Greensboro Police Dept.

A lot of you have been asking what happened to me last night to spark some of the things I've been posting on Facebook.
Last night, i met a friend at Kickback Jack's on Battleground Ave, here in Greensboro so we could hang out and watch the Chicago Bulls playoff game.
Not wanting to spend too much money on bar food, i rolled through the Taco Bell drive-thru on the way and sat in my truck at Kickback Jack's and ate my food while jammin out to some Kid Cudi.
As I finished my meal, a GPD squad car drove past me, stopped, threw it in reverse, and the officer exited the vehicle and approached me.
She asked what i was doing just sitting in my truck, and i told her the truth- that i was eating my food, about to head inside and watch the game.
"OK, well we're just making sure you're not waiting for people to leave their cars unattended so you can break into them", she responded. Baffled that she would even think that, i told her, "no" and reiterated what i was truthfully doing.
The officer said that was alright and went about her way.
a few moments later, another squad car rolled up, stopped right in front of me, and this officer asked me what i was doing there. I told her the exact same thing i told the first one, that i was just trying to eat my food so I could go inside and watch this basketball game with my friend.
This officer replied with, "OK, the reason we're asking you is because we smell weed in the air."
I almost laughed at the absurdity of the statement, as the only thing they should have smelled near my truck was cheap tacos and hot sauce.
She asked me to exit my vehicle so she could pat me down and make sure i wasn't holding.
I complied, as i was not in possession of, nor doing anything i shouldn't be.
dissatisfied with the pat-down, she asked to search my vehicle.
growing increasingly irritated by how ridiculous this whole circus show was becoming, I almost didn't notice all the other squad cars pulling up (i counted nine cops in total, not including the ones that rolled through and kept going. nine cops for some kid eating taco bell in his car.)
I agreed to the search because i knew there was nothing illegal inside and if I'd said, "no" they would have had probable cause, called in a warrant, and been searching my car fifteen minutes later anyways, only this time annoyed.
they started searching my car and found a box of spray-paint caps and some markers which i use for my legal art work, but they thought it looked sketchy.
they then found one of my business cards for my company, containing my signature which they perceived as a "graffiti-style signature" and one of my Squatch t-shirts, which they once again thought was used for illegal street art.
they took pictures of my business card and ran the names "Juan Pablo" and "Squatch" through the Vandal Squad database as tho those are the names of graff writers here in Greensboro.
They're not.
I'm not that stupid to slap my government name on the same card with my tag.
Honestly.
So GPD's Vandal Squad now foolishly has two names in their database which have absolutely nothing to do with illegal art.
they tore my truck apart, wasted an hour my my time, and the nine cops that were collectively harassing me, and got nothing out of it.
know why?
BECAUSE I WASN'T DOING ANYTHING WRONG!
So while they're spending all this time hassling me for eating Taco Bell, there were real criminals out there raping and murdering people and getting away with it, because they wasted a considerable chunk of their downtown Police Force on some kid eating in his truck.
I've personally never had a positive experience with a Law Enforcement Authority.
Growing up in my neighborhood, i saw countless neighbors drunkenly beat their wives and GPD did nothing about it.
I grew up across the street from the D.H. Griffin Junkyard and it was a regular occurrence for there to be an explosion in the junkyard that shook the walls of my house. GD would roll through and leave 30 minutes later without any charges pressed.
I had a girlfriend who was sent back into a physically abusive situation with her family because GPD decided she had to stay with her family.
These are the people hired and payed by OUR taxes to "serve and protect" us and they're doing nothing for us.
As long as Old Man Griffin (D.H. Griffin Wrecking Co.) and other such kingpins keep GPD's pockets fat, they're fully complacent watching the people in our community suffer.
WE need change in our Police force.
We need change in the way that our city is run.
But first we need enough people to be as outraged as I am by events such as the ones I've described here and even worse events.
I just wanted to make sure I was doing my part in making my fellow civilians aware of these problems that we are faced with every single day.
I hope you all decide to do the same.

So This is the New Year....

Holy crap.

2,009 is actually over.

A year ago everything was completely different.

This has seriously been the craziest year of my life.

Both parents lost their jobs, I got denied from every school I applied to, my family relationships and my friendships were put under strains they've never seen before.

I graduated.

I turned 18.

I feel like I finally decided what i want to do with my life.

I think you could say I stuck with last year's resolution- to be real.

I was more honest with people and didn't let them walk all over me as I've had a tendency to do my whole life.

