
of white paint that looks like a gold ring on the finger of a Rembrandt
portrait.
---------------------------

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Police Who Lie, by Steve Kindred


Police who Lie
By Steve Kindred

     My first exposure to  "Lying in the Justice System" occurred in 1970. Based on completely fabricated applications for warrants to invade my home by Chicago Police Officers, I was arrested four times for sale of narcotics in four months. By a complete fluke my attorney was a prominent criminal lawyer, Jason Bellows, who had recently become outraged by CPD behavior affecting a young family member. 
     I had previously (spring 1967) successfully confronted a senior police officer when he had tried to provoke trouble and arrests with the help of a provocateur at a early morning demonstration at the Chicago draft board. He was in plain clothes and I grabbed him from behind and asked if he was a "cop or a drunk having DT's". The draft office was on skid row.       
     I demanded his badge and name and the crowd simply began to chant his name. He must have been as shocked as I was because his efforts to arrest people ceased.  I had not noticed the officers he had brought with him were part of some kind of elite squad. This must have been an embarrassment to him. It was not to be my last contact with James J. Reardon. At that time he was head of the precinct covering the downtown ward of the Democratic Party.  At the time this was publicly described as under mob control.
     On the Saturday after the King assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968, while Chicago was in flames, Reardon came into a demonstration at the Chicago Avenue Armory, walked directly up to me, called me by name and had me beaten (ineffectively) and arrested. When we were arraigned about midnight that night a state's attorney whom I had also offended in 1966 came from the back of the court room shouting that they had me where they wanted me. 
     In the fall of 1968 Reardon was in charge of the police at the "Grant Park" demonstrations during the Democratic Convention. Around this time, Reardon had moved up to Deputy Superintendent, a Department wide position.
     When the arrests of 1970 began, I concluded that Reardon was also a bad boss. One narcotics detective told me specifically how they had committed technical errors in my arrest.  The affidavit for a warrant on another occasion was very detailed with several allegations of drug sale activity.  Fortunately I had been on a car trip to Florida and had gas receipts to prove it. On another occasion a Detective told me, "Anybody Reardon hates like you can't be all bad."  
     Each time a charge was dismissed, the police came back. My lawyer and I concluded Reardon was very serious. A charge of "malicious prosecution" is hard to prove. My lawyer told me I should leave town. I drove back from Los Angeles for my last court hearing.
     I loved Chicago and thought I would spend my life there.  Until 1977 I made only one, very low profile visit to Chicago. In 1977 Reardon was gunned down in a restaurant allegedly stemming from an act of gallantry.  
     When I applied for a job in NY Schools, I was finger printed and learned that these arrests were on file with the National Criminal Justice Information(?) Center.  A friend who was arrested with me has recently had trouble getting a Visa for a European country. Recent changes in the law have made it merely expensive and arduous to get these records cleared. It was previously nearly impossible.
     I believe this practice is widespread in some jurisdictions.  About twenty years ago, former U.S. Attorney General Richard Thornburgh reacted with great indignation to a comment by Alan Dershowitz (sp) on the Larry King show that "testilying" by police was commonplace. Thornburg said this was an insult to people who risk their lives to protect us, etc. etc.  If Thornburgh is not a liar, he is a demagogue.


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Thanks for your input to the Steve Blog. Learning about him through one another's stories is something we can continue to enjoy, beyond his passing. May his vision, work and passions live on through our paths, and be invigorated by our stories, sharings, and dialogues.
Thanks, from niece Audrey Kindred