But I think I over-looked the most important relationship in my life.

The one between God and myself.

Once again, I'm not really huge into the whole "New Years resolution" thing, but I suppose if I had to pick one for this year, it'd be to focus more on drawing closer to my Father.

Not that once this year is over, I'll just be like, "Well, now that that's out of the way." and just move on or anything.

It's definitely something that should be an every year sort of thing.

But I'm definitely gonna try and get tight with God and make sure He's a part of every aspect of my life.

Alright, well i guess it's time to get this new year started.

Hopefully it'll teach me as much as the last one did...

life

sooo i dunno if y'all are christians or not, chances are not all of you are
but i almost lost a true friend this week.
a brother
but God obviously wanted to keep him here.
and i can't stop praising Him for it.
whether you believe in the promise of Christ or not, go right now-
stop whatever it is you are doing.
facebook can wait thirty seconds.
go to the next room, call up an old friend, do whatever.
just tell someone you love them
maybe somebody you might've had beef with recently
maybe somebody you've lost touch with.
maybe somebody that really needs it.
Lord knows my boy needed it.
just tell them how much they mean to you.
and mean it.
bc you don't know if you'll ever see them again.
i can't imagine what it'd be like spending the rest of my time here on earth if my brother didn't know how much he's meant to me
but imma make sure he and everyone else in my life knows how much they mean to me.
life is short
life is precious
don't waste it

God is love,
~JP

Hey Mom? I kinda got hit by a car the other day...

I figured it's been a while since I had a post that's purely for amusement. My first assignment in my Expository Writing class at Good Times Community College was to write about an anecdote. Anything interesting, funny, or peculiar that has happened to us. Having difficulty thinking of anything about me that encompasses any of those three adjectives, I turned to the guidance of Jenna Caroline Neely and she reminded me of this funny little story that happened just a few weeks ago. I suppose it covers all the bases of the assignment. Anyways, here ya go, I guess.





I woke up that morning, ate my usual breakfast of three or four bowls of Apple Jacks, and stood out on the front porch, enjoying a cup of strong coffee, and watching the sunrise. Noticing that it was an exceptionally nice day, and that I had no plans until work at five that evening, I decided to go for a bike ride- something I love to do, but hadn’t had time to do in a while.
So I hopped on my bike, and started heading on down Hilltop Road. Everything was going great- I hadn’t had any huge tractor trailers whizz by be, almost knock me off my bike, hadn’t gotten unbearably tired, and there still wasn’t a cloud in sight. That is, until I got to Guilford College Road. I got my green light and began to pass through the intersection, but there was a huge white construction van in the middle lane, blocking my view of the far right lane and, subsequently, rendering me invisible to anyone in that lane. A car came blazing through the intersection at full speed, ran the red light and then saw me. I squeezed my brake levers as hard as I could, but wasn’t quite able to stop in time and my front tire was hit by the car. I went down, screamed some unintentional obscenities, and moved my bike over to the side of the road so that it wouldn’t get run over and further damaged. I hobbled on over to where the guy had pulled over, just on the other side of the intersection and made sure that his car wasn’t damaged by the accident. He apologized about a million times, made sure I wasn’t injured, apologized some more, and we went our separate ways. I figured there wasn’t any need to call the police, since no serious injuries or property damage had been done, so I fixed my twisted handlebars and continued my ride.
I got about twenty feet down the road when I realized I should probably call someone and tell them I got hit by a car, so I tried to call my dear friend Eric Robert Finch, but he was driving, so his dad picked up. I was already confused by Finch sounding a lot more like his dad than usual, so it was a complete shock when the guy in the white construction van pulled up next to me, got out, and started screaming at me. He said I’d let the other guy off the hook, and I was letting him get away by not calling the police. Not knowing what to do, I hung up on Papa Finch, and tried to calm this man down and assure him that I was alright, as was my bicycle and the other man’s car. Dissatisfied, he shook his head, got back in his car, and drove off.
I’m not sure if this story has any sort of moral, purpose, or underlying meaning other than the fact that my life is ridiculous and not one thing about this story is surprising that it happened to me.

Amen

So it's been an insanely long time since my last post.
Obviously a butt-ton of stuff has happened since then, but most of you probably already know the basics of it.
One not-so-obvious thing that's been going on recently is yet another struggle I've been having, that God and God alone is pulling me out of.
That is, believe it or not, racism and chauvinism.
The belief that one's race or gender is superior to all others.
The belief that one holds in which they are superior to all, by inherently being of a particular ethnicity or sex.
Ever since I dropped off with my blog, I've been feeling ridiculously bitter about so many dumb petty things.
My dad lost his job back in February, I got denied acceptance to both ASU and UNCG, my family life wasn't necessarily at an all-time high, and a slew of other insignificant inconveniences that God intended to be speed bumps, but I turned into road blocks.
any who, all these dumb things really kinda pissed me off.
Night and day, I was filled with an indescribable bitterness and hate that I hadn't felt in a very very long time.
This manifested itself quite clearly in my attitude towards simple everyday things and most definitely in the way I treated and spoke to other people, especially women and those of different ethnic backgrounds than my own.
Things that would ordinarily annoy or tick me off no matter who was at fault would annoy or tick me off ten times more if they were by the cause of a woman or someone of another race.
I heard myself say and think things that I never had any idea resided in my heart and on my mind.
Things I never hope to hear again and that I hope no one ever has to endure.
I used names and words that were one hundred percent intended to hurt people, just to make up for that fact that I had been hurt.
But I think what bothers me the most about all this is the fact that for a long time, I felt absolutely no remorse for intentionally hurting people with the gift of language and diction that God has so graciously blessed me with.
That is, until project serve.
The whole van ride up to Allentown, God kept placing it on my heart that the things I was saying and thinking were wrong and awful and hurtful to His beautiful children.
But I ignored it.
It came up in conversation several times just around camp and our work sites.
But I ignored it.
Pastor Jim even talked about unity in his sermon on Sunday.
But I ignored it.
Finally I heard God tell more loudly than I've ever heard in my life that something absolutely positively had to change about my attitude.
So I talked to some very dear friends of mine about it and we prayed about it.
I'm very pleased to say that God is helping me shove this ignorance and hate out of my heart more and more every day.
But that doesn't mean it's all gone.
I understand that I've got plenty of work ahead of me.
I understand that it's something that only He can help me with.
Not some self- help book recommended by Oprah or a psychologist or even my dear friends.
Just God.
Amen.

2nd Semester Senior

...Holy crap...
I am a second semester senior.
My senior year is almost over.
My high school career is almost over.
My public schooling as almost over.
Where did the time go?
For so many years I was so excited, so ready to be a senior, to go to college.
Now I'm scared.
ASU mails me my decision letter tomorrow, and I'm absolutely terrified to receive it.
I mean, best case scenario, I got in.
Awesome.
I'm going to Boone to study Marketing and Spanish, just like I want to.
But in that scenario, I'm leaving so much behind.
A small, but warm house- a home.
Parents that love me more than my tiny little hormone-enraged teenage brain can understand.
A hot meal every night.
Teachers that have literally molded me into who I am.
All the people that have watched turn from an annoying, loud little ankle-biter into the annoying, loud young man that I am today.
Worst case scenario, I didn't get in.
Crap.
I'm staying in Greensboro for at least another few months so I can transfer to app.
I can, at least for a while keep my home, and my hot meals and my loving parents, but all the while experiencing a feeling, however mortal that feeling may be, of being left behind.
feeling like all my peers, my classmates are going somewhere, moving on with their lives...and leaving me in the dust.
I keep having a nightmare of getting my ASU letter, opening it up with a mixed feeling of terror of the unknown, anticipation for the potential, and absolute horror of the worst.
I open up this envelope, and read aloud to all my friends and family members, "Congratulations! You have been granted acceptance to Appalachian State University!...April fools!"
I know this is entirely illogical, but I can't help believing it.
I dunno, I guess we'll cross all these bridges when we get there, but I can't help but feel uneasy.
This was supposed to be extremely short, contrasting to my other, very lengthy, overly-wordy posts in order to emphasize the gravity of my recent realization...but that didn't happen.
Oh well.

Peter Pan

So every one's telling us that we're at a crossroads in our lives.
Every thing's changing.
We're starting all new chapters in our lives.
It's exciting, terrifying, confusing and amazing all at the same time.
I don't even know what the heck a crossroads is, but it doesn't sound like something I want to do.
Throughout my childhood, I was so ready to be a grown-up, or at the very least a teenager.
Everything was going to be awesome.
I'd be able to drive, I'd have a smoking hot girlfriend, I'd be college-bound, if not already there, and everything would be easy, just like in my childhood, when my biggest concern and workload entailed finding the sickest hiding place for hide-and-go-seek.
But now that I'm here, it's not nearly so glamorous as it was in my daydreams.
My childhood fantasies never included struggling with drugs, alcohol, lust or my identity in Christ.
In my daydreams, I knew exactly who I was, and exactly who I wanted to be.
That's not the case, by any stretch of the imagination, now.
I want to go back to those days.
When my most difficult schoolwork was my times tables.
When I could spend the whole day organizing teams for the baseball battle royale that was supposed to go down at recess.
When the new "Pokemon" movie set to release in a few weeks was the biggest part of my life.
I want to go back to those days and be like peter pan; just never grow up.
I want to be a child forever.
No worries, no responsibilities.
It's pretty obvious that this teenage daydream is entirely illogical, as were my boyhood daydreams.
It's funny how we always seem to want something different from what we've already got.
As children, our number one desire is to be a "big kid" and then once we are a "big kid", we realize it's not all it's cracked up to be, and want our childhood innocence and naivety back.
We're never happy right here, right now.
Always either longing or nostalgic.
Maybe one day we'll learn to appreciate what God's given us today.
Where He's placed us and who He's made us, right here and right now.

Haven't Posted In a While...

I've had a lot going on the last few weeks.
Not even sure where to start or what I feel like writing about, right now.
School's kicking my butt.
I had a big scare the a few weeks back that I wouldn't pass two or three of my classes for the semester, which everyone knows can irreparably screw you over, as far as college admissions are considered.
So I've been taking care of that and managed to bring my grades up.
I still am going to have a D in AP English, but it's better than an F.
I don't know why I can't seem to do better in school.
Everybody says I'm way smarter than what my grades say, that I just don't apply myself fully.
I've been told that my entire life, in pretty much everything.
I can do better, I just don't try hard enough.
I'm not entirely sure what the heck that even means, but I guess it must be true, if so many different people have said it.
I don't know why I don't "apply myself".
Maybe I'm scared of what might happen if I do.
Maybe I've just become so used to playing the role of the fool or the average student, that I'm apprehensive to "fully apply myself", because I don't know what it will bring.
I don't know if I really am capable of better grades and whatnot.
I guess that's what worries me.
That I might give it my all and end up in the same place where I was before.
Or maybe that I will legitimately try, and people will realize that I truly am capable of better, and start to expect more and then I'll burn out and get tired of giving it 100% 24/7 and let them down.
I'm terrified of letting people down or disappointing people, including myself.
I get so frustrated when I try and can't do something that I just don't try as hard as I can, and tell people that I could do better, I just didn't feel like it.
I don't know.
I've been working like crazy, and I don't see that slowing down at all, anytime soon.
One girl, who was actually a lot of help- she showed up when she was on schedule, actually worked while she was there, and had no problem filling in for other people so I wasn't always the only one to have to do it- got fired because of some stupid argument with another girl that works there, but it happened outside of work.
So if anyone understands that logic any better than I do right now, please feel free to explain it to me.
Then we had one of our main waitresses evidently quit Thursday night, which I understand, because she's going to go be a nurse.
Cool.
Fine.
But she was on the schedule for last night, our busiest night of the week, when we had a reservation at 7:30, which i found out about at 7:00 for 21 people.
So it was Eddie, Mira, and myself, with the typical Friday night crowd plus 21 and another group of 10 that decided to drop in unannounced.
My job is, by far, the greatest source of stress in my life, but there really isn't anything I can do about it, when I'm at the bottom of the wait-staff totem pole, and people don't understand the concept of scheduling hours ahead of time, so we know who's working and who isn't.
The girl that was supposed to come in last night just never freaking called.
So we were waiting around all night, assuming she'd be a good person and show up.
I guess not.
I'm most definitely FREAKING out about college applications.
I originally got denied from UNCG because the Western Guilford High School Counseling Department decided to screw me over once again and report a bunch of my grades incorrectly.
So I had to basically re-apply to ASU and UNCG, re-submitting my transcripts and a bunch of letters of recommendation, explaining the absurd situation.
So that's over with, but now all I can do is sit around and wait for the schools to tell me if they want me to go there or not.
And I have no clue what I'm going to do, if they both say "No".
There's so much other stuff going on right now, but I either can't express in words what I actually want to say, or I'm too distracted with all this other nonsense that I can't even think of it.
There will probably be a part deux to this post, not sure though.
~Jaypee